Perfect PINK Pencil Sharpener GIVE AWAY!

Exciting news, Troy at Classroom Friendly supplies has announced a new color in his line-up of seriously amazing pencil sharpeners...PINK!

You may remember my give away this summer of one of his sweet pencil sharpeners.  (Check out the link for my full product review, but bottom line: you want one of these!)

The best part is that $1 of every purchase is going to cancer charities  Caleb's Crusade and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

And awesome Troy contacted me about running another giveaway for a pink (or blue, green, black, or red) sharpener!  Woot. 

The give away will run until September 9 at 12 am. To enter you must “Like” Classroom Friendly Supplies on Facebook. Leave me a comment below to let me know you entered and spread the word. 

Must be a US resident to win.  Check out more info and purchase your own sharpener here...free shipping included! 



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*This giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to the winner, Kathleen Butler!!

Pencil Sharpener GIVE AWAY!

Back in August I shared with you my love of my Classroom Friendly Supplies pencil sharpener.  It was a hit all year long.  ATPs even told me how their students would always come over to my room to hit it up.  And now they want their own!

Well I thought I'd help out all the awesome teachers out there by hosting a give away.  (How awesome is Troy at Classroom Friendly Supplies to sponsor this, by the way!  And he seriously responds to emails thisfast.)  Please enter and spread the word. 

The give away is for a sharpener in your choice of color (green, blue, red, and black) and will run until June 23 at 12 am.  To enter you must “Like” Classroom Friendly Supplies on Facebook.  Leave me a comment below to let me know you entered and spread the word (well, at least tell teachers near your classroom and then send your students over there if they win!).  Must be a US resident to win.

And even if you aren't the big winner, you should probably just go ahead and buy a sharpener anyway. Trust me on this. They're $24.95 (with FREE shipping!) from Classroom Friendly Supplies.  That's NOTHING for a little extra sanity!

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Classroom Tour pt 3- Special Paper

I still remember the first day of student teaching, when my glorious mentor showed her students a special part of her classroom- the special paper binder.

Admittedly, at the time I thought it was sort of an odd thing to address on the first day amongst learning names, organizing supplies, and touring the school.  But it captiavted the students!  She had a binder of 100+ different types of special stationary and she offered it up for publishing special pieces of writing.  Right away students went to work creating pieces that would be worthy.  She even covered her door with a "Writing Hall of Fame" all published on this special paper.

And I stole the idea and ran with it!  Over the years I have collected over 125 different types of stationary.  These came from the dollar store or were donated by parents.  Whenever we get towards the end of a writing unit, the special paper binder becomes a very popular attraction in my classroom.

 

 

For the ease of management, I have one of each type in a binder with a post-it number.  In my file cabinet, I have numbered folders the correspond to the binder.

 

The students look through the binder to chose which design they'd like then leave a post-it with the number they'd like on the piece they want copied.  When I get a stack of several, I take them to the copy machine and voila!  Here are a few tips to help organize:

Give it a try and see what it does to encourage your writers.  Don't be afraid to start small.

Dull Pencils are Pointless!

(pun intended)

So last week was not only exciting because it was the first week of school, but it was also the christening of my brand new pencil sharpener.  You may wonder why I am so excited over a pencil sharpener... but actually, if you do, you may not be a teacher.

I have actually written letters to my pencil sharpener (PS) during journaling time (closer to hate mail really) about how it was totally distracting a whole community of writers from the task at hand.  Old PS was loud, always broken, and would completely eat a brand new pencil down to almost nothing before doing its job.

New PS is a complete redesign from Classroom Friendly Supplies.  Troy and the good people at CFS have retooled the old sharpener in a way that is quiet, effective, easy, and fun for students to use.  (Watch the video here to see it in action.)

 

Check out that point!  And it stays for a really long time.

 

This is the clip the sharpener comes with to hold it in place.  We're having moderate success getting it to stay.  I wrote an email to Troy at CFS and he personally responded (talk about customer service!) with the recommendation to use hot glue to more permanently affix my new friend.

 

 

It's positioned only a few inches from old PS who hangs on the wall.  No one seems to visit him at all this year and pencil sharpening disractions have been almost nonexistent this year. 

 

It's a little messy after a few days in action, but the students love it.  One students came up to me today and suggested adding a little piece of tape to hold the clear shavings tray in place and I think we'll try that to minimize a little of the mess.

 

 

 

I asked my students to rate our new pencil sharpener and they all gave it two thumbs up!

*End of the year update: our new PS was a hit! Students would actually walk across the hall to use it because it is so much more efficient than the other ones on our walls.  And it held up beautifully allllll year!