From pop bottle to garden globe…

It was the last week of school when I thought of a project for the round coke bottles I mentioned in an earlier post. We made Garden Globes. It was very easy, fun and a great activity to do with my speech students.

Materials we used:
1. Round plastic coke bottles
2. Paint- we used tempra paint since that was our only option at school (more about this below)

OPTIONAL–
1. Permanent markers
2. Kabob skewers
3. Twine or ribbon
4. Round flat jewels and permanent glue
5. Drill

First
I squirted a small amount of paint into the bottle. I think I really could have used a lot less. We found that 3 colors worked the best. These were squirted in at the same time but on different sides of the bottle.

Second
We swirled the paint by holding the capped end. As we experimented we found that spinning the bottles on the floor worked the best.

Third
We left the caps off to dry. If too much paint is used you get a big puddle in bottom of the bottle.

Cautions:
1. We found that too much spinning made the paint colors mix too much and turn to a muddy color.

2. Some colors looked the better than others- black or brown were not as nice as blue, red, purple, yellow, orange, white and green.

3. Use just a little paint- it doesn’t take much to cover the inside of the bottle and you can always add more.

Optional–
I took the bottles home and drilled a small hole on the top of the caps. This is where I inserted the kabob skewers or you could put the twine or ribbon through. I used permanent markers to color the white caps.

I glued flat clear jewels on the bottom of the bottles.

Now a word about the paint.
When I put my garden globes in my plants they tended to show condensation and the paint rolled off. I rolled the bottle to redistribute the paint and this helped cover clear areas. It seems like this has stopped but I’ll see what happens when we get really hot weather again. So if you have other paint options it may be worth trying.

This turned into a great activity in my speech sessions. I let the kids figure out what worked or didn’t. They went to our principal and asked if they could place them in the new garden the students had helped to make. The principal suggested placing our garden globes in our courtyards instead. She was concerned that the new garden was more public and the globes would be lost. So we gave a bag full to the summer kid care staff. They are making vegetable gardens in the courtyards and will hang or stake the globes. They hope the hanging ones may discourage birds from the garden.

The pictures below show the globes that I kept and placed in my plants. I think they turned out great!

The iBallz have it !

I recently received something fun to try on my iPad. The company was kind enough to send me the iBallz original iPad protection and the Eye Lid.

They both are very easy to attach and light weight. The students I work with in speech therapy loved it and thought it was very cool. The iBallz work great and have held up to students’ handling and no one tried to dismantle it. They did offer to test how well it provided protection by offering unique ways and places to drop it. I deferred this to just a brainstorming lesson and did not put it to a real test. We watched the iBallz site video instead. Which you can view here:
iBallz video and photos

I wasn’t so sure about them initially but now I don’t see switching back to my other case. The Eye Lid took a little longer to figure out the best way to use it as a stand. Although it seems a little flimsy it does the job in the landscape position. This was tested when I took notes at an IEP meeting that lasted almost 4 hours and the Eye Lid held up better than I did! It does not support the portrait position which I did miss. Now if I need to use my iPad in the portrait position I just set it on the table. I occasional use a book stand or my speaker dock if I want an incline in the portrait position. This has worked great for all apps and students.

I use my iPad with students in Kindergarten-6th grade in school and with clients in private practice (age 3-16). Their needs range from mild to significant. I found that the iBallz are working well with all.

The Eye Lid makes a compact cover that fits into my bag easily. It is comfortable to carry around when moving from the speech room to the classroom to meetings etc.

This is working for me. To see if it meets your needs check out the company site and other reviews.

The iBallz original costs 19.95 and the Eye Lid 29.95.