HOW TO: DIY Crate Benches

I LOVE making various DIY crafts for my classroom and am so excited that blogging gives me an outlet to share those crafts (as well as "how to" tutorials) with fellow teachers! 

This post will give you relatively detailed instructions on how to turn this: 

Into this:

What you'll need (per bench): 

1. 3 milk crates 
• I got mine from Walmart, but many other stores have them as well
2. Foam/ Cushion Padding 
• I got mine from Hancock Fabric, but you can get it from almost any fabric/ craft store... except for Michael's- they did not have it. I have also heard of people using eggshell mattress padding from Walmart.
3. Wood 
• Home Depot, Lowes, etc. will have multiple options for you... Any type of wood should work just fine, except for plywood. Plywood is too flimsy to hold excessive weight- I know this from personal experience!
4. 1 yard of Batting 
• This isn't absolutely necessary, but it keeps the foam from showing through the fabric and it makes your fabric lay smoother 
5. 1 yard of fabric 
6. Hardware and tools (see below for specifics)
1. Most important tool being a staple gun... You can get a relatively cheap one from Hobby Lobby. They almost always have a "40% off one item" coupon floating around- search for and use that to help with cost management. 

Let me start off by giving a HUGE shoutout to the coolest dude on the planet (AKA: my dad). Without him, I wouldn't have known where to start on this project and my benches would not have turned out nearly as sturdy! 

Here is the hardware we used! 

1. Washers
2. 1-1/2 in screws 
3. 2 in screws
4. 1 inch screws 

Now for the actual "how-to"...

1. Drill 4 holes on both sides of the crate- one on each corner. If you get the crates like I am using, they will have interlocking pockets that allow the crates to connect to each other- you'll want to drill a hole in the center of each pocket. Two of your crates (the top and bottom of your base) will only need holes on one side. One of your crates (the one that will be in the middle of your base) will need holes drilled into both sides. So, in sum, two of your crates will have a total of 4 holes and one of your crates will have a total of 8 holes (4 on each side). 

2. Stack two crates together, popping them into place with the interlocking pockets. 

 3. Connect the two crates together - you will use 2 of the 1-1/2 inch screws (as well as 4 washers and 2 blots) for the two front corners and 2 of the 2 inch screws (as well as 4 washers and 2 bolts) for the two back corners. 

4. Repeat step 3 to connect the third crate. 

 (the front screws will stick out a little bit.. I cut the ends off and sanded down the sharp edge once I got the crates connected)

You now have the base of your bench put together- YAY! :) 

 

Now you're ready to make the actual seat for your bench! 

 5. You'll need to cut the wood (or pieces of wood, if you make more than one bench like I did) down to size. If you have a handyman of a dad (or brother, husband, boyfriend, etc.), they can cut it for you. If not, go to Home Depot, let them now how long you need it to be, and they'll cut it for you for next to nothing in cost. I personally chose to cut the pieces of wood a few inches longer than the length of the base.

6. Use a marker to trace the piece of wood onto the cushion and cut it out using fabric scissors (or a butcher knife). It's okay if the cushion isn't the exact same size as your board- mine was a little bit wider. 

 

 

7. This step is optional. It's not needed, but it's helpful to keep the cushion from sliding off the board when you start wrapping your fabric. Use spray adhesive to glue the cushion to the board. 

8. Using a staple gun, wrap your batting around your board and cushion. 

9. Just as you did for the batting, use a staple gun to wrap the fabric around the board and cushion. 

You now have a seat for your bench! 

 Now you'll need to secure the seat to the base. 

10. Using 4 of the 1 inch screws, connect each crate to the bottom of the board. (4 screws per crate/ 12 screws total) 

 That's all! Now you have classroom benches with storage! 

Pretty easy! We got both benches done in under 2 hours. 

 Even Charlie approves of them. ;) 

I am using mine as computer seats, but they could also be used in your classroom library! I THINK I am going to use the storage area to house my students reading and writing composition books. However, if you use them as library seats, they'd work as an additional bookcase. 

