Monday Made It & A Giveaway!

I'm anxious to link up with Monday Made It because I've got alot to show you! I've also got some freebies and a giveaway for you!

Made It #1

So excited to show off this bench I made for my reading area! Books will go in the bins below! 

I was inspired to make this from Amy Marshall's pin on Pinterest! Amy blogs at "The Resource(ful) Room."

 http://pinterest.com/pin/142848619403590153/

I've admired this crate bench since last summer! 

Here's how I made it. 

I bought these 2 inch thick foam cushions at JoAnn's. Sorry I forgot to save the packet, but they come one to the package and you need one for each crate. I got them for 50% off and paid $3.50 for them. I had to cut about 3 1/2 inches off, as you can see. 

 This is the piece of plywood that was left over from my crate seats and the length fit perfectly with no cutting. My son had to trim a little off of the width. 

For three crates, you'll need 2 yards of fabric. Yay, they had chevron this time!! I couldn't find any when I made my crate seats, so I had to go with dots....oh well!

Layer all three, your material, your cushion, then your plywood. Then, using a staple gun, pull your material super tight to stop any wrinkling and staple all the way around. 

 And there's the finished product! I forgot to mention, my son also screwed the cushion onto the crates, so it is one piece now. 

Made It #2

I am overjoyed over my new laminator. I finally bought myself one when I saw it on sale at Walmart for $25 and I love it. 

It's very first job was Miss Nelson's "Behavior Beads." These are so cool. Students earn them and wear them on a chain around their neck. If you haven't heard about them yet, you can check them out at her TpT store. She has many sets to choose from. 

I found this container at JoAnn's on the clearance aisle and it holds everything perfectly!! Tara is the one who gave me this idea from one of her previous MMI's.  

Made It #3

My Math It Up Board! 

You can get these all over TpT for free, but I didn't like how large the circles were, so I made this set to match my classroom colors and made them in 3 inch. 

Lisa from "Live, Laugh, Love to Learn" is the awesome creator of this game. 

I used my 3 inch circle cutter from JoAnn's to cut them out perfectly and quickly! This thing has saved me so much time cutting.

***Update*** Another blogger just asked me what kind of circle cutter I used because hers doesn't cut through 5m lamination. This is a picture of mine and yes it cuts through cardstock and 3m lamination with no problem. I don't know about 5m as I haven't tried it. This one is by Fiskars and it was pretty expensive, but I got it on sale for around $9.00 I think.

Made It #4

I finished up my classroom decor set....finally! When it finally dawned on me this week that I only have 3 more weeks left of summer vacay....I figured I better get hoppin'. 

It's on sale at my store {here} if you're still looking. Or you can try to win it at my Back to School giveaway below!

I'm also giving away a game of "SPEED" from Highhill Education. 

I was honored when I was contacted by Highhill Education offering to give me two sets of "Speed." One for me, and one for one of my followers! Speed is a card game and comes with 8 decks of cards; a deck for each fact 2-9, so you can only focus on the facts that your child or students need to learn. 

This game is so awesome for learning multiplication facts. I got the app last year on my class ipads and my students didn't want to stop playing it! My son still needs to learn some of his facts, so he and I have been playing away!

Here is a video from Highhill Education showing the game in action! 

Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a set of "Speed." The winner will also receive my new classroom decor set or if you don't need a decor set, $15 to spend in my store. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck and for your freebies.....

Do you have a "time out" or "chill out" area in your classroom? Inspired by another pin on Pinterest, I decided that this year I would call mine "The Safe Spot." I made this poster to hang in my "Safe Spot." Feel free to download it if you can use it in your classroom. Just click the picture!

Here is the pin that inspired this and it is from Pre-Kpages.com. She has a great post there about how she uses "The Safe Spot" in her classroom. 

 I also want to offer you my "Math It Up" set for free too, even though they're for sale in my store. You can get it {here} from Google Docs.