Brick DIY Table

Brick wall, brick table... brick anything and I'm there for it! I love offering my students varied places to work in our learning space and this DIY brick table definitely supports that flex vision. Not to mention, it was easy as pie to make!

I got this great idea from Pinterest via The Handy Man's Daughter, but I had trouble getting the Trofast drawer slides at my local Ikea and did not feel comfortable using a saw to cut long metal rails like she suggested, so I problem solved and hit up Lowes. I was able to find something for the rails that worked and ended up being cheaper than an 84 inch metal rail!  

Supplies Needed:
*NOT affiliate links- just what I actually used*

• Lack side table from Ikea (in store for $8)
• Trofast Bin from Ikea ($3)
• 2 Rubbermaid Fast-track Shelving Uprights (13.75 in) ($4.50)
• Heavy Duty Velcro Strips (Varies)
• Clear Heavy Duty Gorilla Glue (Varies)
• Base Plates of Choice - I always buy from Amazon

The process was very quick and straight forward, so here we go:

I started by laying my Lack side table face down and measuring where I wanted my drawer to be positioned. After locating the placement, I traced around the Rubbermaid Fast-track rails with a pencil and removed all materials from the surface to apply the velcro.

I left my velcro connected and cut my pieces into 12 inch strips that would lay inside of my traced rail lines. I stuck one side to the Lack base and placed the rail on top. 

Once both rails have been adhered with your velcro you can easily slide the Trofast drawer in and out! It will be great storage for bricks.

Next, I flipped my Lack side table over and arranged my base plates to my liking. I originally was going to use (4) 10x10's but preferred the way the (9) 6x6 plates look instead. I used Strictly Brik plates because I got a really great Prime Day deal on them!

I used wide painters tape to help position and measure my base plates to keep them straight when applying the Gorilla Glue.

Before applying glue, I used bricks to connect my three rows together to help making moving them faster while the glue was wet. It also made keeping them in position easier too. 

And there you have it! A very user friendly Brick DIY table that can be used in a classroom, library, makerspace, playroom or anywhere brick fans may go! Since I'm using mine in a library, I wanted to add a hook feature for some brick cards. I found this adorable dog tail from Ikea for $1.99 and just used my extra velcro to attach it to the Lack table.

Happy Making! 

Magnetic Letter Essentials

I've always been a fan of using magnetic alphabet letters in the classroom. They're bright, fun, & seem to get kids excited when they see them. But that's not all they're good for, here are my top uses/reasons why magnetic letters are one of my classroom essentials. 

I've even got a FREEBIE for you.

Magnetic Letters Are:

• Fast and Easy: little hands will have no issue manipulating these tools
• Engaging: your learner will be an active participant 
• Hands on: promoting a deeper content connection
• Offer Learner Safety: making an error feels less defeating when using moveable pieces - I've seen kiddos shut down when spelling words at the small group table when needing to erase their response to make a change but magnets offer the feeling of "play" that makes spelling/letter sounds safer and more comfortable (from my experiences) 
• Differentiation: the letters make it easy to switch up activities to meet the needs of different learners

Here are a few of my favorite ways to utilize magnetic letters for differentiation in my classroom throughout the entire year

Letter Recognition and Matching:  

Matching uppercase to lowercase and vice versa is a skill that's practiced most of the year in kindergarten. For this reason, I wanted to share an uppercase freebie with you to help support that beginning of the school year practice.

Freebie Preview - To download: click the pink "download here" button at the bottom of this page

Initial Sounds:

For your students who master letter names and can match them with ease - offer differentiated letter content to them like using initial sound cards

Initial Sounds + CVC's + Blending Sounds 

For students who have mastered their sounds, use the knowledge of initial sounds to solve secret CVC cards and blend those sounds to form  CVC words

All of these magnetic letter activities can be found in bundle via the blue button - to learn more about it, click it and it will direct you to my shop. To grab your freebie: click the pink "free download" button below. Enjoy!