I hope you are enjoying your Bright Ideas Blog Hop and getting tons of great ideas!! I am super excited about this idea…so excited I wanna throw glitter!
Now, nothing gets under my skin in my classroom than the never ending, un-winnable battle of the glue. Glue sticks lose their tops, get smashed, dry up, and run out in 2.4 seconds. And, let’s be honest, get eaten. It happens. It has to. Where else does a brand new glue stick go in 2.4 seconds besides in the mouth of a hungry kindergartner. It happens. Don’t judge (I admit I ate paste as a kid. That stuff smelled so good. I am a paste eater…probably explains a whole lot, huh?!). Glue bottles are messy and not matter how many times we practice BABY DOTS we use gigantor dots of glue. The bottles clog. Glue is just my nemesis. I should own stock in Elmer’s Glue. Or they should just send me free glue for all of the money I have poured into their company. Ya know, I never thought I would defeat my nemesis. But then I tried THE GLUE SPONGE. THE HUH? THE WHAT? What is this sponge your write of?!
People, these things will be a stress relieving, happiness inducing, glue battle winning idea. Trust me.
It’s a sponge. Soaked in glue. And when we need to glue, we just dab our paper on the sponge. And BAM! Glue. No mess. No missing lids. No clogged bottles. No teacher curled up in the fetal position in the corner. Just a nicely glued piece of paper. That my friends, is pure happiness.
You will need:
Small kitchen sponges
Plastic containers with lids (the cheap $2 for 4 containers at Wal-Mart work best!)
Glue
Listerine
It’s simple. Put 2 sponges in the container. Pour 1 or 2 bottles of glue all over the sponges. Let soak for a few days. BAM! You’re done.
Add a drop or two of Listerine weekly to kill germs. Add a spritz of water every few days (I spritz on Fridays!) to keep them moist. If they get a bit dry, just add more glue and a spritz of water. Also, they can be flipped occasionally so keep the glue from sitting on the bottom.
Yeah…that easy. That cheap. And no more glue madness.
So I bought some materials and played around and made some glue sponges. Day one was a fail. I sulked home and wallowed in the pity that there was no way to defeat the glue. The glue had won and I would forever be at the mercy of the glue.
So there sat the glue sponges. Unused. And those glue sticks just sat there mocking me with their little glue stick faces. GRRRR glue sticks. After days of being taunted by the glue stick army, I decided to give it one more chance.
Glue sponges on the tables. Instructions to the ‘staches. Papers distributed. Scissors cutting. The moment of truth…
IT WORKED! I have defeated the glue army. No more little orange faces taunting me.
So, now that you’ve provided me free therapy for my glue issues (and paste eating issues…hey, they put the spice Thyme in that stuff…that’s why it smells so good!) I will show you how to make the glue sponges! And by show you, I mean a Kindergarten Smorgasboard How To Video!
It really is simple and cheap! My cost for four glue sponges was $6. They last forever and they’re almost no mess! You have to do it! If you ignore all of my other crazy ideas and rants and rambling, this is the one thing you have to do!
Totally super simple! If you have questions after watching my video, just let me know!
A Glue Sponge In Use In My Classroom