Middleschool Prep: Practice Paper Combination Lock

Cardstock practice lock with brad spinner

I won't bore you with all my worries about Ethan going into middle school next year. I will skip straight to the practical stuff. Come August he will have to navigate the halls of a middle school and deal with lockers and most daunting of all... a combination lock!



Set of steps for Ethan to memorize first of all. It is handwritten in large print and goes like this:

How to open a Lock

1) 2 full turns right, stop on __

2) 1 full turn left, stop on __

3) Turn right, stop on __

4) Pull, unlock __

I remembered how the school recommended teaching kids there lunchroom pin number.
They sent home an over sized printout of the lunchroom key pad, they recommended hanging it on the refrigerator and having the child practice "keying" their pin number with the paper, on a regular basis. As a learning aid it had worked wonderfully.

How about a paper lock with a brad to spin the tumbler. The therapist's reaction made me feel as if I can expect to win a Nobel prize very soon!

So today I couldn't find a resource for making a craft project of a combination lock... I thought this would be in high demand and available on the Internet but I couldn't find it.

I used this image, pulled it into Photoshop Elements and blew it up to a size that would print on standard size paper. I test printed on a regular paper, then I loaded 2 sheets of card stock into my printer & printed 2 copies. I cut out the spinner from one sheet of card stock and left the other intact.

To find the center I cut out the spinner from the paper copy, folded it in fourths & used the spot where the lines crossed to mark the center of my card stock piece. Then I poked a hole & put in a brad. Foolishly easy, really. Now we are ready to practice unlocking without the frustration of a lock that won't open.