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The Teacher Studio

Learning, thinking, creating

MIRL! Using Measurement in the Real World! AND MORE!

It’s the first Wednesday of January AND January 1st which means it’s time for our  linky – Math IS Real Life and time to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  If you joined in on our Countdown to 2014 Giveaway, stick around, we’ll be displaying the winner at the end of post!


If you want to see how the linky works, or just want other real world math ideas, check out our Pinterest Board of all the posts so that you can look back and find some great ideas and REAL pictures to use in your classroom!  
If you are linking up, please include the below picture AND a link back to all four of our blogs – feel free to use the 2nd image and the links listed below!
A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by
 4mulaFun, Fourth Grade Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,
   ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

For those of you who know me, you know that my “office” consists of part of our kitchen island, piles in the laundry room, stacks by my bed, and miscellaneous bags of books and other supplies.  Organization is NOT my strength.  It is a goal–it is NOT a strength.

So when my husband and I talked about converting our den/piano room into an office for the two of us to share (gulp), I decided to go for it.  Not being known for being the most decisive of couples, we stewed on this for a long time and then finally made the commitment to getting it started over break.

We knew we were on a budget (Translation:  We would be putting together our own furniture) and we had a pretty tight space.  I started by taking some measurements.

…and we followed it up with a massive “room emptying” experience.

We were able to hire a moving company to get the piano and the entertainment center to the basement and we were ready to roll.  
I knew we needed a lot of storage (no closet in this room) and we needed to fit TWO desks and had to deal with the windows and french doors.

We went to our local office supply store, walked past the pricier cool stuff and headed to the stuff we knew we could afford.  UGH!  The choices!  The parts!  The decisions!  We grabbed the brochure of the one we liked best and headed for home.
We started sketching out what we wanted and started adding up dimensions to see if we could get what we wanted to fit in our room.  For example, I wanted the credenza (59.4375 inches wide) and hutch PLUS I wanted to make an L-shaped desk so I need the corner library base (23.375 inches wide) making a total of 82.8095 inches that I needed to find–just for one wall.  After making a rough sketch ON A POST IT NOTE (very high tech), we checked to make the decision about which wall to use for my desk area.
We then measured the pieces that my husband wanted and then marked off the measurements with tape on the walls to see if we were satisfied and that doors could open, outlets were accessible, and so on.
After we were convinced, we placed our order!  Ready to see the results?  ME TOO!  Stay tuned for the end product!  Now…I know for a fact that some of you are interested in a few OTHER results!  
First of all, let me say how much fun I had reading your comments over the last 5 days!  It sounds like MANY of us have very lofty hopes and dreams for the new year!  Whether you have personal goals or dreams, whether you are hoping for a better 2014 than 2013, or you have exciting news or events coming up in the new year, please know how much I appreciate that you take time out of your busy lives to snoop around my lil ol’ blog once in a while.  I love sharing parts of my life with you and love to hear from you! 
So . . . drum roll please…the winner of my $25 TpT gift certificate is…
Congratulations to…
Thanks to all of you for participating!  Because I feel bad that so many people entered and only one wins, I am offering my entire store (bundles too!) on sale today only for 20% off to celebrate!  Looking for some new products to kick off the new year?  Today would be the day to grab them!  Looking for a few ideas to get you through those first days back at school?  Check these out–and all 20% off today!

This one is a freebie for you!  

Thanks for all of your support in 2013…and I look forward to sharing more classroom fun and ideas with you in 2014!