Having previously written about the household uses of binder clips, I thought it might be fun to do a classroom version here. Following is a quick list of suggestions for various grade levels of classroom instruction.
Use them along with pushpins to display artwork creatively.
Out of staples, or just want a more industrial, grown-up feel for displaying your students’ work? Clip the tops with binder clips and hang the steel hooks over the pushpins on a wall or covered bulletin board. Bonus? Parents dig the unexpected.
Note card holders.
Flickr Photo Credit: Gideon Strauss
Have a few students who need a tiny bit of modification when it comes to being able to look at the board and then back down at their seatwork? Or maybe you are still having to individualize a bit more, even within small instructional groups. Turn a couple of binder clips upside down and use them to hold an index card with directions printed on them. Also great if you want to help out a kiddo with self esteem issues. Put a supportive statement like “you rock” or “keep trying, you can do it” on the card. Then place it on their desk so they can look up for an emotional boost whenever they want.
Edgy, modern oil painting display for high school students.
Flickr Photo Credit: Dano
After the paintings have dried, but before you send them home, display them on a colored background. These are heavier, so they will probably take nails instead of pushpins. Older students will dig this.
Keeping stacks of office communication together.
Particularly useful if you are sending a younger, more accident-prone “helper” to the office secretary. This will give those with less coordination but otherwise great responsibility a chance to shine. Besides, you never know when you might bump into someone on the way. So if you use them all the time, nobody has to feel singled out at the one who needs the extra help.
Classroom easel support.
Need to keep those large pads of paper attached for morning language or on-the-floor brainstorming? A few large binder clips will get the job done.
Using art supplies to their fullest extent.
Similar to the way many people use them to keep their toothpaste tubes neat and completely “squeezed”, this could be used for squeezable paint tubes as well.
Got any other pearls of binder clip wisdom? Let us know.
Flickr Photo Credit: Ms. Tea
