Happy Friday! Here's five details for a Paint Drying Rack Hack! Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday for giving me opportunity to share!
My kidpeople LOVE painting and we do paintings of all sorts. There is one little glitch to painting joy, though– where to dry all those works of art? Drying racks are big and expensive. Even foldable clothes drying racks take up a lotta space and get in the way. So, look what I did...
That is an undershelf hanging basket, the kind that just slides on to a shelf and is sold in shelving or storage departments... pretty much like this one. And it's only about eight bucks on Amazon.
Click it to see it.
In the photo it is is full of wet paintings hung with clothes pins from the basket grid. I can put my arm into the basket area to easily pin the artwork on.
Tip! I learned the hard way to number the clothespins so it is easier to find the two pins that will hold one piece of paper– Number One pin on the left aligns with Number One pin on right, Two with Two, etc. Without the numbers, I wasn't clipping corresponding clothespins and was losing hanging capacity with skipped pins.
I keep my "drying rack" hanging from the cabinet above my sink. This is particularly handy because any paint drips go right into the sink.... paint drips? Did I say paint drips? Naw, there aren't ever any paint drips... If we use bigger paper, I attach the clothespins on the short side of the paper, as opposed to the long top side shown in the photo. This particular basket has enough grid wires to allow for eight paintings to hang at once. If the paper is not completely soggy too big, another painting can lay down in the basket itself. That is usually about as many paintings as we can produce in a day.
Idea! On this particular day my kiddos were doing science art and I only gave them primary colors of red, blue, and yellow on their pallets. Their assignment was to mix the paints to make the secondary colors of purple, green, and orange... SOME got it, though we had quite a few mucky browns, too... practice will make them color experts..
The cabinet door has to stay open slightly to allow for the basket brackets to slide onto the shelf– as you see it is barely noticeable.
When empty the rack is pretty unobtrusive, so I leave it out all the time. With space at a premium in my new classroom, necessity really WAS the mother of invention for this hack! I give it a double thumbs up! Whoot! Maybe it will work in your classroom, too!
Click on back to Five for Friday for more tips!
So glad you stopped by! Sorry I've been awol for a while– change of classroom and new program really beat my bum this season! See you next week, I hope!
Hi Folks! I just got back from a weekend away and have picked 3 Pins to share through Pawsitively Learning, Just Reed, and Inspired Owl's Corner's link-up– Thanks, Ladies!
I have to move classrooms this summer, so this month's Pick 3 is about classroom set up and decor. If you are not interested in classroom details at the moment, then you can just move along until next time... oh, after you enter the $100 TPT giveaway that I'm part of this week– skootch down to bottom of post to check it out!
As I said, I'm busy setting up a new classroom this summer. I would save these classroom Pin ideas to share for next month, as more teachers might be interested, but if you are like me, you like to get ideas and then let them stew a bit in your brain to make best use of them. I also want to have them in mind as I do the set up so I can accommodate them from the get-go, and not have to redo what I've already done.
Pin number one is from GritAndGlory.com and one way to let kids use a white board. I have a white board that is going to be near my makers space, and although I might use it as display, I would like to "give it to the kids" so to speak. It could be as simple as Expo markers being used for graffiti, or it could be that I give them a supply of post-its to use. I could put up a word that we are discussing and then have them draw and write about that. An advantage is that I could gather the post-its so I have a bit of a record when it was time to change topics. Or it could be less structured and just let them go at it and see what they do.
Pin number two from PlayBasedLearning.com.au shows two ways to make hanging display or drying space for paintings. I love letting the kidpeople paint, but the drying space is always an issue. My old room was in a centrum, so I had much more space out in the central area for drying artwork. Both the circular and rectangular devices in the picture are for drying laundry. I want whichever one I use to be over by the makers space, too, as that is where painting will happen. I think the rectangular one would offer more drying room but it takes up more space, of course. I'll have to keep my eye out this summer whenever I'm in laundry departments with these in mind.
This idea comes from AGoldenAfternoon.com and is so cute and so easy I hope to use it somewhere. I have my eye out for washies that go with my color scheme.
