Updated Puzzle Corner

 To say I'm ready for the upcoming 3-day weekend is an understatement!  We've been in school now for 3 weeks and while I'm doing better at getting ahead school-wise, other areas of my life have fallen behind.  I need a day just to catch up, work in my yard, and not feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel.

For many years, I've had a puzzle corner in my room.  With the exception of the pandemic in 2020 - 2021, this space has been a fun place for my students to play with math in a non-threatening way.

However, this year, I knew I needed a change because I would be having some kids that I had in class a couple of years ago, so over the summer, I started thinking about how I could change it.  For the past two years, it's had a math fun fact, a mathematician of the week, and a math quote.  This year, I wanted to incorporate some vertical / magnetic puzzles based as inspired by Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) and to add some math-y toys to the mix.

My students haven't really engaged much with the vertical puzzles (yet) but they have really loved the basket of toys that I picked up at Target Dollar Spot!

One of my Labor Day goals is to work on my files for the Brain Teaser spot so I have a binder full of papers to swap out those each week.  This may be a work in progress over the year, but for now, it's on my to-do list.  Also on that list is to get my binder of Vertical Puzzles updated, cut out, and compiled.  

Classroom Progress, maybe?

I just spent most of the day working in my classroom - thankfully the a/c was working today because this afternoon's high was 105!  

I honestly couldn't tell you what all I accomplished today - it feels like nothing major but I spent 6 hours up there.  I got a few organizational things done - new labels, etc.

One thing on my to-do list was to put up our Welcome board in the hallway.  For the past couple of years, we've had red bulletin board paper and I made the executive decision to change it out to red fabric.  If you've never used fabric on your bulletin boards, I encourage you to fix that now!  This is just a generic broadcloth, but fabric doesn't fade, stores easily for reuse, and doesn't show wear and tear.

Look at how bold the red fabric looks compared to the paper!  I also purchased some cute reversible border at Hobby Lobby with their 40% off classroom sale and you just can't go wrong with buffalo check.  I know the Cardinals part is crooked and normally that would bother me, but this board is at the end of the hallway and I probably won't see it again until it's time to change it in September!

Back in my classroom, I piddled with several small things that needed to be done and then tackled 2 bigger projects...

The first project I worked on was assembling this organizer from Amazon.  Last week, when I was working in my room, I started thinking about how I could better use some of my space to organize random supplies for students.  My previous use was a mishmash of boxes and locations and it just wasn't very cohesive.  I played around with some letter trays but nothing quite fit what I wanted.  

(Note:  I totally forgot to take a photo of this in my classroom - sorry about that!)  Once I had it assembled, I started to organize student supplies.  The bottom drawer is where students can get rolls of tape and glue sticks for their table buckets, the bottom shelf will be a place for scratch paper and the top shelf will hold my patty paper box.  The vertical storage space behind fits my graphing whiteboards perfectly since we don't use those very often.  For now, I have left off the pencil cup but it's magnetic and might end up on the whiteboard eventually.  

The other goal today was to change out my Puzzle Place area but that didn't quite work out the way I was expecting.  

The little woven bowl I found while cleaning at home did end up working perfectly for the fidget toys (fake Rubik type stuff from Target Dollar Spot), but then I had a whiteboard dilemma!  

Last week, I had decided I wanted to change out the Puzzle Place to something to encourage more interaction with the board.  I had used the same 4 quadrants for the past couple of years and the only one the kids really enjoyed was the Math Joke.  As a result, I decided to look for an inexpensive magnetic solution in order to do some vertical puzzles (inspired by Sarah at MathEqualsLove) and found this whiteboard at Hobby Lobby for $7.99.  (Note:  I was so impressed with the Hobby Lobby whiteboard that I went by there on my way home to get another one for the hallway (inspired by Sara Vanderwerf) but they were sold out.)

Once I go to school, I realized that I wasn't super sure which side of the board I wanted to put the whiteboard on!  

I plan to keep the Math Joke and the other one will probably end up either being the Math Fun Fact or will get changed to another brain teaser (like Set, 24, solvemoji, etc - something that is less manipulative than the typical puzzle table problem)

When I look around my classroom, I can't say that I can account very well for the 5 hours I worked, but at least it's done enough until I officially report on Monday!  

#Made4Math - A Play Table Update

 

This past week FLEW by and now it's time for another #Made4Math Monday post!

I'm telling you - the month of July has to be the shortest one of the year for teachers... so much to do, so little time to get it done :)

August is now here and school will start soon, so this past week was spent working on my classroom.  It' STILL not done, but it's closer than it was last Monday, so I'll take that as progress! :)

In case you are new to #Made4Math, it is a weekly blog challenge to share a project or creation for your classroom.  I love reading your posts, so please join in the fun using the hashtag #Made4Math on Twitter, IG, or blogging about your project. 

