Monday Math Blog Hop: Tessellations

I remember making tessellations when I was in middle school. I remember it being such a neat project and really had fun creating it. I tried it for the first time last year with my 4th graders and they loved it! I started it last week with one of my classes (my other 2 classes will start next week) and they are looking great so far! I will post the finished products for you to see in a week or two when they are finished. Check them out:

We started out with a simple 4" x 4" square......

 ...and with a translation or two turned the square into irregular shapes!

 The students translated their unique shape all over their paper to create a tessellation. (I put the original shape in the middle of the paper.)

Some traced a little more carefully than others...

 "A snooty old woman" (as described by the creator)

I thought this one would be cool as a manta ray, but this student has other plans...

A personal fav!

I cannot wait to see the final products! Hope you enjoyed! :D

2D/3D Figure Riddles

I created a few little riddles as an extra challenge for my students. I have this file for sale in my TPT store, BUT I have made it available (below) for FREEEEE for all of my bloggy friends (if I even have any, hahahaha.....). I hope you are able to use it, or can at least pass it on to someone who can!

Teachers Pay Teachers

I have officially uploaded my FIRST (of many, I'm sure) TPT item! I uploaded a Bowling for Facts multiplication folder (or baggie) game. It is FREEEEEE, so please take a peek and let me know what you think! :D

Check it out here!

Transformations, Congruence, and Symmetry Evaluation Books

Instead of giving a traditional test for the end of our Transformations, Congruence, and Symmetry unit, I had my students create a book that demonstrated what they learned. The book had six pages and they were required to include: translation, rotation, reflection, congruent/not congruent, line of symmetry and no line of symmetry. They were also required to explain what each one was in as many words as they wanted (I say that because some students can get the point across in 2 words, while others needed about 12 words). This activity helped reinforce the vocabulary they learned and allowed them to be a little creative. I was very pleased with the outcome! While some students did just enough to meet the requirements, others took it and ran with it! I picked out some of the best ones to show you (in no particular order):

Here are the cute little books!

Don't let this fool you--not all 4th graders write this neat!!

This book was my favorite. She really went all out with her examples!

 Making cross-curricular connections!

7 of My Favorite Things

There's a link up party going on at Persnickety Pickles of 7 of your favorite non-teaching things, so here goes mine:

1. My lovely family

I l-o-v-e my husband and our sweet little girl SOOO much! She'll be 15 months tomorrow and couldn't be cuter.

2. S-U-G-A-R

These little DELICIOUS candies are currently my favorite. I would totally live on sweets if it wouldn't kill me :D

3. Target

I've have blogged about Target finds TWICE in all of my 10 or so blog posts. This is a relatively new obsession--I actually never shopped at Target until it came time to make a baby registry. Now, it's the first place I go when I take my weekly shopping trip.

4. Organization

I am in love with organizing things! Making labels, alphabetizing, color coding and filing all give me such joy. I went to The Container Store for the first time a few weeks ago and almost DIED. I was in heaven!!!

5. CoLoRs

I cannot imagine the world without color. Period. I am so attracted to colors. My classroom is like a giant rainbow. My home, however has a man living there, so rainbows are few and far between. If it were up to me I'd have green walls, a yellow couch, a blue rug, and red coffee table! (You get the idea!) :D

6. Anything and Everything Mini

I don't know what it is about mini things, but they make me squeal and smile like a 5 year-old girl.

7. Technology

I have been using a computer since I was 2 years old, back in the days of MS-DOS. I am extremely passionate about technology and wish all people would be more open to it. I don't mean to brag, but working with technology comes completely natural to me. Just about everything I know is self-taught; give me a program or new device and I have it figured out within a minute.




Hope you enjoyed and I can't wait to see everyone else's blog posts! :D

Seriously, I Can't Get Enough of Target!

I've mentioned that my classroom theme is frogs. I found 10 of these little guys at Target and just couldn't resist!

Organization Week: Day 2

I actually don't have literacy centers since I just teach math and social studies. However, I do happen to have some pictures of my math center. I took these a few months ago. They have since been updated. I'll have to take some pictures this week and update it for you!

I have 4 student computers in my classroom that take up a pretty big amount of my space. I had to improvise to find a location for my math center. This is my solution! It's a wall on wheels. Again, this picture is not updated. This is what it looked like in the early stages. I have since applied cute little labels and rearranged.

Here are some of my math baggie games (in the drawers) and folder games. The blue bin of folder games is brand spankin' new, so I haven't made a label yet.

Hope you enjoyed! I can't wait to see your centers!

-Productive, while wasting time :D

Organization Week: Day 1

Mrs. Patton is having a week-long linky party on organization! I'm actually not part of the party, but will post anyway. :)

Organization is one thing that I am VERY passionate about!! I am still working on being 100% organized at school. I'm about 85% there. (I did mention how OCD I am, right??) It would be SO much easier if teaching didn't get in the way ;)

I just so happened to take a picture of my daily materials crate on Friday, so here it is:

This is where I keep all of the worksheets & materials for each day's lesson. I have a folder for each subject for every day of the week. (You can pretty much tell how it is organized from the picture.) This works VERY well for me! It also makes it very easy for a sub to find.

I can't wait to see what everyone else posts! Long live organization!!!!!


....yes, I am a nerd.



-Super happy and relaxed

"Hands-On" Learning!

Looks like math class is going to be fun today!! (Hello--when is math class NOT fun?!?) ;)

Taking a "hands-on" approach to transformations!

Translations, Rotations, and Reflections!

(Sorry for the awful name cover-up job! :D )

Gosh, I Love Target

My students use individual white boards fairly often during my math lessons. It's always a pain to pass out a tissue (for erasing purposes) to each student, each class period (not to mention a waste of tissue!). I know I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but while on my weekly Target run (borderline addiction) I had an idea! I've been wanting a classroom set of cute little fabric squares (with frogs, of course!). It hit me when I got to the bathroom decor section--why not use wash rags, which come in fun prints and colors?!? So that's what I did:

(Please excuse my poor quality iPhone photo)

I bought 24 wash rags, more than enough! I splurged on the middle set--I figured I could have at least one super cute set of wash rags :) The green and blue sets were $2 each! I used them for my after-school tutoring group today. The kids were very excited to break them in for me. Money well spent. :D