Pencil Cans and More...

Seems that everyone is posting about their pencil cans (sharp and dull) and I finally got around to making mine as well. It only took a week's worth of lost pencils and pencil shavings on the floor to motivate me to get these done!

I chose to use empty fruit cans, mostly because that's what was sitting in my recycling. They have the pull-top lids, so I ran my fingers along the inside to make sure that the edges were okay to the touch. Probably not smart on my part, but my shots are up-to-date :) Anyway, I carefully peeled off the label so that I could use them as a template to measure my scrapbook paper. I was able to get both pieces from one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Perfect! I Mod Podged them onto the cans. The flipped labels are courtesy of Ladybug's Teacher Files. I cut those out with my circle cutter, and I actually had to cut off a little more of the outside or they wouldn't fit on the cans. Then I Mod Podged them onto the can and sprayed on an acrylic sealer. Voila! I'm going to pair it with my new sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies (which will be completely off-limits to the students!)

I also wanted to share a bulletin board technique that I saw on Pinterest (of course). Instead of stapling everything flat against the board, you use straight pins to create raised areas. Stick the pins all the way through the corners of your item until the heads are touching the item. It's a little hard to explain, but you can refer to the pictures. Then you stick the pins into the board just until they are sticking in securely. This will give your display a 3-D effect. Pretty cool, huh?

Click above to download these notes

And now I have a freebie. It was inspired by yet another Pinterest find (which must now be down because I couldn't get to the page to link to it - weird). Since I show several videos with my social studies curriculum, I wanted to find a fairly easy way to hold students accountable. This 3-2-1 sheet has spaces for students to write three things they learned, two things they're wondering, and one picture dealing with the video. It's not a lot of writing, which is good for my IEP kids, and there is an opportunity to draw, which is good for my visual kids. I was particularly impressed with student responses for the two things they're wondering. There were some fairly deep thoughts! I think it made the assignment totally worthwhile. And it can be adapted for guest speakers or other presentations. Hope that you find it useful!