Wednesday Made It?

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Made It?

I waited and waited for an exciting package to arrive Monday that I had planned on using for my Monday Made It post, but sadly it never came Monday... or Tuesday. Therefore the Wednesday Made It with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics.

Our school is trying something new by pulling from  3+ math curriculums in order to run math workshop this year. You can read a bit more about it under my "math" bookmark up above and I'll definitely be blogging about the successes/failures I am bound to have with it! But to help organize myself with the endless amount of curriculum options I decided to try out 2 different ways to help me keep things straight! Both systems are organized using the Common Core Standards.

1.Crate Filing System:
holds...
-curriculum manuels
-homework masters
-math workshop questions
-scaffolded answers to each workshop question

Each strand is a different color to easily see
how much material needs to be covered 

The red file is for end of year/state test review

*Here's an example of a curriculum manual I made, and yes there is one for EACH standard. It took some time to put together but I'll sure be glad later!

Each cover has the specific
standard & a picture

Blue pages are math workshop
questions

Green pages are homework
masters (rubrics are on the back)

2. My NEW rolling drawer system (this is what I was waiting for in the mail):
holds...
-math games
-QR code task cards (each QR code has an answer and most importantly a KHAN academy video attachment for if a student doesn't know why they got an answer incorrect)
-math tasks
-KHAN lists
-online math game lists

I originally made these labels for my old 10 drawer cart system that is still at school, but I found a deal on a 20 drawer cart system online that was cheaper than buying another 10 drawer one! I simply couldn't pass up on that deal : ) I have a feeling that as I start to unload my math tubs at school I'll make some adjustments as to which standards need more drawers and thus swap out the black labels.

Does this process look familiar to anyone? Thankfully I loved rector sets and lincoln logs as a kid : )

directions galore!

it needs a splash of color...

Colors for each math strand!

all done!

pretty happy with the final product!

My second made it was inspired from Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher, check out her amazing ideas here! I LOVED her math bulletin board and how kids can grab a ring of vocab. cards whenever they need it. So this made it was simply many hours of printing, cutting, laminating, cutting, hole punching, alphabetizing, and finally binding all of these amazing math vocabulary cards from Teaching and Tapas who uses the same font that I did for the rest of my classroom. (Apparently I'm really great at advertising for random people on TPT, but they did the hard work and I want to make sure they get the credit! If only there was a marketing job like that I would be the queen) I simply can't wait to have access to my classroom so that I can put together this math board!

LOTS of cutting and laminating... got hooked on Friday
Night Lights while doing this project!

Sorted into the different CCSS areas!

For my next made it I created Daily 5 posters to match my classroom colors (realized I made CAFE posters but forgot the big 5 so I bundled them on TPT)

sorry for the massive glare : ( I have a laminating problem & just a phone camera

I have an old handwritten voice level poster that has been hanging in my classroom for 2 years and needed some TLC. This time I printed my levels and if anyone can find my yellow #3 under the pile of school stuff in my guest bedroom that would be great ; ) I LOVE this voice level system! It is on the very edge of my whiteboard so that I can draw a dry erase star next to whichever level I want work to be done at. And lets be honest, I usually say what level and some OCD kid goes over and draws the star for me! If the level isn't being respected then I take away a NOISE letter. Simple expectations and procedures set up our kids for success!

it was originally from this lil guy I found on pintrest years ago...

I got rid of #5 last year. As in I literally cut it off the bottom of my poster with my students lol. My kids thought it was silly to have a level for something we would never be allowed to use in the building, cutting it off made a huge statement that it was NOT allowed

And some exciting news... organic wheat harvest is officially over! It took 12 days this year, we are exhausted, tan, dirty, hearts and bellies are full, and life sure is good. Time to go back to school!

Saying good bye to the combine for now... millet harvest should be right around the corner though!

Happy last days of summer!

Monday Made It! 7/20

Linking up with Tara again from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!
I absolutely adore all of the personalized colors that I keep seeing on the blogging world and I've finally decided that it's time to stop hunting for freebies and through TPT and simply make my own personalized colors!

A while back I showed my color scheme for this year...

I am mixing Creative Teaching Press painter's palette items with my old chevron borders from Teacher Created Resources. So here's what I've made so far to fit my own classroom colors this year! 

CAFE Posters!

I finished reading Daily 5 and the Daily CAFE book while lounging by the pool this summer and I'm going all-in this year with the concepts! When I have access to my classroom in August these babies will go on my magnetic blackboard so it will be easy for kids to put their reading strategies up quickly. 

You can find these cute guys on my TPT page for $1!

Sticking with the Daily 5/CAFE theme, I needed to make cute I charts to use with my students! Since I work at an IB school there are a TON of things that are nonnegotiables about what needs to be hanging on the walls. As I was reading the Daily 5 book I realized there was NO room for permanent I charts so I made them digital on SMART this week! 

