Getting Ready for my Classroom- Part 2

Getting Ready Part 1 One reason I love Fifth grade is that they can handle a lot of responsibility, I like that I don't have to really worry about passing out papers or taking attendance. I plan on using my Classroom Economy from Vanguard for my classroom management and it is making me very excited. I really hate the clothespin or color changing system (could be residual from my elementary school days, I was always on red) because the same students are always being moved down and the students who are always quiet and doing their worked never get moved up.

I digress (because this is not a post about classroom behavior), I have seen a lot of Pinterest posts about magnetic attendance boards using sheet metal, cookie sheets, you name it and I loved the idea. I hate when whiteboard space is taken up so I wanted to create something that could be placed anywhere. I got my main idea from here and am trying to make it my own.

I wanted magnetic numbers that represent each student that they could move to show if they were here or where they were going. I couldn't find any tutorials for making your own magnetic numbers so while I was messing around with bottle caps I thought of using them as numbers. So what I did was create a number template on Word that would fit inside of the bottle caps. I would then fill them with resin and place magnets on the back. They came out better than I hoped so I thought I'd share.

Here is my template. Word messed it all up so I had to put it up as a pdf. I began with bottle caps that I had left in warm, soapy water to clean the smell. I began meticulously cutting out the numbers and then realizing they don't have to be perfect so you will notice that they begin very nicely and then deteriorate.

I then coated the front with Mod Podge and let dry and then I glued them with a regular ole glue stick into the bottle cap. I then did three layers of Mod Podge again.

Next time I would Mod Podge the back of the letters and then glue them in and Mod Podge the front. The resin caused some of the pieces to discolor because they weren't completely flat thanks to the plastic piece in the bottle cap. You can take those out, but I'm lazy. I then used Envirotex Lite resin. I bought the 2 oz version and still have half left over. I mixed it following the directions and poured into the bottle caps after the Mod Podge dried.

After drying overnight, I put these magnets on and then let them dry for another day or two.

Next post I will show you how I made my attendance board.