Pinterest Follower Giveaway!

The extended weekend is affording me extra time to spend in my crafty nook at home, and surf Pinterest looking for creative inspiration from other teachers, bloggers and crafty souls.  Finding tweaks to try and additions to make in my own classroom organization and learning centers takes time: hooray for Labor Day!

Checking my boards on Pinterest, I discovered I was reaching over 1500 followers:

Along with Kissing Hand cookies and my math board (found here in my classroom tour), my decorated clothespins have been pinned repeatedly, which got me to thinking...

Why not make some pins for a giveaway to celebrate?

Number buttons have been added to two sets of wooden clothespins, so your students can use them from the right OR the left, perfect for counting, matching numbers, and clipping to pocket charts, counting cards, or other daily math centers and activities.  Using clips such as these helps to develop fine motor skills too: three cheers for the pincer and tripod grasps!

The wood has been covered with polka dot paper strips adhered with Mod Podge.  If any edges start to peel after multiple uses, just add another coat (it's thinned out white glue) on top and allow to dry.  The number buttons have been affixed with the wonder adhesive, E-6000.

Want a chance to win the clips AND three star shaped crayons that I shared in an earlier post?  Just work through the Rafflecopter entries below:



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Michaele

Classroom Clothespins

My students have several locations throughout our room where we chart, graph, and tally information daily.  Sometimes they'll write their names or make a mark to answer questions posed on chart paper or our markerboard, and other times they'll clip clothespins to appropriate sections of whatever chart we might be using for survey info. These clips have their names on them.

Thanks to prior hand injuries, it's difficult for me to write legibly when I print small letters on narrow surfaces.  Hooray for printers, scissors, wooden clothespins and Mod Podge!

First I print out my students' names twice, making sure the ink has time to dry completely:

Then I clip clothespins to some cardstock to keep them from rolling.

I trim the paper so each name fits on the longer wooden section of the clothespin:

Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge across the clip where the name will be adhered:



Then press the name onto the clip, smoothing out any air bubbles.  Be careful not to smear the ink on the paper:



Paint a thin layer (okay, so it looks globby and opaque- never fear, it will dry clear) over the paper and let it dry before flipping the clip over and repeating the process on the back:



These particular clips will be used on our class lunch chart, so that students, visitors and I can indicate whether we're having school lunch or home lunch each day.



Though these are plain (fabulous for name recognition), these clips are easy to "prettify" if you'd like.

Here I've clipped some scrapbook paper:





... and I've topped them off with star buttons, using the wonder adhesive, E-6000:



Once dry, you can add magnets to the back of each clip if you'd like to use these on magnetic surfaces.  The Mod Podge dries VERY quickly, but the E-6000 should be allowed to dry overnight.

*****

~ Pin and Paper offers another great clothespin tutorial here...

~ ... with Creature Comforts offering creative clippy goodness here...

~  Scroll all the way through Mama's Little Monkey's tutorial for a fun stamping idea for clothes pins... I'm thinking SIGHT WORDS!

~ If you're a crafter, you know holiday gifts must be made early!  Here's a fabulous Christmas card display idea using.... yep, you guessed it....craftyified clothespins.

*****

How do you fill your students' learning areas with print?