What's Going on in the Classroom: DIY Hall Passes

So it's not quite the end of summer yet, one week left! However, I think (and I don't want to jinx myself here, but I think...) I'm all ready for heading back. Got a lot of curriculum work done this summer, especially in reference to Photo 1 and I'm ready to get back into the classroom and make sure supplies and decor are ready to go.

Speaking of decor, one of the things that was on my to do list this summer was to create some cool and more durable hall passes. In the past, my hall passes were just laminated pieces of paper featuring an image of the TARDIS, because yes I'm that teacher.

Let me just say, that those hall passes did not last long and I made several new ones throughout the course of the year. So to remedy that, I did some googling and I found a couple of ideas that I really liked and combined into  DIY hall passes that should (fingers crossed) last me this year and beyond. First I found the idea of using paint stirring sticks on this blog. Now this lady uses them for marking where library books go, but I thought, what a great idea for art room hall passes!

But I wanted a little more than that, so I kept looking and found this adorable set up on this Etsy Shop.

Now being as I teach high school, I didn't think I needed all the different types of passes, but I really did like the idea of hanging them up etc. So here's how I went combining these two ideas and making one of my own. 

1. I gathered up all the supplies I would need. Paint colors of choice (I ended up using purple and gold), paint brushes, masking tape, piece of medium thickness wood (found at Hobby Lobby), some paint sticks picked up for free at Lowe's and gold hooks also gotten at Lowe's. I also used Mod Podge and a black paint marker, not pictured here.

2. I knew I wanted to do stripes on the paint sticks that would become the hall passes so I used masking tape to make even stripes.

3. I painted the exposed stripes purple. Let them dry over night so I didn't remove any paint when I pulled off the tape and then painted the other areas gold.

4. Next to do the plaque that would hold the paint stick passes. I used some tape again to make an even border and painted the middle part using purple. Then I found some cool fonts on Google to use for the lettering. I liked this one because it reminded me of Harry Potter. I sketched out the letters LIGHTLY with a pencil and then painted over the pencil with gold paint and a veeeerrrry tiny brush.

5. Now in our schools hall passes have to have the room number and building on it. So I used a black paint marker and white paint to outline the words on the paint sticks. 

 6. Look at all those finished beauties! After that I drilled some holes to put ribbon in to hang the sticks and also the plaque and starter holes for the golden hooks. I also wanted to make sure that the paint didn't chip. Kids are super hard on the hall passes for some reason. So I gave them a couple of coats of Mod Podge for good measure.

And tada! Finished product! I'm super happy with the way it looks and how I was able to combine the ideas I found online to create something unique for our room, and I hope also durable! Here's to a new school year! 7 days and counting!