Monday Made it on Tuesday again!

So I'm excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics Monday Made it party for 2 weeks in a row. My goal is to link up each week for the next few weeks so I can get some of my projects for school done. Although, I keep finding more projects I want to do so the to do list is a little never ending. I can't seem to link up on Mondays because I keep my niece Sophie on Mondays and I'm exhausted by the end of the day. Plus we have Vacation Bible School this week and I'm helping in the nursery so I was doubly exhausted last night. Anyway on to my projects for the week.
I had pinned this making words folder a long time ago and put on my summer project board. I got the templates from Teacher Bits and Bobs. I love making words and I'm always looking for easier ways to do it. I've only made one folder but I'd like to make a class set. I wanted an example so maybe I could find a volunteer to make the rest of them.

Next up are some clipboards. I have been seeing all the clipboard makeovers all over blog land and I decided I'd update my clipboards a bit. I tried covering the first one in duck tape but I didn't really like that it had bumps on it. So I decided to use scrapbook paper and duck tape to do the rest of them. I'm focusing on the colors red, black and blue for most of my decorations and things in the classroom.

I need to get some more clipboards so I can have one for each kid. I'll be putting that on my wishlist for my parents.
I was inspired by Tara's post last week with some scrapbook letters she used in a project and how she organized them. So I decided to do the same for my magnetic letters. I found some organizers at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 and used stickers to label each compartment so there would be a place for each letter. I still need to make some task cards to go with the letters.

I went to school today to try to get some more done on my classroom library. (I just noticed that my foot is in the picture above. How funny!) I got all the baskets labeled and placed on the shelves. I used zip ties to attach the labels to the baskets. It was a little tedious but I think they'll stay on the baskets rather than just using tape. Here's a picture of my library so far:

I decided to add some fabric and border to the back of the book shelf. I'm thinking I'll put up my I pick poster on this space.
I finally finished my bulletin board borders with the tissue paper. I also spiced up my calendar a little bit. I saw this tip over at Clutter Free Classroom. She suggested using ribbon to change up the calendar. I used some striped red ribbon on the border of the calendar and made my own month tags. I made some super hero ones but they didn't really match my colors. So I made some more. I think the month needs something around it but I'm not sure. I'm up for some suggestions.

So those are my projects this week and what I'm working on in my room. I need to get some things put away. I've just made mess after mess in my room so tomorrow I'm going to need to put things away and find a place for some of it.
Hopefully I'll get caught up on my book study of Daily 5 and some suggestions for Math Work Stations. VBS is wearing me out though so we'll see.  Be sure to check out the other projects from Monday Made it.

Classroom update

So this week, I finally ventured into my classroom. It's probably a little earlier than I usually go in but I want to reorganize and inventory my classroom library. It's a pretty big project so I wanted to give myself time to work on it. So Tuesday, I went into my room and started sorting all my books. I put them in as many categories as I could with authors, characters, and subjects. I discovered that I do not have as many non fiction books as I would like. But I'm thinking of creating my first donor's choose project to try to get more nonfiction books. Anyway, after I made my piles, I made a list of all the categories I had made. I also started scanning in some of my books into the app Classroom Organizer. It's a web based service to inventory all your books. Check it out here. I can add books with an app on my phone by scanning the ISBN number. Not all books will scan in, especially the scholastic ones that I got through book orders. A lot of those don't have bar codes. But you can type in the book. What I like is that I can see the lexile, ar level and points and guided reading level for the books. I've only gotten a small portion scanned or entered in. It is a little tedious and I can only work on it for a little while. I went home and made labels for all my categories. Some of them I combined into favorite authors or favorite characters if I only had 2 or 3 of one. I also made some labels for my monthly tubs that I keep all the books and activities to go with it. If you would be interested in these labels you can get them by clicking here. I don't know that I suggest doing them the way I did. I printed them out and then cut them out and mounted them on scrapbook paper and laminated them. Here's a picture of them all laminated and in need of cutting out.

This is a picture of all my baskets. I still need a few more baskets for books. But I'm kind of a spending halt. But you'll have to read about that tomorrow on my Friday finds.The next step next week will be to attach the labels to the baskets and get the baskets on shelves. I'm hoping I have enough shelves. I'm trying to give up some of my space and make the room more the kids' space. I plan to punch holes in the cards and use zipties to attach the labels to the basket. I'll take pictures when I'm finished. I still haven't decided exactly how I want to the label the books so they know what basket they put the books back into. I've used color stickers before but that didn't work. I'm really going to have work on modeling and modeling on keeping the library in order. I didn't feel like I had accomplished much with all the library stuff because I just kept making a bigger and bigger mess. So I worked on my bulletin boards some. I wanted to try out the tissue paper borders I saw on Classroom DIY.  I'm really trying to focus on the colors red, black and blue. I don't want to redo everything I already have like my clipchart but I did recover my bulletin boards using black fabric. My large word wall one already has red fabric. But I took down the Dr. Seuss border and am using black ribbon with white polka dots. Here a couple of blurry pictures of my bulletin boards. I ran out of tissue paper so they aren't complete.

I think they look pretty good. I'm planning on doing our work one with black tissue paper borders similar to these. I'll post pictures when I'm done. I didn't finish the word wall one and I didn't get a picture I might have to get an opinion when I finish the ribbon part. It might need an extra border. I also plan to take down my Dr. Seuss alphabet and numbers down and replace them with Annie at The Moffat Girls' alphabet. Here's a picture of it all laminated:

I haven't decided what to do about the numbers. I might make my own or keep searching for some that match my color scheme. I'm still working on super hero things and I have added a few things to my file. So be sure to download it if you are interested in the freebie. I've added some signs for different boards and places around the room. I also made some monthly signs for my calendar. I'm not sure how well they will work because it's my first time making these.
Click here to get the freebies.
I'm trying out dropbox so let me know if it doesn't work. 
If you download one of my freebies, please leave me a little comment love.