Reading Incentive Bucket for the Classroom

Hello everyone!  I hope you're ready for the 3-day weekend...  I know I sure am!  I don't have a card to share today, but I do want to show you a project that I did for my classroom.  This is an idea I saw on Pinterest, and I just had to make it.  I use it as an incentive to get my students to achieve more Accelerated Reader points at school.  They have a goal of making 4 points a month, and if they reach the goal they get to "pick" a sucker from the READ bucket.  This has been a major hit in my classroom!

Here's a picture of mine, and my friend Sarah's.  My sister also made one, but she made it after this picture was taken.  :)  We have all found this to be very successful for us!

The letters on this one were cut using white vinyl, on the Cricut using Doodletype- size 2".  I then embellished it with some blingy flower stickers I had in my supplies.

The letters on this one are 1.5".  We glued the letters down onto a layered rectangle with rounded corners.  Then we mounted it to the metal bucket using foam tape.  Added some bling, and it was done.

I just put a Styrofoam ball inside my bucket (just kinda wedged it in there), then I stuck the suckers into the ball.  You can see that the ball is just sitting in the top of the bucket, and can be lifted out (no adhesive holding it in there).

Now for the super fun part!  When the students come over to "pick" a sucker, they have a chance of getting one with a green stick.  If they get a green stick, they will ALSO get a prize from the treasure box.  Everyone holds their breath when someone is picking their sucker, and they all cheer if it has green on the bottom!  :)

 

I think this would be a hit with many different grade levels.  My friend Sarah and I teach 2nd grade, and my sister teaches Kindergarten.  All of the kids love it!  Hope you can use it in your classroom too!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Elf on the Shelf in my Classroom (and other Christmas stuff)!!! :)

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas (well, almost)!  I am so excited to be posting on my blog again!  It's been far too long...  But, I have been super busy and having a great time!  Haven't been in my craft room AT ALL lately, however I have been making some things for my classroom.  This summer, my parents and I went on an Alaskan cruise!  It was AMAZING!!!!!  I will post more about the cruise and classroom projects later...  For now, I wanted to show you some cute things that my Elf on the Shelf was up to in my classroom.  I had been seeing a lot about the Elf on the Shelf, and it intrigued me...  I wanted to get an Elf and have it pulling fun little shenanigans, but I don't have kids at home.  Then I started seeing the idea of using the Elf in the classroom and I just had to have one!  Here's what mine did over the two weeks leading up to Christmas break...

 

My classroom tree!

  The elf makes his first appearance.  The kids were so excited!  Oh, and we named him Buddy...

Buddy drew on our white board!

Buddy built himself a chair and Christmas tree out of linking cubes.

 Hanging in the Christmas tree.

Climbed into the tissue box and tucked himself in.  It was pretty cold in the classroom!

Ate some of our Sour Patch candies!  I told the kids that elves love sugar, so it does make sense...

Made a snow angel on our reading table.

Buddy brought us a candy cane growing kit from the North Pole.  So, we planted the seeds and...

The seeds grew into candy canes!!!!!!  We couldn't believe that this happened while we were at lunch!

 

He colored a picture of himself.

 He sharpened some pencils.

He brought us some brand new pencils!

He read a story to our "Furry Friends" (we have Build a Bear animals in our room).

He sat in our marble jar.

He brought us hot cocoa to drink on the last day before vacation.  There was also a note from Santa telling us to watch The Polar Express while we drank it!

Hanging from our flag pole.

Santa came and filled up our bags with presents!!!!

Buddy's farewell.  He watched guard over our gifts from Santa, and he left us a goodbye note.  The kids were sad to see him go back to the North Pole, and so was I!

 

This was just too cute!  My boyfriend came to help me in my classroom on the last day, and he brought me these flowers!  He said that Buddy had called him and told him to bring these to the teacher...  Awww...  Needless to say, I melted like a snowman on a hot summer's day!  :)

These are the ornaments my kids made for their gift to take home.  I let them choose what colors they wanted for the pipe cleaners and fuzzies, and I had to hot glue them on.  The inside is filled with fake snow, and they drew on the eyes, nose, and mouth with Sharpie paint pens.  Saw this idea on Pinterest!  Worked out awesome!

At home my niece and I made homemade Gak!  The directions are right here.  I added dry grape Kool-Aid mix to my Gak.  It gave it color (without staining our hands) AND it made it smell amazing!

We also made homemade Butterfingers.  These were so delicious!  Recipe is here.  They are dairy free, so I had to make them for my little Chloe!  She really enjoyed them, and so did everyone else!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are all doing great, and I hope to be back soon with another post.  See you soon!  :)

School Stuff & Crafts My Sister Made

Hi everyone!  Long time, no see...  again...  I have not actually made any kind of cards/crafts in over a month!  It's about time that I start setting aside some time to do that...  I don't have a card to share today, but I do have some school projects that I thought were cute & fun, so I decided to post them for ya!  I'm also going to show you some cute projects that my sister has been working on (she's very talented, but she doesn't think so)...  :)  I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time, I'm going to try and be better... 

This was a super simple project that my sister made using some of the scrapbook paper from my stash.  We just found a cute patterned paper, chose solid colored cardstock to match, and then she traced their hands and stacked them...  VOILA!    I think it came out really adorable!

Here's a "no soliciting" sign that she made.  She just picked up a frame, some scrapbook paper & stickers, and some ribbon and put this little beauty together!

My sister also made this Cat in the Hat poster that goes along with the new common core standards in Kindergarten.  When she showed me this, my jaw dropped!  Super cute!

