A Few Weeks Shy of the Real World

I know that many of you may already know about this teaching idea, but for those of you who don’t here are my cheap white boards.  Being a first year teacher I do not have the money or resources for my students to each have their own mini white boards.  One of my friends purchased them for her kindergarteners and spent upwards of $100.  These homemade white boards are stored in binders and are created with a sheet protector and plain sheet of paper. These work just as good as white boards do and can easily be replaced if ruined.  Today I spent $10 to create 50 white boards. (The students will store them in their own binders.) 

Even better, there are several uses for these babies.  

Centers: 

• While my students are busy working in groups I will set out five binders that include worksheets in sheet protectors.  Students at this center will complete these worksheets with dry erase markers.  The skinnier the dry erase markers the better.  
• These binders make for the savior of several trees and my valuable time at the copy machine.  

Tracing: 

• My students are (against my will) learning cursive. I have several who need the extra practice and these sheet protectors allow them to practice as many times as they’d like without wasting tons of paper. 

Math Facts: 

• Because my students are so young they still need math drills.  We can quickly pull out our binders and take a one minute test that requires no paper passing out and almost no clean up. 

If you use these in your classroom or have any ideas, care to share?