Monday Made It -July 22, 2013

So...only two more days of freedom and I still have work to do! lol

I am excited to get back and meet my new kitties! I even have some cool ideas for my door! But since it is Monday, I guess I should get in to some of the things I have been working on making. :) 

Here is the first thing. I made these awesomely huge pillows for my reading area (don't worry I added a carpet to the reading area, looks much better) that have been floating all over Pinterest. I made mine a tad bigger! Check it out.

Step 1: You really need to pick two corresponding fabrics that you want to use as your pillow. One for the sides and one for the top and bottom. The fabric that you choose for the top/bottom needs to be 2 yards. The side fabric needs to be one yard long. You need to lay the 2 yard fabric out and cut it in half. Take the yard of side material and measure two pieces to fit the length and two pieces to fit the width. The depth of each side piece needs to be 7 inches.

Step 2: Once you are finished cutting, make sure that you pin the sides to the top (like sides facing each other) and sew them together. Do this for each side. When you are finished, make sure you take the other yard of fabric (the bottom of the pillow) and start pinning them to the sides of the fabric. Sew it all up! While you are there, sew the creases except for one. Pull the fabric right-side-out. This is where you will shove all of the stuffing. 

Step 3: With the last slit open, get some help from little hands (child labor laws don't apply to home situations, right?!), and push the  stuffing in. When you are finished make sure you sew that slit. 

Finally, enjoy your pillow. Kin and Eric looooved it. They want me to make them their own. 

Here are some links that helped me: 

I got the tutorial and idea via Pinterest. This is the lady's tutorial (it is probably way more in depth and helpful than mine). She really uses plain English and no-sew terms that works for beginners. 

Also, be aware, I made my pillows much bigger than hers. She made hers 30X30 and mine were about  36X42. I used 5 pounds of stuffing. You can get it at Hancock Fabrics for $15.99 plus 15% off with your teacher badge..it came to $13.99 with mine.

This is what it looks like

The next thing I made were some tissue paper pom-poms to spice up my room. I made them myself because in the stores, they want like 6 bucks for them! Seriously!! But thanks to the internet, I made these babies for a whopping $1.99. Get you some tissue paper from the good ole HobLob and find a tutorial on line (like this one) and you are there!

And finally, as promised, a close-up of my job chart and weather chart. I failed to do so in my last post, so here is a better view. 

Now that I am almost finished with everything, I have to make a "How we get home" board. I guess I will work on that for next week. :) 

Monday Made It! *Class Management Addition*

I love how the Tattooed Teacher does a Monday Made It. I decided to do my own Monday Made It - Classroom Management edition.

So I have been thinking...what am I going to do for my classroom management and reward system! Last year I used the class dojo and it was amazing!

If you are new to the Dojo thing, you are in luck! Class Dojo works for almost every grade. The students are able to create their own little monster avatars and get a visual of "good" choice and "bad" choice. They get green points for good choices and red points for not-so-good choices. This is especially awesome for Pre-K because we are always teaching the kids about making good choices. Dojo makes the students SEE what is a "good" and "bad" choice and what are the consequences of those choices.

*If your interest has sparked and you want to join the Dojo movement, click the picture above!

As you can see, each student has an avatar and points.

Last year, I used a daily point system. If you had one green point, you were able to get a sticker, if you had 2 points you were able to get a candy, and if you had five points you were able to get into the treasure chest. This system was when I first started the program. After a few months, I switched it to a weekly point system. If you got 10 points you were able to go to the treasure chest, 5 points for a sweet treat, and 2 points for a sticker.

Pinterest has a lot of great ideas for this! I have seen a lot of people use coupons for their class. I may do that later in the year, after the students are used to everything. I also saw that people had cute little reward charts. I decided that I wanted to make one that fit my needs, pictured below. If you would like to use it, click on the picture and save it!

Last year, my treasure chest consisted of an undecorated shoe box (boring, right?). This summer, I decided I was going to do it right. Make it something cute and exciting. Who wants to get a prize from a shoe box? I went to Michael's and got a wooden treasure chest box. I had a coupon for 40% off and a teacher's discount. Well, here it is....before and after...

Getting Ready

I have been working slowly to get a few of my classroom essentials put together. Last year, I moved to a new school midyear, so I left all of the old decorations and job charts and organization the same to not confuse the children (and me!). So this year I get to start fresh and create my own things! I have started with a job chart! I will add the graphics here if you would like to use it or Pin it on Pinterest. 

I think I am going to print the images on cardstock and use magnet pictures of the kids in order to show who has what (nice and simple). I also was thinking about cutting each cute little polaroid out and creating one of those cute little iHelp job charts that are all over Pinterest (shown below).

 

We shall see! Let me know what you think!! :) 

My cute little Jobs!