It was a Word Work week!

Let me start off with something that has nothing to do with school....Jacob got a car for his 16th birthday yesterday!!  His birthday is actually on the 21st (which is the first day of school....how gross is that???), but he got his gift a little early.  His grandparents purchased a new car and were generous enough to give him their old one!!

This was a complete birthday surprise for him!  When his grandma handed him the keys in the restaurant he said, "Did I just get a car?".  I'm so nervous that he will be free to roam the streets without me, but super duper excited that he is making the transition into a young man......I absolutely love that boy!!!

This will be my last Monday Made It for a while!  We found out on Friday that we will be able to move into our classrooms on Friday the 17th after 4 p.m.  We have Open House on Monday and students start on Tuesday the 21st.  That means I have 3 days to unpack every single school thing I own, put it away in my new classroom, decorate my room, and prepare for Open House and the first week of school.....no pressure!  Since I will be in freak out mode next weekend and will be working round the clock I'm guessing I won't have time for a Monday Made it post......on with this weeks goodies!

Last year I had 6 Word Work activities that students could choose from during this time.  Most of my ideas came from Tara at 4th Grade Frolics, and Laura Candler at Corkboard Connections.  I even used Tara's idea for creating the folders to hold them in.....cute huh!

I made these new activities to add to the fun!  You can get a free copy of any of the worksheets here.

The Sand Scribes will use our new colored sand boxes!

Our typists will use our new colorful keyboards.  I had thought about using the laptop keyboards, but taking them out always seems to take forever, and with a simple keyboard we'll save time, and nobody will "accidentally" turn on a computer :)

This idea also came from 4th Grade Frolics! I found these little pouches in the school supply section at Target for only $0.97!  They hold all the Magnetic Words Supplies! The letters were also from Target near the college/dorm back to school stuff, and the magnetic white boards are from Dollar Tree.

I plan to add my new ideas to last year's choices:

Vocabulary Foldable (from Laura Candler)
Words Worth, Scrabble, Secret Code, and Stampin' It (from 4th Grade Frolics)

I even got two new ink pads in blue and red from the Dollar Spot at Target!

I also had time to create Poetry Pots (inspired by 4th Grade Frolics....again!)

I wrapped up this very busy week with a very simple Box Tops container (nothing special just a left over sand container some craft paper and some stickers)

new bins for the kids to turn their work in.  Since we departmentalize I made a bin for each teacher with folders in each bin for the most frequently turned in kinds of work.  I'm hoping this makes organizing and grading hundreds of paper each week MUCH easier! I had the folders and I got the bins at Walmart for $1 in the dish section.

And, last I made an "I'm Done, Now What?" board.  I'm loving this thing and I think it's going to make an awesome addition to my room.  I got the genius idea  from Shelley Gray of Teaching in the Early Years!!!

This little guy was really time consuming to put together, but I have a feeling it's going to be well worth the effort!

Oh, and I finished two weeks worth of lesson plans yesterday.....all that's left is to get that room put together!!!  If you haven't linked up with 4th Grade Frolics this summer you are missing out.  Head on over there and check out all the other AMAZING Monday Made it projects!!