Going For It

I've decided to do the Daily Five method and CAFE menu. I had bought the books last summer but didn't get around to reading them. I read them both this summer (largely because the word "vacation" confuses me) and you know...I am suddenly all in. It seems like there are pieces of various things I've been using (reading workshop, guided reading, etc.) but I'm moving down to second grade next year (from third) and having the full power of their road map under me feels like the right thing to do. Hold my hand?

In preparing for "read to self" I made a class set (for me, that's 32...ahem) of whisper reading phones. These were a breeze to make and exceptionally cheap too.

It looks like the ones you can purchase (don't click that unless you have $5 per phone) are more like 3/4" around for the tube. I used pvc plumbing pipe (a 10 ft length I purchased at a home improvement center for around $1.75) in 1/2" size. It comes in 3/4" size, but the thing is, is that I had a bag of 25 of the elbow joints in 1/2" size ($5 for a bag of 25) and that was reason enough for me. I mocked one up and I had my In House Quality Control Department (my own second grade son) test it out for me. It looked and felt fine for him, so there we go!

I might be the only teacher on the planet who epic fails every time I try to play the "Um...pretty please I am a teacher, can I get this cut/have a small discount/ask if there are any discards" card. So when I asked, "Hi, I'm a teacher and I need this 10 ft pole cut into 3.5" pieces for a class project...is there any way to do that with an electronic saw?" ...I wasn't that surprised that I got a teenager with dreadlocks shrugging his shoulder and saying, "Nah, cuz that doesn't go through the saw." Fine. I'll saw it with a hack saw on the miter bench in the molding aisle. Thankfully my long-suffering husband had come with me and we took turns sawing and nursing our aching shoulders. All in all, for 15 minutes of sawing, it turned out fine.

So, cut the 10 ft. pvc piping into 3.5" lengths. Buy two pvc elbow joints in matching width (for me 1/2" elbows) for each phone. Put an elbow on each end of the pipe and muscle it down as far as it will go. I added a round of colorful duct tape for no other reasons than a) I had some and b) it covered the printing some of the pipe pieces were sporting.

Total cost for 35 phones (gotta make some extras, you know how it is): $1.75 for pipe, $10 for 50 elbows, plus one bag of elbows and duct tape I already had on hand. Don't forget $0.59 for the bag of frozen peas I used to soothe my saw-injured shoulder. That makes 35 phones for 12 bucks.

If you have a lot less kids than me (mazel tov!), there is also an option of buying the elbows at around $0.29 each. So if you need to make like, 27 phones, you could buy two bags and 4 extra elbows so that you don't have a bunch of extra elbows.

Right now I'm deciding between numbering these for my Littles versus having some wipes to just give them a run down when you want to use one. I don't really have the OMG GERMS! bone but...I could use advice if you're feeling that way inclined. Seems to me if they are numbered and privately held, they should just go in their book boxes so they aren't all piled up in one big germ-fest. If you've had any experience with this type of thing, I would love to hear about it, thanks!