We had our annual Family Literature Night last week and my booth was featuring the author/illustrator, Mo Willems.  I LOVE HIS BOOKS (and so do the kids)!  To make this poster, I just sketched out the characters, colored them with chalk, and traced them with black Sharpie.  The idea for coloring with chalk is a technique I stole borrowed from my sister.  :)

Saw the idea for these balloons on Pinterest (a website I feel I may be addicted to).  These were extremely easy to make; just a balloon and a Sharpie...

Here's a shot of the entire booth all put together!  Here I am with my friend, Shelly...  We aren't too cool to wear a pigeon headband!  The headbands were really easy to make and the kids LOVED them!  It's literally just a blue circle, white circle, black circle, and yellow triangle.  The kids glued them together, then we attached them to a sentence strip and put them on their little noggins.  It was really cute to see all of the little "pigeons" walking around the auditorium!  :)

Well, there's a little snapshot of what I've been up to...  I hope to be back soon with some sort of card!  :)  Thanks for stopping by!!!!!

Retirement Cards & A Cute School Project

Hello!  I am sooo excited that I have a 3-day weekend!  I haven't done much crafting since my Christmas vacation ended, but I wanted to share some cards that I made.  My mom and our family friend, Robin both retired recently, and neither one of them were given a proper party at work, so....  we had a surprise party for both of them last night!  It was so fun, and these are the cards I ended up making for them.  Oh, and at the bottom of this post I just have to share an art project that my students did for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...

4" square card

Cuttlebug- In Bloom impression plate (Papertrey Ink)
Joy's Life Stamps- Joyful Hearts & Everyday Occasions
Twine

Okay, now here is the cutest Martin Luther King, Jr. project!  I found this idea on Pinterest, and I just couldn't resist making it...  My class LOVED making this project, and they loved talking about Martin Luther King.  I showed them a video of his "I Have a Dream" speech and they were mesmerized!  First graders are just too adorable!  :)  The project in the picture is the one that my niece made...

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all have a great weekend!  :)

Giveaway Winners and Stuff!

Hey everyone!  It's time for me to announce the winners from the Teacher Gifts Blog Hop and the Save the Earth Fantabulous Cricut Crawl!  YAY!  I can't believe it has taken me this long to post the winners (especially for my teacher giveaway), but I haven't been home very much...  Last week (and this week) I went bowling with my cousin and her husband.  He is on a team, and he is making me and my cousin want to join a team.  My cousin and I were bowling with him and another guy (totally adorable by the way) and they were telling us that our horrible scores would actually help a team...  I would join or form my own team, and I'm not even kidding!  :) 

Anywho, before I announce the winners, I will show you what my class has been up to!  We have been working really hard in our school garden, and we've also been raising our own butterflies!  I have been doing this activity for the last 7 years, and I am still amazed that a caterpillar turns into a butterfly!  :)  My students said that we must be great "parents" because all of our butterflies were healthy and happy!  How cute!!! 

I'm very nerdy (and proud of it) and I wore a butterfly shirt for the release!  :)  The kids felt the release was bittersweet...  They were proud, but they would have liked keeping them longer.

Our school garden!  We have onions, flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, etc....  The kids water, weed, plant everything, sweep, etc.  They are very good gardeners!  :)

Okay, for the moment you've all been waiting for....  The giveaway winners!

**For the Teacher Gifts Blog Hop, the winner is....

#7- Georgiana!!!!  This is perfect because she is also a teacher!  :)

**For the Save the Earth Fantabulous Cricut Crawl, the winner is....

#43- Marcia!!!!

Congratulations ladies!  Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaways!  Your support of me and this lil' ol' blog means a lot to me!  :)

Teacher Gifts Blog Hop!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!  Welcome to the Joy's Life DT Teacher Gifts Blog Hop!!!!  If you just hopped here from the very talented Ashley, you're in the right place!

I am so excited about this blog hop because I am a teacher!!  I love seeing all of the little school themed goodies, and also love getting ideas for my co-workers!  Super fun!   I can't believe that the school year is almost over, and it's that time to start wrapping things up....  It's bittersweet!

I filled it with things I think are essential:  Post-It's, Anti-bacterial gel (oh yeah!), "clicky" pencils, and CHOCOLATE!!!!  :)  The teacher can also use the bucket to hold misc. items after the goodies are gone!

George and Basic Shapes- chalkboard: kraft layer cut at 2.88", black layer cut at 2.53"

Doodlecharms- apple cut at 1"

Joy's Life Stamps- Everyday Occasions (I LOVE this set!)

Glossy Accents

Polka dot ribbon

Twine

White embossing powder

***Okay, how about a little blog hop candy?!?!?!  I will be giving away a bunch of little school themed goodies/embellishments.  For a chance to win, just become a follower and leave a comment on this post...  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!!

You're last stop on the hop is to head back over to Joy!  Hope you got some great ideas for the special teachers in your lives!  :)  Thanks for stopping by!!!  :)

Here's the order if you need it:

Joy: http://joyslife.com
Julie: http://www.cricutchick.com
Nina: http://waffleflower.com

Jennie: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com

Patty: http://craftykitten1.blogspot.com
Sarabeth: http://www.chroniclesofsarita.blogspot.com

Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Susie: http://www.thedieshaveit.com
Laura: http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com

Lori: http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com

Megan: http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com

Ashley: http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com

Amy: http://redheadedcrafter.blogspot.com

Joy: http://joyslife.com