The Paint Can

During the summer, I really like to take time to do projects that have inspired me over the school year that I don't have time to sit down and do amidst the chaos. One project that I knew I wanted to tackle was creating a center where students could free-write in their writer's notebooks using motivating prompts. I found some great prompts on different websites, but they were all on simple cards and I didn't think my students would get excited about choosing one. Enter The Paint Can.

The original plan was to create a Journal Jar that looked something like the picture on the right. Thanks to good ol' Pinterest though, I decided to be wild and crazy and use paint samples from Lowe's to write the prompts on.

Once I had my free paint samples in hand, it was off to Michael's to find a mason jar. After scouring the store for twenty minutes and dropping a stack of scrapbook boxes off a top shelf on my husband's head (I really needed to see if they were on sale - oops!), I stumbled upon the perfect container: a faux paint can!

When I got home, I wrote the prompts on the paint samples and folded them into triangles. Then I jammed gently placed the triangle prompts in and voila! My first Pinterest-worthy masterpiece (if I do say so myself!).  

So if I had to pick one project that I was proudest of this summer, it would have to be The Paint Can. During down time, my students can pop the lid off with the handy-dandy lid-popper do-hickey (official term, obviously), pick out a prompt and get writing!

I'm really excited to head back into my classroom tomorrow and start unpacking everything to get ready for the school year - it's going to be a busy week!