Rock Your Locker!

Some of my tweens just started middle school this year which means: LOCKERS! So I wanted to give them a chance to make their own locker decorations.

This program is pretty flexible with regards to content. The only thing you absolutely need is magnets. Everything else is negotiable; that is to say, the projects that go on those magnets can be pretty much whatever you can make with what you have on hand.

Here's what we made:

1 - Duct Tape Envelopes

Wrap duct tape around a manila envelope and put magnets on the back. These can hold papers, notes... whatever you want. I cut my envelope shorter when I made it so that I could clearly see the papers sticking out of it, but that's a matter of personal preference. Bonus: you can use the top part of the envelope that was just cut to make another folder! Just tape the bottom shut.

2 - Clothespin Clips

We decorated clothespins and then put a strip of magnet tape on the back. These can hold photos, notes, or whatever you want. I had a glitter glue option available, but in the future I'll stick to the jewels, paper flowers, and sharpies. The glitter is just too much mess and takes too long to dry. And I like the flower one better anyway. 

3 - Laminated Letters 

I let the girls (I had only girls this time) use my Lakeshore Learning Die-Cut Machine and a set of capital letters to cut their names out of cardstock. Those were laminated and then magnetized. I had some nice cardstock designs and the girls really liked this one. 

4 - Whiteboards

This was the hit of the session. I had some 4x6 dollar store frames from another project (if you are buying them just for this, though, I'd buy 8x10 to make them a little bigger), so we removed the back, covered it in duct tape, decorated the frame, and put the whole this back together. I had bought some packs of whiteboard markers at the local FiveBelow, so they got one of those, too. 

They were also encouraged to decorate the frames themselves, which they did with gusto.

Magnets on the back and a whiteboard marker makes this a colorful locker whiteboard!

The timing is obviously important with this one and, if I do it again, I'll probably do it a little sooner in the school year just to get that group of kids who are excited by the new year and new school supplies (yes, I was one of them! So many clean new notebooks!).