Back to School Ideas for the Classroom: What to Do for the First Day

We all scramble every school year to find balance between getting our classroom management and discipline procedures up and running and providing those first day of school activities that go the extra mile in style. This article covers both in detail.

Last year, I wrote an article on strategies to start the school year off right. It covered ways to set a serious academic tone while having a stylish classroom. While that article is still more than worthy of a serious read, I actually have a few other ideas for the back to school scramble. Many of them are my own supplemented by specific online instructional pieces, others are ideas straight from some of my internet colleagues. Enjoy!

Make sure your bulletin boards mean business.

I like to have great looking bulletin boards too, but quite frankly many teachers spend valuable time on them every week or month that could be going into lesson planning, extra attention for students or just plain having a life. Let’s face it, if you’re balanced and rested your students will respond accordingly. Try some of my year long bulletin board ideas or some of the tips the article Twelve Bulletin Board Ideas for Older Classrooms. Your room will still look great, and the students will know you value their work and take classroom time seriously.

Throw a New Year’s party.

 I actually found this great back to school idea from YesITeach.Org. They actually suggest picking up New Year’s themed party supplies on discount the January prior to that school year. The year number will match the back to school year, and it’s a great way to start off with the right attitude. (I’ve also seen this work really well as a penny pinching tip for high school seniors. They can do this to have their graduation year theme supplies at the end of the year for a fraction of the cost.) For individual teachers, I think this would be a great idea for the end of the first day, after you have finished establishing discipline. Or, you could try it as a school wide event outside in the playground as the kids get off the bus.

 Scavenger hunt in the library.

This also comes from YesITeach.Org. The media person hosts a scavenger hunt in the library to find things like a particular fiction book, a multi media resource, etc. I thought this was a fabulous idea to review library skills and include a room that is often left out of these back to school welcome ideas for students. Larger classes might need to be broken down into small groups with slightly different scavenger hunt paths, but the idea is sound enough and can be used when each new class has their first library period.

 DIY school book covers.

They need to be done anyway, right? And this way you can work it in with that day one activity that always brings groans . . . the old erasing all of the pencil marks from the reissued text books trick. Now when you hand out books for mark erasing, you can incorporate DIY cover ideas or hand out an ideas list for some of the tougher ones to motivate the students to go the extra mile at home.

Personally, I recommend a combination of both. Do one or two throughout the day in class, and hand out the ideas list for them to get excited about covering their books from other classes or subjects. Some of the cooler ideas I found while surfing the web? A decoupage tie-dye style cover project from Kaboose.Com, a felted book cover from CraftBits.Com, instructions for embroidered book covers from Craft Stylish, and tip or two from Family Fun Magazine.

Other ideas I’d suggest would be paper collages, colored pencil sketches and modern designs and using multiple colors of duct tape to add waterproof striping over the top of plain paper shopping bag book cover. It’ll last all year, won’t harm the book and still provide room for individuality in the form of color choice and diagonal versus vertical or horizontal striping.

 Pimp those lockers, kids!

Once students start breaking into middle and high school, locker decoration and individualization come into play. One way to put a little fun into the first day or two of school and still be providing support for those kids who have trouble with organization and clutter is incorporate activities for decking out their lockers. If other teachers are game, you could even turn it into a grade level or school wide contest. A few ideas?

Construct a pen holder out of a small painted can or covered box with a magnet on the back. Those who like straight advertising and product packaging art will find this project from Not Martha exceptionally quick, as you won’t have to even decorate the tin if you don’t want to.

Make some magnets with the students to help them organize their notes, forms and book club orders. Plenty of things can be turned into locker door organizers by simple slapping a magnet on the back. Seashells, gem colored glass stones, fun rocks or even these photo and word magnet projects. Also, a magnetic mirror is a great multipurpose locker accessory. Students can check their hair or lip gloss and use it to hold notes and permission slips. Another cool online project find was this article on gemstone colored retro style magnets. Very groovy.

This article from Cosmo Girl has ideas for covering corrugated cardboard to line the walls of your locker and provide instant bulletin board space, as well as a supply list and instructions for installing removable extra shelving that won’t damage the locker’s interior. All Free Crafts has this project for making your own denim locker organizers, and Kaboose.Com has instructions for making a desk or locker organizer from a Pop Tart box.

Art gallery.

