Do You WASHI?! A Crafting Obsession Turned Bright Idea

Time for another installment of the Bright Ideas Link Up!

I love this linky because I have already gathered so many different ideas to implement in my classroom from the last few ones! I cannot wait to see all the ideas this month, too! When you've gone through my bright idea, be sure to scroll to the bottom for the link up of the other bright ideas from a variety of teacher bloggers across all grade levels!

My bright idea is all about that WASHI stuff.

OH my gosh. Do I have an obsession with washi or what?! What you see above is only HALF of what I've got. I have a box stuffed in my closet full of the stuff!

Well, washi tape is obviously great for crafting. It's decorative, fun, bright, and just all around useful. I've used it in scrapbooking to hold pictures in, I've used it to wrap my presents with, and I've even used it to seal envelopes in a cutesy way!

BUT, do you know of the AMOUNT of uses that washi tape has in the classroom!? OH MY GOSH. The possibilities are endless!!!

This year alone, I've used washi tape in 4 different areas of my classroom. The first area I used it in was on my whiteboard to divide it up into sections. I've got an area where my kiddos are responsible for their attendance (they move their number to the "here" side when here, and leave it on the "not here" side when they aren't here). I've got an area set up to display my standards for the Common Core. And I've got an area for my homework club. The area that's not "roped off" is where I write throughout the day. LOVE the way it looks!!

Then, I took the same style washi tape and I divided my tables down the middle so each student knew where their "space" was. This is my first time having tables instead of desks and so I wanted to make sure my kiddos knew what area they had so that they didn't interfere with other students' areas. 

Not only does it make the room feel functional and well planned out, but it's also BEAUTIFUL!

{Link to Glitz's blog post about the tape}

The tape I used is by Glitz and it's called Color Me Happy. It ties in PERFECTLY with my classroom decor which is just bright rainbow colors.

Beyond that, my students have individual composition books for each subject: science, math, reading, and social studies. In order to identify which black/white spec composition book is the correct one, I put a color coded tape on the spine.

Science is green, math is yellow, reading is red, and social studies is blue. This helps my students be able to find the correct notebook for each subject when we need to use them. Instead of pulling out every composition book or looking in every cover, they can easily look at the spine and see the correct color notebook that they need.

Washi tape is SO versatile and I cannot wait to see how else I can find ways to use in the classroom.

Do you use washi tape, either at home or in the classroom? I'd love to hear about how you use it, where you get it from, and how many rolls you have ;)

If you'd like to check out other ways that I use bright ideas in my classroom, please feel free to head to my Facebook page or my Pinterest page.

Now that you've read my bright idea, make sure to check out the other 70+ ideas below! You'll be sure to find some fantastic ones!

An InLinkz Link-up