Day 1 - Giving

It's day one of the December School Day Photo Challenge!

Day 1 - Giving

I come from a school full of amazingly generous children and adults!  The photo above shows just four giving programs currently going on in my school.

The bags full of groceries are some of the Thanksgiving dinner donations brought in by the children and staff.  It's part of the Pick A Feather program run by out PTO.  In our office is a big construction paper turkey with lots and lots of construction paper feathers.  With parent permission, students go down to the office and pick a feather off the turkey.  On the back of each feather is a food item which the students then bring back to school.  Our PTO organizes the food into GIANT care packages that are donated to local families.  It's a great program that really helps out many families, and the kids love going down to pick a feather.  This program coordinates with a meat drive done by our Student Council.  Parents are given a window of time during the school day in which they can drop off donations of turkeys, hams, etc.  It's run like a little drive through in the school parking lot. Parents don't even have to get out of the car!  These are also donated to the families in conjunction with the groceries.

Some classes recently got together to run a charity event for Alex's Lemonade Stand, an amazing charity that fights childhood cancers.  The classes ran a lemonade stand during our lunch periods for two days and collected over $600!  Parents volunteered to come in and help, but the kids were front and center.  It was a huge success!

Pop Tabs!  Our school is one of many that collects pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald Houses. The tabs are recycled and the money is given to Ronald McDonald House Charities which distributes the funds to a local Ronald McDonald House.  In addition to helping others, our kids are practicing recycling.

Every holiday season, our school does a toy drive for a local charity.  The kids enjoy seeing the toys pile up in the front lobby the weeks before the holidays.

Those are just a few of the school wide giving programs that happen in my school.  I've always felt it is important for students to learn the importance of helping others.  When I was a homeroom teacher, I actually did a few things with my class to try and instill this idea.

One thing my kids always did that didn't cost a penny is Free Rice. This is a great site for kids in upper elementary through high school.  Free Rice is a web site that quizzes children on the subject you select; English vocabulary, geography, multiplication practice, grammar, and more.  The topics even include an SAT prep question category.  For every question a student answers correctly, ten grains of rice are donated through the World Food Programme to help end world hunger. When you sign up, you can actually track how much rice you have earned but you can also play without signing up.   If you think ten grains of rice isn't a lot, think again!  In fact, this is a great site to use in conjunction with the book One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi.  This is an awesome book!

Set in India, it tells the tale of a raja that hoards all the rice harvested in his village. Not a problem until one day there is a shortage and the villagers are hungry.  He is reluctant to give the rice to the people, but a young village girl tricks him into giving away a billion grains of rice by simply asking for one grain of rice, then for thirty days the raja agrees to double the amount each day.  Thinking doubling the amount each day will come to nothing, he agrees.  The raja is, as your students will be, astounded to see how quickly doubling adds up!  In the back of the book there is a great chart that shows just how the concept works.  If you would like to preview it, below is a reading of the book. Not the most exciting of readings, but it will let you experience the book.

And, in the spirit of Day 1 Giving, in the end (Spoiler Alert!) the young girl ends up with all of the raja's rice.  When he asks her what she will do with it, she replies that she will share it with all the hungry people.  She also leaves a basket of rice for the raja.  This is a great book for any teacher's bookshelf.

What giving things are your school or classes doing?

Finally! I'm Back!

It is so good to be back to blogging! Thanks to everyone who was so patient while I was away. I feel like there is some normalcy back in my life, finally! Today's post is about how I'm doing some math workshop scheduling in one of my classes.  At the end, there is also a link to my PDF which you can print up for your own.

But, before I get back to the school blog stuff, I have two last thoughts (and pictures) to share on Hurricane Sandy here in New Jersey.

First thought: I never thought I would routinely see this truck in my community.  We've never had a natural disaster of this magnitude here in NJ.  To have a hurricane come through and cause so much devestation that Red Cross Disaster Relief trucks take residence for a long while is still just astounding to me.

 

Second Thought:  Not really a thought for this one, but a picture to share.  This is the waterfront by my home.  It was completely underwater for much of the storm.  As you can see from the picture, many of the businesses and homes were just destroyed.  However, look closely at the background of the picture.  See those white buildings all the way in the back?  That's New York City.  When I took this picture, I was amazed at how sparkly white all the building were on this day.  It was a cloudy, overcast day.  You can't tell from the picture, but in the middle of all those clouds there was this big beam of sunshine just sparkling down on the city making it shine.  It was just really pretty and nice to see amidst all the damage.

