I’m all about the inexpensive, low-prep ways to make learning fun in your classroom, and I’d love to share some ideas with you for how you can incorporate even more fun into these math projects! Many of these ideas have come from the community of teachers who are using my math projects and escape rooms in their classrooms.

MINI CLASSROOM TRANSFORMATIONS

Classroom transformations don’t have to be expensive or time consuming! Just a few simple dollar store items can help make a math project into a “WOW” experience for your students. Here are some examples of how you can use math projects to facilitate a mini classroom transformation:

The Camping Math Project is typically an easy theme to use as a mini transformation. Add checkered table cloths, serve hot chocolate, or make s’mores in a pan along with your students to take the Camping Math Project to another level and add a ton of fun! I’ve heard from a few teachers who do a “Camp Read-a-Lot” activity or something similar near the end of the school year.

Another teacher had this to say about the Camping Math Project: “We did this at end of year. The kids brought flashlights and made tents! Low stress after testing fun!”

The Run a Pet Shelter project also lends itself well to a mini-transformation! One teacher set up a “stuffed dog pet shelter” in her classroom as students worked on the project. Another teacher had a local pet shelter bring a dog into the classroom one day! They got to learn first hand about pet shelters! What an awesome experience!

Here’s what one teacher had to say about the Run a Pizza Place project: “This packet + dollar store table cloths + mustaches = EASIEST CLASSROOM TRANSFORMATION EVER! This has been so engaging and helped prepare my students for performance tasks in testing!”

Another teacher said: “I purchased the Run a Pizza Place for a student who struggles to get motivated. She did all of the tasks and was rewarded with making her own pizza. A great moment!”

Some teachers have used the Run a Coffee Shop project as a mini transformation as well! Here’s what one person had to say: ”

This is exactly what I needed. We made a real coffee shop after doing some of these sheets. The kids and admin were impressed! We had so much fun that the kids didn’t mind doing fractions.” And another let her students try coffee before beginning the project! Simple, but definitely something that will stick out in her students’ minds!

“Run a Candy Store” also lends itself well to a mini-transformation. One teacher said: “I used this in my special education math class and we actually created a real candy store using the worksheets as assessments. They loved this as a hands on activity.”

Although classroom transformations are one of the most “exciting” ways to use math projects in your classroom, there are many different ways that they can be used.

• as cumulative projects at the end of a unit
• in guided math groups
• to differentiate; students can work on different projects based on the skill that they need to practice
• as an early finisher activity for those fast finishers in your classroom
• as an enrichment activity for students who need a challenge
• to leave for a substitute teacher
• as homework packages (if you must send homework)
• for RTI

How do you use math projects in your classroom? I’d love to hear in the comment section below!

The post Using Math Projects to Facilitate Mini Classroom Transformations appeared first on Shelley Gray.

Exit slips are useful for several reasons. First, they allow students to reflect on new learning or understanding. Second, they are a useful formative assessment tool for teachers. By taking a few minutes to check students’ exit slips, teachers can gain valuable insight into whether a students understands the concept or is able to complete the task.

Useful Tips for Using Exit Slips

• Give students a choice with the prompt that you want them to use. For example, you might have students decide between, “Something I am still wondering about,” “Something that I found interesting,” or “Something that surprised me.” This way students have a sense of power and control, which will help motivation.
• Model the responses that you are looking for. For example, you might show students a few examples of exit slips and ask them which one they think is better. Model the use of describing words and specific detail.
• Use exit slips as an assessment tool that will drive your future instruction. For example, if you notice that several students were confused with the same concept, this is a sign that you need to re-teach.

Easy Exit Slips

Sticky notes are one of the easiest, most inexpensive ways to use exit slips. Ask students to write their reflection on the sticky note and stick it to the board when finished.

Looking for something a bit more structured? I’ve posted a FREE package of very simple exit slips on TeachersPayTeachers. Find those HERE.

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Quadramas are a fantastic way to consolidate learning at the end of a unit. They also work great as a reading response activity. Because each quadrama has four sections, you can have your students represent one aspect of the book or unit in each quadrant. For example, if you’re using this for reading response, you might have each quadrant represent one part of the book. For a research about animals, you might have each quadrant represent an interesting fact about that animal.

For this example I created a quadrama about the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Each quadrant represents a different operation and gives students an opportunity to reflect. As you can see, each quadrant involves key words, an explanation of when the operation should be used, equations, and two story problems.

