Monday Made-It #3 for Me with a Giveaway!

I'm so excited to be back for Monday Made-It!  All the other blogs and Pinterest have given me lots of inspiration this summer.  So, first I'd like to share what I made for school.

This creation was inspired by a post I found last year at Teaching My Friends.  I had been playing around with the idea of creating a "menu" type of board for writing using the six-traits by doing something similar to the CAFE menu that I use for reading (click on The Cafe Book below for more info).

  
I wanted to have one column for each of the six traits that I could post the strategies I had taught so far under and had played around with trying to come up with a clever acronym but didn't have much luck.  So, when I found the picture below, I was so excited!  This is just what I was trying to do.

VOICES is such a great acronym for writing.  I've been planning on implementing this for the upcoming school year, so this week I made some headings that I can use to create my very own VOICES board like the one above.  Thank you Nancy at Teaching My Friends for the great idea.

There is one heading for each trait of writing with an "I can" statement to define the trait in student friendly language.  Plus, they each have a cute owl just for fun! :) Click on any of the pictures below to get a copy in my Teacher's Notebook store.

I plan on using these headings very similarly to how I use the CAFE board headings.  Just like the bulletin board picture above, I will put them at the top of a bulletin board and as I introduce a new writing strategy, I will post it underneath the appropriate trait heading.  I have seen how much the CAFE board has helped my students take control of their learning as readers by being able to choose goals and name strategies they use as they share with the class.  I'm confident that this board will also help kids see the connections between reading and writing even more than they already do.

So...here's the giveaway.  The first 3 people to comment and tell me how you would use a VOICES board in your room will get the VOICES headings for free so you can have your own VOICES bulletin board! 

Now...for what I made for home.  A canvas painted with the words Faith, Hope, Love.  I painted it a lime green color (3 coats).  Then, I typed the words in a font I liked, printed it out on cardstock, and then cut them out.  Since I couldn't find an outline type of font I liked, I had to use a regular font and cut out the letters.  I traced them onto the scrapbook paper and cut those out.  Finally, I glued them onto the canvas, created a bird for the corner, and put modge podge over the whole thing.

Those are my Monday Made-Its!  Don't forget to check out the VOICES headings and link up at Fourth Grade Frolics.