Made 4 Math Monday #5

Wowzers - it's Monday already?!?!?! This week flew by WAY too fast, which means that August is almost upon us! After leaving #TMC12 last Sunday, I flew to Indy for an AVID Workshop, where I met up with 5 other teachers from my school for another 3 days of Professional Development. (My presenter at AVID doesn't like the term PD - he prefers the term "Professional Learning"... I kind of like that!)

Anyway... on the way to Indy, I'm guessing someone on the plane had a bug of some sort, because by Wednesday evening, I was feeling downright miserable and spent the rest of the week battling a cold! But, never fear - I forced myself to confront that yucky germbug and get to tackling this week's #Made4Math projects!!

Without further ado.....

As always, don't forget to steal the logo, attach it to your post, and tweet out your link with the #Made4Math hashtag or put your link in the comments so it can be archived!

My obsession with Target's Dollar Spot
If you know me at all, you know I cannot pass up a good deal! This week's #Made4Math projects are dedicated to my favorite Target finds of this week....

Project #1
Yeah, so this one really isn't a project... I lied... it's just a way to show off an awesome find! :) But I have to give major shout outs to my BFF @approx_normal. While we were at #TMC12 working on the Exeter problem sets, she whipped out these *MUST-HAVE-THEM-GET-OUT-OF-MY-WAY* notepads:

I had seen them before, but for some reason, totally missed the fact that they were GRAPH paper post-its!!! Hell-o!!! Needless to say, once I saw them again in the Target dollar spot, I was down on my knees, digging through that bin like I was a starving woman begging for table scraps. I was determined to find every last morsel of graph paper goodness! I ended up with 7 notepads, which will come in handy in Algebra 2 this year! :)

Project #2 - Part A
Now this one is a real project :) On Friday, while not feeling my bestest, I went up to school to inventory our AVID curriculum library. I had already planned to use the awesome magazine files that I had purchased at Target a few weeks ago to help me organize the library, but I quickly decided that I needed more! So off to Target I go, early on Saturday morning. I diligently dig through the Dollar Spot, but I don't see any files. However, I do see these beauties:

(P.S. - I have NO idea why they are upside down!!)

I acknowledged the coolness of the Photo Clips, but ignore them because I don't have a use for them.... or so I thought! As I was thinking last night of what to make for this week's #Made4Math, I was browsing pinterest (duh!) and ran across this pin. Hmmm... an idea was forming....

Now, assuming you went and looked at the pin, you'll notice that it's a free printable label for food. That isn't quite going to work in my classroom! However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the style of the labels, so how can I use them.... *ponder* *think* *ponder*

OOOH!!! I know!!! When I sort kids into random groups for activities, I usually stand at the door with a deck of cards. They pull a card and that's the group they sit in. My "tables" usually get labeled with post-it notes scribbled with a 1, 2, 3, etc. By the end of the hour/day, the post-it note is written on, yucky, or lost. Repeat for each hour of class! There *MUST* be a better way, right???

So I took her most awesome printable, used the "Snipping Tool" in Win7 and snipped out 1 label and pasted it into a table in Microsoft Word. Then I added a textbox so I could type in numbers. Laminate, cut apart, and here's my new "table numbers" for group work days:

I LOVE how they turned out!!! So cute! :)

Project #2 - Part B
Okay, so these cool photo clips must be able to be used for other stuff, right? Browsing pinterest again brought me to this pin from the blog "Fast Times of a Middle School Math Teacher", where she shares her frustrations with students saying "I don't get it!!" instead of asking productive questions that DO help them "get it". So she created some "SMART" questions to guide her math students. I took her questions, typed them up, printed them out, and now my photo clips do double duty!!

These have to be some of the most useful little gadgets I've purchased in a while!

I can't believe that I have *2* weeks left!!! Oh my, oh my, oh my... #made4math needs to be every day at this point!!! I have soooo much left to do! :)

Your Turn!!! What did YOU make this week??
Ready to check out some other awesome creations? Remember to leave a link in the comments or send out a #made4math tweet! :) We want to see YOUR name here.... :)

@Fouss - Plumed pencils and a restyled bulletin board AND An Update

@aanthonya - Whiteboards and Chart Stands AND Bonus Cards!

@4mulafun - New Decorations!!

@fourkatie - Digital organization

@MTChirps - Poster Channels

@ScottKeltner - Calculator Storage - Storage blog post and Baseball bulletin board - Bulletin Board blog post

@pamjwilson - Polynomial Station Activities

@reminoodle - An assortment of projects

@GroshongMary - Whiteboards!

@LaurenDeReche - Posters, Numbers, and More!

@_CindyWallace_ - Project Timeline

@jreulbach - Personalized Blog Tshirt!

@lmhenry9 - Excel Gradebook and Attendance Sheets

@Borschtwithanna - Homework Folders

@AlwildaDaughter - Brochures and Flower Pens

@roitzc - Show off Student Work!

@Wyldbirman - Literal Equations

@MarshaFoshee - Common Core Geometry

@MsKLaster - Stamp Sheets

@mathtastrophe - Clipboards and Flower Pens

@crstn85 - Fiddle Toy

@wahedahbug - Vocabulary Cards

@misscalcul8 - Organizing Unit Activities

SimplifyingRadicals - Sticker Survey

@mathequalslove - Interactive Notebook Planning Pages

Katie - Fractions/Decimals/Percents Game

@gwaddellnvhs - Classroom Makeover and Business Cards

@mgolding - Superhero Wall Art!

@Carol_Leonard - Unit Circle Fun

@mathsmithed - Customized blog