Saturday Student Motivation- Smarty Pants Update

I originally wrote about my "Smarty Pants Club" here in September. It was an idea I got from our wonderful hostess, Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching. 

When students make a 100 on their common assessment, a.k.a. Unit Tests, they sign a sheet and get candy. (not necessarily Smarties, but candy. I hang it up on my "Smarty Pants" Wall. 

This is how the board began. 

This is the board now. 

This past test (the orange ones), I had a few students who I know, NEVER thought they would get their name on that wall. I wish I could have taken a picture of their shock. It was priceless. They were so proud!

I had fallen behind on the  board and passing out the tickets and candy. Now,I am finally organized and stocked up on candy and I passed them out the very next day. That made a HUGE impact as well!  

It's working!!! It's working!!! 

Don't forget about the huge giveaway going on with Miss Lifesaver and Middle School OCD. 

Everyone wins!!! 

Favorite Teacher Giveaway

There have been a lot of great giveaways going on lately. So many milestones for our blogging community! 

I even won a new pencil sharpener in one. I am beyond thrilled!!! 

And now,  the newest one.... 

Susan from Middle School OCD and Erin from Miss Lifesaver are celebrating together.

Their giveaway has two parts. One is a scavenger hunt and everyone wins! It's all about our favorite teachers. They actually made us choose ONE! Can you believe the nerve? 

It was kind of hard, to be honest, I am not sure I had a favorite. I have memorable ones. High School English was pretty awesome. She was cooky, but memorable. 2nd grade was so sweet and nice. I loved her as an 8 year old. Plus, I thought it was neat when I moved away from that school and she actually lived in my neighborhood. I felt like a "cool kid". 

But, the one I chose was my 8th grade Math teacher, Mr. Simmons. He loved Math. He loved teaching Math. He was really good at it too. He was a HUGE man. I think he was like 6'6 at least. He had such a presence about him. He was very soft spoken, but man, oh man, you didn't want to make him mad. 

He liked me. I was the teacher's pet. I know, don't I sound haughty? But, I was and I knew it. The problem was, as an 8th grader, I took advantage of that. He assigned 20 word problems every single week, without fail. It was for a grade. I wasn't particularly good at math at this time. (ha! says the sixth grade math teacher) So, I decided to boycott the word problems. I just choose not to complete them. I am sure he warned me about my grade, but I was his favorite, so I knew he wouldn't fail me. Fast forward, end of 8th grade, time to try out for the drill team for high school. Grades had an impact... no pass no play, right? 

I failed 8th grade math for a six weeks, THE six weeks I HAD to pass to try out for the drill team!!! WHAT??!!! How could he? How could he fail his favorite student???!!! 

Yes, now I know how delusional I was back then. I failed myself. I didn't do the work and I failed! I missed being on drill team my freshman year in high school because I was L-A-Z-Y!!! 

I still loved Mr. Simmons though. I totally respect what he did because it was right. I am sure at the time I thought my world had ended, but of course, it didn't. 

I also remember the ONE poster he had hanging in his room. It read: "List of jobs you can do without Math". It was blank. We tried all year to add something. The funny thing is, my students do the same thing now! 

I have donated two products for this giveaway. 

The first is for elapsed time. Man, this is hard for kids, no matter the age. This one is part of the scavenger hunt. (everyone wins!!) 

Secondly, I have donated my #1 selling product. My Place Value Task Cards. This is part of a grand prize giveaway. 

Be sure to click on over there and go enter and best of luck!!! 

All these great bloggers are involved! 

Graphics and Fonts by Confetti Graphics, The Learning Site, Lovin' Lit, and Shelia Melton

Good Luck and enjoy hunting!

Ground Hog Math-FREEBIE

Happy Friday! 

Time for a FREEBIE! 

(keeping part of my resolutions)

 

Ground hog day has always been a big deal in my family. My sister was born on this day. I think I was an adult before I learned that Ground Hog Day wasn't a real holiday. I guess I was slow. 

As a kindergarten teacher we celebrated everything and everything was themed. Groundhog day was perfect. We predicted, we graphed, we made groundhog headbands. It was a blast. 

Fast forward many years. I met my husband, learned his birthday was on Ground Hog Day too! Fate people!!  (ha) 

So in honor of Groundhog Day,  my sister and husband's birthdays. I created an activity for my middle school kids. I can't wait to use this with my classes. Click below to get it FREE!

Ground Hog Math 

I also find this cute Freebie Link with Lucky to Be in First. Check it out for some great stuff! 

Tuesday Tried It- Editing a Foldable

Today's Tried it Tuesday for me is using a template to create a foldable. 

