Mrs. Cobb's Kinder Sprouts: ways to get your hands dirty

Showing posts with label ways to get your hands dirty. Show all posts

PlayDoh!

Labels: ways to get your hands dirty - Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Hello! If you have been following my blog awhile, you know I love: 1. Hands-One Learning 2. Making my own homemade playdough!
So when I saw Primary Possibilities' collection of Play Doh activities, I was delighted!!! I am way over budget for this month, so sadly these have to go chill on my wishlist...but they will be mine, one day. Seriously, you must check out her ideas. Brilliant and well-made!
Click the picture to check it out!

Thanks for visiting my blog!
-Mrs. Cobb

Monday Made It 5

Labels: about me, made it, random preparations..., ways to get your hands dirty - Monday, August 13, 2012

4th Grade Frolics! Wow, it is hard to believe that today is the first day of school in my county! Last week was a busy week of finishing up my classroom and planning for the year ahead, and now it is time to begin. Then, next week I start my Master's coursework. >.< With all the work at the school this week, I wasn't too crafty. I did make a pretty pennant banner for my student work bulletin board though! It is now my "Wall of Wow!" I used the same big fat scrapbook paper stack that I have done several crafty projects with to cut out the letters on my cricut and glue them on triangles. Then, I laminated it, punched holes, and strung it on to pretty ribbon. It turned out very nice looking!

In other news, Rosco the pug has been struggling with fleas and trying to eat his hindquarters off, so he has been wearing a cone a lot. Smokey has been getting adventurous and tolerating being in the same room as the pug. We're a little in shock at this behavior development.

Have a fantastic week and wish me luck as I get to know my new class! Thanks for visiting my blog!
-Mrs. Cobb

Monday Made It #3

Labels: back to school, literacy centers, math, ways to get your hands dirty - Monday, July 30, 2012

Hi everybody! I am so excited by the growth of how many followers I have this month. Ya'll are keeping me motivated to keep making stuff this summer, since my Monday Made It posts have been so popular. This week, I have a freebie included! First, I need to send a BIG thank you over to Stacey at http://rayofkindergartensunshine.blogspot.com , who nominated me for another "One Lovely Blog". She is a new blogger, go check her blog out!

Now for all my projects of the past week. I'll go from the quickest to the hardest, how's that? Make your own Monday Made It post and go link up! If you like my ideas and free file today, leave me some comment love and feedback please!

4th Grade Frolics!

1. Blackboard Configuration File:

This holds standards, essential questions/ HOTS, and vocabulary! Right at your fingertips! The bin came from Target and is tough melamine - hopefully it will hold up for years to come! I have the dividers and all the contents laminated and for the standards and eq's will have velcor on the back to attach them to color coded by content area ribbons - you'll see what I mean when I do my big classroom reveal really soon! School starts in two weeks! If you are looking for these to print, Deanna Jump has the standards and questions made beautifully- so worth the low cost she is charging. I got the divider labels off her blog, too. http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/2012/07/common-core-standards-organization.html Greg from Kindergarten Smorgasboard has cute vocabulary. I haven't printed those yet, I am hoping a lot of my already printed out vocabulary cards will still match Common Core standards! I have bought them just in case I need them, though! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ELA-Common-Core-Vocabulary-Cards http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Math-Vocabulary-Cards

2. Poster to store library cards in

Pretty basic, but isn't it pretty?

3. First Week Name Tags

These clip on their shirts, and each one looks totally different. Got the file from Kindergarten Crayons. Love it! The ID holders came from Walmart, total cost was about $8. I am having my husband heat seal them closed for me, then writing their names with a sharpie on the outside. It's a good, solid plastic and I should be able to clean them off later, right?

4. Goo to write on!

This is simply dollar store hair gel and food coloring in a ziploc bag, heat sealed shut, then packing taped shut too! Like my happy face?

5. Transportation Home Banner --- and Freebie!

This is not quite done, I need to laminate it and attach to a ribbon. I will have the student's names on clothespins and attach those the the right circle. Transportation changes made easy! I had a good time cutting the flowers and circles with my beloved cricut. Get the file with the text and images HERE

While I was in my craft room making this stuff, I thought I'd show you the hot mess of a room that it is! It is the bonus room over my garage. When we bought our house two years ago, I claimed it as my crafting zone and LOVE having so much room to sprawl my projects out! Maybe one day I can actually make it look good with consistent shelving, cute bins, good lighting...a girl can dream, right?

I have a poster giveaway you should enter! Not too many entries yet, you have a good chance of winning:

And last, My TPT gift card giveaway! Sorry I don't have a cute picture for it, but in a soon to come post I will be sharing my game plan for calendar time this coming up year. I am taking ideas on my Calendar Dilemma post - share a tip and then return and post on the next Calendar post, and you could win a $10 TPT gift certificate! Do it now - CLICK HERE!
Ok, now I think I may be late to have my stitches out of my thumb, BYE! Thanks for visiting my blog!
-Mrs. Cobb

Crate Seats and other Crafting!

Labels: classroom furniture, random preparations..., ways to get your hands dirty - Sunday, July 22, 2012

The summer classroom crafting continues, albeit with help since I have a useless, bandaged thumb at the moment.*sigh*

I am super excited to almost be at 50 followers! If you stop by, follow me for many classroom posts to come! I LOVE making new things for my classroom and sharing them here.
Again, I am linking up! I'm only one day ahead this time...

4th Grade Frolics!

Crate Seats!