Personally, I find it extremely important to value their art work and set a higher standard for myself when it comes to how I display and incorporate it into their classroom environment and daily routine. This article from Scholastic suggests unifying thrift frames with spray paint for extra artsy “oomph”. Another way to cheap it out and still have lots of visual drama is to back the standard 8 ½ x 11 inch white paper art projects with larger pieces of dark blue or black construction paper. This is sort of a poor man’s matting job that looks great on a dime.

Larger art sized paper projects can be backed by cutting darker colored butcher paper to provide a three to five inch border around the piece. I’ve done this for things like buddy and self portraits in charcoal, larger pieces done in the style of particular famous artist and collage style projects.

The idea is to get this up and running on day one and have at least one wall dedicated to display rows and columns of the work. It’ll make open house night a breeze.

Related Readings: Other articles on LessonMag.Com you might find helpful at back to school time include Ten Tips for First Year Teachers, Six Strategies for an Inviting Classroom and Four Hot Tips for a Smooth Running Classroom.  Over on Wise Bread, you might want to check out my piece on DIY school gear and other savings ideas.

Photo Credit: McKay Savage

Bulletin Boards: Twelve Ideas for Older Classrooms

 

Educators of older students ask me all the time for ideas that are low on “cutesy” and high on sophistication. This request holds true for bulletin boards and classroom décor as much as curriculum and lesson structure. Want some ideas on how to pull this off? Read on.

Let’s face it. All students eventually get to the point where they are basically “over” teddy bears and apples. So what do you do from fourth-twelfth grades when it comes to producing quality bulletin boards for the classroom? Here are some tricks to get the job done.

Cover Images from Books and News Magazines.

Color xeroxed ( and possibly enlarged, depending on the original size) copies of book covers and news magazines are great for literature studies, theme units or current event projects. Even book covers for younger readers will provide a more grown up feel than snowman cutouts. So if it’s mid year and your third graders are starting to request more sophisticated bulletin boards in the classroom, this idea is a great way to start.

An Editorial Collection.

If you have a hot topic in the news that’s discussed quite a bit in your classroom, post a newspaper article from the local paper on the board and surround it with brief op-ed pieces from your students written on large index cards. This is a fantastic opportunity to introduce that type of work, as well as work in a critical thinking assignment.

Distribution Center.

Overwhelmed by all those notices, book club handouts and forms from the office? Consider making at least one of your bulletin boards an information distribution center. Choose a title such as “Command Center” or “Central Command” if you are teaching at a DODDS school. Include a sedate classroom calendar in the center and perhaps a news clipping or two regarding the school. Then attach some acrylic document holders for handouts, returned documents with signatures, a homework slot, attendance and lunch count. This takes at least one bulletin board slot from a full time chore and puts it firmly in the category of  management tool, leaving you with a  smoother running classroom. You can even use some of the space for reinforcement charts and other low cost student reward programs.

Photos.

Instead of animated cartoon-style drawings, consider photographs or color prints as your graphic illustrative element. Some examples could include travel and nature images for geography and science studies, volcano shots, Hubble images, mountain range photos, tribal action shots from remote villages, etc. Another great way to go is with action shots of your students themselves involved with various stages of the writing process, math games, lab experiments, etc. Post cards also rock as a way to get professional quality bulletin board images on the cheap. Tried all of that and still can’t find what you need? Check out online image databases of postage stamps from around the world. If you have a color printer, these can make great download solutions. Remember, national governments pay artists big bucks to come up with fantastic stamps. This is professional quality work you are able to snag for less than a song.

Post Its.

These things come in about as many size and color options as index cards, and are great for adding bold color and graphic elements if you don’t have access to a large supply of construction paper. My favorite use for them is as a replacement for the primary grade level calendar pieces. Instead of cutesy tree ornament pieces in December, go with green and red squares from peel off desk pads. Not only will this look more appropriate for the older grades, it’ll also make for a cheaper classroom calendar.  Just make sure you match the Post It size to the calendar squares.

Lose the Baby Borders.

Snowmen and school buses just don’t cut it after third grade. Consider cloth borders such as belt webbing or woven tribal trims used for funky DIY sewing projects. Nautical themed rope, wide ribbon and solid colored trims are also more than usable as ideas for your bulletin boards. Also, call me crazy but I think straighter edges look a bit more grown up as well. They also reduce the visual chaos present on so many bulletin boards. This is important for older grades where the bulletin board information can be more diverse, or relating to a more complex scientific or math concept.  It’s also helpful for any grade level where you may be trying to provide successful inclusion time for students who may be sensitive to overwhelming amounts of visual stimulation. A good source for materials like sentence and cursive strip borders would be Dollar Tree.