I do a lot of foldables. Most of mine are student made though. I make them fold the paper, I make them write everything out. No particular reason, I have just always done it that way. Also, let me note that I see nothing wrong with this way. 

This year has a been a little different. The more great finds I gather from TpT, the "nicer" our foldables have become. I have made some, and some I have bought. 

An example of one I have made on my own. 

During one of the amazing sales on TpT, I bought a huge foldable packet from 4mula Fun. She's a master at foldables and templates and all things Interactive Notebooks. 

This weekend I was considering the foldable I want my class to make for integer operations. I found one we have done lots, I wrote it out, it was fine. Then I remembered these templates I purchased and looked through them. 

When I bought them, it came with a PDF version AND a Publisher version so I could create foldables to meet my needs. 

So, I did! I created an 8 flip foldable for integers this week. 

I still want my kids to write out the rules and examples though. But, I made some of it fill in the blank. As far as the rules, I typed them all in because I want to make sure they don't get confused. I start saying "positive times a positives and negative times a negative equals a positive" and they are liable to have all kinds of things for the rules. 

I copied them on fun bright paper because its just cool. 

We are making these Thursday or Friday... we'll see how it goes over! 

Now that I look at this, we won't write the "x" for multiplication. Now that we are using variables, we will use the "dot" and parenthesis only. You just can't see those symbols. 

Join in the fun and link up with Holly for Tried It Tuesday. 

Mathematical Monday

I am linking up with I Heart Recess for.... 

One of my teaching partner made these and let me borrow them for one of my classes. 

Ice Cream Combinations: 

Each group was given a cone and a cup. 

They were randomly given flavors of ice cream and randomly given toppings. 

Students had to create tree diagrams and a number sentence to show how many combinations they could make with their ice cream. 

Students made a group poster to share with the class. 

 Now I have a small display outside my room. 

This was a great Monday type activity. 

Homework Banners adapted for multiple classes

Happy Saturday! 

It's time to Spark Motivation with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching. 

Last month Joanne, posted about her Homework Pennants. I liked this idea, A LOT. Homework is such a sore subject around here. It is NOT going away, so I have to get them motivated. And because Joanne is so awesome, all I had to do to get a copy was leave a comment! 

I teach six classes. How could I make this work? 

Here's my plan. 

I made six different colored homework banners. I also made a matching circle for each class period. 

So far, we have two classes with an "H".

 The others are ready and waiting....

The first class to reach it gets a free week of homework. 

They are pretty excited about that possibility. 

Joanne is GREAT and I use lots of her ideas in my classroom. 

Don't forget about her giveaway along with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper. It's day 10! 

Friday, after a long first week back

It's been a long four day week with kids. We started off the week in the 20's. I know, not cold for some of you, but here in Central Texas, it is! Today though, it 63 and tomorrow we are predicted to be in the 70's. Don't hate too much, we will be cold again next week. This is how we live in Texas.... up and down... hour to hour... 

This is not a weather blog, so let me move on. 

It's FRIDAY!!!!! Here's my 5 for the week!!!! 

1

RAIN

Along with the warmer temperature, we have rain, and I mean a lot of rain. This is what I wore to school this morning.

 I love them and don't get to wear them often so I didn't mind. 

2

PROBABILITY

This week I am continuing probability with my advanced students and starting it with my regular students. I love this unit because it is fun. Cards, dice, spinner, you can't go wrong. I loved all the resources I had available to me as well. 

We made this foldable in my advanced classes. 

3

Combinations

We made this foldable in my regular class. I used the FREE Hot Chocolate Math I got from here. 

4

Twister 

My classes used Twister Probability I found last year from Middle School Survival Guide to determine if the game is fair or not. Just a great fun, relaxing Friday activity. I gave them a Twister board to use, but some of them wanted to spin the one they colored on their paper. 

5

Schedules

It has been a bit of fruit basket turn over round here as well. In middle and high school, schedules change at semester. I am a year long class though. I have the same students since I am the only advanced teacher for sixth grade, but the make up of my classes has changed drastically. I am not really complaining about this because they are more evenly divided now. But, what they looked like on Tuesday is not how they look today. The changes have been non stop. I am ready for it to end though. I still write names in a grade book and then input them in the computer. (old habits are hard to break) But I don't want to write the names down until I am sure they won't change. I hate when the names are not in order of the computer grade book. When I do enter them, I like to go down the line. When a new kids comes in or someone leaves, I get discombobulated. Wow, that was a rant, wasn't it. Sorry. 

Don't forget about the DAILY giveaways over at Head Over Heels and Fourth Grade Flipper. They are spotlighting some wonderful bloggers and the prizes are awesome!!