daily objective dry erase boards.....not just for teachers!

 

While browsing spending hours poring through my Pinterest boards over the past few weeks, I've been inspired to change up some things in my classroom. Pinterest-inspired (or as I'll refer to it-- P.I.)-- I have been using the term an awful lot lately.  I think one of my friends (and 4th grade teammate) said it best, "it's like Pinterest threw up in your classroom". 

 

Here's one gem I pinned a long time ago:

 

 

I would totally give credit to the website, but this was just a link to some one's iPhone photo.

So.....random iPhone picture-taking teacher-- thank you for the awesome idea.

 

UPDATE:  Amazing how the power of Pinterest works....the "random iPhone picture-taking teacher" has been found.  Thanks, Jillian for your original post and here's a link to her blog, Our Pinteresting Classroom.

 

Of course, I had to put my own twist on these daily objective boards.   So here's my quick tutorial if you want to make them like I did.  Or put your own twist on them--- maybe make one large frame with sections, use different shaped frames for a more artsy look--- the only limit is your creativity!

 

(For those of you who aren't teachers, this can actually be a project you could make, too-- it would make a cute, unique alternative to the dry erase boards that so many of us buy)

 

On to the tutorial......

 

Here are the materials I needed:

 

 

*Cute scrapbook paper in whatever color scheme/pattern you fancy

*Computer printouts for the "labels" in each frame

*Glue stick

*Paper cutter or good old-fashioned scissors

*Cheap frames

(I got mine from Michaels for $1.50 each-- and just found out that they are ON SALE this week for 50 cents a piece, so I bought a couple extra for backup and future projects)

 

 

Step One:  Cut the background paper to fit your frame.  Or think ahead and get the right size frame. 

I accidentally bought 8x10, and the paper was 8.5 x 11.....so I just did a little trimming.



 

Step Two: Cut the margins off the "labels" you made on the computer. 

I did mine on Publisher, and used a cute font I found from dafont.com......my second favorite website to spend hours searching for cute ideas.....I think you can guess my first fave.

 

 

I made six frames-- one for the "title" and five for my main subject areas:  Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies.  Oh....and I just thought of this-- you could make these frames for listing homework for the different subjects/classes as well. 

 

Step Three:  Decide which backgrounds you're going to put with each label and glue them on, eyeballing that they are centered on the paper. 

 

 

Step Four:  Put each page in the frames, trimming if needed to fit.

 

 

Step Five: Hang them up!  

 

Now here's where it might be different for you, depending on the surface you're hanging them, and the type/weight of the frames.  For me, I knew I was hanging them on a smooth surface (my whiteboard) and I found these 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips:

 

 (sorry the photo is upside down......I'm new at this)

 

I attached the strips to the back of the frames-- I played it safe and put two on each, even though the package said it would be okay with one in the center. 

 

 

Then I decided the arrangement of my frames.  I took bright cardstock and stuck them on my whiteboard with magnets until I had them set up how I wanted.  I took one down at a time, attached the frame to the whiteboard, and (per the directions) let the strip adhere to the board for an hour before putting all the frames back up.  Waiting that long was tough......but I had lots of other projects to keep me busy!

 

 

And here's what they looked like after I got them all up.....I'm SO happy with how it turned out!

 

 

 

 

I'll be back in a few days with a few other P.I. projects that I've been working on.....soon I'll be too busy to do any projects, so I'm basking in the creativity sun for as long as I can!  :)

 

UPDATE:  Due to the volume of requests I've had to email the PDF files for the frames, I opened up a Teachers Pay Teachers account and uploaded both the horizontal and vertical frames.

If you would like to get the free downloads for those, go here and here.