Upcycled Candle Holder for Grouping - Green Theme Day 3

I wish I had taken a before picture to show you the fun transformation that this candle holder went through! This is probably my favorite piece of "greenery" in my classroom.

I found it at Goodwill and it occurred to me that with magnets, some kind of classroom cool could be created out of this.

What I Did:
1) Washed it
2) Primed it
3) Airbrushed it green (took a million coats!)
4) Created circles on the computer (with the right measurements), and printed them out on whole sheet sticker paper
5) Cut out circles and attached them and added Mod Podge and some enamel spray
6) Bought circle magnets and attached Avery circle labels #5408. They were a little big, so I had to press the overage around the sides of the magnet.
7) Mod Podged and enamel-sprayed the magnets
8) Made circle labels 1-12 using Avery labels #5410, maybe??
9) Attached the stickers to green bottle caps.
10) Cut squares out of adhesive magnet strips and hot-glued them to the bottoms of the green lids

How It Works:
* I have two classes - Homeroom Greenleaf and Homeroom Carro. Each child is labeled by the first letter of their homeroom teacher's name (C or G), and they also have a number. In the circles, you can see I split each circle in half and color-coded the two groups of students to remove confusion.

* I placed 10 hanging numbers around the classroom to mark the spots of ten different centers

 (Just a side note, the twirled plastic cables I actually made out of thin soda bottle strips that are curled with a heating gun. It is therapy making those!)
* Every day, if students finish their work early, they will go to a specific center. They will use the candle holder grouper to know where to go.
* The center they go to will change every day. This is easily done by the magnetized green bottle caps above. I already have a student who rotates the numbers at the end of the day for me.

So we shall see! We've tried it once so far. My centers are SmartBoard, iPad, computer, Qr code worksheets, and various math games. Students are given specific activities to do on the SmartBoard, iPad, and computer that correspond with what we're learning at the moment.

So, always think twice before you throw away or donate something. It could be a really unique learning tool in your classroom. And who knows what you might find at your local thrift store. Just carry your hand sanitizer and an open mind, and you'll probably find something too cool for school!

If Al Gore an Charlie Sheen spoke at the same time, it would probably sound like this - GREENING! :P

Recycled Cookie Sheet for Groups - Green Theme Day 2

So here it is, my upcycled cookie sheet. :) I had seen how you could use cookie sheets in the classroom on Pinterest since they're great with magnets, so I was super happy when I got my hands on an old one at Goodwill the other day.

What I Did:
1) Washed it of course
2) Primed it white
3) Added masking taped strips evenly
4) Painted the lines without tape with acrylic green and let dry
5) Removed the tape and airbrushed the rest a light mint green color
6) Designed four large circles on the computer using JW Illustrations HippieChic Papers (I made sure to take measurements. My circles are split through the middle because I teach two classes - my homeroom (Carro) and my partner teacher's homeroom (Greenleaf). Hence all the Cs and Gs.
7) I also created numbers 1 through 4 for my four different science groups. I pasted them onto the board and then added Mod Podge - BIG MISTAKE! I still keep trying to use Mod Podge on copying paper. It always wrinkles it. I need to remember to use card stock.
8) Made Avery labels for each student's number and stuck them to thin water bottle caps.
9) Attached magnets to the opposite sides and now I've got changeable grouping!

I do science groups, so I'll be using this for that. I attached the cookie sheet to one of my metal doors using strong circle magnets.

 Stay tuned. More green theme stuff to come!

Keep Calm and Teach on Recycling Craft & Giveaway

Right now most of us are hopefully pretty relaxed, but sooner than we wish, this phrase will become very fitting for us teacher folks!

These are some containers I made by recycling Christmas tins. Cool, huh? If you'd like to win one of these, scroll down and enter my giveaway. If you'd like to make your own and keep Christmas tins out of landfills, just keep on reading!

These are the "before" pictures for the above containers. I got these for $1 at Goodwill, but I'm sure you can just search through your attic and find a few.

What else you might like to have on hand:

1) Rust-oleum Clear Enamel

2) 3M Super 77 Adhesive (Caution: This sticky stuff will not leave you alone!)

3) Rust-oleum Universal Primer & Paint (amazing stuff)

4) Some kind of paper to wrap around the tin. I printed out digital scrapbooking paper from JW Illustrations Jungle Pack.

5) Keep Calm & Teach On Graphics (No worries, I have them already made for you at my TpT store here. :))

What to Do:

Apply several coats of Primer/Paint to the tin.

I kept the lid on because I'm worried about the paint chipping everytime you close the lid. But by doing so, you will still see the Christmas background when you open the lid.

Paste the graphic on the lid.

To do so:

1) Download the graphics from my TpT store or make your own.

2) Measure the diameter of your lid.

3) Insert your graphic into Power Point or whatever design program you're familiar with for resizing.

4) Resize your graphic to a little bit less than the diameter of your lid.

5) Print and paste (I used the 3M Super 77. I tried Mod Podge and had serious elephant skin issues because the paper was too thin. But you Mod Podge experts can probably do it fine.)

Add paper to the side.

I printed this paper and cut it into several strips based on the dimensions of the tin. I like using stripes because you can line up the strips fairly well without telling where one strip ends and one begins.

