Look What I Made AND The Winner is.....

Hello, my long lost blogging buddies!  I'm finally home from the not-so sunny state of Oregon.  Well, actually, it was pretty sunny most of the time and, in the locals words, not mine, hot (I guess to some the low to mid 80's is hot, but to the desert dweller, it is a a temperature that you gladly welcome and enjoy while it lasts).  Ok, ok, I'll save my Oregon talk for another post.  On to the point of this one!

First, even though I was away, I did make a few things for my classroom and I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics! 

First up, I made some shared journals like the ones that have been floating around Pinterest lately.  I thought they would be a perfect addition to my Fast Finisher Activity corner (more on that later).  Here they are:

I only made 4 since I will have other things for the students to pick from.  I simply made a cute book cover for each, trimmed them down to size and glued them to each notebook.  By the way, the notebooks were a steal at 17 cents each!  Thank you very much Walmart for that awesome score!

The students may choose to write in a journal whenever they find that they have extra time. They may also read what others have written.  While I haven't done so yet, I plan to write the first entry for each journal so that when I describe how to use them (where to write the date, how to fill the lines, etc) I have a visual reference and the kids then have a permanent reminder each time they go to use a journal.

I also made this pencil sharpener gift for my students: 

I plan to give them out on the first day.  I have an electric pencil sharpener in my room, but I don't let the kiddos use it.  The reasoning behind this is, as soon as one person needs to use it, suddenly, everyone does.  Plus it's loud and I hate loud things.  Instead, we have a community box of pencils and I tell the kids that they may also use their own pencil sharpeners.  Some kids don't bring their own and a lot of borrowing goes on.  Anyhoo, when I saw these sharpeners for 10 cents a piece at Walmart, I immediately grabbed a class set.  Now each student will have their own sharpener!

I made a label that says, "You're a sharp student!" and glued it to a larger blue circle.  I hand cut the white circles, but used a 3.5 inch circle punch to cut out the blue circles.  I attached the sharpener to the label using double sided tape.  Wa-la, a cute first day treat that was super-duper cheap!

Since I was out of state, I didn't get to any home related crafts, but I certainly came home inspired to tackle my "craft room" and visited Sherwin Williams (40% off paint through the 23rd!).  Being the color phobe that I am, I took a giant step and got some turquoise paint for the walls (stemming from a pinspiration from many, many weeks ago)!  Yikes!  I hope to do a bit of redecorating in that room over the next few weeks.  If it turns out cute, I'll be sure to share!

Finally, it's time to announce the 2 winners of my 100 Follower giveaway!  The winners are.....Denise and Tricia!  Yay!  Congratulations!!  I have emailed each of you so be prepared to let me know which 2 items you would like from my TpT store!  Thank you once again everyone for being loyal readers and followers.  I am having so much fun with this blog and a enjoying every step of the process.  Your support and kind words are always appreciated!

Finally, I leave you with this cuteness:

Toodles!