Monday Made It: Monster Reading Buddies!

We have open house tomorrow so I am in full swing back-to-school mode, but I had to take a break just in time for Monday Made It and tell you about the best little project that I worked on over the weekend!

Over the summer I got the idea in my head that I really wanted to make some take-home book bags for my little readers with different books and sight word resources to help them with their at-home practice. One of the things that I really wanted to include in these bags were some little reading buddies! I am lucky to have a crafty family and quickly commissioned my grandma's help for this part of my project. I don't have the bags all ready to go yet (but will definitely post about them when I do!), but I spent the weekend making some adorable little monster reading buddies and I couldn't wait to share them with you! 

Follow along for a short step-by-step look at how to make your own little monsters! 

Step One: Cut monster body shapes out of fleece (or a fabric of your choice). We choose just to cut all different "blob" type shapes- my hubby actually did most of this part! 

Step Two: Pick and cut out fabric pieces to decorate your monster. We made little pockets, ears, and eyes out of fun fabric scraps and ribbons that we had laying around.  

Step Three: Use a sewing machine (or maybe a glue gun?) to sew the monster's eye and ears. Sew ears facing down like in the picture, once you sew the sides of the monster together they will flip up the right way! Sew a seam into the top of your pocket fabric but don't sew your pocket down yet!

Step Four: Use your machine to stitch a second eye and mouth onto your little monster.

Step Five: Sew up and around the edges of your monster, making sure that the front of the monster is facing to the inside. Leave a hole in the bottom big enough for you to flip your monster right-side-out and stuff it! 

Step Six: Flip your little monster right-side out and stuff him up! We tore apart an old pillow and used the stuffing from it-nice and cheap! 

Step Seven: Use your machine or hand-stitch your little monster up! 

 And there ya go, lots of little monsters ready to read with your kiddos! I was lucky to have so much awesome help making these little cuties and we made 25 completely different and weirdly adorable little monsters over the majority of one weekend. It was such a fun little project and I can't wait to introduce them to my kiddos! I am planning on having a few visit our class reading center so that my munchkins can get used to reading them. If you decide to make some of your own little monsters, feel free to use this fun little sign I made!

Thanks for checking out my project! If you make your own monster buddies be sure to share-- I would love to see them!!! 

Monday Made It: Gearing up for back to school!

Summer is coming to an end and I am FINALLY just jumping on the Monday Made It bandwagon! Better late than never, right?!

While I was in Montana a few weeks ago, I asked my sweet husband to help me out with a classroom project I had seen on The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. 

I am such a lucky girl because he agreed to help me out!! I wanted to brag on this wonderful new PVC Pipe Center Organizer, even though my hubby is the one that made it :) I am so excited to use it for all of my math centers this year, now I'm just trying to hunt down enough paper trays to fill it up!!

I am so excited to have all of my Sight Word Sentence Strips laminated, cut, and ready to go! I know my kiddos are going to be so excited to have different themes of sight word cards to help them learn and practice fluency with their words! If you haven't checked these out yet, make sure to head over to my store during the back to school sale for 28% off! 

I am so excited about my new Daily Language series! I can't wait for my kiddos to solve their first mystery as we head back to school! This series is set up so that students can take on the role of "detective" as they work to solve different daily language mysteries! The first case (The Case of the Messy Alphabet) is a super fun way to start of the year with some great handwriting practice! Be sure to check out this pack during the sale to get it for a super low price! 

Tomorrow is my last official day of summer before pre-planning! I am feeling pretty good about having so many little projects done and ready for my kiddos, but still have a million ideas in my head! I hope you are all enjoying your last days of summer, or not stressing TOO bad as you start off the year! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Sunday Celebrating!

This week I am celebrating spending some time with my favorite set of cuties!!! They are visiting from Utah and we plan on spending a fun day at the pool--pictures to come later! Will you link up with me and share your celebrations?! I can't wait to read them!

Five for Friday- July 24, 2015

I am so glad to have some time this Friday to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! It's been a very busy, very exciting week and I can't wait to share with you!

The past two weeks I have been visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who live in Bozeman, Montana. I flew out to Bozeman with my grandma and we had a great time! There were so many incredible things to see and the weather was AH-MA-ZING! If you want to see a ton of pictures from my visit to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park, check out my Sunday Celebrating post! :) Here are a few highlights from my trip!

I hit a small, but still really exciting, personal TPT milestone this week when I reached 100 followers! To celebrate my entire store has been on sale for 20% off- good news for you is that it is still on sale through the end of the day! Head over to my page to check out some great deals! 