Well, that's all for my Pins. I do need to share, though, that I'm part of a blog hop going on this week. You can pick up a freebie letter writing packet right now which is usually on my TPT store, AND you can enter to win a $100 TPT gift certificate. Just think of all the materials you could put in your cart if you had $100 to shop with. Click on the picture below to go to the post to find the goodies.
Now check out all the wonderful Pins on this month's Pick 3 linky party below!
I'm telling myself I am only going to post if I can do it in just ONE hour, as I barely have even one hour to spare this weekend. If not done in one hour I stop and rework it to send another day... so if you're reading, I set new time records today.
Happy Friday and here's five with the help of Doodle Bugs linky party.
1. This was a very depressing sight on my laptop last Sunday morning as spring break came to an end.
Oh, well, all good things must come to an end. And oh. my. gosh. there were only nine more weeks of school before summer break... and that was last week! Today as I post, there are only EIGHT. Yikes! So much to teach, so much to do.... I'm gonna start to hyperventilate as I think of it. I take comfort in knowing teachers everywhere are in the same boat and just paddling as fast as we can to keep the boat on course. No matter how much we prepare there are just a LOT of things to take care of in the last months of school that can't be taken care of at any other time. Hang on for the ride!
2. I mentioned in earlier posts that I did some reorganizing at school over break. Just before the kids walked in, I finished hanging my poetry strips in their new location.
I always kept my poetry sentence strips in a long bin. However the bin was not quite long enough, so the ends always had to curl and that slowed down flipping through them. The bin also took up a large valuable space on a shelf. So I paper clipped the strips for each poem together, sorted my poems into five categories– loosely based on when I use them in the year, and clipped them with a giant binder clip. Then I hung them from hooks on the back of my back door. Ta-Da!
Storage for Sentence Strips
I used Command hooks on the door, and the clips hang very well. A week's worth of opening and closing the door and nothing has fallen down.
Now when I need a new poem I can take down the clip, flip through the poems, take the one I want, and hang it back up again. As I finish with a poem, I hang it again at the back of that group. So far, so good. Is this a useful idea for your poems or other like shaped items? If you have another way of storing, I'd love to hear in the comments.
I posted before about how I do shared reading of a poem each week, and how I use a pocket chart to display. Pocket charts have several advantages over other methods of display for shared reading material. You can go to the post by clicking on the photo below.
3. Artie Knapp, a children's author from Cincinnati, Ohio, stumbled upon my blog and contacted me to see if I would share with readers his new book, Living Green: A Turtle's Quest for a Cleaner Planet. Given that we are just a few days away from Earth Day, this coming Wednesday, I think you'll appreciate hearing about it. The print book edition was a short-list finalist for the Green Earth Book Award. The on-line version is a free resource on You Tube that your students will enjoy. You can see it here.
4. My daughter, Sameulina, is graduating from university in just two short weeks. I was on campus this week and saw this interactive installation up in the Art School. The artist used Post-it notes to form wall size words that said "I FEAR THAT..." Passersby left notes on individual stickies with their fears. I snapped a few quick pics because I found it interesting on several scores.
Interactive Art Installation
First of all, I think this idea of words made of sticky notes could be used in elementary schools for a special event. I think the students would really enjoy leaving their thoughts and/or small pics on the sticky notes on the subject at hand. I'm passing it on to my staff. Maybe you can think of an application, too.
And second, the fears that were listed by the university students took me by surprise with their seriousness.
This was a relatively new installation and these comments were written on the sections I happened to snap. I did not filter–
Alzheimers
I will never pay off my loans
I'll die before I get to grow old with my girlfriend
confronting the death of family members
my sleep deprivation will shorten my life
something bad will happen in the future
something will happen to my family members
our government doesn't care about us
I don't have time to be the person I want to be
I won't leave a legacy
Whoa.
I am thirty years their senior and I have some of these same fears. Did I have these fears when I leaving university? Somehow I don't think so. What does this say about our youth? What does this say about our times? What can we do?