Super simple no frills SMART with a title, stamina page, and the 5 charts to independence for each rotation of the daily 5. I find SMART documents to be so worth the pain of switching between nice home mac laptops and my work cheapo dell that actually has SMART downloaded on it, no recreating it year after year!!!(On TPT for $1) 

While I had my work laptop out I went a little crazy with SMART documents. For 3 years I have used my SMART board to take attendance, lunch choice, as well as morning message. The left side has all of the kids names under an "absent" column and when they get to school they simply drag their name to their lunch choice for the day "hot options #1, 2, 3, or 4" (and yes, we have 4 delicious worldly cuisine options for all of the different diets) or "cold lunch" and viola! I have attendance AND lunch choice done before the bell rings. On the right side of the split screen is my morning message. The SMART document I used years prior did the job, but I wanted to actually enjoy writing my morning messages so I made this baby!

a few of my morning message options

It's a SMART document with 8 different colored themes for morning message, that way I can match my room colors when I want but also mix things up when it drives me nuts. 

I put important things kids need to know/remember about our day in the "good morning" section and tasks that the students need to finish by the bell and IF they have extra time. It saves me from so many unnecessary questions in the morning and it fosters a quiet independence in the morning. 

pick one up at my TPT store!

And last but not least I created some labels/titles to use around the classroom! Get them for free here! 

for use on bulletin boards

labels for my IB peeps

small labels for crates

*******and a quick sneak peek for my project of the week...

Common Core math labels for my 10 drawer rolling cart!! Time to get organized : )

Monday Made It

A Different Look at the Multiplication Chart!

This week on Monday Made It I've linked up with 4th Grade Frolics to make new "multiplication charts" for my students. Now these are no ordinary multiplication charts... they are based off of an article called "A Different Perspective on the Multiplication Chart" that every teacher should read and a math workshop that I attended by the amazing Kelly Shank. 

Each kid has an envelope with their cut up and laminated multiplication chart

Each strip is actually a deconstructed multiplication chart that has been cut down each row for the students to use. 

We all know the traditional multiplication chart... 

But my kids only get deconstructed multiplication charts... they have so many more uses!

I NEVER give my students plain old multiplication charts anymore, it limits students to how they can use the chart and they end up using it as a "cheat sheet" instead of a learning tool. But these little guys that I printed and laminated today are an amazing versatile tool! Addition, subtraction, multiplication, equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, practicing multiplication families a kids struggles with, and so much more can be done with these strips.

STEPS:
1. print any ordinary multiplication chart
2. cut into strips and laminate for longevity
3. explore with students!

I introduce this tool by having students pull out just one strip and observe what they see... after a minute have students share out. You typically will hear about repeated addition, multiples, and fact families. 

Then have students take out 3 different strips (where the first numbers add up to the third number) I tend to have them pull out the 2 strip, 5 strip, and 7 strip. I have them explore these strips... after a minute or two a kids realizes that when you stack the strips that you can use these to add numbers! They're always excited about this discovery and want to prove it with other numbers. Tell them to wait one quick second...

Students can use them for addition! 2+5=7   22+55=77

because another student will realize that you can also stack the strips to subtract numbers! (inverse relationships anyone?!) 

use them for subtraction! 11-5=6    132-60=72

Then I let the kids go crazy and take out all the strips and discover as many patterns as possible and to prove that what they discovered applies to all of the numbers! They will find SO many mathematical concepts and you can see what mathematical vocabulary your kids have at the beginning of the year. The funny thing is that it usually takes 30 min. and an OCD kid to line up the strips and make a traditional multiplication chart. 

*My favorite is when they realize they can create their own strips for more challenging numbers. Say a student was trying to multiply something by 18, they can find two strips whose addends create a sum of 18... and bam! You have a new multiples strip for 18! I simply love how this tool allows kids to think outside of the box and approach mathematical concepts in a new way. 

My next Monday Made It is super simple. It takes a solid two episodes of "Parks and Rec" with all of the drying time but it's always worth it. 

NAME STICKS! Each year I paint half of a popsicle stick a solid color (last year I did yellow, this year I painted them red) and the other half of the stick is a shade of any tone tones (light blue or dark blue this year).

half and half for a good reason! 

Ways I use my name sticks..

1. creating groups/partners:

The different tones of blue stand for a boy or a girl. The dark blue is for a boy and the light blue is for a girl. This is incredibly nice when I want to "randomly" choose partners/groups. The various blues allow me to place mixed gender groups or same gender groups. It sounds silly, but I just know that some tasks get done more easily when there are certain gender partnerships (plus I can keep girl drama to a minimum or "certain" kids away from one another).

2. participation:

Each day I flip all sticks to blue so everyone is expected to contribute to a discussion. Throughout the day I flip their stick over to red when a student participates, this helps with accountability. When all sticks are red I flip them back over and we start over again! Nothing revolutionary but always helpful. 

And one quick "made it"? AKA I turned a cork board into a jewelry organizer from Joann Fabrics : ) Don't you just love coupons and teacher discounts?! Got this baby for $10 and repurposed it for my necklaces and earrings instead of memos!