 

 Okay, now on to our regular blogging!

 

In one of the classes I visit for basic skills math instruction, we've begun using a math workshop approach.  We, the classroom teacher and I, quickly realized that we needed to find a way to meet the needs of all the students in a more effective way.  It's a true heterogeneous class.  The span of abilities is tremendous.  Teaching a whole lesson to the whole class just wasn't going to work.  We needed to do more small group direct instruction and practice.  We needed to find a way to let those who needed more guidance get it and enrich and challenge those that were ready to move on.

 

The answer for us was a math workshop approach.  I researched a lot of different approaches and this is the one that seemed to best meet out needs.  In the interest of giving credit where credit is absolutely due, I really adapted what we are doing from Beth Newingham's post on how she runs math workshop.  Beth was a Scholastic Top Teacher.  Scholastic or not, she's definetly a top teacher!  Her post on math workshop was a tremendous help. So much of what she was doing is what we needed to be doing.  When you have a chance, click on the link and check out what she has to say. She will explain it so much better than I can below!

 

Here's the schedule we use.  The picture is a little dark, sorry about that!

I should probably explain that due to scheduling, groups A and B run simultaneously.  Unfortunately, I am only in the room for part of the period, so the teacher and I each meet with a group (A & B) during round 1, then I leave.  The classroom teacher then meets with one group during rounds 2 and 3.

 

Before I go on, here are some other points you may need to know to better understand.

• Groups A & B are the students most in need of help.  Group C is the middle group and Group D are the high achievers.  Having said that, the groups change depending on the skills being taught.  We do our best to make sure the kids do not have a sense of which is a "high" or "low" group. 
• "Meet with Teacher" is when students meet with the teacher in a small group to work on skills related to the main lesson.
• "Seat Work" has students at their seats working on the lesson pages, finishing up work from "Meet with Teacher" and/or differentiated work tasks.  It is essentially the time they apply what they have learned.  In the back of the room, we have four group folders that each contain differentiated work for the week.  My friends just go back and take what they need for the day.
• "Activity Time" is usually some math game that provides practice with the skills from the day's lesson or the chapter.

So, here' s how we do it. 

 

The class begins with about 10 minutes of whole group instruction that covers the "meat" of the lesson.  It's is explained and then a couple of practice problems are done.  Then, it's time to break-up into groups for three rounds of work.  The first two rounds are about 20 minutes each with the last round about 15 minutes. 

 

Round 1:  Meet with Teacher - This is where our two lowest groups (A & B) meet with the teacher for more explicit instruction and do the lesson work.  With two of us in the room, these groups are nice and small.  Group C begins with "Activity Time" so that they may play with the concepts before coming to meet with the teacher and then do the "Seat Work" where they will apply what they know. Group D begins with the seat work. 

 

At this point, my time in this class is up and the homeroom teacher completes the day's lesson as follows. And, I should mention that she is awesome at it!  I'm lucky to work with a great teacher who really strives to do what is best for her students.

 

Round 2:  Groups A & B now go on to Seat Work.  Group C now meets with the teacher while Group D goes to Activity Time.

 

Round 3:  Group C will now go on to do their Seat Work while Group D now meets with the teacher.  This allows her to go over the seat work with them and trouble shoot any problems.  As they are a high ability group, things usually go smoothly.  This allows the teacher to go on to work on higher level problems using the same skills.  Groups A

 

Have I lost you yet? :-)  Just refer back to the picture of our schedule!

 

After the three rounds, the class meets again for about 20 minutes to review homework and wrap up the lesson.  We still run into kinks now and then, but over all it's working for us.  I am sure there is a better way to do it out there somewhere, and I don't claim our way is the best way, but as I wrote this is working for us.

 

If you've read this long, you deserve a little something!  Below, is the link that will take you to a printable version of the Math Workshop Schedule Board.  It is a PDF and has a few extra sections so you can play around with organizing it.  You also don't have to use them for a math workshop.  Those "Meet with Teacher" would be great to put a magnet on and use on the white board.  You could just write under it who you want to meet with for things like conferencing. 