Here are the instructions for making a quadrama:

Begin with 4 pieces of cardstock paper. I love using different colors to brighten it up, but plain white looks great too!

 Next, each piece needs to be cut into a perfect square. To do this, fold the paper as shown below, and cut off the bottom rectangle.

When you unfold the piece of paper after cutting, you will get a nice square.

Each square will already have one crease in it from the previous fold, but we need a crease going the other way as well. Fold the square in half like this to make the next crease:

When you unfold you will see two distinct creases.

Now you need to cut on one of the creases, just to the middle of the square:

 Now, you layer the flaps one on top of the other to make one “quadrant.”

You will need to glue one flap to the other so that the quadrant stays set up; HOWEVER, it is important to do your decorating first, as it is much easier to do before your quadrama is put together.

When you are finished decorating one quadrant, glue the flap down so that is stands up like this:

 Once all four quadrants have been created, they can be glued together to form the quadrama:

Here is a view from the top:

Have a great day!

Shelley

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A great way to quickly determine who understands a concept and who still needs more practice is by using a “Show Me” board. Students can keep these in their desks along with a dry erase marker and used as a super-quick formative assessment. The best part – they are MUCH cheaper than those little individual white boards!

To create these, I simply cut pieces of white card stock and laminated them. I then put them inside a re-sealable bag along with a dry erase marker from the dollar store. Ta-da! Instant individual white boards for a fraction of the cost!

Use these Show Me boards before, during, or after a lesson for formative assessment. This will help you understand who understands the concept and who still needs more help.

For example, ask questions such as “Skip-count by 10’s to 100” or “Write two words that rhyme with ‘mat’,” or “Show me two equations that equal 15.” Students write on their board and hold it up for you to see. By quickly scanning the room, you will get an instant sense of which students are on track and which students still require more practice or teaching.

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What do you get when you cross a gift bag with a few brass fasteners, some duct tape and a stack of lined paper? Why, a gift bag journal of course!

This really is one of the neatest projects that I have ever done with my students. I did it with a group of grade fours, and I will warn you, that some of the steps were a bit difficult even for them, but if you have classroom volunteers at your disposal, this is a great project!

This project is exactly as it sounds. It is a regular old gift bag, transformed into a journal that students will love to write in! I have outlined the entire process of making the journal below, with about a zillion pictures. Enjoy!

Would you rather watch the video tutorial? View it on YouTube here:

First things first, you will need to gather your supplies. Of course you need a gift bag. If you want your journal to hold regular lined paper, you should use a gift bag that is approximately 11 inches wide by 13 inches tall. You will also need three brass fasteners, a piece of Velcro, and some duct tape. I like to use the decorative duct tape rather than the plain old grey color. Because really, who doesn’t love zebra-striped duct tape?

Open up your gift bag and remove the hard piece of cardboard from the bottom. Then tip the bag up on its side and cut down one of the sides, as shown in the pictures below.

Now you need to cut on the folds of each bottom corner. You will need to do four cuts altogether, so that your gift bag will lay like this.

Next, fold up the bottom flap. I like to fold in the corners to make it a bit neater. Both bottom flaps should look like this:

Now tape down those flaps that you just folded.

Now it is time to fold down the side flaps on each side. You will do exactly as you did with the bottom flaps:

…and then tape them so that it looks something like this:

To get a more finished look, I added a few more strips of duct tape.

Okay, here comes the hard part. Stay with me here.

We are going to make the center of the gift bag into a duo-tang type holder so that it will hold paper. First fold the bag right in half like this:

Then you fold the right side back, leaving a small fold in the center. The pictures below will help this make more sense:

Now we need to do the same thing to the other side. In essence, you are folding half of the center piece in half again to create a spot for the paper to be held.

When you are done folding it should look like this:

Now to create some holes. Simply hole punch the center folds using a three hole punch.

Now you can place paper between the folds, and hold it in with the three brass fasteners.

Lastly, add a velcro dot to the inside so that the bag will stay closed.

Ta daaaa! You have made a gift bag journal!

When I made these with my students, I fastened a hook to the side of each student’s desk which was used to hang the journals. Then they were handy for writing at all times. I also had students bring in their own gift bags so that they could have a Spiderman journal or a polka-dot journal, or whatever they wanted! Good luck with your journals!

Thanks for stopping by,

Shelley

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