Let me know if you have any questions! I'd love to know if you make these, how you use them, and if my tutorial was of any help to you. :)

TpT Seller Challenge Week 3: Make Your Masterpiece

Okay, I am WAY late on writing my blog post about last week's challenge, but it's because I have been having WAY too much fun watching YouTube tutorials, reading guided blog posts, and playing around with customizing my blog layout... I am pretty impressed with what I've been able to figure out so far! 

Now, back on topic! I had SO MUCH fun with last week's challenge! I will be the first to admit that I have the tendency to be a little bit of a procrastinator. I am the worst at starting a million little projects/tasks at once, getting overwhelmed, and then not finishing any of them. It's BAD. It's even worse during the school year when I have my own million little projects/tasks I want to do plus the million little projects/tasks I am being told I have to do. 

Surely I am not the only one who can relate to the picture above?! ;) Anywho, we did our Plant Unit about 3-4 weeks before school ended... You know, only one of the busiest times of the year. ;) So, while I had these great intentions of creating this awesome Plant Unit to share with all of you, I ended up only making the recording sheets I needed for my class and then falling asleep on my couch instead of finishing putting it all together for TpT. Before I knew it, one week become two weeks, two weeks became a month, then a month became half way through summer and I still hadn't finished it! So, I decided to take this challenge as my chance to finish what I started two months ago. Without further adieu, here is my Parts of a Plant Recording Sheets MASTERPIECE! :) 

I am so happy with how the final product turned out and owe a HUGE thank you to Bailey Riley from Miss Riley's Happy Campers and Rachael Fiddler from Swimming with the Rest of the School for revising and editing it for me!! I loved that this challenge required us to pair up and collaborate with another TpTer- always great to meet fellow creators! :)  

If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen me post a few pictures about how this was my absolute favorite science unit. It was so much fun! The kiddos absolutely loved every second of it, and I loved every second of planning and creating it for them. Because of that, I am so excited to finally have this product finished and ready to share for others to use in their classroom. I have no doubt your kiddos will have just as much fun with it as mine did! 

Our plant unit lasted two weeks. The first week, we simply looked at plants as a whole. We discussed what plants are, where plants can be found, how plants help us, what plants need to survive, etc. and identified the different parts. 

The second week, we dug in deeper and learned more about the actual job of each plant part. Each day we focused on a new plant part, starting with roots. Each part had a simple activity and its own special recording sheet for the students to keep track of their learning. We created this flip book throughout the week:

Here's how each individual day played out:

Day One: Roots

To learn what role roots play/ why their job is important, we bought two plants and cut the roots off of one of them to see what would happen. 

Day Two: Stem

To show how water travels up the stem, we placed a carnation and a stock of celery into a cup of water with food coloring. I discovered two tricks that make this experiment most effective: 1) the more food coloring you add, the better! And, 2) you have to trim the stem for it to work and the more of the stem you trim, the better it works! 

Day One

 Day Two

Day Three: Leaves

Okay, I wasn't creative enough to come up with an activity for this one... We just watched a video about the job of leaves on PebbleGo and completed the recording sheet. 

Day 4: Flower

This is my favorite activity we did all year! I'll admit, it's a little lot messy, but it is totally worth it!! The kids loved it and it was such an engaging way to help them better understand the job of flowers and how pollination works! 

1) They drew a flower on the paper bag then colored a bee with two holes at the bottom for their fingers. 

2) I went around and filled each bag with Cheetos. 

3&4) starting at their bag, the "bees" (students) flew around from "flower" (paper bag) to flower, eating from each one... I let my kiddos actually eat the Cheeto, however if you're a germaphobe, you could have them take a Cheeto out and set it to the side/throw it away. That's not nearly as much fun though. ;) The only rule is (whether they eat the Cheetos or throw them away), they CANNOT lick their fingers or rub any of the "pollen" (Cheeto dust) off of their fingers. 

