Here are a few of my favorite teacher tips! Some of these you may have heard of, some maybe not. Please add your own helpful tips in the comments section below! We can all help each other out.
1. Use felt scraps for dry erase lapboard erasers.
I cut felt scraps into squares for the children to erase their lapboards. They work great and are very inexpensive! I’ve also heard of teachers using socks to erase them.
2. Remove permanent marker with a dry erase marker.
If you get permanent marker on a dry erase surface, just color over it with a dry erase marker and it will wipe clean. If all doesn’t come off, try doing the same thing again. This also works for old dry erase writing that won’t come off.
3. Keep markers upside down.
I keep the markers the kids use as well as my dry erase markers for the whiteboard upside down to make them last longer. It’s all about gravity. If you store them right side up, the liquid ink in the marker in going to flow down to the wrong end. Turn them upside down, and the ink will flow towards the tip.
4. Wet your dried out markers.
If you have a marker that has dried out, just wet the tip with a couple of drops of water, close the cap, and let it sit overnight. The marker will work the next day. This only works for water based markers.
5. Dry erase marker caps make perfect game pieces.
Save those colorful caps from dry erase markers. They make the perfect game pieces for path games! Each child can choose their own color.
6. Keep a pile of roster lists.
This is one thing I use all the time in my classroom. I have a roster of the children’s names and make lots of copies to keep in a stack. When I need one, I just grab one from the stack. These lists can be used to keep track of all kinds of things. When children turn in money, I grab a roster list and as kids bring it to school, their name is crossed off. I use it for school pictures turned in, school T-shirts bought, track whose progress reports I’ve done, cross kids off as I put them in small groups — numerous things.
I’m including a downloadable Word Doc template of this file. Just type your students’ names into both columns, insert a clipart at the top if you choose, and print. Make several copies and cut them in half.
Download: Checklist Roster Sheets (DOC)
7. Keep track of who had a turn.
I have a “Who Had a Turn Folder” that I keep near my large group area to keep track of who had a turn. When we do a song or game where kids get to take a turn to participate, I write down who had a turn so the next time we play the game or song, I’m sure to choose kids who have not had a turn. Often I stick a sticky note inside the folder and write down the names of the kids who had a turn, but you can also use the roster list mentioned in #6.
8. Add Vaseline to your glue caps.
Glue bottle caps tend to get clogged and the kids can’t squeeze the glue out. When the bottles are brand new, pop off the caps, and smear a glob of Vaseline in the cap with a Q-tip. Snap the cap back on and your glue bottles won’t clog. My glue bottles last the whole year.
9. Take a playground basket to recess.
I have a playground basket that always goes out to the playground with us. The main things I have in it are tissues and bandaids. Some schools may require you to take a First Aid kit onto the playground, but tissues and bandaids are the minimum. We pretty much use those two items from our basket every single day.
10. Use mesh bags for washing manipulatives.
To clean manipulatives like Unifix cubes, counting bears, Legos, and similar small items, put them in a mesh bag to disinfect them. I’ve heard of teachers putting the bag of manipulatives in a dishwasher, however we don’t have a dishwasher at my school. I’ve found the easiest thing to be to put a little bleach in a bucket of water and put the mesh bag of manipulatives down in the bucket. Then the bag can be hung on a fence to dry in the sun. (Of course, I do this when the kids are not at school because of the bleach.)
11. Dye your own craft sticks.
If you need a certain color of craft sticks for a project, such as a craft stick Christmas tree or a Mother’s Day picture frame, there’s no need to buy colored craft sticks. Just take your plain craft sticks and dye them yourself. You can paint them with liquid watercolor or with bingo markers. Bingo markers might be the easiest, but I really like the vibrant color of the liquid watercolor.
12. Put sandwich bags in your paint cups.
I had a picture of my paint cups in my post about covering my art easel and several people noticed the plastic bags in my paint cups. Buy either ziplock sandwich bags or the bags without a zipper on top, line your paint cups with the bags, and fill the cups with paint. When the paint runs out, pull out the bag and throw it away. No mess to clean up!
Remember to add your own helpful teaching tips in the comments below!
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Fantastic tips. Thanks so much for compiling this list. I love the idea of storing markers upside down, genius! I also appreciate the link you gave for your roster lists. I can tell you have lots of experience in the classroom. Thanks
I put the marker caps in a margarine tub partially filled with plaster of Paris. (Make sure the caps are positioned to hold the markers upright when the plaster hardens.) Once the caps are secure, you can store the markers upside down and never lose the caps.
Ive been teaching for two years so these tips have been very helpful !
Glad to hear it! I knew there would be some new-ish teachers out there who could benefit!
Hello Karen, I just got a job to start teaching pre-kindergarten (first time teacher), and your site has been sooo helpful. …..thanks for sharing.
hi Karen, even us veteran teachers can benefit from these helpful tips! Thank you so much for sharing!
I like your idea of plastic in cup of paint. I use the egg cartons cut the twelve egg holders apart to make cups for the paint, when done, throw them away
We use dried out markers for “water color painting”. Give each child a small cup of water to dip a marker in and “paint” their coloring pages. Clean up is a breeze!
