Monday Made It - Bucket Seats

Bucket Seats With Mrs. Labrasciano

Materials for Bucket Seats
Add in staple gun and sponge brush.

 I love making bucket seats to go under my guided reading table.  They are simple to make, have great storage and if you do it right, you can use recycled products.  It takes about an hour to make a seat.

The first thing that you will need to do is take scrap paper and mod podge it to the bucket.  I like to use a nice layer of mod podge to make the bucket durable for the classroom.  After you glue it to the bucket, use a scraper and roller to get out all of the air.  Once you are done putting the paper on the bucket you should give the bucket 3 coats of mod podge.  Make sure that you let it dry in between layers.

After you have covered the bucket, you will need to make the seat.  You will need to cut cardboard and foam to fit the circle on top of the seat.  Lay the circles on the fabric.  Staple the fabric as shown above.

 After you have the seat covered, use spray adhesive to coat the top of the bucket.  You can then push the cushion down.  I used scrap fabric to embellish the handles.  Just tie the scraps on.

Bucket Seats With Mrs. Labrasciano

Monday Made It - Character Education Bracelets

Earlier this summer I saw some bloggers communicating about this book titled, "What's Under Your Cape?"by Barbara Gruener. It caught my attention because it was a character education book that was written by a real life educator that really got kids the way that you and I do.  When I saw that the book was inexpensive and short I was sold.  The book uses the acronym SUPERHEROES to detail eleven essential character traits for people to work successfully together.  I can't give everything away here because I will be posting in a book study in just a couple of days. (Be sure to come back 7/22!) While I was coming up with lesson plans to accompany the book I decided that I needed something that the kids could take with them that would help them to remember what it takes to be one of the SUPERHEROES.

Character Education Bracelets

Then it hit me that we should make beaded bracelets.  We use beaded bracelets a lot in class.  It helps the kids to touch the bead while they say the word when they want to remember something.  That tactile experience is great for some students.  For this bracelet we used eleven beads and stretchy bead cord.  You can have the kids make the bracelet and recall your acronym while touching each bead.  Hopefully they can tell you the meaning behind the word when they touch the bead too.  These bracelets could work with any character traits.  If you use something else, be sure to tell me!

Beaded Bracelets for recalling acronyms

Monday Made It and Tips and Tools For Back To School Meet - Getting Ready For The New Year

Today I'm linking up with Primary Peeps and Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for one big post. So get ready for some fun and freebies!

Getting ready for the new school year can be stressful.  We are worried about making everything perfect and coming up with the money to do it.  To make the planning a bit less stressful for you, I have made a free guide for frugal planning along with some tips that I have learned along the way.  Included in this guide are a few tools to help you get started and stay on budget along with pictures and examples.

Click here for the printable pack.

I was super excited to make a rag wreath for my classroom door! Making rag wreaths are fantastic because they are cheap, use recycled products, can include time with children and only take an hour.

Click here for the link to the labels.

I was in the mood for making free guides this week so I made one to accompany the wreath along with signs for grades K-5.

Monday Made It - Continuous Ink Supply System

I'm linking up with the fabulous Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It! I thought that I was excited last week when I finally got my new office space together.  That was until I was talking to my sweet friend Marissa from The Inspired Owl's Corner.  She told me she had a system hooked up to her printer that allows her to print as much as she wants and she hardly ever has to replace the ink. She prints thousands of copies without worrying about ink.  Say what? Up until now I replace my ink cartridges every month at a cost of about $25.  I hardly ever print in color and it seems like it runs out within 100 pages.  She wasn't sure what the system was called but she showed me a picture.  So I investigated and found out that it is called a Continuous Ink Supply System. I hopped on over to Ebay and found out that you can get these systems for just about all printers.  I purchased a unit that came full of ink for $50.  Let the printing begin!!! Disclaimer:  The unit isn't pretty.  However, you can print everything that you need to.  So don't worry!!!!!!

Continuous Ink Supply System

Let me tell you how easy it is to install:

CISS

Step 1
Open the box!

Continual Ink Supply System - Print for Pennies

Step 2

Install the print cartridges in the printer.  Make sure to push hard.  You will want to snap each individual cartridge into place and listen for the click.  Then you will want to hear a click from pushing the middle of all of the cartridges into place.  If your printer doesn't recognize the cartridge, take them out and push them in harder.  The housing of my printer didn't quite fit the top of the cartridges in so I pulled the housing up until I heard it pop out of place.  This allowed for enough room.

CISS

Step 3

Place the ink wells to the side of the printer.  Do not put them above the printer or the ink will flow all over your printer.  You will need to take the small plugs out and place in the filters.  

CISS - Print For Pennies

Step 4

You will want to allow enough tubing to stay inside so that the printer heads can go to the left and right.  Don't leave so much slack that it will lay on the bottom.  When you are done, clip the tubing to the side.  Everything was included with my system.

Youtube has a ton of videos to walk you through each step, but it really only takes about 15 minutes total.

Installation

Installation

Step 5 

Clean your printer heads.  I had to print about 25 sheets until the print quality was good.  Enjoy printing your little hearts out.

Refills

Marissa told me that she goes at least a year before she has to refill.  I found refill bottles on Amazon for  around $15 for the big bottle kits.  These kits last her around 2 years.  Liquid refill set

Update 08/23/14

There has been a lot of interest in the CISS and everyone wants to know how it's going.  So I have printed all of my back to school items now.  That would be two reams of paper (maybe more).  My ink supply level has not changed much.  It's still at the top!!!! There have been quite a few of you all who have told me that you LOVE your systems too.  One friend told me that she got the system and has already had to replace the black ink.  She has a printer that is a model under mine. I'm assuming that the quality of printer you have makes a difference in your ink. It is possible be that she bought a different size ink well too.

Here are some troubleshooting tips that I have learned with some of the readers:

1.  Make sure to clean the heads of your printer.  This will help with any lines that you see.

2.  You can also take a cotton swab and use alcohol to wipe the tip of the ink cartridge if it isn't flowing properly.

2.  Make sure to print several pages in the beginning to get the air out of the line.  

Update 01/04/15

The CISS is still working great!!! The print quality is fabulous.  Last week I started to get lines in my prints and they wouldn't go away after I cleaned the heads.  So I went to YouTube and found out that when I filled my ink wells I put a lot of air in the tubes.  Head cleaning didn't solve this problem but the video gave me a quick fix that did.  So now I have printed about 6 reams or more.  I bought a $15 refill kit from Amazon.  I estimate that this ink will last me for over 6 months.

How to remove air after you refill the tanks.

This is the last picture that I printed.  Great print quality.

A great BIG virtual hug goes out to Marissa for telling me about this!!!!