Magnetic Blackboard Chore Chart / Attendance Chart - Easy Tutorial

I have a very easy Tutorial to share with you today.

          

           It is a simple tutorial for making a

 Magnetic Blackboard Attendance Chart 

for your Sunday School class or a small Children's Church. 

Of course it could be made for several other things for your own kids at home eg.

Chores Chart
Reading Practice Chart
Homework Chart

It is quite easy to make and is designed to be reused 

or adapted later for other uses.

The Materials Required:

• Ruler
• Scissors
• Coloured string or ribbon
• Small round sticky backed magnets
• Sticky backed magnetic strip (which I already had cut into pieces from an previous time)
• Liquid Chalk Pen (or you can use ordinary chalk)
• Blackboard paint (I had only about a fifth of this small tin left from a previous time and didn't even use all of that)
• Paint brush

And 

      An old baking tray or cookie sheet.

As you can see the baking tray was scratched and stained but that would all be covered.

First make sure the baking tray is clean and then using quite a narrow drill piece bore two holes in the tray in what is to be the top two corners so that the tray will hang horizontally (so the two corners along one of the long sides)

Drilling the holes will leave rough edges on the back of the tray and you can clearly see what that is like here.

But there is a very simple solution for making them smooth again.

Simply get a wider drill bit and use that on the back of the tray.

So as well as taking a picture of this part I also took this short video while my husband was doing it.

It definitely makes a good difference to the edge of the holes and will not scratch anything it touches.

Next step is to get the old newspaper down on the table and start painting the tray with the blackboard paint.

Easy job.  

However it may dry quickly while you paint.

Paint the main section and the trim around the front but you need not bother to paint the back as it is not going to be seen.

Let it dry for a while and then put on the number of the small round magnets to represent the number of weeks you want to do attendance for to see about spacing.

You will be able to get up to 15 weeks in a medium sized tray like this one.

Then try the rectangular magnets to check the spacing down the left hand side for the names of the children as well..

When I removed the magnets it was obvious that I hadn't waited long enough to let it dry completely and small marks were left from the paint coming off.

This meant a second coat of paint and waiting long enough for this one to be completely dry before the next step.

So take my advice and make sure it is fully dried the first time.

Use the ruler and the liquid chalk pen to draw a line down leaving enough space for the length of the rectangular magnets at the left and write the heading of "NAME" 

Next write the heading of "ATTENDANCE"

Then thread the end of the coloured string through the hole at the left hand side from back through to the front and tie a double knot which will be thick enough not to pull back through the hole.

Measure & cut off enough of the string to be able to hang the board up and tie a knot at the other end and the board is complete.

Now for the names.

Use a labeller (I chose black lettering on a blue background for the boys and black lettering on a red background for the girls) to print out the names of the children.

OR

Use Small sticky labels and Carefully write the names of the children on them.

OR

Simply cut pieces of thin card and write the childrens' names on these

Strip off the paper from the sticky side of the magnet and stick the name on in its place on each magnet.

Trim off the edges of the magnets so that the names look nicer and then they are ready to be placed on the board.

The names can be spaced out nicely on the board and it will be ready to be hung up on the noticeboard or wall.   

Don't forget a small container of the small round magnets to be kept nearby for the children to put one up beside their name each day they attend.

This is my finished product on the notice board in our Sunday School Room at Church.