"Monday" Made-It: Play Dough!

I recently read a blog post from Clutter Free Classroom about using play dough on the first day of school.  (Yes, even with third graders.)  I loved the idea so much that I decided to try it for the first day of school!  So.... the night before school started, I was busy making 24 little baggies of play dough for my kiddos.

Read about Clutter Free Classroom's take on play dough here.

If I hadn't run out of salt or cream of tartar, this really wouldn't have taken long at all!  But my extra trip to the store delayed my production time.

I got four small balls of play dough out of one batch.  To speed things up, I doubled the recipe to get eight little balls at a time.  I stored each ball in a plastic zip bag labeled with each student's name.

Pretty soon, I had 24 little baggies of play dough for my students!

Stay tuned for my next post about the first day of school and how the kids responded to the play dough!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Game Organization

My game shelf needed a makeover.  Last year, I used a flimsy shelf and flimsy bins to hold my games.  Everything was always unorganized, and it drove me crazy!

I decided everything needed a place, and students needed clear labels to know where to put things back.

I used my old book bins (yes, I realize they don't match... I didn't want to spend any more money on new bins.)  I divided my games into "like" piles.  I put all of the puzzles together, all of the board games, all of the card games, etc.

I ditched the puzzle boxes, and put each puzzle in a bag.  I cut the front off the puzzle box, so kids at least know what the puzzle is supposed to look like!  :)   I put a label on the bag, too.

Now kids can pick a puzzle, and when they are done, they put it back in the puzzle bin.  I did the same process for my other games.  Matching labels on the games and the bins means (fingers crossed), that everything will stay organized and in the correct bin!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward