Tried It Tuesday- TpT Store Slideshow and Banners

If you are a regular follower, this will  be a repeat. I am kind of cheating here, because I am going to share two things I tried, but I shared them yesterday for Monday Made It. 

I just love Tried It Tuesday with Holly though and I didn't want to rewrite the whole thing, please forgive my laziness. Remember though, it's summer and I am moving schools and grade levels, I need some slack! Plus, I know this can helpful to some of you who want to try this. 

Thanks for understanding. 

So here's what I tried. 

I will  be honest, this first one I tried before and it didn't work so I gave up. 

Have you seen the slideshows on people's TpT store fronts. They are so adorable. 

I wanted one too. 

It took two tries this time, but it worked and I LOVE IT!!!!

I followed the tutorial here. It was really great and easy. I am somewhat technologically challenged, but thankfully can follow most tutorials. These are the four I made for my store. See them in action here. 

Secondly, I updated my TpT Banner by following this tutorial. It was super easy! I have done this before, but it is way cuter now. 

There you have it, my tried its. I repeated blog post (partially).

Thanks for understanding. 

Now go link up with Holly at 4th Grade Flipper and share what you have done too. 

Tuesday Tried It-Writing on the desk

I know kids love white boards and dry erase markers. 

This is my twist. 

We used our desks last week. At first, they were skeptical. But, once I did it and they tried it, they loved it. 

I use old socks for erasers. I take them home to wash when they need it. Again, my kids freaked out at first, but I promised them they were clean. They are just old socks that the dryer had eaten their mate. Plus, my husband is extremely OCD and buys new socks every few months and I recycle his not so old ones  for erasers. 

Also, I will warn you, the socks don't completely clean the desks. We did use some spray cleaner as well when we were completely finished. 

Be sure to link up with Holly for some good Tried It Ideas. 

Tried It Tuesday- Jeopardy Review Game

Our students have semester exams this week. This is not a fun week. I have two days to review the past 16 weeks with  my students. 

They were given a huge review study guide for homework last week. YUCK! 

Enter Cyber Monday and Tuesday. 

I purchased a Jeopardy Template game from Kendra Passerelli. 

It's completely editable to meet my needs. 

I took questions from the study guide and edited them for the jeopardy review. 

When you click on the amount, only the question appears. Then you click on the power point and the answer appears. The main menu of course takes you back to money screen. 

We played it yesterday. It was fun! 

I started the day off not so structured. I learned my lesson. By the end of the day, I had made this: 

I made small groups, gave each group a white board and a marker. Then, by the afternoon classes, EVERY CHILD had a white board and marker. Students had to have their study guide out. They could find the question when it appeared on the screen, they had to show ALL the work before answering. All students in the group had to have the correct answer with their work shown to get the points for their team. 

I think they enjoyed it. Because I slowed the game way down with them having to justify their work, we are playing again today. 

I am hoping it pays off when they take their test this week.  Honestly, they are so hyped up, it is too crazy for my liking, but I know it is better than boring worksheet review. I can hear some good "Math talk" going on while they work. 

Be sure link up with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday. 

Tuesday Tried It- Another Math Notebook Testimonial

So, I gave myself an A for effort with this next "tried it". 

It worked, but it wasn't pretty. 

I wanted to make a flip book for percents for my students. This is the first time I was teaching tax, tip and discounts with my advanced students. 

I created this flip book during Thanksgiving break, but didn't print it because of printer issues at home. So, Monday morning, I printed what I needed before school and started making it with my first period. 

I love these kids. They know I make a ton of mistakes with them and they still love me. I think they secretly love to find typos and errors in things I give them. 

Anyway, we started putting it together and it didn't look right. It was actually an easy fix and we just trimmed what we could and rewrote one of the words. 

But, hating that it was wrong, I fixed it and reworked it for my afternoon classes. It still wasn't perfect, but better. It's something I plan on working on.

This is how it ended up. It worked. 

 The inside worked perfectly. I actually taught with the examples I had typed on the inside. They wrote the notes next to steps. 

