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The Teacher Studio

Learning, thinking, creating

Monday Made It: Getting Bulletin Boards Started!

It’s already “Monday Made It” again and this week I have a few simple things to share with you!  Thanks to Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics, as always, for the link up!

So…to get things started, here is my “I have an idea…but it failed.” photo.  I have a plan for this little bottle…
but the factory put SO much gunk on the back of the label that I QUIT halfway through the process.  Our Goo-Gone is All-Gone so I need to visit the store for that.  Stay tuned, little bottle. I’m not FINISHED with you! 
Keeping with the organization theme from last week, I decided to tackle a few projects to display this fall in my classroom.  I don’t know if any of these might spark some ideas for any of you, but I thought I’d share!
The laminator  quakes in fear when it sees me coming with a pile like this!

hehe

 The first little project I had was to create the letters and this laminated board for a small little display I am going to put on a cupboard door…I really want to encourage my students to be reading informational texts, watching the news (ok…tuning in to important news events–not ALL that we see on the news.  Yikes.), and so on.  I thought this would be a GREAT way to get students to record some of their nifty “amazing facts” they learn and can then share with the class.  I haven’t decided if I will make a little form they fill out that I will hang on that frame or if I will have them write directly on the frame.  I think they would LOVE to use the Vis-a-Vis markers to write right on it…I haven’t fully figured that out yet.  Suggestions welcome!
Another part of my laminator’s workout is this little guy.  I know you may have seen different versions of something like this, but I wanted to create yet another way for my students to think about math in a more creative way.  This can be a math warm up or can be used as a station or on a menu during math workshop; I can vary the “The answer is” card to either enrich my current unit or to review a previously taught concept and then have students try to come up with one good question and solve it–or to generate as many questions as possible.  
I made it pretty small so it, too, can fit on a cupboard door or in a small space.  I made a print out as well for students to fill out with their ideas, but I may tweak that one a little.
Finally, I did make a few improvements in my TpT store this week.  This is one of my favorite resources to use to build number sense; I created one last year for the numbers 1-1,000 and have had many requests for one that goes to 1,000,000 so here it is!  This is NOT an easy resource and does require a great deal of thinking and number sense.  I plan on using the 1-1,000 version first quarter this year and then gradually moving up into this one as the year progresses.  I like to use one or two of these problems every week to keep my students thinking and talking about math.  It has 65 different problems PLUS some extra problems that can be used as homework or assessments.  See what you think!
I also am starting to update my “Trilogy” games a little…the covers are just getting jazzed up and I have several new versions that I will release this week.  I have also decided to mark them down in price.  My students love them–and here is the first “revamped” one!
That’s all for this week of Monday Made It…I was pretty proud of how much I got done again this week–plus squeezed in a 3 day mini vacation!   Make sure to check out all the other great ideas linked up by clicking on the logo at the top of the post–and stop back on Tuesday for “Texts on Tuesdays”!
Oh yes…one more thing!  Thanks SO MUCH to all of you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts about number sense this weekend!  If you haven’t checked out that blog post, make sure you do so that you can see how people around the world defined “number sense”!  I also ran a little giveaway with that post and the big winner is…
Check your email, Jessica–and thanks for participating!

FINALLY…tons of TpT sellers are in Vegas for a big conference this week…and I COULDN’T GO!  I’m so sad!  That being said…I decided to join along with them and have a sale all week like they are–even though I am sitting here at home and not participating in THEIR fun!  Enjoy the savings this week!