5. Lookee, lookee all Star Wars fans... well, surely you ARE a Star Wars fan! Star Wars, and I mean the original Star Wars movie, came out when I was in high school. I and my group of friends saw it no less than seventeen times in it's more than year long run. If we had nothing else to do, off we went again. We had whole sections of dialogue memorized. That movie caused quite a buzz and we LOVED it... And I was in love with Harrison Ford. *sigh* It's okay to say. Jonathan knows.
ANYway, a new trailer for the NEWEST Star Wars movie was just released this week. Cute new droids... and Harrison, too! Another reason to look forward to Christmas. See here:
6... 6?? Last but not least, I leave you with five, five, five Dollar Store finds!!!
1. These eight inch plates were in the baby section. More durable than paper, and such a nice size. Anybody see manipulative number bonds?
Perfect for Addition Math Manipulatives
2. I've had my eye open for bins of this size and dimension to use as scrap bins to leave on kids' tables while doing cutting projects. I have used other bins but they did not hold enough or took up too much table space. These are just right for holding scraps. I show the large bottle of Mod Podge to give an idea of scale.
Just right as a table bin for cutting scraps
3. There are new stuffed monsters. Four models in all. Just right to use for passing or tossing with monster math games. I show one by the basket for scale.
Cute new monsters at the dollar store
4. These are too cute to squash bugs with. Just right for playing slap games with letter, word, or number cards.
Bug swatter to plan Slap with
5. A cheap little fishing pole to use with fishing games. Probably not sturdy enough for the reel to last for long, but even just tying a string to the tip will increase the fun factor. Better than the pencils and dowels I've used before and way cheaper than the play fishing poles found in school supply catalogs. I mean, it's a buck.
Cheap fishing pole to use when fishing for words and numbers
HOW did I go from scrambling to find five in an hour, to SIX in an hour... well, just over an hour. Never doubt the power of a blogger who is always collecting details of life... the teaching life and otherwise.
Hope you had some fun. Click on button below to head on back to the linky for more fives... or sixes :) Thanks, Kacey!
This is my MOST LOADED POST yet! News, tips, freebies, funnies, links... it has it ALL! Read, Read, Read! Thanks Doodle Bugs and Teaching Blog Addict for help spreading the news!
1. Closer... closer... we are just ten, ten, ten days away from the launch of Lilybell magazine. This is the new magazine app for kids which is featuring my short story series The Shenanigans of Bean and Boggin. The stories are based on my chapter book manuscript The Fairies Come In. This is my editor Sara.
What do you think about an editor who works with a chicken on her shoulder??
And this is Jonathan's illustration for the launch issue.
That's Boggin...Jonathan captured him perfectly. I love him... Boggin that is. (Well, Jonathan, too, of course.) Is it weird to be in love with a fairy that comes from your imagination?... better call me weird! You can check out Lilybell's facebook page by clicking on either of those photos up there... and, of course... more will be found right here on this little blog soon!
2. 'Tis the Season to share reveals and classroom set-up tips. My room is not anywhere near ready as I've been focused on some district work for the last couple weeks, but I will share with you this little tip. Standard magnetic letter boxes fit per-fect-ly into Sterlite drawers!!!!
See this box by clicking on the picture!
I have several of these sectioned boxes of magnetic letters which I keep in my carpet area for whole group instruction, and in my reading group area, too. I think these boxes are actually sold as tackle boxes, but they have twenty four little compartments which house magnetic letters beautifully when you double up the 'w' with the "x,' and the 'y' with the 'z.' The lid of one of my boxes had a broken hinge. The lid still fit, but not right, and it bugged me. I considered throwing it away... for about two seconds... before starting to think of how I could make it work better. I had these sets of drawers in my guided reading area, and the box without the lid was an exact fit! All I have to do now is slide the drawer out, take the letters I need, and slide it back in. YESSS. I love when necessity is the mother of invention.
3. Like those of us on the edge of a new school year, I've been thinking of room updates and rummaging through old school stuff. I came upon some old boxes in storage and remembered when I used them in the classroom as private D.E.A.R. spaces.
