Sailing Into Summer Blog Hop!

I am so excited to be part of the Sailing into Summer Blog Hop! I hope you will "hop" through all the blogs and read the wonderful ideas that everyone has to share! My "fast four" are:

1) One classroom thing I want to do again next year: I did a much better job of using my "Ticket out the Door" poster this year, and I want to be sure to continue that practice next year (and improve it even more).

Click to see on Pinterest

2) One classroom thing I want to change next year: I need to super-organize my materials into binders, as I found on Pinterest (Ms. DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice). I do have my materials in binders already, but I have larger binders that separate materials more by the type of activity than by topic. So I want to reorganize by topic....it could take me a while!

Click to see on Pinterest

3) One gift idea for instructional assistants: I have been thinking about this one a lot lately, because my instructional assistant's last day is Thursday. I usually have trouble thinking of cute, unique ideas, so I searched Pinterest, and found this one from "Life is What You Make It." This is a great idea - quick and easy (and useful), which is perfect for me!

4) One classroom organization tip: This may seem basic, but I still have to remind myself to do it every day - put things back where they belong! In the course of my day, I use so many different materials and "accumulate" such a variety of new papers that things can get disorganized very quickly. Immediately putting materials back where they belong and putting new materials in their appropriate place (even if it's the trash can!) helps keep that potential chaos of papers at bay.

Have a fantastic end of the year, and before you sail into summer, check out the rest of the blogs in the blog hop!

An InLinkz Link-up

Memory Wheels - First Day, Last Day, and Any Day in Between!

This post has been moved to: http://www.cognitivecardiowithmsmm.com/blog/memory-wheels-first-day-last-day-and-any-day-in-between

Love to Doodle (and a freedbie)

Exponents Color by Number For most of my school life as a student (and even as an adult, during PD), I have really liked doodling! During lectures, discussions...it would help me focus, but also give me something to make me look busy, so I wouldn't get called on in class! I always hated being called on and almost never participated voluntarily:) I liked to draw cubes, rectangles, squiggly lines, etc, and color in different parts of the doodles. Download this freebie:-) I really wanted to make some color by number activities. Since I am not good at creating actual pictures, I decided to make my color by numbers similar to my random drawing/doodling. My Exponent Color by Number is most similar to my past doodles, but I thought it was a little too random, so I started using actual shapes. The Integer Operations Color by Number (freebie), as well as most of my other color by numbers are more structured, but so much fun for me to make! Computerized doodling! Anyone else

Math Class - First Day Activity

Rectangle of pentominoes Many 6th graders seem to have a pretty negative attitude about math, so I try to do something interesting to "grab" them during our first class. Last year, during the first math class, we spent part of the period working with pentominoes. Before working with the pentominoes, however, we played a name game so we could learn each others' names (I find it impossible to start anything else if I don't know some names, and fortunately, I learn them fairly quickly). rectangle outline For the activity, I divided the students into groups of 3 or 4. The directions for the activity were not complicated - the task was to make a rectangle, using all of the pentominoes. I gave students an outline of the rectangle, as pictured to the left, so they would know the correct size of the rectangle. The squares in the grid are each one inch. The rectangle is 5 squares (inches) wide and 13 inches long (13 inches includes the row that has the "Pent

UnknownMay 17, 2015 at 1:13 PM
We all seem to have the same tip - put it away as soon as possible. I am not looking forward to the mountain of papers I have to re-home soon. Thanks for the post.
UnknownMay 25, 2015 at 1:22 PM
Love the pitcher idea! And I need to remember that soemtimes things need to go in"file 13"! Thanks for joining us!
- Julie

Middle School Math Moments (and more!)

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