On the other hand, if you really want something unexpected or three dimensional, consider play money from a board game, playing cards, colored pencils or some sort of chopstick / tongue depressor border for a natural look. Just attach the items in an overlapping or side by side pattern, depending on the look you are going for. If you attach the items to the outside frame of the board and make sure they overlap to the inside a bit, you could technically skip needing a formal paper border for the rest of the year. Score!

Shadowing.

This looks great for lettering as well as for white paper printouts of textual information that might otherwise look dull. When doing it with letters, you simply cut out a second set of letters to attach to the back of the brighter ones, taking care to position them slightly up and to the left. This allows for them to still appear as one letter, and yet be highlighted visually. My favorite three looks are black shadows with newsprint lettering, black shadow letters with any other bright color and holographic letters with black shadows. The newsprint combo is great for current events or information distribution bulletin boards, and the holographic shadow letters look smashing for themes like meteorology or mathematics. Black background with front color combo lettering works for nearly anything else you want to look more grown up and serious such as author studies or geography.

Using the shadowing technique for printed text is equally simple. Whether it’s a paragraph with dated historical data, a game schedule for the school basketball team, or contest entry details for a grade level poster competition, all you need to do is cut a colored piece of background paper and attach it to the clipping or printout the same way you would with lettering. Up, and to the left.

News Headlines.

Whether for current events, school coverage in the local paper or recreated news headlines from a particular date or period in history, including visual headlines (shadowed or otherwise) just makes for a more sophisticated look overall. You could also modify this idea for informational resource bulletin boards as well. Just be sure to make the topic or category titles are “newsy” enough to catch the attention of students, teachers, parents or whoever else you are creating the bulletin board for.

Inserts, Foldouts and Maps.

Many traditional periodicals have freebies that come along with the monthly copies. Nat Geo is known for their killer maps, and various news magazines have charts and fold out center articles that make fantastic fodder for bulletin board themes. Bonus? Professionally published materials always look more grown up than basic kiddy charts.

Darker Background Colors.

Whether you go the fabric route or use traditional butcher paper, darker colors ground the room, have a more serious feel and provide a fantastic backdrop for colored elements like post cards, geographical imagery and travel photos. Also, if you are planning on using busier looking elements like detailed maps and charts as primary objects in your bulletin board design, you’ll need all of the visual grounding support you can get.

One year in Kuwait I arrived to find that all of the colored butcher paper had been used. Black was the only color that remained until the overseas supply delivery arrived a few months down the road. Those of you who follow my Wise Bread blog know how highly I value black elements as a stylish and affordable decorating strategy.  Since I had fifth grade that year, I decided to experiment.

The result? I ended up with some of my most smashing bulletin boards ever and the students loved them. In fact, several of them commented the very first day to children in other rooms that they were in the “cool” room with the “grown up” decorations. Yup. Black’s a hit. It’s also extremely neutral, providing a transitional background to use on bulletin boards all year long.

Graphic Organizers.

Charts, graphs, diagrams and tables are all professional ways to integrate curriculum into the bulletin board space in a way that will appeal to older students. Even yarn or twine pieces stretched from labeled push pins to tinier chart details still looks streamlined and serious while providing extra organizational support for readers. Think period tables, KWL charts, etc.

Topic Choice.

This is particularly helpful if you are teaching in a resource room where the material is geared for younger or lower ability levels. Consider a biographical study board of an important historical figure such as Columbus where the information is written for the ability level but presented in one of the ways suggested in this article. Leave the four-six line elementary songs and chants for the primary grades. Another example would be a basic scientific method board versus one on teddy bear math.

These are my top twelve solutions for better bulletin boards. Some other helpful resources from around the web? This link has one of the better breakdowns I’ve seen on elementary versus high school design choices. You can also look here for some fantastic illustrated examples of bulletin boards for higher level math concepts, or here to read about an idea for using DVD cover images to jazz up a Shakespearean literature study. Last but not least, this resource page has an excellent write up on student-created middle school literature study bulletins. Got another great tip for educators in the upper grades? Share the love in the comment section below. 

Photo Credits: Dull Hunk, Digital Art 2, Becflies 2001, Image Editor.

This article was included in Carnival of Education #225.

More Classroom Hacks for Teaching in the Trenches

If you’ve been following this blog all along, you’re already aware that I love to pass along great classroom hacks as soon as I think of or run across them. This is no exception. Read on for some great ideas on getting things done on the cheap and easy.

Hula Hoops.

