Monday Made It

Aloha friends! So happy to be part of Tara's Monday Made It again.  For the first time all summer I feel like I have room to breathe and do fun stuff.  Not that I haven't been doing fun things, but I am finally finished with my class and it has taken a HUGE weight off my shoulders.

This week I was able to finish not one, not two, but three items!

I don't know about you, but I have 4 different clip charts in my classroom.  I picked up 100 new clothespins for my new group.  I wanted to color code them, but 100 clips is a lot to paint!  A sweet fan of my blog emailed me some pictures of her dyed clips that she had made for her Surf's Up clip chart.  She used Rit dye and they came out looking great!  Well I couldn't find any Rit dye, so I decided I would use food coloring.

I found a great tutorial {HERE}

I did what she suggested and took apart my clothespins.  I filled the jar halfway with boiling water added 2 Tbls. of Vinegar and about 20 drops of blue dye and 10 drops of green.

The clips float to the top, so I placed a drinking class that fit perfectly into my jar to keep the clips under water.  I let them sit for about 5 hours while I ran errands and cleaned the house.

I drained them out and placed them on some cardboard to dry.

They actually came out a really light minty green, and I love the weathered look to them.  So I experimented with a few more colors.

I think I have plenty of clips now!!  So much faster than painting them or even spray painting.  They also don't stick together when you open them.  Oh and I would suggest NOT taking them apart because they are a pain in the you know what to put back together!  The metal clasp will just be duller.

The next project has been floating around and I just had to make a set of these for my class this year.

I picked up these Sterilite Drawers at Target for around $10.  It's a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I couldn't find them anywhere else.

I decided I wanted to put my Washi Tape to use, so I picked these three colors that go with my classroom.

I lined up the tape and just pressed it on.

It took me about 10 minutes. I don't think the Washi tape will last on its own so I plan to cover it with either Modge Podge or just clear packing tape.  I will experiment more this week.

Then I added on my labels with packing tape. The font is Janda Quirky Girl.

It was so easy and it will look so nice.  I plan to put it by my doorway for parents who want to pop in and help when they can.  It will also be great for me to organize everything in one place:)

In the spring I came out with my first pack of word problems because I just felt that this was a really weak area for my students.  I received so many requests for a bundled set for the whole year!  I am really trying, but it will be awhile.  So here is a set to start off the year.

This time I included a cover to make little booklets out of them.

I plan to do these as a whole group activity until I think they are ready to start these on their own. 

They are available in my TpT store.  

Are you still with me? Did you nod off yet?  Well wake up and go check out all the rest of these fabulous posts over at 4th Grade Frolics!  I have one week left before I head into my class to start unpacking!  Can't wait to see what the rest of you inspire me to make!