With state testing coming up, I was setting up my classroom and realized that a few of my privacy offices were at the end of their useful life. I looked online and found that the most popular options were quite expensive, averaging about $3.00 per office. While I can’t claim to be the most thrifty teacher, I do like to save money when I reasonably can. Therefore, I decided to make my own. Here’s how you can make them for about 82 cents each, not factoring in labor.
Here’s what you need:
- A package of file folders. I like blue, but those are more expensive. The cheapest I found at Staples were these.
- 1 roll of packing tape
- Scissors
- About 1-2 hours of your time
Each privacy office requires three file folders and six 11-inch strips of tape. I can make one office in about three minutes.
Here’s what you do.
Step 1: Open up two of the file folders and slightly overlap the right-hand flap of one of the over the left-hand flap of the other, like so:
Step 2: Tape the two folders together where the two overlap.
Step 3: Cut the third file folder in half. It’s ok if the cut is a little wonky. If you have access to a paper cutter with the giant arm of slicing doom, that works better.
Step 4: Align one half of the cut folder to the left end of your super double franken-folder, and the other half on the right end, like so:
Tape them together like you did before.
Adding the two extensions to either side will create a deeper office, which hides more of a student’s work and makes it harder for wandering eyes to…wander.
Step 5: Test it out, celebrate your success, then go make 32 more of them.
My previous class set of these privacy offices lasted about 8 years before starting to fall apart to wear and tear. Not too bad for about 80 cents a piece.
EZMath Blog 