Add a protective sealant coat.

You could probably use Mod Podge once the glue has completely dried, but I took no chances. I added several coats of Rust-olem clear enamel. The more you coat, the glossier it gets. Any type of acrylic glaze or sealant I'm sure would do great.

Ta-dah!! This tin makes me happy.

GIVEAWAY:

So, if you would like one of the three tins above mailed to you (they are super cute but not perfect in condition):

* Do one OR MORE of the following and comment on this post:

1) Follow The Green Classroom blog.

2) Follow The Green Classroom FB's page.

3) Follow The Green Classroom Pinterest board.

3) Pin The Green Classroom blog.

4) Write one thing you do or are planning on doing to reduce/reuse/recycle in your classroom.

5) Link as many posts of your own that involve recycling here at this blog by clicking on the header "By Area" or "By Material."

* Be sure to list each action as a separate entry.

* Three randomly chosen winners will be announced next Sunday night, July 29th, 2012.

* Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize.

 

Keep calm and RECYCLE on!

Fun Gift Idea with Clorox Containers

Today is my little brother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Nate! [Not that he'll get that message, since he doesn't even know about this blog :P]), so I decided to try my hand at a few things I've seen floating around on Pinterest.

First, I took a Clorox container, removed the paper and scrubbed it down really well.

Then, I tried some decoupage for the first time with Mod Podge and some candy wrappers from the best candy ever from Argentina (Bon Bon's and Marrocs!).

I knew it wasn't a smart idea from what I researched to use Mod Podge to attach aluminum to plastic since neither is porous, but I gave it a shot anyway. It kind of worked, kinda didn't. One wrapper never stuck well. But that's why you save these experiments for gifts for little brothers because they really won't care or notice either way!

Then I had seen this idea for tissue boxes, so I tried it with the Clorox container. I taped an undisclosed amount of $1 bills together and fed it through the mouth. The plastic lid is a little small, so it doesn't work perfectly. But I think my little bro will get a kick out of it anyway.

So, here's to recycling and gift-giving! If you have any cool ideas on gifts that involve recycling, please comment or link the post under "By Subject" or "By Material." Thanks!

Update - Nathan loved it! He's a cool brother like that. :)

Keep it green!

Recycled Designer Dresses

School's out, it's vacation time, so my hubby and I headed to Argentina to visit his family. At the Atlanta airport, in concourse E, I saw the most spectacular thing - recycled designer dresses! Apparently, an artist named Nancy Judd of Recycle Runaway, has an amazing talent of creating gorgeous clothing out of plastic bags, old tires, newspapers, magazines, cereal boxes, and other recycled materials. Here are three of the many incredible displays I found while in Atlanta:

Happy Recycling!

Bottle Caps and Foam Packaging Pot Drainage

As the school year ends, it's garden time! And I've found the uses for bottle caps still continue even outside of the classroom.

You know how you need to add pebbles or broken pottery to serve as drainage in your plant containers? Well, I've found that bottle caps and/or foam packaging work great as a substitute. They're free, eco-friendly, and so far my plants look great!

Do you have some great recycling tips in the garden to share? Please let me know! Happy Summer!

Going Green with a Garden

We are starting a farming/gardening initiative at our school next year! I am so excited and think it's a super great idea because children (myself included) are so far-removed from the process of making food nowadays.

My husband and I just started the venture of square foot gardening this summer, and today we picked our very first produce - a long, fat zucchini! And I have to be honest, it was like having a baby! It was a miracle to me!

I have had no idea about any of this gardening stuff - how each plant will grow, where to find the fruit and vegetables on a plant, and when and how to harvest them. It's a lot! Thank God for YouTube! And my mom! So here's some pics of my green garden. It's not in the classroom yet, but it will be!

One of our four raised gardens my husband made for us

Baby eggplant!

Daddy zucchini!

Almost ready!

A flowering plant given to me by a student. Look how it's ready to blossom - just like our students!

Beets

Corn

Cucumber blossoms

And Basil blossoms

Have a great, green summer!

Recycled Calendars for Puzzle Math

I totally jacked this idea from Teacher Tipster. You can see his super video here and get a chuckle at the part where he struggles to get down on all fours :P (I think Chris Farley lives on.). He used the idea of recycling old calendar pages (hope you held on to your yours) to create ordering puzzles.

You 1) cut them into even strips of about one inch using a cutter. Then, 2) using stickers at the top, you write a set of numerals, alphabet letters, pattern shapes, etc. After mixing the strips up, 3) students place the strips in order, and they know they're correct if the picture matches up.

I made a bunch of these puzzles for putting decimals and fractions in order from least to greatest as you can see above and below.

This is a great self-checking game that can be used in so many ways. A big thanks to Teacher Tipster for his ingenious creativity.

Happy Recycling!

RePurPosed PUZZLES!

Have old puzzles that need a new life? Here are two ways to do that!

BJ Mama from For What It's Worth or Not shows a super-duper adorable way to transform old puzzle pieces into reindeer ornaments. Click here for her post.

Here is a cool video from Mr. Smith at Teacher Tipster for using puzzles to reinforce math facts. Fantastic!