What I'm Loving Wednesday

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

I'm loving the mini PVC pocket chart stand I made! The stand is sitting on our dining room table and every time I look at it, it makes me happy because I made (pretty much) by myself. :) If you have those little Target pocket charts from last summer laying around, go check out my tutorial!

I'm loving the Bachelorette still! I was pumped to see that Doug went home. He was a nice person, I guess, but acted way more like Emily's dad than her boyfriend. That kiss was so incredibly awkward... yikes. And Arie is still in it to win it!! I love you, Arie.

I'm loving that I started a new knitting project! I used to knit a LOT in my senior year of high school through college but it has gotten away from me a bit. One of my former first graders who I will have again in second grade is getting a new baby brother in August! So I've been working on a baby blanket for the baby.

I'm loving that my summer ESL class is only 3 weeks long. I'm not loving that it's 6 hours per class period and that my teacher is super quiet and likes to read off of powerpoints............

I'm loving that I picked up a TON of books at the Salvation Army last week with my cousins. We were probably there for 2 hours. There was an entire wall consisting of only bookshelves that were stacked two deep. My cousin, Kelley, is taking children's lit next semester, so she's trying to pick up books to fulfill her book list, and usually I just go along and throw things into her basket, but this time I actually bought books!

I'm loving that I got to catch up with all the teachers at my school yesterday. The priest from the church associated with our school was reassigned to a different church, so there was a going-away party for him yesterday. It was really nice to chit chat and see my buddies again. :)

I'm loving my cousins. :) Here's Kelley and me getting ready to check with with our million books the other day!

What are you loving today?

Monday Made It: Pocket Chart Stand

I'm so happy for Monday Made It because it makes Monday so much more wonderful!

This week, I made a mini pocket chart stand for my $1 pocket charts I got last summer at Target. I was inspired by Carly at First Grade Fabulosity's post about her pocket charts!

It was crazy easy! Here is how you do it!

First, you'll need to gather your supplies:

Side note: my pipe is already cut in this picture, obvi. You will need to buy a 10' piece of 1/2" PVC pipe at your preferred hardware store. :) It will cost you about $1.50 for the 10' pipe.

Then, start putting it together!

First, put your two elbows on either side of your 18" piece. This will be the top of your stand.

Then, put your 24" pieces in the other ends of the elbows. Just shove 'em in there!

After that, put your tees on ends of your 24" pieces.

Next, put one 5" piece in each tee opening.

Last, put your little caps on the open ends!

Then it should look like this bad boy. Feel free to relax at this point, as that is what I am clearly doing in this picture, haha!

Now if you would like to, you can spray paint your stand. I had some spray paint already so we painted it navy blue! Also, I have metal rings that I am going to use to hang the pocket charts but they are at school, so for the purpose of this post, I just tied the pocket charts up with yarn!

If you already have the pocket charts, this project will cost you less than $5 to make one stand. That is a pretty good deal to me!!!

There are two pocket charts back to back on the stand so two students can use the chart simultaneously!

I'm planning to use this as a station during reading time. Our first grade program features 3-4 word families per unit, so I'm going to make up little cards so they can make words independently using the word families.

Do you have any other ideas or ways we can use this awesome stand during independent work time?