You Oughta Know Blog Hop-January

What You Oughta Know About Using 5 Gallon Buckets

in the Classroom

What do 5 gallon buckets and a classroom have in common? No, they can't serve as a place to hide during a full moon week at school...but they can serve as some really awesome seating options for your students!

At the beginning of this school year, I realized that my classroom was in need of a serious facelift. I begin to search for ideas that would be easy to do and that my 5th graders would enjoy...I set my heart on using crates to create new "stools" for my kiddos. As I begin to collect supplies, it hit me! Why not use 5 gallon buckets? I was so proud of what I thought was an original idea...however, I have since seen it on Pinterest. Either way, original idea or not, I think using 5 gallon buckets is a classroom must-have (especially for older students!).

My father-in-law works for a construction company, so he has 5 gallon buckets lying around everywhere. I was fortunate that I was able to get all 6 of my buckets for FREE! Who doesn't love free?! Next, I bought some cute fabric that was on the thicker side ( I wanted it to be able to withstand wear and tear--so far, so good...). Below are the steps I took to create my buckets:

1) I used spray paint for plastic items to paint my buckets.
2) Next, I used poly-fiberfill and fabric to cover the lids of the buckets. I simply hot glued the fabric around the fiberfill. (hot glue=teacher's best friend) I tried to push the fabric into the grooves of the lid. In the picture below of the lid, you can see that it looks much neater if the fabric is pushed into the grooves. As I completed each lid, I found that putting hot glue around the groove, covering it with the fabric, and then quickly putting it on bucket with a little weight helped the fabric stay a lot snugger.

That's it! In a total of about an hour, I had some super cute and really cheap new seats for my classroom! I have been amazed at how well-loved these seats have been too! My students nearly fight over who is going to sit on a bucket. In fact, I have had to issue some "bucket bans" when things get out of hand! (You can tell from my pictures that my buckets have been quite LOVED!)

Other than being super cute, I have found that these can also serve as storage in my classroom. I have a couple of students who need to be seated away from other students at different tables in my classroom. Rather than having students leave their materials on my tables and make them look cluttered up, they simply lift the lid and place their belongings that would usually be housed in a desk in my room in their assigned bucket. (These would also be great to use to house small group supplies at a teacher's station.)

I'll tell you, what started out as wanting to give my classroom a facelift, has turned into a classroom hack that everyone should try! I am planning to add more buckets to my classroom next year, simply because everyone loves them--the students especially!

Now that you've read my, "You Oughta Know" blog, hop on over to read other helpful hints! Don't forget to leave them some love too! (By the way, I'd love to have you follow my TpT store, my Pinterest boards, and blog...)

Thanks for stopping by!
Elaine, Teaching Lane

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