Five for Friday: Summer Creations

Happy Friday everyone! I hope your week has been amazing! Thank you Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting the weekly Five for Friday Linky.

My creative juices have been flowing this week. Currently my craft room and my classroom are cluttered with a myriad of project at various stages of completion. I thought I'd share some of my projects for this linky since that's what I've devoted a big chunk of my time to this week.
 

Today our school principal is turning the big 50! His wife (along with school staff) planned a surprise party. I wasn't quite sure what to get him... the invite suggested collections of 50 items.
Well, there were definitely 50 pieces of candy in this Snickers candy bar birthday cake!

My youngest brother is also celebrated his birthday today and I went with a candy bouquet for his gift. This was seriously so much fun to make! And if you buy too much candy... Always buy too much candy. *crinkling candy wrappers*

 

I am stoked about finally finishing the assemblage of Reagan Tunstall's See it and Say it daily flip books. When I saw this packet on TpT, I knew it was something I needed.

These RTI intervention booklets are perfect for reinforcing literacy, phonics, and spelling concepts. I have a couple of plans for using them: volunteers doing them one-on-one with students, literacy centers, and at-home practice. Some students need the extra repetition to cement some of those concepts and I think these will be just what I've been looking for!

Here are two of my many "projects in waiting".

I've decided that maybe the glue sponges are worth all of the hype I've been hearing about. Even if they don't "change my life" (like so many blogs have promised), they've gotta be better than glue bottles.

I'm willing to give it a shot.

Especially since I'm going to try interactive math journals this year.

I dabbled with them last year using composition notebooks and a single prompt/problem. My class really enjoyed the journals.

Sample journal entry from last year's math journals

This year I'm going to use Kristen Smith's Interactive Math Notebook packet. My goal is to have them do this more independently while I pull and work with small groups of students on specific math concepts. Do you use math journals? I'd love for you to share how you use them.

This next random isn't really a "creation" ...unless you consider it the creation of healthy eating habits.
I FINISHED the Whole30 challenge! 30 days of whole food, no added sugar, no grains, and no dairy. (Yes, it seemed like a whole 30 days!)

Now that 30 days is over, I can definitely tell that my taste buds have changed. I've learned to develop a taste for natural, good-for-me foods. My clothes fit much better and I've learned how to make wholesome meals for me and my husband. I even invested in some new kitchen gadgets.

Check this out! 

 Veggie pasta!

Of all my summer goals, this one I am most proud of. Getting healthy! Now for working out...

(If you've never heard of the Whole30 and are curious about the program, click on the picture to learn more.)

Growing up my mom made beautiful handmade cards. We never bought cards from the store. There is something special about getting a handmade card. The only tough part is that, as a teacher, I go through stacks of cards each year. I always want to be appreciative. (Christmas + Teacher Appreciation + End of the Year = a lot of thank you cards!)

Thanks to Hobby Lobby, my card box is stocked for this next school year.
This is sooo easy! All I did was buy a pack of "Thank you" stickers at 50% off.... for $1, and then I added them to some cards I made from left over scrapbooking paper.

They turned out adorable!

I'm thinking this would be a perfect gift to give some of my teacher friends - a stack of homemade thank you cards. Easy, peasy!

Head on over to the link up to see what everyone else has been up to this week!