Letter Trays & Binder Clips!

Two posts in one day? Whoa...she is crazy. No, I just actually need to post these things before I forget...I am pretty bad about that. This evening, I had some extra time to finish my letter trays and decorated binder clips. I thought I would share these with you :) Once again, I cannot take credit for this mastermind creation. It was another idea inspired from Pinterest. What did I do before Pinterest?


Okay, first of all...I must say that school supplies really thrill me. I absolutely love going to the Dollar Tree and Walmart, scoring deals on supplies that I may not need at the time but can always find a purpose to use them. School supplies combined with my label maker my husband got me for Christmas? I'm unstoppable.

I purchased letter trays last year from Walmart. They looked something like this....
                                                   
Not very cute, right? Exactly what I thought but I decided to just go with them as I had already spent $10.00 on them. Whatever. They may work for others but for my 6th graders and myself, they did not do the job. They constantly fell over and would drop to the floor making loud noises. I decided I would stick it out but I vowed to do something different this upcoming year. I started to scour Pinterest for classroom organization ideas and I found the perfect letter trays for my classroom. What better than a DIY project?

On Pinterest, I discovered someone using 5-6 of the Medium Flat Rate boxes and stacking them on top of each other to create their own letter trays.
                                                                    
However, I did not want them to look like this in my classroom. See the ugly letter trays above to see why. I enjoy color and brightness in my classroom. Once again, I wanted a DIY project that included more than taping or hot gluing 5-6 boxes together.

My Letter Trays:

Materials Needed:

• Medium Flat Rate Boxes (I got them for free from the local post office)
• Scrapbook paper
• Packaging Tape
• Duct Tape
• Modge Podge
• Medium foam brush
• Label Maker (optional)

Steps to creating these beauties: 

(I apologize for not having pictures during the process, I promise to get better...I didn't know I was going to blog about them at the time).

1. Stack the number of boxes on top of one another. I have 5 boxes because I have 5 class periods.
2. Use packing tape to tape the boxes together, tightly. This gives you the basic framework.
3. Measure and cut down your scrapbook paper. 
4. Use a medium foam brush to apply a coat of Modge Podge onto the paper and the box.
5. Use your duct tape to cover the sides and back of the box. I extended the duct tape into the boxes. In the picture, you can see the inside of the cardboard boxes but when just putting papers in it, you'll not see it.
6. Using the medium foam brush Modge Podge scrapbook paper into the inside of the boxes to give it something extra.

After I created these letter trays, I wanted a way to mark which period the papers need to go into. Now, you may be thinking...can't the kids just count and put the papers in the right slot? The answer would be no. I have learned it is better to label, label, label! I decided to decorate binder clips to show the students their designated tray.

Materials Needed:

  

• Binder Clips (8 pack, 41MM $1.00 at Dollar Tree)
• Small Foam Brush
• Pencil
• Scrap Paper (any color, I used scrapbook paper)
• Modge Podge
• Scissors

Steps to Creating:

Measure paper to cover the binder clip and cut it.

Use the foam brush to apply a thin layer of Modge Podge onto one side of the binder clip, then press paper onto the binder clip.

Complete one side at a time to make sure the paper has been applied evenly.

Complete steps for the remaining binder clips. Once again, I did 5 because I have 5 class periods.

The next step is optional. I used my amazing label maker to print out the labels to put onto these binder c lips.

Finished Products: