The Possibilities of a Skirt Hanger and some random pics

What a week! My kids had to take the DIBELS test and the first Math Benchmark all in one week. They also had their hardest spelling test to date. The good news all the kids were in "green" on DIBELS except for 2 and I feel pretty certain one of them will move on up with a little tutoring.

I'm not sure next week will be much better, although we do have an easier spelling list! We are giving the gifted test and we are also taking our first Treasures Unit (OCCT) test. I have so many issues with the unit tests. They throw things in the test that wasn't even taught. I really don't like Treasures in general. Last week, I was teaching possessive nouns, as I was making an anchor chart it hit me that they haven't even learned what a noun is!!! The workbook pages don't correlate to the test at all. I tell my principal that there is no way that the people who put our tests together could have EVER taught first grade...I'm pretty sure they don't have their own children either. And don't get me started on the order of their spelling tests....

OK, I'll get off my soapbox. I really was writing to share with you the wonderful uses for a kids skirt hanger. I started using them when I taught kindergarten. I had this thing that sort of looked like a mini chart stand. It was supposed to hold some tote bags with books in it. I re-purposed it to be a drying rack. I brought some of my daughters skirt hangers up and I would hang 2 pictures back to back on one clip and 2 back to back on the other clip of the hanger. Each hanger would have 4 pictures drying. Sorry, I don't have a picture.

Then I started using them to hang my song and poem posters I was making. I had a hook with a bunch on there and the kids would pick the one they wanted.

When I moved to first grade I wasn't using them too much. This year I got them out and started using them for my anchor charts. I would hang them from the top ledge of the chalkboard. Then yesterday, I had the idea to slide some thin wire under my highest row of tack strip and then attach it to the hanger. It's great because it isn't covering up my dry erase boards or word wall, etc...

I started off hanging anchor charts around the room this way. It's not bad, they are very easy to move around.
 

This shows how I attached it to the tack strip.

I love it, it doesn't cover up so much of my dry erase board!

 
























































Over the summer, I had made one of those cute Hall Pass signs. I didn't have any place to hang it except for one hook that was really too high. The other day, the hook fell off of the wall. I had a hanger with a poster on it on the end of my big teacher's easel. I just slipped the ribbon of my hall pass sign over the top of the hanger and now I've got kid friendly spot for it to hang!

My teaching partner had a cute idea that I copied. She used binder clips to hang books up as a display in her library. I loved having some books on display for the kids, but when my kids would take the book down, the clip would also disappear. Yesterday after school while I was attaching my hangers to the tack strip, it hit me that the hanger would be easier for the kids to take the books off and put them back on.

This is using the binder clips.
 



The hangers will be so much more user friendly, especially for 1st grade!

BTW:  I like the kids hangers better than the ones that my clothes come on. They are much more durable if they happen to fall.

I also have a few random pictures. This is the cabinet I am using for the kids to store their "just right" books. It only has 18 cubbies so I am using the magazine holders for the rest of the class.

 

I re-purposed my coin and straw charts for the calendar. My children aren't tested on straws, but they are tested on Base10 Blocks. So we keep track of how many days in school using the blocks. I just put a little bit of Velcro on the back of the blocks. I may take the extra blocks out of the straw holder and do the straws too. 

 

At the beginning of the year we read David Goes to School and made these cute No David craftivities that I got from, well as soon as I can find where I got it from, I'll give them the credit. My kids absolutely loved doing this!

 

 

 

We made the Chrysanthemum glyphs from DeAnne @ First Grade and Fabulous http://firstgradeandfabulous.blogspot.com/

The kids liked making them and it was an easy project for them to understand at the beginning of the year. 

Have a great weekend!

 

Kelly