In addition to making great classroom playground equipment, these can be used in PE and also for small group circle assembly. As any primary teacher can tell you, younger students really have a difficult time forming circles on their own. Having a few hula hoops on hand for small groups to assemble around gives them a bit of fun factor and you a bit of sanity. Particularly helpful for teaching in outside environments where the school may just be one shaded area surrounded by coconut trees. These situations also tend to be short on classroom furniture. If you are at a school where most of the instruction has to take place outside, you can easily distribute some hula hoops around your area and have one circle for reading group, one for a language game, and one for quiet PE stations such as stretching or sit-ups.

Affordable Art Smocks.

Remember shirt smocks? So do we, and we’re recycling this age old classroom classic. Old adult-sized long sleeved button up shirts can come from family members or a thrift store such as Goodwill. Great for science experiments and art projects, children need only to put them on backwards and have a buddy fasten a button or two in the back.

Poster Taping Tips

Anyone who’s taught in a jungle environment can attest to how difficult it is to keep posters taped to the wall. If you are lucky enough to have walls you can staple things to, congratulations. If you are stuck with concrete however, this is for you. To protect the back of your poster during end of the year removal, flip it over and place flat pieces of masking tape on each corner. This will give you a stable base to put tape circles on, from which they can easily be peeled off later. The jungle element? Instead of placing your tape circles up and down, go horizontal. Keeping them up is still a challenge, but they will at least last longer this way.

Document the Journey

If possible, consider incorporating a digital camera into your learning environment. Document projects and class work throughout the year, compile a slideshow for open house, etc. This is much less expensive than having to continuously purchase film, batteries and developing services. If you have a tech person, you may even be able to include the documentation in a web site.

Get Some Help from the Animal Kingdom

At an outdoor “garden school” in Tucson, Arizona, a trained therapy dog is a favorite visitor for the students to read to. This is worth considering in any learning environment, as practicing oral reading with a class pet or visiting animal removes the fear some students have of reading in front of others. It also generates enthusiasm for those learners who may not be excited to practice reading aloud otherwise. Even a fish tank or aquarium in the classroom or home learning corner can be used to implement this strategy, which is particularly powerful for the shy ESL learner.

Student Anchors

If you’re comfortable going high tech for your student report presentations, consider turning the entire event into a type of news show. Learners can write brief commercials, bring background music for the “anchor people”, write introductory scripts, etc. I have personally done this at numerous grade levels. Students of all ages love the outcome.

Book Parades

This idea was inspired by one of our newsletter subscribers. At this particular school in Texas, students each make a small “float” based on their favorite book, or dress up as their favorite character. The entire school then has a parade to honor the literature each student has celebrated. Home-schoolers could easily implement this as well in their local park or group gathering place.

If you have a great shoestring teaching idea, or one that is just too cool not to share, please post about it in the comment section. Sharing these things helps us all out, and our students as well. Happy teaching, everyone!

Photo Credit: Peiqian Long

Cheap Stuff for Starving Teachers

I don’t know about you, but rarely has my allotted classroom budget met my needs. In fact, in all my years of teaching, I can only think of one school where I was provided with everything I really needed. Even there, I had to be financially careful. And we all know what the unwritten expectation is when school districts can’t fund their own mandates . . .spend your own money. Big surprise. This article highlights my favorite teacher cheapies.

Bonus? They are available in almost every school supply closet, making it easier for you to hang on to your hard earned paycheck.

Page protectors.

I love these. Readers’ play scripts can be protected year to year. They also work great for protecting activity pages where the students need to answer a question or solve a puzzle. Place the paper inside and children can write their answers in water based marker or grease pencil, and wipe off when they are finished. Keeps copying costs to a minimum. Want more ideas? Check this out.

Index cards.

An inexpensive learning supply, they can be used for vocabulary / definition flash cards, spelling memory games, math fact quiz cards and more. For extra flexibility, they are also available in lined and unlined, large and small, and various color options. Tough to beat for affordability, wouldn’t you say?

Cardboard beverage flats.

Even in Micronesia, I had access to these at no cost. If the school does not have a vending machine where these are left over after stocking, chances are there’s at least one store that will save them for you. Use them for holding paper scraps, completed student assignments, desk protectors for messy projects, marble painting, story boards, science fair displays, and homemade hinged-together briefcase portfolios. Here’s a link with more details.

Twigs and sticks.

It doesn’t get any cheaper than this. When you are in an extreme teaching situation and do not even have access to craft sticks, have students bring in twigs and sticks when you need them for things like nature crafts, kite support, puppets, native tribal weaving projects, etc.

