Confessions of a Frazzled Teacher: Make It Thursday - Anchors for Hanging Students' Work (and a Bonus)

I know it's Friday. After a full day of pd's and a 2 hour meeting after school, I was beat! I couldn't find the energy to write the post yesterday. I still wanted to get this week's Make It Thursday post up since it's our last week for it this summer.

Since most of us are either back at school or soon to be back at school, I wanted something that would be easy - anchors for hanging classwork.

Why Do I Mean - Anchors for Hanging Classwork?

I find it difficult to change up classwork on the walls when I have to tape or staple everything up. To combat this, I have two different strategies.

1. Hot glue thumbtacks to the back of clothespins. I use two tacks per clothespin. Press them into your bulletin boards where you would like to hang the students' work. When I actually get my finalized roster (our class lists aren't really official until school has been in session a few weeks), I will put my students' names on these clips.

2. Outside my classroom, I laminated 12 x 12 inch sheets of card stock. I hung these up, so they will be ready to go when my students begin. Once my students arrive, I will take their pictures. I cut around the student and tape the shape on the clothespins. I can then clip them on the card stock. This helps my students take pride in their work.

Confessions of a Frazzled Teacher I am not asking you to go out and make a real bookshelf out of wood today. Instead, today's Make It Thursday involves making a paper bookshelf like the one below. My bookshelf is right outside our classroom (not enough room inside the classroom). Anytime a child goes out the door, they see it. It's also awkward to take a better picture because the door automatically closes on me. Why Should I Make a Bookshelf? Having a classroom bookshelf is another way to encourage reading with your students. I use my bookshelf to hold all the books we have read together during the school year. Other teachers may want their students to write books they have read or books they recommend to their classmates. No matter how you use this shelf, students are encouraged to want to read more books! How Do I Make a Bookshelf? 1. Hang up a dark paper (navy was the only available color for me) as your background. 2. Use a border for the outside edging of the bookshelf as well as individual shelves. I have happy children as my border. Little books would also make a great border. 3. Cut different color strips of construction paper in various widths and lengths. This will help them look more like the spines of books. 4. Assign different students to write the titles of the books as well as decorate them to add to the bookshelf. You may want to do them the first week, so students can see your expectations. Enjoy watching your bookshelves grow with books during the school year! It's a great place for students to check out when they need a book recommendation or encouragement in seeing how much has already been read. What things would you like to make on Thursdays with me?

Now I can quickly hang everything up!

Bonus - Bean Bag Filler:

Since this is our last week for a bonus, I thought I would add in an easy tip - Fill your bean bags with plastic bags instead of bean bag filler. There is no bag rustling noise since the lining of the bean bags is pretty thick. It does take a LOT of plastic bags! I wish I had a before/after pic to show the difference in my bean bags, but I forgot. 😕 Oh well, at least I got to see the difference in them!

What things would you like to make on Thursdays with me?

Confessions of a Frazzled Teacher

August 24, 2018

Make It Thursday - Anchors for Hanging Students' Work (and a Bonus)

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