I used examples from the same task cards they would be using. (I knew we wouldn't get through all of them) 

So, we have this great, okay, so-so foldable all about percent. Students worked on task cards from Live Love Math which are challenging!!! 

Another reason I love my kids is because they really do understand why we make foldables. WITHOUT BEING TOLD, they opened up their math notebooks and took out the foldable and worked the problems! 

I say SUCCESS!!!! That is the whole point of making these things. Students NEED to USE them. they don't have to be pretty or colorful either. 

Students need to understand these notes, foldables, flip books, whatever you call it, are their resources and must be used. 

I even had a student say to me, "Mrs. Hodges, We are creating a Math book, I think." I smiled and said, "Yes, yes we are!" 

Be sure to link up with Holly at 4th Grade Flipper and share your "tried-it's". 

Tried It Tuesday- Football Party

I really want to link up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday, but going to warn you, this is NOT SCHOOL RELATED. 

Last week was my youngest sons 4th birthday and we had a football themed party for him. He is obsessed with football. He "plays" football while it's on TV. If they run the ball, he runs, if they pass, he passes. He always wins though. Once, a player was hurt and all the other players were on their knees, I look over and he was on his knees too. It was actually a very significant injury and they had stopped the game for about 15 minutes. He eventually went from his knee to sitting criss cross on the floor. He takes this stuff seriously people. 

So, once he told us he wanted football, I let my Pinterest obsession go to work! It was soooooo fun! 

My football man! 

The tailgate table!

Saw this on Pinterest for gift bags. So easy!
The tops came from Catch My Party. FREE printables! Gotta love that! 

My husband made this awesome cake. He is an extremely talented cake decorator.  

I actually thought of this on my own, last minute. My husband helped me throw it together real quick. It was a perfect way for the guests to enter the party though. 

My husband also had this idea. He made this for our guests to sign for Hamilton. I love the keepsake. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest too. My husband made all those cups. He is such a perfectionist.
The water bottle labels came from Catch My Party too. (Again, FREE!)

I made all the flags from FREEBIE from here. Such great party ideas!

Again, the hubby made these strawberry footballs. Talk about yum! 

Even made the condiments fun! 

Saw this online too. Thought it was super cute! 

We served hot dogs. Again, simple people, simple! 

A few years ago, my husband made this football toss for a community event.
It was perfect for this party.
All the kids loved playing outside! 

We all got in the fun with our jerseys and eye black. 

Even my older ones wore eye black. Anything for their brothers! 

Frugal Mom and Wife had some GREAT ideas too. 

It was loads of fun and super easy. 

Thanks for letting me indulge and share a little about my kiddos. 

Mathematical Monday & Tried It Tuesday- Math Snacks

Yesterday was Mathematical Monday with Jess at I Heart Recess and today Tried It Tuesday with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper. Getting two for the price of one! Since everything I try is Math, it fits, right?

We began ratios and proportions last week. This is new for all my students. This is not a skill they have previously learned. In the past, it has challenging. 

To make it fun, I introduced it with this video: The Bad Date. It is just darn funny. Sixth graders love it. It last all of 3 minutes and 37 seconds. But, they get the basic concept from this video. 

I then made a quick foldable and used it as an example. 

This past weekend, I was playing around on a school iPad and noticed that Math Snacks was an app. So, I investigated a little more and holy moly!, there are lessons that go with this video. They are other lessons too! 

Math Snacks were designed for middle schoolers, which I love. It's so hard to find good resources. 

They are short animations that keep kids engaged and teach  them too! Gotta love that. 

They include a Learner Guide for Students and a Teacher Guide for teachers. It's all done for me, another thing I love! 

My students are doing ratio and proportion centers right now. They are watching a different Math Snacks video on ratio and proportions and completing the worksheet that goes along with it. INSTANT CENTER! No work needed by me!!! 

This is directly off the Math Snacks site:

"Math Snacks are short animations and mini games designed to present mathematics in a very different way. In fact, we hope these snacks don't look like traditional mat at all. Math Snacks give students, especially those who don't particularly like math, another way to look at math concepts. While Math Snacks are designed for middle school, they address content and have been used by students in grade 3-8."