Upcycled Bulletin Board - Green Theme Day 7

My partner teacher gave me a bulletin board passed on to her from a teacher who left, and it was just what I needed. However, it was a little Raggedy Andy, so I googled on some ways to redecorate bulletin boards and decided to decorate mine pretty much redneck style.

What I Did:

1) Put masking tape around the inside edges (don't know why because I ended up covering it with fabric)
2) Primed the outside frame
3) Painted it by brush with acrylic paint
4) Sealed it with enamel spray
5) Used some left over fabric. I thankfully had two edges that were pretty straight, so I stapled those edges under the top edge and left-handed side edge.
6) I pulled the rest of the material taut to the other two edges and stapled like crazy.
7) I think you should use a rotary cutter and all that stuff, but I just used a razor to cut the remaining edges, and it worked pretty well!
8) I found some old red ribbon that was long enough to hot glue to three of the edges ad cover the staples. That was good enough for me!
9) Printed out some Avery labels with a cute design and added them to some green caps.
10) I hot-glued different sizes of green caps all around the border.
11) For a cute touch, I glued push pins inside of several green caps. We'll see how long they last!

 At Goodwill, I found a beige, pretty ugly wall basket. I primed and painted it, and I think it made a nice addition to the board.

I also had a double frame that I actually had painted and polka-dotted two years back. I added some decorations that tied in with my theme and will probably use it to display exceptional student work.

As always, stay GREEN my friends!

Recycled Free Time Display - Green Theme Day 5

During summer cleaning, I came across this awesome business card holder/display that my husband was about to throw out. He really didn't want me to keep it because he didn't think I would do anything with it, but looky-here, I turned it into one of those fun, popsicle-stick free time displays!

I HATE wasting time, probably to a fault. I know all of us teachers are that way, and it's so hard to see students who are content to just sit and do nothing when they finish an assignment. Uuuugh! Do they not realize that when the blink their eyes they will be almost thirty-one!! Obviously not.

So anyways, I created a little phrase poster in Spanish. It basically says - "Take advantage of every moment of your life...That moment you just saw pass is not going to return." ¡La verdad que sí!

The wonky flower I made out of a plastic bottle and molded with a heat gun. I added Avery labels with task ideas to the sticks and brushed with Mod Podge.

To get the poster in two different designs in English or Spanish, click the image below.

Here's to making the most of every moment in our classroom!!

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

Bottle Cap Word Wall Labels - Green Theme Day 3

My husband and I drink a ton of Tropicana and they each come with such neat, little orange caps. So, I took these along with other caps and lids to create labels for my Word Wall.

I'm sure there's a much better way to do this, but what I did was: 1) cut popsicle sticks to match the size of the diameter of each cap, 2) hot-glue each end of the stick to the rim of the cap, and 3) hot-glue circle magnets to the center of each stick.

I tried those adhesive magnetic strips and that was an epic fail, so I resorted to the more costly circle magnets (Hobby Lobby has a very strong brand of magnets that are 6.99 for 50 and they always have a 40% off coupon). Walmart also sells some for $6 that are a little weaker, but I think would still do the job. Amazon also carries some for about the same price as Hobby Lobby, I believe.

I made the letter circles on the computer and printed them out on full sheet sticker paper. I did not use Avery, so I had to hand cut each circle. Then, I added a coating of Mod Podge, so hopefully they'll last for more than this year.

If you'd like the alphabet stickers, you can download them for free here at TpT.

Bottle caps and lids are AWESOME!! Use them everywhere you can - as counters, bingo markers, manipulatives, etc. 

I also used them for our lunch count.

The students have been creatively placing their bottle caps around their lid choice in a circular fashion like flowers. So cute!

And here's my partner teacher's owl lunch display for some extra adorableness!

I also used bottle caps on my magnetic objectives board.

I'm just making sure, but have you heard about my free bottle cap math games? If not, just click one of the links below and start saving your caps!

Math Facts Bottle Cap Game

 In my math facts bottle cap game, students will time each other and write their times here. Did you notice? More bottlecaps!

QR Code Bottle Cap Games

Cupcake Number Word Lids (English, Spanish, & French)

Keep it GREEN my friends!

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!

Ideas for Recycling Chocolate Heart Boxes

Don't throw those chocolate heart boxes away! (Although I know we don't want reminders of eating way too much chocolate at Valentine's Day!). But you really can use them in many ways in your classroom.

1) Obviously you can use them for storage containers for manipulatives, cards, etc. Jennifer from Empowering Little Learners has a great parent letter to send home to save heart boxes for your classroom. Click the image for her post.

2) MATH - One student gave me an adorable chocolate heart box that is perfect for holding bottle caps (So you know I was happy!) So, after eating all the chocolates inside for breakfast, I came up with a game for practicing equivalent fractions, decimals, and percentages.

The pretty box!

I placed Avery stickers with fractions on the top of each bottle cap. See how they fit in perfectly? This should work with any chocolate box that has round chocolates.

Then inside each bottle cap, I placed an equivalent percentage sticker, and then inside each hole I placed an equivalent decimal sticker.

So, students will play by pointing to a bottle cap and naming its equivalent decimal and percentage.

If they're right, they keep the cap. If they're wrong, they need to put it back. The student with most caps, wins.

  

Click here to download instructions and the labels.

You will find that I put the fractions and decimals on one page and then repeated the fractions and percentages on the next page. I apologize about that, but I decided to add percentages half-way through the creation and Avery can be a little difficult when you try to change labels.

3) READING - Here's a really cute idea from Finally in First for using heart boxes with real and nonsense words. Click the image for the post.

 

 So, here are just a few of many possibilites. Do you do any cool activities with heart boxes? Let me know, and I'll link it up here at The Green Classroom!

Box Storage Containers

Most boxes (cereal, breakfast bar, crayon, etc.) can be used as storage for different activities.

All you need to do is:
1) Reinforce the top flaps with packaging tape on both sides.
2) Add velcro dots under the flaps for opening and closing.

3) Use whole sheet sticker printing paper to create unique labels for your box.

Or just use an index card and cover with packaging tape. Crayon boxes store flashcards well.

Station/Center Bottle Caps

I just saw this in a fellow teacher's classroom and LOVED it. Using some sort of metal strips, bottle caps, and magnetic backing, she has a quick and cute way to sort students into different literacy centers.