Monday Made It! 7/22/13

Happy Monday! Can you believe there are only a few Monday's left until school starts? Our first day is the 19th, but I have a smattering of professional developments and workshops to attend before then. And guess what? I am so excited. I just can't wait to get started and meet everyone and meet my kids and just....I'm a new teacher, can you tell? Haha. But anywho! My classroom is really starting to take shape. I am itching to post pictures of it, because I am in love! I love the colors I've chosen (blue, green, orange and brown) and my massive, always-growing classroom library. But I still have a few more little things to complete first. 

For this post, I am linking up once again with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics to talk about my "made-it" project for the week. Well actually I think I made it last week. But that's okay! Inspired by the many posts I have seen floating around the blogging world (post your's in a comment, if you have), I made synonym pockets for my classroom.

 

Or as I have named it, "Synonym Swap". This station in my room will encourage students that are writing to exchange their "tired" or "dead" words for a new, better synonym. I chose twenty of the words that I thought my students might need help with the most, like: funny, said, cool, good, important, very, mad, give, etc. 

Here's what I did. I started with some pockets I found in my room. I know you can buy much cuter, easier, patterned pockets at a teaching store, but these were free! They were sticky on the back (the teacher before me used them for library books). I cut out squares of scrapbook paper (still using that trusty pack I bought from Hobby Lobby...best ten dollars I've ever spent!!) and glued them on the front. Then I printed out the twenty words I chose and glued those on. To make the synonym slips for inside the pockets, I typed them up, printed them, and glued them on slips of cardstock. Although you could probably print them directly on the cardstock if it was letter sized, which mine was not. Finally, I glued/stuck the pockets onto some posterboard and hung them up in my room where my students would be able to easily reach them. And voila! A Synonym Swap!

 I can't wait to see how my students use this! Just a warning though, it took me a while to make. Lots of cutting and gluing involved! But I am so excited with how it turned out. I think as the year goes on, I will add more and more pockets to it, especially as I get to know my kids and the words they need help with.

So... Do you have a "Synonym Swap" in your room? Or something similar? If so, how do you like it? 

Also, if you leave your email below, I'd be happy to send you my "Synonym Swap" files (including the poster!) for free!

Thanks for reading! And don't forget to link up your Monday Made-It here :)