Crate Seats and Cheap White Erase Boards

I saw this super cute idea on ProTeacher and just had to create some myself. You can click {here} to the original post and pictures. I set out today to make my own set. Here's the what the final set looks like (please excuse the picture quality from my Iphone).  P.S. I know the spacing is a little funky but Blogger is not cooperating with me at all tonight. :/  

                                                      
Now onto how we (my hubby and I) made these today.

I headed out to get all the supplies I needed. Let me start by saying that dragging 5-year-old triplets along to shop

for cutesy stuff for your classroom does NOT make for the best shopping experience for yourself or the other customers. I found my crates at Target for less than $4. They had black, lime green, aqua, and pink ones. You're also going to need cute coordinating ribbon, some board, something to cover the seat, adhesive glue, and some little tacks.

To cover the seats, I used bath mats that I found at Target. I found these at Target for about $4 a piece. My husband found a nice piece of board at Lowe's that was already sanded on both sides and big enough to make 3 seats for about $13. He was kind enough to cut each piece to fit right inside the crates and rest on the inside lip. I used these pieces to trace the correct size onto the mat and cut the pieces out.

We used this adhesive spray to attach the mats to the boards. Be warned that this stuff is SUPER strong spelling and should be used outside.

To be extra sure that the mats stayed put we used these little fabric u-shaped nails to secure them to the board.

We used those same u-hook fasteners to attach the ribbon to the bottom side of the boards.

And that's all there was to it! I plan on my students using these for independent reading time throughout the room. I haven't decided what I will use the storage area for yet.

On another note, did you know that Lowe's sells marker board that they will cut into pieces for you? I had heard other teachers mention this but hadn't gotten any myself until today. The marker board was less than $12, and it was big enough to be cut into 8 pieces that are about 16 x 12 inches in size.