Winner and Daily 5 odds and ends

And the results are in....

Here is her awesome winning pic one last time :)  Congrats Heidi... you'll be getting some good stuff shortly!!  

Thanks to Jessica, Lisa, Kelley, Lori and Michele for their donations and help throughout this linky journey :)

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I was so excited to get an email yesterday asking about some teaching things that I have/do!!  I LOVE those kinds of emails!!  I thought I would share them with you so you can all benefit!  Please do email me any time with questions!!  (grab my email on the upper right)

So the question was regarding chimes in my classroom.  This was a great question, one that I started researching when I knew that I would be doing Daily 5.  I finally found this:

It's from www.musicwands.com and I LOVE it.  I use it for all my transitions (and it's only $4.99!).  There was also the question of was it loud enough for entire 'busy' classroom to hear... and the answer is YES.  That's what I love most about it is that it is so light and you wouldn't think it had any umph to you but it is loud and makes a very nice chime sound.  They also have these shapes too...

I was also asked about book boxes (I should just do a whole Daily 5 segment... I LOVE D5 so bring your questions!!).  Here are some options and then I'll share what I've done.  Target has plastic ones that would last you forever IF you can track down enough for your class- up side is that you won't have to worry about the kids destroying the "box" the down side is that you can't customize it for that particular kid.  Another idea (cheapest version) is to use cereal boxes!  There was a teacher at my school that sent home a newsletter requesting parents to send in a cereal box.  She cut the tops off and the kids had fun decorating the box.  Up side... totally kid friendly.  Down side... not too big and not sturdy enough.

So... here's what I do.  I take a trip to IKEA each summer (planning my trip next week!!) and grab their "magazine files."   What you see below is their best deal and you CAN order this online....

FLYT

Magazine file, white

$1.99  / 5 pack

These are just white but sturdy and perfect for fitting 8+ books in it.  AND CHECK that price!!  That's like 40 cents a piece!!

I get something VERY similar to this except its like $2.50 for 4 and they have some cute stripes on them (to add some color to the room).  

Notice the cutesy box :)

I know a teacher who likes to the get white above and have the kids decorate them (totally cute idea).  I, on the other hand, am pretty anal about that kind of stuff and with so many of those boxes in the room I wanted something more uniform (and color).  When I make my IKEA run I will post pics of what I find :)

Thanks for reading!