Didn’t want you to miss this comment from Leslie in Springfield:
Painting boards can be had at Home Depot or Lowe’s (or similar) for very little $$. Go to the section where they sell pegboards, etc. Get a sheet of “tile board”– it’s got a white laminate on one side and the fibreboard stuff (like what pegboard is made of) on the other. Have the store cut the sheet into pieces that are at least a few inches larger on each side than the paper you use. You can also use the plain fibreboard (without the laminate), but then you need to wax the board heavily to keep it from absorbing water. Our Waldorf-inspired HS co-op uses these boards all the time and they’re fantastic! I bought a scrap piece of the tile board for about $3 once and from it got two large paint boards (big enough for 15×22″ paper and 3 small boards (big enough for 9×12″ paper). They are sturdier than the ones from Mercurius, which are all plastic and bow in the middle when you try to carry them.
Very good to know—thanks, Leslie.
These boards also make good white boards. When I was a classroom teacher I had them cut into 9×12 for each student. Each child got a whiteboard marker and a tissue for wiping and we used them for review (I asked a question and they all wrote the answer and held it up), games, brainstorming exercises, spelling review, etc.