Teacher Resources in English and Spanish
Today, we are sharing some bright ideas that you can use in your classroom. I hope that you have found some useful classroom ideas along the way. Thanks to Shelley Gray for putting this together.
I have always wanted to buy some chair pockets for my classroom, but they are too expensive. I do not know how to sew, so making my own is not an option. After so many years, I came up with this idea. Use pillowcases! If you use the ones with patterns there will be no need to decorate them 🙂 You can buy them in sets of two, because they are cheaper that way. Or, ask for donations. You can probably even add it to your student’s school supply list. They do not have to be brand new at all. As long as they are clean and gently used, they will work just fine. This is how they look 🙂 Adorable!
1. Choose a pillowcase pattern that you like.
2.Open the pillowcase and turn it inside out.
3. Now, turn the pillowcase right side out again. Make sure to STOP when you get close to the bottom seam (do not go past it). It will look like you folded the pillowcase in half. This will create 2 flaps. One in front of the pocket and one on the back of it.
4. Finally, open one flap and slip it onto the back of a chair. It fits small and big chairs perfectly. I also use them on the tiny ikea chairs and on my kitchen table chairs. They fit nice and snug and look amazing 🙂
5. Enjoy Your Chair Pockets!
The pockets are deep and have plenty of room for materials. I had to position our books and activities high so that you could see them in the pocket. Go try it. You’re going to love it 🙂
-Student chairs: for leveled readers or student materials.
-Guided Reading table chairs: for dry-erase boards, erasers and markers (one student set per chair pocket).
-Teacher Chair: for Lesson Plan Book or Sub Folder 🙂
-Workshops: for teacher materials.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you enjoyed this idea.
If you are looking for more bright ideas, please continue this blog hop. Chalk One Up for the Teacher is written by Cyndie Dunn. She shares some great tips on how to start a Kindness Revolution.
Alternatively, you may visit the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you. Thanks for visiting!
document.write(”);
document.write(”);
2. Thread the yarn. My 3 year-old was able to do this by herself. I modeled how to thread it Under-Over-Under. She got it right away and did not want any help. Can you see that she is able to start under and go through both layers? I underestimated her understanding and abilities for this part, but she did GREAT!
3. Now, she is ready to add the embellishments. The heart sticker was the easiest. The buttons needed a dot of glue. An easy way to do this is to pour the tacky glue on a paper plate. Then, use a Q-Tip to add a dot to the bottom of each button.
Materials
I know that this is not related to Valentine’s Day, but I really wanted to do something for organization. I kept looking at the mason jars and the fiskars punchers since December. But, I ran across this in the floral/ garden section of JoAnn Fabrics. The bucket caddy is perfect for pencils and crayons. This organization tool makes it easy to keep the essentials in the middle of student tables without overcrowding their space with the larger tubs. It could also be used at the teacher table for small groups. I was thinking of painting them yellow, until I saw the picture on the can of this aqua spray paint 🙂 Here’s how I made it.
Metal Bucket Caddy
Spray Paint (aqua)
Newspaper
Fiskars Pretty Scallops Punch 4XL
Scrapbook Paper
Ribbon
1. Lay newspaper on the floor of your garage.
2. Place the buckets on the newspaper.
3. Spray Paint the buckets. I was going to try to paint with the Americana craft paint, but the JoAnn associate was very helpful. She said that the paint would not last long. So spray painting was the better option. Eeek! I have never spray painted anything before. As it turns out, this paint is very forgiving to beginners like me. I definitely saw drips while painting, but you can’t even see them on the finished product. I did leave the bucket out by my door on a cold afternoon and it dried perfectly.
4. Decorate each bucket with ribbon.
5. Add a label made with the flower puncher. This was my favorite part. I LOVE how this puncher cuts so perfect shapes. I want to go back and buy more shapes! The flower is 3 1/2 inches. So, I made my round labels on powerpoint at 2 1/2 inches so that you could see the flower shape behind it 🙂
Here’s a before and after. Paint makes a huge difference, doesn’t it?
We made a very cute snowman craft with glue paint. I am so glad that we took the time for it because it was sooo much fun! Since these low temperatures are not bringing us any snow, we might as well make our own snowmen. We have alway painted them with regular school paint. But, this time we made our own glue paint. Have you heard of such a thing? The idea is to make your own paint that will turn out white and puffy. It’s so easy and fun!
You need to have some materials ready before you even start the project. Some will be used, others might not be used. Here’s what we have…
*shaving cream
*glue
*paintbrush
*glitter
*construction paper
*pre-cut black hats
*pre-cut black eyes
*pre-cute orange nose
*ribbon for scarf
*beads
*pom-poms
*crayons
*cotton swabs
*crayon
*ribbon
Mixture for Glue Paint:We used 1/2 cup of shaving cream and just poured quite a bit of glue on top of it. Then, we mixed it. This part was fun!
Use a white crayon to draw an outline of a snowman. This will help the little ones see where they need to paint to create a snowman.
First, add some glitter for a touch of winter shimmer. It truly makes the snowman look magical 🙂
Don’t forget the buttons.
And the scarf.
Oh, wait. Here are the stick arms and the mouth too.
And, voila! The snowman is finally done.
The puffiness of the glue paint adds that extra touch to make it look a bit more real. Isn’t it beautiful? We love it!
This was a great idea from My Merry Messy Life. See how they used this snow paint.
Star: Tie the ends of the pipe cleaner before you mold it into a star shape.
Christmas tree: We used a long pipe cleaner for this one. It gave us enough room to make the bottom of the tree.
Wreath: Students can make a pattern with the colorful beads.
Icicles: Just bend the pipe cleaner to create the shape.
Have fun!
1- Beads
2- Two pipe cleaners
1- Take one long pipe cleaner.
Fold it in half and cut it into two small pieces.
And wrap it around them, like this.
6- The snowflake shape is done. It’s time to decorate it. Simply slide each bead into the pipe cleaners. The more you use, the more colorful it will be 🙂
Enjoy!
