Homemade Presents!

My Auntie Terese said, "You and Jason work so well together.  You think of things and he makes them!"  It is kinda true.  So this past Christmas, I was stumped at what to get my Dad and Stepmom.  So here we are, 3 days before and it finally hits me, a growth chart!  Why was this the perfect gift?  Well, they have been measuring my nieces on the wall, behind the coats and if they ever move, this will be lost forever!

So Jason and I went out to Owl Lumber in Lombard.  We (really him) picked out some great wood.  We bought a total of 3 pieces of wood to his mom and my aunt could also get one, eventually.  We had no idea how this was going to go so we went to work in the basement.  Jason made the board flat and square with his joiner and plainer.

It was not time to test out how we would make the marks so it looks like a giant ruler.  Really funny that this is like using a scale factor!  Each inch was going to look like 1 foot on the wood.  Jason got out the router and we picked some different size bits out and tested.  We decided that the 1 foot marks should be the longest (2.5 inches) , then the half foot (2 inches) , quarter foot (1.5 inches) and each inch (1 inch) would be the shortest.   We had found success!

So now it was time to mark the board and go for it!  We had to set up a straight edge that I held while Jason used the router.  It was quite the process but it worked!

Now that the router part was finished, we could clean it and put a clear coat on it. For the numbers, I went to Home Depot and bought 4" address numbers.  It looks so good!

Best Christmas present ever!  Now the kids can be measured forever and ever.  I can't wait till my nieces are measuring their kids on this growth chart!

Minute to Win It: Winter Celebration!

The day before winter break always gets me.  It appears tradition in the school is to rotate from each room and do something different in each.  Year 1, made snowflakes for Sandy Hook.  Year 2, made cards for family/friends/teachers.  Year 3, totally stepped it up a notch!

Searching around my favorite Pinterest, I found inspiration!  Minute to Win It was conceived!  I narrowed it down to 6 games we would play
1. Do you want to Build a Snowman!
2. Stack 'em Up
3. M&M Movers
4. Holiday Card Scoot
5. Marshmallow Toss
6. Face the Cookie

So I set up the classroom with a spotlight table where each team had their place then in an arc, there were two tables where the teams could sit together. When students walked into the room, I simply assigned them a team and that is where they sat!  It was actually easier than I had expected.

First game, building a snowman.  The object was to stack 3 mini marshmallows, the team that had the most still standing at the end of 1 minute wins!  Biggest problem, the snowmen would fall over.  It took a special technique to get them to stick!

Second game, cup stacking.  The previous week, we had done an unplugged coding activity with cups so I had plenty of cups that are usable for drinking. The students were given a stack of cups and they had to make a perfect pyramid and back to the stack using only 1 hand.  If any cups fell over, they had to start again. So fun!

Third game, M&M movers.  The object of the game, pick up M&M's using only a straw and put them in a cup (had a different size left over cup from our week of coding) This may have been my favorite game because it was fun to watch! The most in the cup at the end of 1 minute was 35 I believe.  WOW!

Fourth game, getting the holiday card to hand off the end.  This was way harder then I had expected!  They were given a stack of 4 cards and they had to blow through a straw and get the card to hand off the edge without it falling off the table.  I had collected holiday cards from home and other teachers for this.  When I was done with the cards, I gave them to NJHS to repurpose. 

Fifth game, marshmallow toss.  The object was for 1 player to toss a marshmallow through a hoop (aka a piece of foil shaped like a circle) into a bucket.  This required a little bit of skill and a whole lot of communication between the partners.  It was pretty interesting to see who really excelled at this, the one you least expected!

Last but not least, the facing the cookie!  The object was to start with a cookie on their forehead and shimmy it down to their mouth.  What a hoot!    I ended up having the entire team up to the table and do a relay out of it.  There was one student who did it in no more than 4 seconds... AMAZING!

Hope this has inspired you to step up your winter party!  Middle schoolers loved it!

SBG Explanation for Students

As with any educator, Pinterest is the holy land of all ideas.  I was on a short brain break during a late night planning session and I came across the blog, Everybody is a Genius by Sarah.  This blog has been great a great resource for ideas and what other secondary math teachers are doing, lots of pictures too!

When I saw the poster, "What does my grade mean?", I fell IN LOVE!  I have a student friendly rubric  that I use but this is very relatable for middle school students and pretty too!

My 'pInspiration'

So I give all credit to Sarah and her wonderful blog!  I took out the difference between 4/3.5/3 because I don't do half points and also changed the numbers to reflect 10-5 with my district has adopted. 

And just because I am putting off grading papers, I also made an inspiration poster-esk one as well. I will probably end up editing the color to make them softer but not bad so far. 

So once again, I am in love with this wording, explanation and easy to understand visualness.  Thank you SO much Sarah!

Ever Wonder what the Pencil Sharpener Thinks?

I was sitting at the front table during class and I happened to be next to the pencil sharpener.  As I was there, I witnessed many students walk up to the sharpen their pencil and JAM it in the hole.  Oh boy I thought.  Most students don't know that there is a technique so they default to brut strength to get the job done.    Boy of boy do they have a lot to learn but that's a whole different topic for another day.

My prized pencil sharpener and great poster ;)

As it had been a long day, I started to think like a pencil sharpener and these are some things that I think it would like to say.

"Wow, you really do sharpen your pencil a lot.  Get back to work!"
"Ouch ouch that hurts!  You need to be gentle with me"
"Could somebody please clean me, it's dirty in here!"
"Ohhh, you must use a Ticonderoga pencil.  Best in the world!"

Then again, pencil sharpeners don't talk.  Probably better off that way! Have a great day!