Monday Made It!

Even though I am home visiting my family in the States and not really home in the UAE, I decided to try some Monday Made It's with my Dollar Tree finds I put on Instagram not too long ago (are you following me?  Well, why not?!).

Thanks to 4th Grade Frolics for hosting this fun and motivational linky so I can get some stuff done while on vacation.

In case you missed it, here's a small portion of my dollar bargains.  I'm using these for my made its.

 First up, I took my scissors and this:

It created a super simple sorting center instead of keeping them as posters.  Now they are interactive, engaging, and best of all - hands-on!

Plus now I can use all those foam mats for all kinds of sorting mats or for quite dice spots.  Who doesn't love multipurpose things?

My original plan was to add the foam backing using one of the foam pieces in the Dollar Tree pack. They would have worked (sort of) but were just a smidge too small.  Instead I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up this 12 x 18 piece of foam at 88 cents and was able to cut it to size.  It left enough over to do two puzzles if I want. I think I have an ABC puzzle at home so I will be bringing it along in my suitcase.

You could always punch a little hole in the back of each number to get them out easier but I didn't think that was necessary.

The next 2 Made It's were all made with super simple materials (glue and Sharpies).  Here's what I picked to use:

Next I found these fun foam bath letters (totally buried in the store).  I grabbed these small rectangles from the Dollar Tree craft aisle along with that tacky glue and my Sharpies.

A short time later I had a fun matching alphabet letter center.

Again I used a second bag of foam letters and small foam rectangles.

Add some glue, trace one of the letters and it turns into an easy alphabet letter order game!  Plus students are getting extra practice in learning the letter shapes to match them up.  Did I mention it's also self-correcting?  I suppose you could add a recording sheet as well but I'm imagining these for my early kinders who are not quite there with letter formation yet.

My last item is something I whipped up quickly this morning before finishing this blog post.  I know many of you have started back to school (so sorry!).  That first week is tough and hectic, there's a bazillion things to get done and maybe you'll forget to leave a little love note for your co-workers.  If you follow Farley, she talked about doing Random Acts of Kindness throughout the year.  I decided the easiest way for us busy bees just back into the thick of things would be to print some quick sayings on Post-Its and then leave the note with a small token in mailboxes.  In my case, it will be on teachers' desks - no mailboxes at my school.  Anyway, it could be a small piece of chocolate, a new pen, etc.

Thanks for sticking around to read my post - click the picture below to grab your freebie.

A special thanks to the linky host for this fun linky that helped me get a few things off my to do list. Be sure to click below to see what other fun made its you can find this Monday.