The last one! I’ve never thought of that. Very useful tips. Thank you 🙂
nice tips, some really usefull
#8 is great
I will definitely try the Vaseline in the glue top!!! Clogged glue bottles are always a problem!!
I use clothes pins with kids names written in permanent marker in several ways:
1) I hot glue a clothes to a laminated sheet of construction paper. I use these to display completed student work.
2) I put all of the clothes pins inside a small basket or box. Each time the kids need to go to the restroom, they clip their clothes pin up around the edge of the basket. This allows me to quickly see who is in the restroom, and the kids know to wait if someone is already in the restroom.
3) I keep another small bin or basket and clip clothes pins with the kids name of them around the edge. I choose a name and invite the child to share something they learned -a journal entry, favorite book, science log discovery, etc.
Thanks to everyone for sharing great tips!
Thank you for the tips these will come in handy.
Thank you for great ideas. I think that i can use many of them.
Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful tips!! I have never heard of putting Vaseline into the glue bottle lids — I LOVE it and will do so this year!
GREAT tips! I especially love the Vaseline in the glue caps and the sandwich bag in the paint cup!
=:)
Use spray sunscreen (the cheaper the better) to remove permanent marker from practically any surface. I laminate all of my nameplates and other places where the kids names are and then reuse every year.
Also, I do make a few copies of our class roster but I laminate them or place them in page protectors. Then you can use dry erase markers for kids to check off when they’ve been to a center or for when they’ve had a turn or when they bring in money or forms, etc.
Thanks for all the great tips!
I also use rubbing alcohol for removing permanent marker from anything. It allows me to also reuse a lot of labeled items in my room.
Thanks for sharing these useful tips.
Love these!!!! I had a question about the vaseline and the glue. Not quite sure where exactly to put it, inside the orange tip or all around the rim or both. Can’t wait to try this. Can’t stand glue bottles that won’t work 🙂
Inside the orange tip. 🙂
It gets really hot in Texas in August. When we go outside for recess, I take a small spritzer bottle outside. When it’s time to line up, they come running because they love for me to spritz their hot faces.
Great tips! I also use old socks for white board erasers. Hand sanitizer will also take off permanent markers. I laminate most of my pieces with the children’s name on them and reuse them every year this way.
Use Mr. Clean erasers to remove permanent marker from laminated cut outs, name tags, and anything else you want to reuse.
I use the same method for dyeing craft sticks that I use for rice or pasta. Put them in a zip-top bag with liquid watercolor and a splash of rubbing alcohol. Shake them around until both sides are covered and then dump them out on newspaper to dry.
Really useful tips..the vaseline tip i will try.. who knew!! Thanks so much..
Thank you so much for posting such helpful tips! I also put snack/sandwich bags in my paint cups. I look forward to implementing a lot of your other recommendations!
Jillian
Thanks so much for all the wonderful ideas! We already put sandwich bags into our paint cups and it saves so much time!
When we do arts and crafts with our JK children, we save odds and ends of construction paper as well as the leftover craft items that aren’t enough to divide among the children for a second craft, (ex. 5 cotton balls, 7 popsicle sticks, etc) and put them aside in a plastic storage box. Every so often, we put out the box on an “imagination table” and let the children make whatever they want with the leftovers. Sometimes their creations are unbelievable!
Great Ideas! 🙂
Karen, do you know what removes the sticky residue from the tape on the wood surfaces? We taped pictures on the wood shelves/surfaces for around one or two months. When we removed the pictures and the tape, the sticky stuff from the tape still stuck on the wood. I tried using credit/gift cards and my finger nail to scrape it out, it took quite a long time, and my fingers were getting hurt. Another thing was that, even I scraped out the sticky residue, there were still a little bit sticky on the surface because I can feel it. We did use some kind of liquid solution to try to remove it, but no luck. I forgot the name of the liquid solution. Please advice. Thank you.
Hi Felicia! Lemon essential oil works wonderfully, but it can be expensive. You can also use Goo Gone (you can find it pretty much anywhere: Target, Lowes, etc.)
hand sanitizer works for this also . .
Goo Gone is great to remove sticky from surfaces.
Great tips! I like to prep a page of stickers by peeling off the giant “sticker” that surrounds all the little ones. It makes it much easier for little fingers to get ahold of the sticker they need and remove it.
Omw, so simple but will really help the little ones ?
Great and fantastic tips!!! I love #7 & #9 I´ll use this school year. Thanks for share your knowledges.
Great tips ! Thanks for sharing
The Mr. Clean magic eraser is also very useful to erase crayon and markers marks on the tables !
You couldn’t possibly know how much of a blessing you are to me! I really want to give my best this school year ,and all of your suggestions and advice has been amazing!!! I love the 12 teaching tips, the calendar time which sounds so much more interactive and meaningful and so much more. I pray many blessings in your life for giving so much of yourself so freely!
Thank you for the sweet message, Magretta! I hope you have a wonderful year!