Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Magnetic Pages Make Life Easier!

Sometimes I feel like I go out of my way to make things more difficult!

Now maybe you all know this trick, but it was new to me!  For YEARS, I have made calendar tags--and other things to put on my (magnetic) white board.  I would print the item, cut it out, put it on a piece of colored background paper, laminate, cut again, and then buy and apply small magnetic strips to the back.  By this point I had either lost pieces of the project along the way or I had lost interest (or I had killed off a few necessary components in our ancient laminating machine!)

Enter Avery magnetic sheets.  The good thing about magnetic PAGES is that you can cut out any size or shape you want--and you don't have to line anything up within the label margins!  It's just like printing on 8.5 by 11 paper! The same is true about full pages "labels," but that is the subject of another post!

                   
I made rectangles on my computer and typed a word.  I made a bigger rectangle around those, filled in the shape with color, and sent it to the "back".  I filled in the names of the month, the numbers and a few other labels that I wanted, adjusting the size as necessary.

I printed the labels on the magnetic pages (using an ink jet printer).  Then I cut them out on my beloved paper cutter, and... DONE!  The whole project took me less than an hour!  They're fairly resilient and while the magnets won't hold much weight--that wasn't my purpose.  My real purpose was to get the job done and get it done quickly.  Mission accomplished!

If I were more creative, I would have used different colors and a bit of clip art.  But this is the no-nonsense part of the board.  We look at the date a million times and we post who is absent (and, at times, keep track of total enrollment).  Sometimes, I just like to look at that part of the board when I am exhausted and frustrated, and say, "Thirty four sixth graders!  That IS exhausting!

So... easy peasy!  Amazon had a discounted price at one point and I am sure they are available at lots of places (and there may be other manufacturers too)  But for my purpose, these worked great.

Test:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4jzf7IrF9Y7bFNPTlp5Q3hROGc

And the time I saved... well... there's a good chance I spent it BLOGGING for more ideas!

9 comments :

  1. I love this idea, the only problem is that I do not have a magnetic whiteboard in my classroom. My chalkboard is not even magnetic. :(

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  2. Love the idea and it looks great!
    Marcia :)

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  3. Hi Marcia:

    Thanks for the visit (and the compliment)!

    Kim

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  4. Hi Katie:

    I'm sorry about your boards. Mine were upgraded when the termites started eating the chalkboard.

    I hope this week is going more smoothly for you than last week...

    Kim

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  5. I teach sixth grade as well and have enjoyed reading your blog! Thank you for the magnetic sheet suggestion--I didn't know that product existed!! I use the game 'Howardopoly" in my classroom for behavior management and my game pieces are (a) Ugly and (b) the magnets keep coming unglued. Now I have a solution!

    I LOVE fellow bloggers. Feel free to visit my blog at yoursmarticles.blogspot.com.

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  6. Hi Mrs. Howard:

    I'm so glad you linked up! I think your site is AMAZING!

    Kim

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  7. I have my students numbered, so I use the magnetic sheets to make locker numbers (we have old lockers and there are no numbers). This way I don't have to change them every year and they're decorative- I put a border around the number.

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  8. Hi Pat!

    That sounds so CUTE! Talk about making an old locker new again!

    Happy day,

    Kim

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  9. I have all sorts of magnetic signs on my assignment board and for some reason this year the magnets aren't as strong and sometimes signs fall down. It drives me crazy! This would be a great solution. I just wonder how $$ the sheets are. Thanks for the tip!

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