5.6&7) After the "bees" (students) have eaten from every "flower" (paper bag), they will pick a flower to wipe their "pollen" (Cheeto dust) on.

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The Parts of a Plant Recording Sheets packet includes detailed direction sheets for each of the above activities as well as the recording sheets the students will use to document their learning. 

Download Resource Here 

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Last Day of Firsts

I'm not sure what the bigger milestone of June 4, 2015 was-- my 19 sweet babies finishing their journey as 1st graders or me finishing my journey as a 1st year teacher... Sorry itty bits, but I think Miss Riley wins this one. ;)

To celebrate all 20 of our milestone accomplishments, we turned our last day of school in to one big festival of fun! I wish I could take credit for at least some of the awesome creativity that fueled the activities of our last day, but I can't. Everything we did was found in this amazing blog post by the fabulous Reagan Tunstall. After all, the best teachers steal from the best and learn from the rest, right?! ;) 

The majority of our day was spent playing 7 different Minute to Win It games. SO MUCH FUN!! 

For games 1-4 & 6, I had four students play at a time while the rest of the students watched and cheered them on. After all the students had a chance to play, the winner from each group went against each other in a final "championship round". 

Game 1: Go Fishing

They had to use a paper plate to move a tissue paper fish from one side of the room to the other. 

Game 2: There She Blows

Starting at one end of a desk/table, they have to blow a plastic cup off the opposite end of the desk/table using a straw. 

Game 3: Nose Diving 

The kiddos had to move three cotton balls from one plate to another using their noses! (Noses which were covered in petroleum jelly, that is.) 

 Game 4: Bean There Done That
For this game, they had to move five [uncooked] pinto beans from a paper plate into a plastic cup using a straw. 

 Game 5: Breakfast Scrambler 
I emailed my parents asking for empty cereal boxes two days beforehand and still got WAY more than we needed! This game had two rounds. All of the students played this game at the same time. In the first round, students worked with a partner to put together the cereal box puzzle. The first two groups who won got to go to round two (the "championship" round) where they had to put a different cereal box puzzle together by themselves. 

Game 6: Noodling Around
Okay, this game was SUPER hard for every last one of my students! The goal of the game was to get 3 noodles onto a stick of spaghetti without using your hands (they had to hold the spaghetti stick in their mouth). My students struggled to even get one noodle on the spaghetti stick (because of its length) and the few who did manage to get a noodle ended up dropping it as soon as they went for the second noodle because they couldn't figure out how to pick up the noodles without tilting their heads down, which made the stick of spaghetti slant down, causing the noodle to slip right off. Even with me modeling, they still couldn't get it. I ended up going with Reagan's modified suggestion and broke the spaghetti sticks in half and only made them pick up 2 noodles instead of 3... Even with this modification, only 4 of my 19 kiddos were able to do it! It was a major challenge! 

Game 7: Face the Cookie

For our final game, the student's had to move a Nalla Wafer from their forehead to their mouth using nothing but their facial expressions-- so funny to watch!! I did not break the kids up in to small groups for this one, they all found a seat and did it at the same time. Like game 6, this is another challenging game- only two of my kiddos were successfully able to make the cookie into their mouth! 

I had to apologize to my neighboring teachers because it got pretty wild, crazy, and loud in our classroom with all of these fun games! ;) 

After we congratulated all of our Minute to Win It winners, we took a deep breath, calmed down, and rolled out the 'red carpet' (butcher paper). Each student got 15 seconds of fame to strut their stuff down the red carpet with a Candy Award  that matched their individual personalities perfectly! This was SUCH a fun treat for them. The funny thing is, all of the students were able to guess who was getting what award just by the description of it-- I LOVE that they all have such unique and charming little personalities. This will definitely be a last day tradition in my class! [Next year I plan to actually make a cute "Goodbye 1st Grade, Hello 2nd Grade!" poster... instead of just writing it on the white board. ;)]

SO sad to see this sweet group of kiddos go, but cannot wait to see what next year has in store for me and my classroom. BRING IT ON, YEAR TWO! ;)