Finished 1st Summer project

The pocket charts are finished and I'm pretty happy with them. I'm so glad I no longer have to deal with the rainbow of  pocket charts in my class any more!

It was pretty easy to do. I found Dalovely's Teaching Ideas: Black Pocket Chart on goggle and then of course I had to pin it. I don't know how to do the fancy link thing yet but not to worry I requested a blogger book from the public library.  I figured it out!! Oh dear and watch out!

I didn't follow her directions exactly because I have a front load washer and once again being the not so sure how things work kind of person...I just used a really big plastic tub. My big boys were off to camp so I wasn't really worried about anyone getting in to a huge tub of black dye on my white kitchen counter. Yeah...not smart anyway you look at it! Bleach removes dye just in case you try this!

I mixed 2 bottles of  Black Rit Dye and used vinegar because the pocket charts were made of nylon and that's what the label on the dye said to do.  I think the post that I had read said she used salt. Anyways, I used very hot water to fill the tub.  I filled it  up enough to cover the pocket charts.  I did 5 at a time...I wouldn't recommend doing this.  My tub was too crowded and I ended up taking some out the next day and doing 2 at a time.

Also, the original blogger warned not to try to dye the cheap pocket charts. Of course, I tried it anyways and ended up sacrificing a cheap Target pocket chart, but since it was only $1 I'm okay with it.

I let the pocket charts soak overnight, but when I took them out I could still see some of the original color behind the clear plastic.  I opened that up more and back to the tub they went to soak some more.  The clear plastic stayed clear which shocked me.

I could still see green so I soaked it again. 

After a few days of this soak, dry, soak process, I finally was happy with the outcome.  The blue looks more like a midnight blue and the green looks like a very dark hunter if you look really close.  The yellow ended up  turning out the best.  

My husband said they look black to him so I will take it!!!