I got my hands on them when our district got new computers years ago... never put such prize "junk" in front of a kindergarten teacher! They were a great size and super sturdy, and they stored flat, which is why I still have them. The kids LOVED them. D.E.A.R. was never so popular, or quiet! They would throw in a cushion, grab a half dozen books and spend as much time in their cozy reading nooks as I'd allow. I don't really have enough space in my new room, but I share this because they worked so well. If you can get your hands on some big boxes you might give it a try. And, hey, maybe I'll find a way to use them again.
4. Freebies Ahead! The first two in a series of Parent Relations Forms are available for free download on today's post. Each year before school starts I send home an information card that is just for me. This is separate from the card found in the school enrollment pack. Over the years my cards have become invaluable to me and I carry them around in my school bag all year.
Unlike a general student information card, my card prompts parents to share with me the name the child goes by and the name the child is to write– as we all know after making the name tags for the classroom, a student might be named William, go by Buddy, and write Bud! Better to know student and parent preferences soon. My card also prompts parents to let me know about unique family situations such as when students live in two households, eat vegetarian, or any number of details that will in some way affect my interactions with them.
I send my student info card home to parents before school starts and I ask them to bring them to our Meet and Greet Event that is held the week before school starts, or to get them to the office before the first day. The cards could also be sent home once school starts as this information is useful all year long.
You can download my completely editable student info card. When you go to download it it will look like it was made in a really cute font, but it is just good old Chalkboard, a standard font on most computers. Each card is run front and back, and two cards fit on one sheet of paper, so the finished size of each card is 8.5 by 5.5. I suggest you run them on card stock for durability, and I use bright green card stock, so I can refer to them as my green info card when talking to parents. Again, these are completely editable, though I hope you won't have to do anything except add your name. Click on the thumbnail to get this little Freebie. Be forewarned– when you view it on dropbox the line spacing might look funky, but when you download it, it turns out right.
AND that's not all. I am also making available right now my "Wild Waver Student Letter." This personalized letter goes home to students before school starts to set the stage for a great year. It is also completely editable in Word. In fact you have to edit– you don't want your students receiving a wildly waving Mrs. Wright! This is just a simple idea share and you can easily do it all on your own, but it makes it easier if you start with mine. Both of these forms have become popular in my own district for building teacher-family relationships. I hope you enjoy them... would love to hear your thoughts and get some love in the comments! Click on thumbnail to download.
5. And NOW, since it is Friday after all, it's time for Funny Kid Friday.
Today's story is directly related to my Mad Waver Student Card that I've sent home for years.
One year a little punkin had received hers and was pretty thrilled. As she came in my classroom door on her very first day of school with a beaming smile, she greeted me with, "You're on my fridge!"
Fame doesn't get any better than that! About the time this little one graduated to middle school her mom told me that my smiling face had graced their fridge door for years. Ai-yi-yi! Hope you can handle this celebrity status when you end up on refrigerators!
Be sure to link up your funny school story below, and grab my button up there to link back from your post... or just leave word in comments. Sorry for the late link-up, but it has been just one crazy week! Remember you can post another day and link up all week. As you know, Five for Friday and Freebie Friday posts get more reads than others.
Special thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for one of our favorite linkys! Click for more bloggers!
And thanks to Teaching Blog Addict for another favorite linky. Click here for more FREEBIES!
NEWS FLASH BONUS! Check out this Great, Funny back-to-school parody and tribute to teachers! JUST found it! Thanks Holderness Family! Teachers love you xoxox
Five for Friday– Yeah! I've had Five for Friday on my mind all week. Here's random, useful (well, maybe useful) stuff to share.