Here are last week's posts in case you missed them:

Kim (@LogicalPoetry) shared some new labels for her classroom

Jane (@extraneousroot) shared how to do a Geometry Make-Over

I shared about some new labels and clipboard stands for my classroom

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's projects!

Project #1 - A Made4Math Update

A few weeks ago, I shared about the Puzzle and Play Corner in my classroom, but at that time, I hadn't finished it. It's now done! :) On the left is the original photo I shared on that post.

Last Monday, a friend came to help me unpack and she was amazing in helping me unpack all of the puzzles and games and neatly organize them into the Sterlite drawers! I had also laminated a title and put up a border on the Cartesian plane. You can see the binders hiding in the corner. I had ordered a table skirt from Amazon to hide the clutter, but it took a while to get here. My friend and I went to IKEA on Tuesday, so no work got done that day, but on Wednesday, I was back at it by putting up the Mental Math board and installing that table skirt to hide the Sterlite drawers. In the windowsill, you can find some mathy books to read, including my favorite "Introductory Calculus for Infants" Project #2 - Some New Puzzles!

Of course, with the play table now done, I decided I needed some new puzzles.  Pre-COVID, I had one of those Page a Day calendars with Mensa Puzzles and I kept several of them to create for the table.  Of course, I couldn't have my table last year, so my Mensa Calendar stack stayed on my desk until this summer.

You can print them here:

Line Up!

Star Search

Don't forget to share your creations on Twitter, IG, or blog! Until next time - keep creating and sharing!

#Made4Math is Back!!

Holy Moly - It's been 9 years since we started Made4Math!!

You can read more about the beginnings of M4M or over on Pam's blog.

In 2012, Made4Math was inspired by a blog series called Monday Made It, hosted by Tara at 4th grade Frolics.  The basic idea was that on Mondays, we would share something we had created for our Math classrooms - maybe a new lesson, a new activity, an organizational idea for the classroom - the sky was the limit!  We kept M4M going for a few years and honestly it really helped me stay accountable.  This accountability is a great thing now as I'm getting ready to start a new job in a new district and I really need some accountability as I navigate through classroom organization again! :)

We would LOVE to have you join in the party - all you need to do is get your creative juices flowing and either blog, tweet, or IG your creations with the hashtag #Made4Math so we can steal your ideas get inspiration from you!

Here are my Made4Math projects this week...

Project #1 - Quarantiles

Last year, during lockdown, Nat Banting shared a project on Twitter and on his blog that he called Quarantiles.  I was so excited to make these last year for the Puzzle Table, but when the COVID restrictions came down, I knew that my beloved Puzzle / Play Table would not make an appearance and so my tiles were on the back burner.  Fast forward a year and I have zero clue what happened to those supplies that I purchased in Summer 2020, so I bought some more.  I ended up buying a pack of 100 2" squares on Amazon and the paint supplies at Dollar General.

After I made them, I realized that I messed up on one of the sets, so I have purchased another package of 100 to correct my error and add in a couple more colors.  All in all, these were super easy to make so I am curious how the kids react!  I do need to come up with a better storage box for them :)  If you search through the hashtag on Twitter, you'll find some really cool creations and even a coloring sheet where you can make a paper set of tiles!

Project #2 - Laws of Logic

At my new school, I'll be mostly teaching Geometry, so I've been going through some old Geometry files for any activities or things that I want to use.  Sadly, all of my classroom supplies are boxed up in my garage, so I'm going off memory on lessons and activities that I need to work on!

But one early topic that I know gives kids trouble are the Laws of Logic and what conclusions can be drawn.  I've used this card sort before once students knew what the LoD / LoS were, but I've never tried letting them actually come up with the laws and reasoning themselves!  This past week, I was going through some files from a textbook my first year of teaching (1998) and found this worksheet in a Lab Manual from Addison Wesley.  I liked that it asked the kids to sort the statements and see if they could come up with a conclusion.  I typed up the sentences (get the file here), printed on colored paper and cut them out.  Each group will get a set of sentences to sort and hopefully use those to discuss what would be a logical conclusion, leading us (hopefully) into the Laws of Logic!

More Projects Coming Next Week!

I will get my keys to my new room this week, so hopefully I will have some room pictures (and projects) to share with you next week, but until then, don't forget to share your creations with us using the hashtag #Made4Math.  I look forward to seeing your ideas!

#MTBoSBlaugust - A Puzzle and Some Forms

This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.

