Get ready for this $10 Home Depot hack to change your classroom for good! Any grade level, any subject, any school! With this Home Depot hack, you will save money in the long run, get your students out of their seats, and keep your classes engaged with new activities every day! With these large, free-standing white boards, you have an endless amount of ways to incorporate this Home Depot hack into your classroom. This is a great item to purchase with your classroom budget that won’t go to waste in one use. See more classroom budget must-have purchases here.
You can purchase this Home Depot hack product at Home Depot or Lowe’s, so whichever home improvement store you prefer, they have you covered!
At Home Depot, you can purchase a 2ft by 4ft reversible chalkboard/marker board. Lowe’s has a similar one that is a 32 inches by 48 inches whiteboard.
Now, get ready for a complete list of PRACTICAL ways you can use this in your classroom. You may just need to modify based on the amount of students, the subject you teach, and the grade level. Keep in mind, when I was in the physical classroom, I taught high school Spanish. So, my ideas are geared around that, but you can definitely get creative with other ideas.
What you need
The best part of this Home Depot hack is that you don’t need anything. You don’t need to assemble anything. Heck, you don’t even need to buy any extra parts. The white boards can be leaned up against the wall and then when you’re done using them, have your students put them away in one corner of the room.
Since these white boards are much larger than the mini whiteboards many teachers use in their classroom, you will not be able to have one per student. As a world language teacher, I had my classroom desks set up in six groupings. So, I purchased six dry erase boards, one for each group.
You will need dry erase markers and erasers. You’ll probably need quite a few sets of markers if you plan on using these boards frequently. I had a basket filled with supplies for each group as well. That way, students stayed organized and put things back when class was over.
Ideas for using large white boards
Gallery Walks
- Put a title on each board, students walk around and add ideas for brainstorming sessions.
- Post a picture on each board, students walk around and describe the picture or give their opinion.
- Silent Gallery Walks – write a discussion question on each board. Students circulate around the room silently, writing their responses to the questions. BUT they should reach each other’s replies and respond to those, too, simulating a discussion. Encourage them to circle and draw arrows to mark which comments they are replying to.
Drawings
Listen and draw. You describe a monster, a house floor plan, the locations of objects on a desk, and students work with their group to draw what you describe.
Draw the text. After you read a story or text, assign each group a section of the text. They will draw a representation of that text and then use their drawing to retell the story to the class. This encourages them to be detailed in their drawing because you want them to rely on the images, not a written text as they use the target language.
Readings
Jigsaw readings are great for group work. Assign each group a section of the text and have them write a summary, important vocab, or main details on their board to share with the class.
Writing
In groups, students should write a short story. I usually give each group 3-5 Tell Tale story cards to prompt their story. They should write it in the present tense. Then, you can have each group rotate to the next board and change the story to past tense, a great exercise for preterit and imperfect review! Or they could make corrections or annotate.
Have each group write one sentence to start a story. Then, the groups rotate to the next board and read the first sentence and add a second. Then, continue until each group has gone to each board once or twice. You can use Story Prompt cards here too to encourage creativity and funny stories.
Benefits of the large white boards
The main benefit is that these large white boards really promote group work and collaboration. When you have groups work together and give them a regular 8.5×11 piece of paper, one student tends to take charge and do the writing. The others cannot even see what they are writing. But with this board, the entire group can see, write, and participate actively. Your student group work dynamic will forever be improved!
When students use these to present information to the class, the board is large enough that students in the back of the room should still be able to see it.
You don’t need to spend tons of money on large post-it notes for gallery walks or even large paper easels, which cost a crazy amount of money! These white boards can last forever! So, put your classroom budget to good use with one purchase that will last for years! Here are other must-have classroom budget purchases.
Your students get up and moving. Usually my high school students moan and groan when we do an activity that requires them to get out of their seats. BUT whenever we would get out these boards, there was never any complaining. They eagerly grabbed the boards, found a corner of the room to work together, collaborated, and enjoyed using the target language. Something about writing on a white board, not using traditional paper and pen, gave them a spark!
Next time you’re at your local hardware store, pick up a few white boards. Then, share this blog post with any and all of your teacher friends – from elementary through high school. We can all benefit from this amazing, easy, and cheap Home Depot hack!
