Monday Made-it Mania!!

I must admit that I spent my Saturday finishing up all of the functional crafts that I had on my to do list.  My 19 year old brother did not understand why I would have spent my Saturday night that way, but hey I threw in a glass or two of vino and was content.  Now... let my Monday Made-it Mania begin!!

I attended an amazing 4 day writing workshop earlier in the summer and have been wanting to personalize a writing bin for each of my class periods.  I plan on each student having a hanging file folder to put their writing spiral and tools in.  (We have always had lockers and won't have them this year, so I am trying to help out my kiddos backs/shoulders and save them from heavy backpacks)  I think they turned out pretty well and I used a $10 off coupon at Office Max when I bought them.  If you have any other thoughts or ideas on organization for writing material... let me know! ( I know its not the best picture... sorry about that!)

While I was at the same writing workshop I picked up a weekly mystery lexicon packet.  Basically, there is a mystery word every week and each day I will write a clue on the board.  Students have the opportunity to take scraps/scratch paper to write what they think the word is and turn it into the containers daily.  On Friday at the end of the day I start in the Monday tub and work my way through the week until I find a "winner".  This is not mandatory, but it is a way to get them thinking. The winners name will be written on the board along with which day they got it correct on, so basically they get bragging rights for the week!!  Does anyone else do something like this??

Lastly, I made a box tops container to put on my desk.  We have box tops contests at our school.  If you bring 10 you get a treat, like extra recess.  I have the Title class of the grade level so usually my students aren't quite as motivated.  I collect box tops along with my family members and several of my friends, so that my kiddos can join in on the 10 box tops fun.  I also thought if I had them bring them in whenever they have them it would help out with them losing or miss plaing them.  We shall see how this works... Now I nee your honoest opinion... Do you think the glitter is too much?  I added glitter because it was just too plain and now I am not sure if I like it...

  

Well if you have made it this far thanks for staying tuned through my Monday Made-it Mania!! In the next week or so I am going to try and post some back to school lessons or tips; it seems like my only posts this month are linkys.

Hope you have a Marvelous Monday!!