One of my relaxation projects yesterday, after a very busy week preparing for my new classroom, was to make "Dry Erase Pockets". It occurred to me that this would be a great gift for a teacher that would take little time and little money, if the teacher has small dry erase boards for his/her students to use.

I took old T-shirts, the kind with scruffy necks and underarm issues, and cut them into rectangles of about 5" x 8". I didn't use the sleeves, neckline, or shoulder areas of the shirts. I hemmed one edge (used my serger), then folded them in half, and stitched around the 2 non-hemmed, non-folded edges (also used my serger). Voila, one makes a "pocket". Insert a dry-erase marker, and then the teacher hands out the marker and its eraser (the pocket) all at once. Periodically, the teacher can collect the pockets and take them home to be laundered.

It takes about 3 adult-sized T-shirts (size L) to get a class set of 32. No old t-shirts? Garage sales and thrift stores are full of them, in lots of colors, and cheap! A spot on one of them? OK, either include the spot (I did) or cut around it.

If the teacher doesn't have little white boards for student use (and they are very handy on all levels, but particularly K-8), another parent might want to make this a paired project by providing the little white boards. Simply go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a 4'x8' piece of white shower wall board -- about $13. They may cut it for you (we had them make 3 cuts to get it into our camper shell) or it can be done as a DITY project. Cut them into 32 approximate 12"x12" sections. Voila, individual whte boards.

Donna

This post was edited by donnar57 on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 13:52