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!

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!

Being a fantastic Auntie!

So although I do not have children, my sisters (in-law) DO have children so I get to do so many fun things with them!  This past weekend I got to make Valentine's with them for their schools.  I have been seeing the melted crayon hearts all over Pinterest and I have been dying to make them.  I committed to making them this year and then got my nieces on board!

So I started the night before by putting hot tap water in a bowl with the crayons to take the wrappers off.  Good thing I did because it would have been a real bore with three year olds!

Now came to the breaking part.  The girls were really good at this!  They had a blast doing it also.  I was worried there might have been tears for broken crayons but luckily they have grown out of that stage!

So after all crayons were broken, they took quick work to filling up the silicone lip molds I found at Michael's where I live.  My brother tried to teach his daughter how to put the crayons in correctly but she seemed to ignore his instructions and do how she felt was right.  In all truth, there was no wrong way!  I did let them fill them by themselves and before I put them in the oven, I evened them out a little bit.

After baking them at 230 degrees for about 15 minutes, I took them out, stuck them outside for 5 minutes (due to the 'Polar Vortex' we have been experiencing, cooling time was extra short!) and they were done!  I wish I snapped a picture of their faces when they saw them for the first time.  They could not believe that THEY made those!

The girls finished them off by putting in a clear little bag, a note and signing their names (which ended up being first initials only) and I tied them up with a ribbon.  Great time had by all participants!  I can't wait till they are in elementary school to do it all over again with them.