Finally a Way to Recycle Old Markers - Crayola ColorCycle

I am happy to share with you that Crayola now has a program for recycling markers (any brand) and students can play a big part. It's called ColorCycle. This is totally awesome! As an art teacher you can imagine how many markers I have thrown away over the years. Makes me cringe just to think about it.

"ColorCycle is a great opportunity for teachers and their students to explore eco-friendly practices. Specially developed standards-based lesson plans are available to enrich instruction and promote lively class discussions." 

Love that the shipping is free. FedEx picks it up too? Sounds like an incredible program. Unfortunately Crayola ColorCycle is only for the U.S. and part of Canada.   I found out about Crayola ColorCycle via Glitter Meets Glue Designs on Facebook.

Below is a video that shows how markers are made. The beginning is kind of goofy but you can fast forward to the 7:11 mark you can learn how markers are made.

It's very nice that they also include lesson plans and I'm sure creative teachers everywhere will create even more authentic lessons based on this program. Not only recycling and such, but my mind is exploding with math ideas at the moment. Just off the top of my head I thought of counting, graphing opportunities, probability etc. Tons of ideas for all age levels. What about you? What kind of lesson would you teach while your school participates in Crayola ColorCycle.

The Sunday Scoop Linky

I have linked up with The Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop. This is a fun linky. I noticed many people have laundry as one of the "3 things I have to do...". I'm so thankful that my husband does ALL of our laundry. Gives me more time to create for TpT!

There is really only one thing I have to do and that is visit my Dad in the hospital. He has been in there with a nasty infection since August 5th. He is finally on the mend and I am so grateful. He still has a ways to go to get back to his old self but he is definitely headed in the right direction. Love my Dad!

Free Passes to National Parks for 4th Graders - 2015 - 2016 School Year

Share with your 4th graders. For the 2015-16 school year, 4th graders in the United States can sign up for free admission (families included) to America's National Parks. Learn more  at Every Kid in a Park. This could really save some families some money. 

Looking for a National Park near you? Here is a list of National Parks by State. I've been to 3. 

1. Saguaro National Park
2. Grand Canyon National Park
3. Mammoth Cave National Park

All of them were terrific and well worth the trip. I was a little claustrophobic in the caves, but would definitely do it again. Which parks have you been to. Any recommendations? Let me know in the comment section below.

Track Your Rank on TpT - Quick and Easy!!!

Finally an easy way to check your rank on TpT. The Colorado Classroom has created a tool where you just type in the name of your store and you receive your TpT ranking. No more searching through pages and pages of stores on TpT to find your ranking. This is genius and so helpful. I don't use my TpT ranking to compare myself to others. That's to stressful for me. I use it to compare how I'm doing from one month to the next.  

The Colorado Classroom's tool has just saved me time and I certainly love that. I also checked out her store and it is very nice. Lots of goodies for 5th-8th.

So head over to the "Track you TpT Ranking" tool and give it a go. I'm curious. How do you use your TpT ranking? Let me know in the comments.

How to Add a Watermark to a Google Doc

I love the Gooru! He always has such great tips and tutorials. If you use Google Docs this is a great trick to add your brand's watermark on your products. Very easy to do.

From the Gooru: "Although Google Apps doesn’t yet have an official watermark tool for Google, I have found a cool workaround that allows you to create one yourself using any image you want! This trick is great for anyone who wants to add branding or a personal touch to any of their Google Docs."

How to Create a Clickable Collage for your Blog to your TpT Store - Step by Step

I just created a clickable collage for my last post and it was pretty easy so I wanted to share with you how to do it. Just follow the steps below to create your own. See the one I made previously here.

Part One

1. Go to PicMonkey  I used the free version of PicMonkey to create my collage because everyone can access it. No need to create an account.

2. Click on "collage" at the top. You can choose to you use their layouts or create your own. I created my own for this example.

3. Choose your first image. Continue to add the images you want for your collage. I used my product covers for my images.

4. Now drag the images over to the collage template to the right one at a time.

5. If the collage gets filled but you still have more images to add just drag the next picture to the bottom of one of the images already in the collage. When you see the highlight bar drop in your picture.

6. Once you have all of your pictures in you can drag them around to move and center them.

7.  Now click "save"  to save it to your computer. I saved mine as a png.

 I changed the resolution of my collage to 3400 x 3400.

Part Two

8. Now you need to upload your collage image to the Internet. Picassa, Flickr, and Photobucket are great places to upload your image to. You can even do it to a secret Facebook page if you have one.

9. Once your image is uploaded, right click on it to "copy the image url".

Part Three

10.  Now head over to Image-Maps. It's free.

11. Paste in the image's url and click "start mapping". Then click "click to continue".

12. Close the yellow bar at top. Right click on one of the images and click on "create rect". Drag your cursor to create a box around it.

Add the url and title of the product from your TpT store. Then under the tab events click "target" and choose "blank". This will open the image in a new window for your readers. Do this for all images.

13. Once you have added all of the urls right click and choose get code. Choose the tab "html code". Scroll down and copy the code.

Part Four

14. Now go to your blog and paste in the code. If you are using blogger just click on "HTML" (next to "Compose"). Paste in your code. Then click back on "Compose". Your clickable collage is now ready for your readers.

I hope you liked this tutorial. If you have any questions just leave me a comment.

Frame Trios - Circles, Squares and Rectangles

Each of these sets has three options included: circles, squares and rectangles. These are great for coordinating your products. Click on any image to view in my store.

TpT Sale and Mega Doodle Frame Bundle

Stop by my store and save 28% off all of my clip art. Over 450 sets to choose from. I have tons of frames that are perfect for creating product covers in a jiffy. Most of my sets use the same bright, eye-catching color palette so they're easy to mix and match. Many come with coordinating papers too.

I just put my first "Doodle Frames" bundle together. It includes seven collections! If you want to jazz up your student's black and white printables then you'll love this collection. This bundle shouts variety. You will find rectangle, square, and circle frames as well as some page dividers. Some frames with and w/o white centers. These are some of my best sellers. (They're on sale too!)  Stop by my store and check them out. 

Click on image to view.