This has been one my to-do list for A YEAR! So glad I got this done. There are tons of people who have posted how to do this, but here goes anyway with my take on making crate seats!1. Buy beautiful fabric and 1/4 inch foam - I went to Joann's with coupons last week and also got 20% off with my teacher ID - sweet!2. Wood- I got a $17 sheet of 1/4 inch plywood. Rosco the pug came along to get it and had a BLAST prancing around the local Lowes. :) Plenty of plywood leftover - what shall I make with it??3. Crates, of course! I wanted teal colored, and Target had cute ones with circles on the sides. Perfecto!4. Call a man with a circular saw! Unless you have 2 useable thumbs, in which case maybe you can use the saw yourself. Dear Dad cut the wood for me, he just measured, cut, tried it out, cut again (little corners had to be swooped off), and ta-da!

5. Cut the foam to fit on top of the wood. 6. Cut fabric about 5 inches bigger per side then the wood and foam.7. Wrap and staple gun it all together!

8. You'll probably want some sort of handle for pulling the seat off to get to the storage - I stapled ribbon all the across the top. Pretty!

Finished Crate Seat!

Repurposing a Box:

I do a color and shape pattern to hang up a number for each day of school. To keep the shapes all ready to go, I had been keeping them in a little box that a mug came in. They fit, it worked, but was a little tacky. I finally took the time to recover the box with scrapbook paper, and labeled one side neatly. Much nicer! I love that mug, too. :)Here is my beloved scrapbook paper pad:

The finished box, and the mug that once lived in it:

I couldn't bring myself to recover the top...

How do you like the shareable links that hover on the pics? Trying it out on this post - keep or toss? Comment and let me know pretty pretty please!

Don't forget my little giveaway! All you have to do is check out my calendar dilemma post and leave a comment, then when I do my follow-up post of what I decide to do about that part of the day, comment again. Easy! I am hoping to do the follow-up, made-up-my-mind-for-now post by next weekend! Don't miss out!
Thanks for visiting my blog!
-Mrs. Cobb

Craft Time with Carol

Labels: deals, literacy centers, made it, math, ways to get your hands dirty - Friday, July 13, 2012

I have been eager to link up for Monday Made-It,

4th Grade Frolics!

but this week crafting happened on a Thursday night. I am really excited about the things I made, so I wanted to go ahead and share! I had a couple friends over, Danielle and Carrie, who were redecorating some Converse's to be Doctor Who shoes.

Doctor Who shoes from the back...

Danielle and Carrie showing off the shoes!

Me painting away! I love painting! :)

I figured it was the perfect time to knock out some of my to-do list classroom craft projects! Check out my four projects below and then tell me which one you'd like to make for your classroom.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Match Game - 2 Game Boards!

Just starting to paint the leaves in...

For this project, I used poster board, pretty paint, and shiny letter stickers from the Target Dollar Spot! My students will draw a token with a letter sticker on it and place it on the matching letter on the tree if they can name the letter and/or sound.Here is how I made it:

Draw the tree in pencil.
Paint the leaves a few different solid shades of green.
Paint the trunk dark brown. Put coconuts around for a border!
Let dry, then add A-Z stickers all over the tree!
Add A-Z stickers to tokens (I need to go grab some of my red/yellow two sided tokens from my classroom. I'll have stickers on the red side for one game board, yellow side for the other game board.

Magnetic Ten Frames

Target not only had great letter stickers, they also had these magnetic rectangles in the Dollar Spot. I saw them and instantly knew what I would turn them into!

1. Take off the existing ribbon.

2. Cut a roll of beautiful duck tape in about 1/4 inch stripes. If you can slit through a couple layers with a razor, it will rip that width for awhile! I got my dear husband to do that, I am too clumsy! Aww, Rosco's cute little pug tail made it in this picture!

3. Apply duck tape across the middle, evenly spaced, four times short-ways. It's ok if it is not cut perfectly straight, the wobbliness is kinda cute!

4. Apply duck tape down the middle long ways.

5. Make a duck tape border, folding over on to the back. Ta-da!

6. You can use whatever magnets you like, but I got these shiny stones that I am applying magnets to the back of, once I find some magnets...

I will be putting three of these under my calendar and we'll make the date on them.

Here is today's date, and the beautiful new border that will be going on my bulletin boards!

July 13th!

We'll use the other one during number talks to show what we think the number is that I flash to them on a ten frame. Examples....

My favorite number:

Funky Five:

What do you think? Cute or what??? I LOVE these!

Pencil Bucket UPGRADE!

Again at Target in the Dollar Spot, I found a big fat pencil bucket with my favorite color on the bottom. Otherwise pretty bland though. I knew I'd be picking up ribbon to match my new color scheme though, so this pencil bucket got a facelift!

New Color Scheme!

Bucket + Ribbon= beautiful!

First I hot glued ribbon flat around it. Then, I consulted youtube for how to make a cute little bow.

I hot glued the bow on. Now I am keeping my eyes peeled for a just right accent to go above the bow. Or I might leave it as is.

A simple quick project - Puzzle Baggies

This really does not equal a craft project, but if you struggle with maimed puzzle boxes, try cutting out the image of the completed puzzle from the box, and then stick it and all the pieces in a ziploc bag. Slider bags are really the best. Target has these puzzles in, you guessed it! the Dollar Spot.

Ya'll don't forget to chip in some ideas for my TPT giveaway here: calendar-dilemma-upcoming-giveawayThanks for visiting my blog!
-Mrs. Cobb