Pool Noodles ~ ~ who knew?!?

As most of you know I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life…with that being said I often think about water, goggles, pull buoys, etc.  Weird and quirky yes…but I own it.  I spent years trying to wash the chlorine smell off my body and realized one day it was just a part of me and accepted it. 

So when I saw the colorful pool noodles at the Dollar Tree ~ ~ it got me thinking….how can I use those in my classroom with my students and to solve life problems I was having…well here you go!

One thing that drives me absolutely batty is the way they constructed our doors.  We have hallways in our school and our doors don’t have built in door stops and they are kinda heavy.  I have this very worn piece of wood that I shove in the door to hold it open.  Also our back door needs to remain locked but kids go out often for recess, breaks and to their backpack hooks.  So this came to mind:

If you want the kids to be able to get in and out without having a door monitor or herd of crazy kids excited to answer the door than use this noodle on the edge.  Quick easy in and out and pull it off fast in an emergency.

Next up….even though I’m loving third grade and not wanting to go back to first I find myself finding hacks for firsties.  Maybe because it just might be the HARDEST grade to teach.  I applaud all my first grade teachers ~ ~ I did it for 15 years whew!  It wore me out even though I loved it.  How about for segmenting sounds?  To make it more fun ~ use pool noodles in your small group.  My teenage daughter plays the drums so I just stuck them on one of her old drum sticks…you could use a large pencil, kitchen utensil or pointer too.

My big kids would probably even love some math fun with these: 

There’s so many things you can do with pool noodles.  If you are able to get your hands on a bunch it would be fun to add to a block center in kindergarten or preschool. You can cut them up and kids could stack them or lace them – the options are endless.  What have you done with pool noodles?