Thursday, January 24, 2013

Daily 5 Book Bags

Ok, it's about time I join the Daily 5 Crazy Train.  I actually started Read to Self before Christmas break, and so far, so good!  I was worried that they wouldn't have been able to do it earlier in the year, but now I wish I would have started in October.

Part of my hold-up was getting  supplies.  I have a bit of a clutter-phobia.  I loathe clutter.  Few things bring me as much joy as a clean countertop.  Filling my counters with book boxes gave me the heeby-jeebies.  No matter where I turned,  I couldn't find a good place I was willing to give up to store the kids' book boxes.  But, what about a bag that could hang on their lockers?

Here they are!


I think they turned out pretty cute!

If you're wondering, here's how I did it:

I ordered these bags from Oriental Trading.  However, if I could do it again, I wouldn't pick these.  They are a little too small for some of my picture books.

Next, in order to identify them but still use them year after year, I numbered them using a stencil.   For the stencil I simply die-cut the numbers using our school's die cut machine and scrap posterboard.

Use a sharpie to color in the number.  I also stuck a piece of mail inside the bag to prevent the marker from bleeding through.
Been-there-done-that tip:  use the inside of the stencil to help you with your spacing of two-digit numbers.


Hang 'em up, step back and admire your handiwork that takes up no counter-space!

They look very pintrest-y, no?

Enjoy,
Amanda

4 comments:

  1. I love this idea. It seems like it would be easier than boxes. Now that you have been doing it for awhile, do you like it? Are you planning on doing it again next year?

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  2. Hi Casey, sorry that I missed your comment! Yes, I love it! I actually ended up purchasing different bags that were a little bit bigger from the Dollar Tree that work perfectly; too many of my books were getting bent using these smaller bags. Next year will be year 3 of using the bags. :)

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  3. What size command hooks are these? I can't decide whether to get the 3 lb. or 7.5 lb. command hooks for my book bags. I have third graders, so they'll have 1 chapter book, 3-4 picture books, a magazine or newspaper, and a journal.

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    1. Hi Audrey,
      You know, I'm not really sure since they showed up in our teachers' lounge as a box of freebies. They're actually metal, too, but I would guess they'd be closer to the 3lb ones than the 7.5. I think I used 1lb stickers to adhere them to the lockers and they have held up just fine!

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