A New and Profound Love

I have craft envy. I troll Pintrest and other blogs looking for sweet ideas for my own classroom, but as I do I am hit by the availability and affordability of crafting supplies in America and the UK. We often get supplies in NZ after a long delay, and it takes even longer for the supplies to become cheap. Of note I have noticed that more and more dollar shops are beginning to stock teacher specific supplies- borders, certificates etc. Have a look around as there is some pretty neat stuff out there. Spotlight has a range of affordable classroom decoratives in some stores. A hunt through Geoffs Emporium on Dominion Road in Auckland resulted in a roll of patterned duct tape for $3. Major score! Not in love with the pattern, but excited by the possibilities I chucked it in the basket and trundled home with it. I inherited some dilipdated A3 clearfiles at the end of last year... perfect beginners project! These folders needed some love, as they were scuffed and torn, but not ready to be chucked.

For some reason, I photographed the nicest folders. A quick tape up and some coloured paper taped to the front and voila... 'new' folder goodness! Yumbers!

If you can't get to Geoffs, some Warehouse Stationery stores sell patterned duct tape for around $10 a roll.

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10 Alternatives to Plastic Counters

Shifting classrooms always requires a scramble to inventory current equipment and to replace those old regulars that you use a lot. I know that almost every classroom must need counters at some point in time! Having a range of alternatives can often pique children's interest, but can be a budgetary stretch at the same time. Here are 10 alternatives that I have rustled up with a minimum cost. 1. Smooth stones come ready made and freely available from your local beach or stony river. Small pebbles are perfect as game tokens, or collected for use in Math lessons. They look great with stickers and glitter glued on and are REALLY durable. However, they can be heavy when stored en masse. 2. Wooden shapes are available in packs of 12-20 from your local dollar shop. These are particularly awesome to use for number stories (i.e. 6 bumble bees were sitting on a flower and 3 flew back to the hive, how many were left?). They are more durable than paper cut outs, intriguing and reasonabl...

A Plague Upon All Your Houses

I find Math to be an absolute headache in terms of resource management. There is never enough resources, occasionally too many, and they are often in bad repair. This is why my next few posts are about Math resources. Enjoy! As I teach in NZ and follow the Numeracy Projects, place value houses are a common material to work with. I printed mine off A4 size from http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/sites/default/files/Numeracy/2007matmas/Bk4/MM%204_11.pdf . Each 'house' was copied onto a different coloured paper, and then cut out and laminated. I didn't cut them out again after laminating, as it made it easier to punch a hole in the corner and thread a ring through (are they 'magazine' rings?). My awesome set can now hang from the wall if there is space. No more scrunching up in the bottom of a drawer! They are also really quick and easy to unclip and use, then pack up again. I started off using a whiteboard pen to write the digits directly onto the laminated charts...

Handy Dandy Glue Pots

Crafting almost always requires glue. Hot glue, paste, PVA... we school teachers love them all. However, they can be a messy wee substance to manage. So here is a teeny tiny tip for keeping your PVA manageable... milk bottle tops! Milk bottle tops are plentiful, free and don't take up much storage space. They are easy to collect, and are darn useful. When using them as mini glue pots, I like them because they don't hold much (less waste), you can throw them out after one use (easy clean-up), and they are easy to prepare, so you can have many of them scattered around the room if necessary. In the photo, I have used cotton wool buds (new ones) as glue applicators, and found them really good. In the past, I have also used scraps of cardboard, strips cut from ice-cream container lids... almost anything, except paintbrushes. Glue tends to ruin paintbrushes very quickly.

The Destitute Teacher

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