1. I'm gonna be gone for a week and am trying to figure out if there are any hinderances to using an iPad to post. I am going to post something this weekend just to experiment. In fact I might post twice to see how the "scheduled posting" feature works on blogger, too... something else I've never done. Otherwise I'll be writing the Funny Kid link up early and leaving it in the hands of Mr. Jonathan... oh lucky him, oh lucky you :)
2. Something else new– I was busy Tuesday night so couldn't get to the Twitter Party hosted by Debbie Clement from Rainbows Within Reach. #TeacherFriends
I enjoyed reading the tweets afterward though. I just recently joined Twitter, much to the amusement of my YA daughters who know ALL about it. Apparently I can only make it on Twitter if I am funny or post a bikini pic... so they've written me off... imagine. I know actually tweeting something would be a good first step :P Maybe soon... I barely use Facebook, so I don't think this will be a big thing with me, but anything once, right? Are any of the rest of you newbies like me and want to experiment? I think Debbie is doing it again on Tuesday at 9:00 EST.
3. Speaking of Twitter, you gotta see the movie Chef. Pretty good story and definitely worth the cheap tickets. It highlights Twitter in fun ways– it gets the hero in big trouble AND saves the day, too. And it has the cutest ten year old you've ever seen.
4. While doing the not-actually-tweeting-Twitter stuff with #TeacherFriends, I came across a teacher blogger who posted about her finds at Harbor Freight Tools... I have tried backtracking, and browser history, and everything else I can think of, and cannot find her now. Aarrgh! I want to thank her for the post and add a link-up to her here. If you are the person who posted about Harbor Freight, or know who did, can you please comment and let me know!
Neither Jonathan nor I had ever heard of Harbor Freight Tools, but after a quick google search we found one ten minutes down the highway. It is definitely a dad/man kinda store... more shop equipment than I had ever seen and we are frequent flyers at Lowe's... I mean hydraulic lift tables, and Star War-esque welding helmets, and a million types of little rubber tires! Jonathan could have spent the day in there.
But lo and behold, just as my mystery blogger teacher friend pointed out, there are some NEAT things for teachers. I start with the best bargain of the day! I purchased this three tier rolling cart- I have a few ideas for it in the classroom. It was $50 and with the coupon I found on line, I got it for $40! Yessss!
And I got the key fob labels which were on sale 79 cents for twelve. Again, just as the mystery blogger said, I'll find a use.
And SURPRISE I found a neat Bingo game! (How that fits in with hydraulic tables and welding helmets I don't exactly know, but I didn't question a good thing.) I've had the numbers-in-the-ball style Bingo game for several years in the classroom ever since I found it on a curb for free. There are a lot of number concepts that get practiced when playing a real game of bingo. The kids also love turning the ball, getting the number when it falls out, and putting it where it goes on the peg boards– more great learning for the "Bingo Managers" who I choose for each round. I often leave this Bingo for substitute guest teachers in case my plans for the day don't last the whole day. However, the last time a guest teacher was in the room, the little trap door on the turner broke somehow, so it was time for a new set. I decided this one was worth the $8 (a third the price of other stores) as it also came with the clear colored magnetic tokens that can be used for lots of other neat centers.
I also got some strong magnets for 50 cents and a soaker hose for home. They had flat dollies which come in handy when moving stuff around the room– I think they were $12. I have a big plastic bin bungee corded to a dolly like this at school so the weekly lunch luggers can push the lunch boxes down to the cafe each day without scratching the floors.
There was an interesting four tiered lazy susan which I know will be good for something, so I have it on my wishlist for next time. I don't remember how much that was on sale for. They had other great organization bins and boxes, too... also for next time.
The guy at the counter got a chuckle when I told him I heard about his store on a teacher blog... now, you've heard it, too. Check it out- they had some of the best prices we've seen anywhere.
5. And speaking of "dad" stores, I shared a dad story on Funny Kid Friday just now. You'll get a grin... and maybe a new song for your classroom :) Jonathan added a new tab to the top of the page so readers can get to the Funny Kid Friday archives... okay, so there are only three... more ARE coming.
Click here to read the stories and add YOURS!
Then click here to go back to Kacey's Five For Friday to hear what's goin' on with everybody!
The post Five for Friday–Twitter, and Bargains, and Stuff first appeared on kidpeopleclassroom.com
