IKEA Classroom Find: MALA Tabletop Paper Holder

This weekend I went to the IKEA in Atlanta on a mission to purchase an Expedit shelf for my classroom.  It is going to be used for a new storage system that I will post about later, but for now I wanted to share a little something that I picked up that I think I am going to love to use this year.

I like to do lots of mini-projects in class that involve the students creating things and getting crafty.  I love being able to hang up work in the hallway outside my room, and the students love to see their work on display.  They are always proud that I have chosen to hang their work in the hall, and insist on pointing it out to their friends. 

However, usually the items in the hall are larger, poster-type things.  That means one of three things:

• I have to find/buy several packs of the large size construction paper
• I have to spend forever in the mail room ripping off 30 sheets of butcher paper (and I can NEVER get it to rip straight--is it just me??)
• I have to sacrifice my beloved giant Post-it note chart paper

I really like to use the giant Post-it chart paper--they aren't too big and the quality is better than butcher paper, but they are VERY expensive.  My students know that when I bring out the Post-it paper, they only get one sheet, so they have to be very careful.

I had seen this paper holder online before, but I had forgotten about it until I was in IKEA.  It is part of the MALA collection, which includes all types of arts and craft things for children.  This is what it looks like:

 

 
When I looked at it in the store, I thought that it was a great idea, but I figured that the paper quality would not be so great, but I was wrong.   The display holder had an open roll of paper on it, and I was pleasantly surprised to feel that the paper was nice and thick! 

I ended up with the holder and two rolls of the MALA drawing paper.  The rolls of paper have 98 feet of paper on each, and they are just over 18 inches wide.

 

The holder was very easy to assemble.  There are four screws that are tightened by an allen wrench, and that's all you have to do.  The two trays at the bottom of the holder can be used to store pens/markers/whatever, but I will leave mine empty.

 

The bar on the top is to help put pressure on the roll to make it easy to rip off a section of paper.  I left my rolls of paper in the packaging for now, so I have not tested that out yet.



 

 

I will definitely be getting a few more rolls of paper to go with this!   You can purchase the drawing paper online here, but they only sell the holder in stores.