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Today was our last work day before kids come tomorrow!

To be honest, when I left on Friday, I was feeling pretty good.  Then I got to school day and it's like, "Wait, what??? Kids TOMORROW??" and my brain totally shut down and wigged out on me!

So instead of getting my lesson plans done (which I finally finished a whopping 10 minutes ago), I had a flurry of activity getting some forms and such for organizing purposes done. :)

M4M #1 - QBits Puzzle

As you know, I've been working on my puzzle table to make sure I have some fresh puzzles available for my returning students.

I ran across this puzzle last week in one of my Puzzle Books and it reminded me a lot of Panda Squares, so of course I had to type it up! :)

The idea is to put the 16 smaller squares into the grid so that matching colors touch along each side.

If you would like the file, click here


M4M #2 - Forms and More Forms

I'm a list maker... and a form maker... :)

If I can figure out a way to put something into an organized format, I probably will!

At the left, you can see my Student Aide To-Do list, a "Why were you Tardy" note, and a "Please put away your cell phone" note.  I realized after the fact that I should have made the cell phone note into a laminated paper so I could reuse them... Oh well. :)


Now it's time to head to bed... those kiddos will be there tomorrow!! :)  Have a great night all!

#Made4Math - Last Monday of Summer!

This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.

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It's Monday again!!

Today is my last Monday of Summer 2019.  We officially report back on Wednesday and kids come next week.  As a result, I've been back and forth on trying to get things done versus trying to shut down and enjoy the last few days of break.  I am teaching the same preps this year, so I've not been extremely motivated on the lesson plan front, but I guess I probably should get on that soon! :)

But first, let's take a look at the pretties for this week! :)

Made4Math #1 - Sum It Up Puzzle

I've been trying to find some new puzzles for my puzzle table this summer.  While digging around in my stack of books, I found this series called Solve It that I had picked up years ago at Mardel.

While flipping through the book, I ran across this number puzzle that reminded me a lot of an Open Middle problem :)  Since I already have sets of 1 to 9 tiles, it was pretty simple just to make a page for the puzzle frame and a new puzzle is done! :)

If you want to download the file, click here


Made4Math #2 - Notes from the Teacher

Last spring, I ran across this tweet from Emily DeLuca about writing 4 notes per day to her students.  I loved the idea, but just didn't follow through with it.

So I'm going to *try* to do better this year!  I made a couple of pages of small notes on PPT - the first page just says "A Note from Mrs. ____", while the second page can be seen at the left.  I printed them on colored paper, cut them out, and now I have some notes to slip to students daily!

I would love some ideas for growth mindset / positive affirmations that wouldn't sound weird coming from your 40-something year old math teacher... any ideas? :)

If you want this file, click here.  You will need the Sunberry font


Made4Math #3 - Teaching Binder and Meeting Binder

I've already posted about my binders this week, but here they are all finished!

On the left is the meetings binder all bound with the small discs and a nifty little pocket that I made from a letter size page of cardstock.  Just fold it in half, cut at a diagonal, hole punch, and tape the bottom!

On the right is my teaching binder - isn't that cover just lovely?? :)  I added a nameplate and a couple of dividers and it's ready for the new year!


I know many of you are heading back to school this week, so best wishes on a new year!  :)

#MTBoSBlaugust - Puzzle Place

This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.

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In the 2017-2018 school year, I read this blog post by Sara Vanderwerf about having a Play Table in the classroom.  I loved the idea of mathematical play and encouraging students to experience math as a puzzle and something fun.

About this same time, Sarah Carter started posting about puzzles in her classroom and honestly, if Sarah Carter tells me to do it, I'd better figure out a way to do it :)

So the "Puzzle Place" was born.  I spent the first part of the 17-18 year trying to figure out the logistics and by mid-year, I was ready to unveil the Puzzle Place.  It wasn't much, just a filing cabinet and a chalkboard from the Target Dollar Spot.  It took a while for students to even notice the puzzles and I didn't do a great job of advertising it. :)

Throughout the 2018-19 school year, I continued to gather more puzzles and from the first week of school, students did a better job of noticing the Puzzle Place.  It's kind of tucked away in a weird little corner by the door that was originally meant to house laptop carts when our building was first built.  As the year progressed, more and more students visited the Puzzle Place, often making that their first stop at the start of class.

Each week, I would put out a new puzzle - some were definitely more challenging than others.  My only requirement when looking for puzzles was that I wanted them to be fairly manipulative.  I compiled a binder of puzzles with instructions that got placed in a sheet protector on the wall and puzzle pieces that were on the file cabinet.