I have been reading The Book Whisperer this summer (and loving it!!) and was encouraged to make some reading surveys for my kiddos. I am SO EXCITED to use these at the beginning of the year and even more excited that I could really gear them towards beginning readers! As a part of celebrating my 100 followers, this pack is a forever freebie in my store- check it out! 

My grandparents both love sewing and quilting and all kinds of artsy things. While I was in Montana, my grandma and I visited many many quilt stores and started collecting some fabrics for baby boys nursery! We had decided to go for a nautical/whale theme and spent a lot of time on the hunt for some cute whale fabrics for a quilt that my pop-pop is going to make for us! We finally found this adorable whale print and I am so excited to mix it with some teal and navy fabrics and dream up an ocean world for baby boy! 

My friend Lindsey over at Miss Johnston's Journey is celebrating her 2nd bloggiversary! She has put so much time into putting together an awesome giveaway for everyone and has over 50 prizes that will be given away next week! My first grade sound unit is included in one of her prize packs, so be sure to head over to her blog and enter for some great things!! Happy Bloggiversary, Lindsey! 

Happy Friday everyone! If you have really exciting to celebrate this week, come back and link up with my on Sunday for my Sunday Celebrating linky party! I love reading and joining in on your joy! :) 

Back to School Reading Surveys

This summer I have been reading through The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. If you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it! There are a lot of really great topics that Ms. Miller shines a light on in regard to reading.
One thing that really stuck with me in my reading was Ms. Miller's encouragement to use reading surveys at the beginning of the year to find out the interests and reading habits of each of your students.
I wanted to create a simple, yet effective reading survey to use with my little ones at the beginning of the year. I'm excited about learning their interests and pairing them with books that they will enjoy. I think it is incredibly important for students to find books that are interesting to them so that they will want to pick them up and read!
I can't wait to use these reading surveys in the first week or two of school so that I can really get to know my students as readers!
If you would like your own copy of reading interest surveys for beginning readers, check them out here! As a part of celebrating hitting my 100 followers milestone on TPT, I'm making this survey pack a forever FREEBIE!! :)

Enjoy!

Back to School Reading Surveys for beginning readers

The BIG 1-0-0!!!

Hey everyone! I am SO EXCITED!! I have made it to my first self-declared milestone on TPT and now have 100 lovely followers! 

To celebrate, I have an exciting new freebie coming your way that I think will be a great resource as we all think about the first weeks of school (which have snuck up on me way too fast!) 

To celebrate my 100 followers, my entire TPT Store is going to be on sale for 20% off tomorrow through Friday! Be sure to stop by and check out some awesome deals! 

Make sure to be checking on Facebook, Instagram, and back here on my blog around Wednesday this week to check out a great new freebie.

Thanks for celebrating this milestone with me! 

Sunday Celebrating

Good morning from Grand Tetons National Park! I can't wait to share about my trip to Yellowstone later on this evening, but I wanted you to have plenty of time to link up with me and share your joys from the week! I am looking forward to reading all of your posts and joining you in celebration! Feel free to grab either of the images from this post and then come back here to add your link!

I just got home from Yellowstone/Grand Tetons National Park and man, oh man!!!! I am absolutely celebrating the beauty of the parks this week for my Sunday Celebrating! Pictures can't capture the incredible beauty that I saw the last couple of days, but I sure did try to snap quite a few!

I visited the park with my sweet Aunt and cousin (who I am staying with in Bozeman right now) and on Saturday we explored Yellowstone for a bit. It was nice and chilly (WONDERFULLY CHILLY) and so so so gorgeous! 

After spending most of the day in Yellowstone, we headed over to Grand Tetons National Park and took some sweet shots of the mountains and scoped out a sunrise spot before the storm clouds scared us back to our lodge for the night.

We turned in early for the night with a wonderful sounding storm as our lullaby and then woke up this morning insanely early to go grab some sunrise shots! Unfortunately, the clouds wanted to hog the spotlight, but we were still able to get a few pretty shots!

 My favorite part of the day was definitely on our morning ride through the park when we saw a bear on the side of the road! Shortly after we stopped to snap her picture, two little cubs ran up next to her. Snapping pictures out of the car window made it tricky to get us a good shot, but I loved seeing their bear faces through this fence!

After a long time of bear watching, we drove back through the park and made our way to the Lower Falls in Yellowstone where we hiked until our legs fell off, but got to see a pretty rainbow reflected off the waterfall mist!

I can't wait to come back some day with my hubby and our little man and spend some more time celebrating how beautiful it is!

Thanks for celebrating with me-I hope the pictures bring you some joy as you start your week off! Don't forget to link up if you share your celebrations :)