Help Me Please! Pyramids

Tomorrow marks the official beginning of in-service!  I am so excited to be getting back to school.  It's lovely to have the summer off, but I don't have a family to take care of, and my summer school only runs four weeks, so that leaves me time to do want I want, and then some.  It leaves me with empty time as well, since most others are at work during the day.  I can't wait to see the kids!

I was looking through one of those wonderful, goody-filled teaching catalogs, and I came across this awesome product!  It's red, green, and yellow, put into a pyramid-type shape that lies on its side.  I can't remember the exact wording, but the green side says that the student doesn't need help, the yellow says the student needs help, but can continue to work, and the red says that the student needs help and cannot continue to work.

I thought that they were a wonderful idea, but there was no way I was going to pay $12.95 or whatever they were asking for them.  Instead, we made them!

First, we took a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" piece of red card stock (Nice, scrapbook paper.  We have to use these all year!), and divided it into three sections by folding (hamburger way...with the 11" wide).  I have a paper cutter that has an attachment for making creases for nice folds.  That's what we used to make all the folds on this project so they'd be neat and even.  We also made a crease at 5 1/2".  You'll see why in a bit.

Then, we cut it in half (hot dog way).

This is the base of our pyramid.  Next we took pieces of yellow and green scrapbook paper, and made a single-fold piece that will match up with two-thirds of our red piece (some were yellow, some were green).

This we glued onto the red piece so that one yellow side would show, and one would not.  This helps to strengthen our pyramid.  DO NOT glue either the yellow or the green paper to the side of the pyramid with the extra fold in it.  Looking at the second picture, you can see that I'm leaving that fold on the bottom.

The next step is to cut a "single" out of either yellow or green paper - the opposite of what you just put on.  This will be the final side of our pyramid.

And now you've finished!  The reason for the fold on the bottom is so the students can fold it up and put it in their pencil box when they don't need it.  The last thing we need is extra stuff on our desks!

Happy School Year!

Emily