Torn paper art projects.

My art guru friend Shelly taught me this little trick while we were teaching on the island of Guam. If you are working in conditions where you do not have scissors for your students, these projects are wonderful. The project she showed me was for torn paper mosaics, where students create a scene with torn bits of paper arranged with spaces in between on a background using glue sticks.

Donated newspapers.

I’ve had English language newspapers donated literally in every location I’ve ever taught at – the States, Guam, Kuwait, Italy, etc. Not only are they free, they provide a tremendous amount of mileage in the classroom. Some of the things I’ve used them for: current events, spelling word search, event collages, stuffing large models of book characters or giant paper sea turtles, tearing up for paper maché projects, and covering desks for messy art and science activities. I’ve also had newspapers offices donate the ends of the rolls of blank newsprint. They usually have a fair amount of paper left over, and it’s great for brainstorming charts and morning language. Old blueprint charts are great for this use as well. For a complete list of ideas for newspapers in the classroom, check out this previous blog post.

Used copy paper.

Folding the pages in half with the printed side in and stapling them allows you to put them together for a clean set of pages to be used for student publishing. Free materials . . . score!

Phone Books

Lots of ways to use these in the classroom. Bonus? Telephone companies will usually donate last years left overs in mint condition.

Dried Beans.

Any large flat bean will do really, and even the smaller ones can work for certain things.Very affordable when purchased at a discount dry goods store, these durable seeds make fabulous bingo and game markers. Substituting these for the expensive plastic game markers assures that you always have plenty on hand when students misplace them (which they will). Economical and eco-friendly!Another really cool thing you can do with the larger flat broad beans is lay a bunch of them flat on newsprint and spray paint one side of them the color of your choosing. The result? Dirt cheap DIY math manipulatives. Take a specific amount of them (nine, for example) and put them inside an empty cup. Shake and dump onto a work space. The beans will come out in various number combinations that equal the number in the cup. Great for younger grades working on math facts and number exploration.

These are items or ideas that made my job easier during my years in the classroom. If you know of others, please let us know.

Photo Credit: Worak

A Cheaper Classroom Calendar: DIY to the Rescue

Let’s face it. Classroom calendar supplies can add up to big bucks. If you are at the primary grades and need to work in patterning, it can more than double. Here’s how I made my own and skipped the cutting out and laminating of countless expensive apple and pencil cut-outs.

First, get a piece of plain poster board in the color of your choice, preferably not to dark. Leaving an open space at the top for the name of the month, mark out a grid with squares the size of an average Post-It note. Use light pencil lines at first, and follow up with a permanent marker and a straight edged ruler.

Next, either laminate the entire thing and attach to a larger math themed bulletin board, or laminate directly to the wall with easily peeled off, clear contact paper. Not only is thise calendar much more affordable than the deluxe designer version from the teacher store, but different colored post-its can be used in place of having to purchase several different dozens of calendar pieces for patterning and theme building that teachers like to do at all grade levels. Bonus? You’re not stuck replacing an entire set of calendar pieces if you lose one, or one gets damaged by a student.

Want to skip even the cost of the Post-It notes? Use different colored dry erase or water-based overhead markers. You can write the name of the month in at the top each time, and switch out the colors used to record the various days of the month. This is great also if you want to make the numbers smaller in the upper right hand corners of the squares and save the rest of the space for recording class events, holidays, field trips, assemblies, etc.

Bonus? You can clean off the calendar and start fresh each month. Here’s a link to some DIY white board cleaner recipes that’ll do the trick.

Photo Credit: Liz Marie

Year Long Bulletin Board Ideas

Staying late on a Friday night to cut out thirty-eight individual paper apples when you could be on a date? Looking to regain a life while still feeling like you’re going the distance for your job? I hear you. This list includes some of the ideas I found most helpful during my years in the trenches.

Wall of Fame.

For a super simple bulletin board that the students always get excited about, I found it hard to beat this one. All you need are a colored background, simple border, and letters for the “Wall of Fame” title. As students turn in fabulous work, it goes up on the board. One idea that works well is to incorporate an excellent piece of work from each student. They don’t all have to go up at once, which is part of the motivation for students to continue to do their best job. Once everyone has earned a spot on the Wall of Fame via a spelling test, book project, math quiz or whatever, it is time to take down the items for portfolio filing and start again. If you skip the scotch tape and opt for push pins or staples, this board should easily last you through an entire school year. I especially like this idea because it allows you to honor the strengths of all your students, not just the ones who do well on the more traditional types of assignments.

