An Uncommon to the Core Teacher: Monday Made It...October Edition!

Holy cow! Is it October already? Wow...the month has really flown by and I've hardly hung out here in Blogland!

I have quite a few items that qualify as Monday Made Its, so let's get started!

First things first...my wonderful pencil dispenser! This went together so easy and it holds a ton of pencils. It took a little bit to get used to how the pencils come out since they are a bit harder than straws, and this little beauty "forces" the pencils through the roller and out onto the little ramp, but my kiddos are having a bit of a LOVE AFFAIR with this baby and love getting their pencils every morning!

This is my welcome banner. I always have a space in my classroom that is a place for my kiddos to get to know me a bit better. I'm a cowgirl at heart and every one of these cows are gifts from the children and their families that I have loved teaching over the last 20 years. I also put in cute frames with photos of my family, friends, and a picture of last year's class on the sill so that the kids can check out what's important to their teacher. In the fall, I take a picture of us outside by a colorful fall tree and that will go into a sweet little frame that will join the rest.

Instead of putting up the usual curtains, I brought the curtain rod down lower and then attached the banner and some tulle. It really dresses the window up and breaks up the view. Thanks to the Moffatt Girls for their cute banner! Click on their link to get your own cutesy banner!

I also made a small box of "proud tester" buttons. Got these at Tonya's Treats for Teachers and picked up the button blanks at Hobby Lobby. They came together easily and my kiddos can't get enough of them! They love to wear the buttons and strut their stuff! You can get the button templates here. I just love Tonya's stuff! (If you love the little cardboard basket, check out the Dollar Spot at Target.)

One of my favorite games is Stack. If you aren't familiar with it, it involves 2-6 players and each player has his/her own set of 14 dice to start the game. The game pack is a little pricey at about $25.00 per game and this only allows for six kiddos to play at a time. As you can imagine, with all those dice rolling simultaneously, it does get a tad bit loud and dice do go missing from time-to-time.

Well...I was able to pick up foam counting blocks from Dollar Tree and make very quiet dice from them. Each pack has 50 potential dice in blue, green, red and orange. All you need to do is draw the values on them! I saw these on a few blogs and wanted them...waited patiently for months and checked many a Dollar Tree location until I finally found them and then...I pounced and bought up every little pack of dice they had. The SKU is 39277 90336 (inside the bar code) and 120337-16104-009-1203 (under the bar code). Not sure which one they need to locate these babies, but either way, I think you are covered!

Anywho...I made 6 containers of dice for "four person Stack It" and shared them with my cherubs...and THEY TOTALLY LOVED IT! They can't wait to play this game and it is terrific for reinforcing numeracy skills as well as encouraging strategizing...very cool!

The rules for Stack are pretty straightforward. This link will take you to the set of rules that I use for this game. Take a gander at the rules and do adjust to meet the needs of your kiddos!

I also made Tara's A to Z card deck for word work stations in my classroom. The cute magnets were a steal at Target in August and they may not have any left, but you can always use great little alphabet magnets from the Dollar Tree...these work just as well and are easy to hold. I partnered these up with Dollar Tree cookie sheets for some down-and-dirty stations that were a cinch to put together and super cheap! The kids really like these too!

I believe you can pick these cards up from Tara's TpT Store. They are a steal!

In addition to all the fun things I am making for my students and the great teaching and learning that is going on in my 4th grade classroom, I'm also making time for fun. Here's a photo of the "Abe Maids a'Milking" milking team from Abraham Lincoln School. Our local Cheese Days celebration pits schools against each other with bragging rights (for two whole years!) plus a really cool T-shirt going to the winners! My new principal, Sara, the "Magnificent Ann" and the "Wonderful Linda" all joined me for a shot at milking glory. And guess what? We won with 2 lbs. 8 ounces of milk in our bucket! I'm milking this for all it's worth...after all, we are like no udder!