Monday Made It!

I created these adorable bucket seats to use at my reading table!  So far, I love them!  They hardly take up any space, and they're adorable to boot! 

Start with a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.  I purchased mine for $1 each at a store called Mark's Feed Store.  They sell their old buckets and donate the money to a good cause.  Plus, they were much cheaper than the buckets you'd buy at Home Depot or Lowes.  They required a little bit of cleaning, but it was worth it!  I saved like $3 per bucket, and I bought 6 of them.

You also need:
-Foam, such as a foam mattress pad.  I purchased mine at Walmart for $10.
-Batting, if you wish.  I purchased mine at JoAnn Fabrics with a coupon.
-Fabric.  Mine came from Hobby Lobby.
-Scotch Guard, if you use white fabric like I did!  Originally I was going to cover them with plastic, but I didn't like it, so I had to come up with plan B!
-Hot glue.  Lots and lots of hot glue.

1. Get your lid ready. 

2. Then cut your mattress pad/foam into a circle that fits on your lid.  Hot glue the circle onto the lid. 

3.  Cut out a second circle from the foam and glue it on top of the first circle. 

4.  Cover the lid with batting, and glue to the underside of your lid.  Trim the excess off the lid.  

5.  Cover the lid and batting with the fabric.  Glue to the underside of the lid.  Then trim the excess fabric. 

See how I trimmed and glued the fabric?  I made sure it was inside the part where the lid snaps onto the bucket. 

7.  Turn it over, and make sure it is tight.  Glue any loose parts.


Then you have your buckets!  Put them in your classroom! 

And fill it with materials!  They are great for storage!  This one is 2/3 of the way full of glue sticks. :-)  This also helps the kids keep them on the ground and not move them around as much. 

That is my first Monday Made It!

I also have another Monday Made It that I'm excited about!

I made my adorable Visual "I Can" Statements, but I needed a cute and fun way to hang them.  So I bought some magnets and buttons from Hobby Lobby and created these cute little magnets that are color coordinated for my "I Can" Statements.

Here are the buttons!  I simply hot glued the button onto the magnet.
 

Each of the "I Can" Statements is held down by 2 of the magnets.  I purchased 2 sets of magnets and 2 sets of buttons, which made 24 magnets. 

And as I typed this post, I realized that the magnets match the headers for each subject!  Adorable!  I love it when things coordinate!

If you liked either of these ideas, please share!

11 comments:

  1. I love your 5 gallon bucket seats! And what a huge amount of storage, too! Love your magnets...now I must make some fun ones! (We used to have boring yellow ones that I drew smiley faces on years ago, but that was the extent of it.)

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  2. Those bucket seats are just too cool! I would have never thought of something like that. :)

    NotJustChild'sPlay

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  3. The giraffe you made is adorable. I love the owls in your Etsy shop too! Absolutely adorable!
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  4. Love the bucket seats. What a great idea, thanks for sharing!

    Jamie
    teachingtidbit.blogspot.com

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  5. Loving all of it! I love all the storage in the bucket seats- needed those in my first classroom! The button magnets are so cute! And I'm going to wishlist that fall Bingo for next year for sure!

    Heather
    The Land of I Can

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  6. How did the buckets work out last year? You said you loved them "so far" in your entry here... just wondering if you still loved them in June!

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    1. YES! I love them! They hold so much stuff, so extra crayons, glue, etc... that the kids bring in can go in those seats. I can also use them to store my own stuff. The key, I have found, is keeping them kind of heavy because sometimes the kids will knock the empty ones over while they are sitting on them. But I can fill them up with supplies and that keeps the kids from knocking them over. I am getting ready to recover the tops with some laminated fabric I found. :-)

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  7. I love your bucket seats! I am trying to make them myself. When I wrap the fabric around the cushions, the side bunches up in a few places. I want it smooth like yours. :) Any tips?

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  8. My students store their own supplies inside but sometimes the lids are too hard to get off, any ideas about that?

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