Throwback Thursday...DIY

I have been meaning to join in on Thursday fun with The First Grade Parade for awhile, but somehow summer got the best of me.  This week I have begun to get back in to my room (I moved classrooms), so I am doing lots of thinking about what should stay and what should go.  This is a good chance for me to really look at my stuff and clean things out.

As I am thinking about all this, I am thinking about all the DIY projects that are still on my to do list.  I thought I would share with you one of the projects that I did last summer.  Making these magnets was one of my favorite projects, and I have been making them ever since (once I figured out how easy it was).

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first posted  Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I am so excited that I finally made my alphabet rocks. I've been wanting to do these since I came across Shannon Martin's post from Kindergarten Hoppenings here. I wanted to put her great Chicka Boom Boom freebie and the alphabet rocks I saw on Pinterest together. So I did!!

First I gathered clear stones from Michaels and printed out the letters from Shannon's freebie on cardstock. I also tried to make my own letters using good old comic sans in a word document. I left the printed letters together and painted Mod Podge on each spot. I then stuck the clear stones on top and let them dry. After they were dry I cut them out.
I read that it was a good idea to seal the backs so I flipped them over and painted another coat of Mod Podge onto the backs. More drying time.

Last I used Tacky Glue to attach the round button magnet. One word about that....distance. I looked with pride at the magnets I had just created and discovered that the magnets wanted to be next to each other. They did what magnets should and scooted close because they were still sliding around on the not yet dry tacky glue. Easy fix...slide the magnet back into place and separate them to finish drying.

Voila!! I have two great sets of alphabet magnets to use first with my whole class and later in word work/alphabet centers.

How do you practice the alphabet?
I am thinking of making more consonants to use to make words with the vowels on the coconut tree. What do you think?

Rockin' On

I have been looking at all the cool things everyone has been making and I wanted to link up too.  Of course that means I have to actually make something on my long list of stuff I want to do (a list long enough I don't dare call it a to-do list).  But first a shout out to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for giving me a reason to get off my duff and get something made.

I was so excited about my alphabet rocks, that I couldn't wait for Monday.  

You can read how I made them here.

How else can I use those magnets?  

 

Making words of course!!  I tried painting a tree, but it looked horrid.  I went instead to my scrapbooking stash of paper and made this tree.  I attached it with Mod Podge (I have a big jar) and did a top coat to try to protect it.  

 

 

But then I was having too much fun with my rocks so I decided to try some numbers.  I used puffy paints to dot the blue rocks that were leftover from trying to find enough clear rocks (no real craft stores near-by, long story for another time).  

I wanted my kinders to match the dots to the number so I printed out some numbers.  I couldn't decide which color I liked the best, so I printed them in several colors and made them all into magnets.  I'm getting to be a pro!  

What's on the back of my cookie sheet you ask?  Fabric!  I got the idea from Amanda Madden here.  Now if I can just win a Silhouette Cameo to add cute letters.  Maybe I will even make it to the big city and Target, so I can make Amanda's dice containers.  Too much to do and not enough time.  Back to work (or is it back to play?).

Terri

Learning the Alphabet ROCKS!

I am so excited that I finally made my alphabet rocks. I've been wanting to do these since I came across Shannon Martin's post from Kindergarten Hoppenings here. I wanted to put her great Chicka Boom Boom freebie and the alphabet rocks I saw on Pinterest together. So I did!!

First I gathered clear stones from Michaels and printed out the letters from Shannon's freebie on cardstock. I also tried to make my own letters using good old comic sans in a word document. I left the printed letters together and painted Mod Podge on each spot. I then stuck the clear stones on top and let them dry. After they were dry I cut them out.
I read that it was a good idea to seal the backs so I flipped them over and painted another coat of Mod Podge onto the backs. More drying time.

Last I used Tacky Glue to attach the round button magnet. One word about that....distance. I looked with pride at the magnets I had just created and discovered that the magnets wanted to be next to each other. They did what magnets should and scooted close because they were still sliding around on the not yet dry tacky glue. Easy fix...slide the magnet back into place and separate them to finish drying.

Voila!! I have two great sets of alphabet magnets to use first with my whole class and later in word work/alphabet centers.

How do you practice the alphabet?
I am thinking of making more consonants to use to make words with the vowels on the coconut tree. What do you think?
Terri