Monday, August 13, 2012

Made 4 Math Monday #7

Welcome to another Monday! Today is my official first day back, so ACK! Summer is officially over!!! My time lately has been consumed in getting my classroom back in order and I have to admit, it makes me smile whenever I spy a #made4math project in my room!

One change you will see this week is a Google form that I am asking you to fill out so that it's easier for me to post the archive of your blog posts. As you can imagine, for the previous weeks, I have trolled twitter looking for the #made4math hashtag and favorited them so that I would hopefully not forget anyone. However, now that I'm back in the classroom, my twitter time is greatly reduced, so the Google form will help me keep track!

Click here to submit YOUR #Made4Math Project


Click here to submit YOUR #Made4Math Project

So on to this week's projects...

Project #1 - Warmups and Whiteboards
So this year in my math classes, I am doing Interactive Notebooks. However, I really don't want to waste too much of my valuable INB paper space on warmups. I like using warmups, but hate to grade them. In the past, too many students have just copied the warmup and it really wasn't an effective solution. So this year, I plan to do more low-stress warmups like the game 24 (what a great way to practice Order of Operations!), logic puzzles, etc. So, while chatting with another teacher from my school, she mentioned she was going to use the mini-whiteboards for warmups. Brilliant!! However, I needed new erasers. I used washclothes last year and they were ICKY! I tweeted out a question about other eraser options and got a few responses. This was the winner...


I went to Hobby Lobby and purchase 4 sheets of craft felt for a whopping 25 cents each. Since the felt was 9"x12", I cut my "erasers" into 3"x4" rectangles. For a dollar, I have a class set of erasers that are in our school colors! Yay!

Project #2 - Another INB necessity
During all of the INB research, I realized I would need a storage caddy for my students. I have picked up and put down every storage caddy that I found in Target's Dollar Spot several times. I loved their various pails and buckets, but they all had one major downfall - I couldn't easily store them! I wanted something stackable. I had found a pin on pinterest that used 3 drawer caddies and gave each group a drawer, but I wasn't set on that either. After some thought and discussion with the hubs, he suggested looking for the cheap pencil boxes.


We found them at Big Lots for 88 cents, so I bought 16, one for each pair of kiddos in my class. One weird thing I've noticed this summer is that I am no longer satisfied with "plain" stuff. In the past, I would have gotten out my label maker and been just fine. But not anymore! Now I spend hours time on making pretty labels! Since I have 8 groups (or 16 pairs) in my class, I labeled each one with an "A" or "B". The front two students will be the "A" pair, the back two students will be the "B" pair.

These aren't completely finished... I still need to fill them with the INB goodies (scissors, tape, colored pencils, etc) and put a card with the box contents.

Project #3 - Random project
This past week, I've spent time working on my room and my desk area. This was on the shelf behind my desk:


Now all last year, this was sitting in the same spot and it never bothered me. It holds random things.. notepads, markers, stickers, etc that I wanted close, but didn't have room in my desk. However, I never noticed how UGLY it is! (Remember me saying above about the whole "plain" thing?) Instead of finishing my desk area, I was just obsessing on how ugly this container was! So after a few minutes of hemming and hawing and getting out my scissors, this is what it looks like now...


I had some left over bulletin board border that I had used on my whiteboard, so now it is working as a "coverup" to that ugliness! A few pieces of tape and I was good to go :)

Your Turn!!! What did YOU make this week??
Ready to check out some other awesome creations? We want to see YOUR name here.... :)

Click here to submit YOUR #Made4Math Project

Lisa Henry (@lmhenry9) - Cornell Note Bookmarks

@gwaddellnvvhs - My classroom so far & Study Maybe signs

simplifying radicals - y-intercept line slider for INB

Megan Hayes-Golding (@mgolding) - My #Made4Math 5: Global Math Department

Jennifer Smith-Sloane (@4mulafun) - Cute Classroom (with video!)

@msklaster - What is your WHY?

@sandramiller_tx - Senioritis Poster

@csteketee21 - Classroom

@ray_emily - Student Art

@MsMac - Absent Students

@mathbratt - Using Address Labels

@luvbcd - Math Focus Wall

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - The No Homework, “Responsibility Binder”

@cheesemonkeysf - Life on the Number Line - board game for working with real numbers

@KristinABC123 - Class Brochure

@mathtastrophe - School Spirit/Mascot Banner

@Fouss - QR code stickers

@reminoodle - Country Time Pencil-Ade, etc.

@j_lanier - Triangle patterns and a star stack

misscalcul8 - Back to School Edition

@mathymissc - DIY-Paper Tray Storage

@CarpGoesMoo - Jumping on the Band Wagon

From a Math Class - Real Number Signs

@mathsmithed - Keep Calm and Math On

Rebecka Peterson - Classroom Stuff

Sam Shah - 2012-2013 School Planner

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Love all the goodies that you got done. Cute way to hide the clutter as well. Will you label the drawers?

http://liveteachcreate.com

Nutter Buttersmith said...

I'm also loving the supplies. I must admit, you got me thinking of creating little supply boxes for my table groups...I woke up at 4am and was thinking about what to put in them...*sigh*

Rebecka Peterson said...

LOVE the felt erasers. And in school colors--brilliant!