Re-invent the traditional flannel board.

Instead of an old fashioned portable flannel board, consider using flannel instead of paper to cover a regular sized bulletin board. Then just trim and title with cut out letters as usual. This way, you’ve always got a spot for flannel board story retellings, year-to year vocabulary activities, and more.

In the News.

Using solid black paper for the first set of letters, cut out a second of “shadow” letters from a sturdy black and white news print source. I’ve found magazine pages are a bit sturdier than newspaper, and have a brighter contrast between the black and white. You’ll also want to make sure that you cut the shadow letters from a portion of the print source that has consistent text only, not captions and images. Next, attach the shadow letters behind the solid black letters with the shadow letters peeking out from the left hand side. Then, select your background paper color for the bulletin board. Personally, I think red looks really dramatic with the black and white shadow letters. Now, center the “In the News” caption towards the top of the bulletin board. Voila! Now you have a functional, year-round bulletin board where you can post students’ completed rotating current event assignments, or the current batch of never ending bulletins, calendars and announcements from your school’s office or PTA. You know the ones . . .

Daily Math Board.

I’ve seen and used ideas for this that came in kits, but there are many ways to put up an interactive daily math skills boards that keeps your kids interested all year long. Personally, I think it’s helpful if they are the longer horizontal kind, but that’s just me. I think this orientation allows for a table or long book shelf underneath where you can store on-the-fly supplies such as push pins, erasable markers, post its, calendar pieces, chart replacements, etc. Basically, think of any skills you will need to be repeating throughout the year and work in a repeating activity that will drive the skill home. I use this for those first few minutes after roll call when there may still be a straggler or two. Some things to include? Calendar, doing a comparison graph of temperatures between your class location and that of a class pen pal, converting the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius, counting the tally school days on a roll out adding machine tape and circling every fifth or tenth day (younger grades), a daily math calculation or word problem appropriate to your grade level, etc. I liked doing this because it puts all of those incidental math toolsin one location, providing predictable and organized math support for the entire year. Since math topics rarely make the “bulletin board cut” so to speak, this is a great way to set an extra academic tone in your classroom.

Food for Thought.

This is another one of those ones that can fit in with multiple grade levels. Various things can be included such as a grab pocket of inspirational learning and self esteem quotes, a problem solving chart for what to do if they finish work early, a supply of story starter ideas, daily brain teaser . . . you get the idea. This is basically a resource for them to go to instead of interrupting work you may be doing with a small group or individual.

These are my titles and ideas for bulletin boards that can take you from start to finish each school year and leave you with lots of time and energy for parent communication, lesson planning, and . . . oh, I don’t know . . . a life? Don’t forget to sound off if you’ve got another fabulous suggestion for saving bulletin board stress. I’m sure we could all benefit from additional ideas and strategies.

Flickr Photo Credit: Fred Hsu

Bandanas in the Classroom: Three Simple Teaching Hacks

 

 

I wrote a fairly extensive piece a while ago on various ideas and craft project involving colored bandanas. However, the teacher in me just couldn’t leave the topic alone. I had to give this some extra time and document some simple classroom bandana hacks every teacher could use. Following are my top three picks.

Field trip sanity.

Don’t have the time or inclination to deal with an extensive classroom T-shirt tie-dye? No problem. Have everyone vote on a class color (lead them towards something bright and easy to spot) and have them on hand for everyone to wear around their neck cowboy style for easy student spotting. Here’s a link for purchasing them in bulk.

Streamlined recess line up.

Get a bright neon one to tie on the end of your teacher umbrella or walking stick. When the young ones are scattering around trying to find where to line up, they can easily find you and feel successful.

Team identification on the cheap.

For teaching situations where the little mesh vests are out of the question budget wise, having half the class wear the colored bandanas and half go without is a super way to plan a team activity on the fly. Bonus? This takes up very little classroom space, which is great if you are short on it in general and also happen to have to teache PE on your own if the school cannot afford an extra teacher. Even if they can afford it, we all know there are times when the class is cancelled, or you are left with a postponed assembly and no preplanned lesson. Grab the bandanas and head outside for a quick game of kickball.

These really are affordable enough for even the most financially challenged PTA to support you with. If you truly are on less than a shoestring due to an extremely remote and financially challenged international school, consider getting just one or two and cutting them up as wrist ties. In the end, it’ll be better than nothing.

Flickr Photo Credit:Psycho Pink