As the year progressed, I recognized that I wanted to expand the puzzle place for a couple of reasons:

1. While I would have mostly new students this year, I have about 20 that have already seen the puzzles I used last year.
2. I wanted more variety to the puzzles, maybe post some brain teasers or mental math type activities
3. Some of the puzzles were quickly solved and then there wasn't a reason to visit the Puzzle Place throughout the week

At the right, you can see my revamped Puzzle Place.  It still has the manipulative puzzle on the cabinet, but now there are 3 more puzzles on the wall that are more mental.  Now, it's on my to-do list to find more of these puzzles.  Here are the resources I have so far:

• The middle puzzle is printed from Puzzlium's Instagram page, where they post their weekly Wall Street Journal puzzles
• The left (Code Breaker) and right (Triangle Patterns) are from Fun With Puzzles webpage where there are over 140 pages of brain teasers and logic puzzles.
• Emoji Puzzles
• Area Puzzles

What other resources would you suggest?

#Made4Math - Preparing for a New Year

Monday is here, again???  How does that keep happening???

Seriously though, the past few weeks have *flown* by and this week will be no exception.  Between hosting the Northeast Oklahoma Math Teacher Gathering, attending another workshop at school, organizing #MTBoSBlaugust, and celebrating several birthdays / anniversaries this week, it's gearing up to be a very busy end of July / start of August!  While I technically have a couple of weeks until I officially report to school, summer is pretty much over and I have so much left to be done!

But at least I had a few bursts of productivity to share with you :)


Made4Math #1 - Big Protractor

When I first started teaching, instructional technology pretty much consisted of using transparencies and an overhead projector.  Now that we've moved past all of that, some of us (ahem) still have piles of transparencies that we stockpiled way back when. :)

For years, I have made small protractors for students to put into their notebook, but that hasn't dwindled my stock much at all.  Last year, I noticed that I kept grabbing a small protractor to illustrate on the Promethean when talking about measuring angles but for whatever reason, I never thought to make a large protractor!  So, this summer, that was one of my projects.  I just took the student image, enlarged it to fit an entire page, and printed it.  I can use it on the Promethean or on the whiteboard!  yay! :)  Here'a copy of the big protractor for you to use if you want it! :)


Made4Math #2 - Domino Puzzle

Based on recommendations from the #MTBoS, I started a Puzzle Table a few years ago and the response from my students has been amazing.  I put out a new puzzle each Monday and the kids work on it all week.  However, I will have some kids this year that I had last year, so I needed some new puzzles for the upcoming year.  Of course, the amazing Sarah (@mathequalslove) to the rescue!  (Note - if you've not read Sarah's blog - go there now - I'll wait!)  Anyway, a few weeks ago, she posted a link to the ATM Puzzle Page and while browsing, I found this great domino puzzle that I knew would be perfect for the Puzzle Table!  In the picture at the left, you can see the domino pieces plus a puzzle that Sarah shared on her blog this summer.  I organize the puzzles in a Puzzle Binder with the instructions and puzzle pieces in a sheet protector, then a divider at the back to keep separated the puzzles I've used vs those I haven't used yet that year.


Made4Math #3 - Stand and Talk

One of the best blog posts I read this summer was a post by Amy Zimmerman sharing the love for Stand and Talks.  I had previously read the original post by Sarah VanDerWerf, but Amy's post let me down the rabbit hole of research and finally to an amazing episode of Global Math Department led by Sara VanDerWerf on Stand and Talks.  Since then, I've been thinking through how I could use them in my classroom.

With AP Stat, there were some curriculum revisions this summer with the new CED, including a graph that I had never heard of - a mosiac plot.  Doing some more research led me to this link, where I found the above graphs regarding the survival status of those on the Titanic.  You can download the Stand and Talk here.


Made4Math #4 - AP Formula Sheet

In May, when the new AP Stat Course and Exam Description (CED) was released, one of the changes was the Formula Sheet.  The previous formula sheet had been around since the course started in 1996-1997 and was due for an update.  As soon as the CED was available electronically, the formula sheet was the first section I checked out and needless to say, I was a bit bummed.  The tables (Z, T, and Chi Square) were not user friendly and spanned multiple pages, which made printing them for the classroom a bit tricky.  This past week, I finally had made time to reformat them, mainly because I need to start sending stuff to the Copy Shop! :)  I formated the tables so that they will easily fit a composition notebook and still be readable.  If you would like the revised tables, feel free to grab them here!


I have a few more projects in the works, but I didn't get them done in time to share them this week, but that's okay - it gives me something to write about next time! :)  But until then, have a great week and Happy Back to School! :)