Monday Made It and Some FREEBIES!

I'm finally linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her fun Monday Made It linky! She is always full of inspiration! 

One week and counting! I am running out of time! There is so much to do, and I feel like I've spent my entire summer working on the FIVE COURSES I had to take! But those are all almost behind me, so I need to get down to business! I think I spent more time crafting this week than I have the entire year! So here's what I've been up to...

I made this FREEBIE last week. I fell in love with this quote a few weeks ago when we went to the boardwalk. A friend mentioned she framed this to put on her desk at school. I love that idea! You can grab it by clicking on the picture. 

My hubby actually created my second Monday Made It! I really wanted some cute bright baskets I saw in an online catalog to use to create some take-to-your-seat workstations. I couldn't bring myself to pay $5 each for them, when I saw that Target had them in their dollar section! The only problem was, they were in primary colors and they didn't match my bright classroom! I knew there were spray paints that work on plastic, because I saw a tutorial on Pinterest, so I picked up some spray paint in my bright colors.  Here is what they looked like before. 

My husband offered to hang a thin rope and hang the baskets to evenly spray paint them. I was happy to let him help! 

Here is our "drying station". I love the colors! The blue one on the left has a glare from the sun- I promise it has an even coat of paint!

The light was really bad in the picture below, but the ones on top are lime, not yellow. And we actually didn't paint the orange ones because they already matched my decor perfectly.
I like the coverage of one coat, but I think I'm going to add a second coat just for added protection. It did say on the can that the paint needed a few days to reach maximum adhesion, so I might wait and see how durable the paint seems after a few days. And I figure he can always repaint them if they get trashed! 

My next project is for my bulletin board. I wanted an easy way to put work up and take it down every few weeks. I saw THIS PIN and knew this would be an easy way to accomplish that. I needed to make clothes pins with numbers and thumbtacks glued onto the backs of them. I used strips of digital paper that match my classroom decor sets. Washi tape or scrapbook paper would work too. I cut strips to fit onto the clothespins, then used my ATG glue gun to glue them onto the clothespins. I wanted to add a coat of Mod Podge for durability, but the ink smeared since it was from my printer, so I skipped that step. Next, I glued numbers onto the clothespins using E6000 glue that I purchased at Joann. That glue is strong, and much better than a glue gun! The last step was using the same glue to glue push pins onto the backs of the clothespins. Now I have a clothespin push pin for every student with their number on it that will hold their classwork!

And when I was at Michaels, I saw this burlap squares stack that was on sale for 50% off! It's actually BURLAP, not paper! I bought two stacks for $7 each and used my teacher discount card, which I think is 20% off! The squares of will go on the board to frame my students' work, which will hang from the push pin clothespin. 

My next project is my new clip chart. I haven't put it together yet, but I wanted to share it with you. I have tried to use a regular clip chart with the 6 or more pages. I am really bad about remembering to have students clip up, which I know is a really important thing to do with this management system. With almost 30 students, though, I will admit that the first thing to go while I am focused on teaching my herd is asking them to clip up when they are doing a good job. I decided to use the system I used years ago when I first started teaching. 

Basically it will be a similar concept to a clip chart, but it will be hanging with Group A on the top, then Groups B, C, and D hanging below. half the clips will hang on the left side of Group A, and half will hang on the right side of Group A. If a student needs a warning, I will ask him/her to clip their number down. There will be no other consequence. If the same student continues to make poor choices, I will ask him/her to move their clip down a second time. There will be a consequence, but I haven't decided what that will be yet. A third time will result in another consequence and parent communication. (I usually like the student to write the parent a letter explaining their behavior.) I know there are many teachers that aren't fans of displaying students' numbers out in the open, but I need a way to manage my classroom, and I figure the student displayed his/her behavior on front of the class, so these are the natural consequences of that action. I think some students need that visual reminder. Students who stay in Group A each day and for the week will receive Kiddo Cash (I'm trying to finish up my matching coupon and money system ASAP!) I'm going to try this and see how it works this year! 

If you would like to try it too, I am offering it as a freebie. I have included my ideas for assembly and use. I have also included the small blue numbers for the clips that are shows under #3 above. You can buy the small clips at Michael's or Joann. 

I promise to come back here with pictures of my completed projects! I wanted to get these ideas out there incase you needed some inspiration! 

What projects do you have going on right now? Be sure to link up to Tara's Monday Made It or leave a comment below! 

Have a great week!