Writing Folders

This past year, for my Writers Workshop I bought these beautiful 3 ring binders for my 1st grade students. They had 4 pockets and more than enough space for my my Tater Tot's writing stories. The pockets were labeled with color dots, Green=A work in progress, Red=Done, but not colored, and Blue=Tools. The 4th pocket was for our Ideas, but my students always struggle with this so many of them abandoned it. We used the 3 rings for the stories that were completed but were waiting for the illustrations to be colored on "Fancy Friday". This worked beautifully!

 
My students were SUPER excited about these binders, and all year long were asking about taking these babies home. They even kept them CLEAN for the whole year! I was astonished. I thought they would be gray by the end of the 1st quarter. As much as I wanted to keep them, I just loved the look on their faces the last day when they took them home. That left me in the tough position of replacing them.

Last year I got them for $2.00 a piece, and I thought that was a bargain. Truthfully it is, however it is still a nice chunk of money when your talking about 15 to 20 binders. Especially when there are TONS of 2 pocket folders for .15 cents in the next row. So with a big sigh I gave up the binders and compromised.

I didn't just buy a class set, I bought 2 folders per student, and it wasn't even a third of the price of the binders. Why did I get 2 folders per student you may ask? It is not to replace the first when it gets battered and torn. I got them to make 4 pocket folders. Curious? Take a peek.

How did I do it?

I started with one of these babies. Luckily my school has one.

 I took both folders and decided which one I wanted on the outside and which one would be on the inside. For me that was easy, all of my 1st graders items are blue. So the yellow went on the inside.

I then punched holes on the left side of the outside pocket. Make sure you are using the "Oversized" setting.

 I turned the inside folder, inside out and punched holes on the open side.

 Here is a picture of me doing the WRONG side. :) I figured that out the hard way. :/

 Next, I took a comb and bound it together.

 The finished product. Well, almost finished. I do still have to make pocket labels. I know they wont be as coveted as my binders, but they will have to do, and I can live with it.

 Sorry for the bad picture, they were taken from my phone.

 What do you think?