Jun 21, 2020 - 4 min read - 466 views 

Glue Sponges - Classroom Heroes

When I started using INB's I was really nervous about all of the gluing. Here is how I overcame that fear and saved my sanity.

Are you considering Interactive notebooks in the classroom or are you a very creative hands-on project style teacher? Does the thought of dried up glue sticks being used as classroom projectiles give you nightmares? Maybe thinking about all the money you wasted as you see glue oozing onto a table causes panic? Well, read about glue sponges and how I wiped those fears away.

What is a glue sponge?

Well simply said, a glue sponge is a household sponge saturated in liquid glue and stored in a resealable container. Glue sponges are not difficult concepts, but they have drastically reduced the time my students take to paste any kind of paper or activity and my classroom stays clean! Best of all, I only go through 1 gallon of liquid glue of glue in an average school year and use the glue sponges almost daily. Time, money, and sanity-saving? Who wouldn't want that?


Making yours glue sponges

I first learned about these at an AVID conference where I spent 3 days learning all the in's and out's of a traditional AVID INB. About 2 hours into the session a teacher chimed in with the question that was on everybody's mind. How do you manage the glue mess and stress? Well, the workshop facilitator started talking about teaching students to respect glue sticks, and out of the audience, an angel spoke up. She shared with us the concept of a glue sponge, which is just a liquid glue saturated sponge, that she used with her lower elementary students. We were all of course interested in this novel approach to glue, but I was still a bit skeptical and confused. She then shared a video showing their set up and I was sold. Here is my video tutorial!

My Glue Sponge Tips

So here is how I have found the most success in making these:

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Use thick sponges. They are a little more difficult to find, I could only find them on the military base grocery store, I reuse them year after year since they can be washed out. If I stumble across my preferred sponge in a store I will come back and update you. Bottom line, for me, the standard-sized kitchen sink sponges do not make the cut.


Execution

These are something you have to spend a bit of time training your students how to use.

I hope you end up loving glue sponges as much as I do! Good luck!