 

Math Workshop Schedule

 

So, that's our math workshop routine.  There are three things I love about it.  First, we are seeing good results with more small group instruction.  Second, the kids love it.  Third, the period really flies by with this type of schedule!

 

Thanks again to all of you that hung in there while I was out.  While I do this blog mainly for me (to keep track of what I'm doing and ideas I have) it's always nice to have readers.  So, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I can say in all honesty I am thankful for you!  And, no!  I never got around to changing my blog over.  Maybe over Christmas! :-)

Tom Cruise Happy & Math!

IT'S SPRING BREAK!!!

I am Tom-Cruise-Jumping-On-The-Couch

 insanely happy about this break!!!!

picture source

I've tried not to bring it to my blog much, but this has been an incredibly stressful school year.    I'm not someone who has a problem with change.  I actually like change.  However, the past two years have been lots of "NEW", some of which makes sense and lots of which just confounds me.  I sometimes wonder if the people that make these changes think we run magic shows in our classroom because the reality of what we teachers have to do under the conditions we are given seems to not often be taken into consideration.  And if they don't make the goal impossible to achieve, it usually is impossible to do in the constraints and time lines given. 

But, in the words of Dory. . .  I just keep swimming!  So, this is why I am Tom Cruise happy about SPRING BREAK!!!   I did bring a lot of work home, but it's just nice to be away from the building for a bit.

Before I left, I had to take a picture of my classroom.  As you can probably tell from my blog, I am a literacy person.  That's my love, that's my strong suit, that's probably what most of my posts are about.  Which is why I had to laugh when I looked around my room yesterday. 

Math has taken over my classroom! 

This is my reading bulletin board, not that you can tell!

We just finished up a chapter that focused on finding area and volume as well as standard and metric measurement.  I know the first two posters, area of a rectangle and area of a parallelogram, are kind of redundant.  However, I made the posters to follow how the concepts are introduced and discussed in our book. These are just the posters on my reading bulletin board.  My actual math bulletin board is equally covered!  Here is a close-up of some of our posters in no particular order:

I look at this and am a bit amazed that my 5th graders are learning this now.  I don't think I learned any of this until I was well into middle school.   My parents tell me the same thing when we talk about math at conferences.  It's funny how what we learn changes over time.  But, as I said, it's even funnier to walk around my room and see all these math posters.  Usually, my room is covered in literacy anchor charts and posters!

So, as I type this on Friday morning, I am delighted with what the first day of spring break holds.  I am off today for a mani and pedi and then some shopping to find a new dress for Easter.  Perfect way to spend the first day!  I have a couple of little posts planned for during the week on some emergency procedures, class jobs, and maybe a quick post on a professional book I just finished.  Other than that, I'm kicking back! 

See you after Easter! 

Book Talk with a Little Bit of Pi on the Side

Before I get to book talks, let me say how much I appreciate all your comments regarding teacher observations..  It was really eye-opening to see the wide variety of practices in place.  I also wasn't aware that tenure had been completely abolished in some states.  It makes for interesting thought to see that we all have the same job with the same important goal of educating our youth, however what we do is open to such a variety of rigor in its evaluation.  Gave me a lot of food for thought.

Moving on. . .

My friends conducted book talks this week.  Overall, they did a really good job.  They were to sell their book as if they were giving a cheesy infomercial.  Kind of silly, but lots of fun.  They had to summarize their book and "sell" it to their classmates without giving away the ending.

As part of the project, they also had to create a t-shirt that reflects the book.  One of the main things I noticed at this book talk was how much better their public speaking skills were from the book talks we did last month.  I don't know if it was the cheesy infomercial effect, but most had memorized their talks rather than reading them from note cards.  They also had a lot more eye contact and variety in volume and inflection when they spoke.

I thought I would share some of what they did.  Since I can't show faces, I took two pictures.  One for our school blog and then another without their head for this blog.  Yikes!  That sounds so mean, to have cut their heads off in the pictures.  I just didn't want to take the time to blurr out the faces!  Let's just say this will allow you to focus without being charmed by a bunch of cute smiles! :-)

I categorized some of the pictures. 

• Here are few of my nonfiction readers.

This friend read Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne

I love that he created a glossary of the gods on the back of his shirt. 

This friend read a biography on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  She found it really interesting because she said kids always learn the same thing about Dr. King every year and through reading this book, she was able to learn new information.  Out of the mouths of babes! 

This book was a huge hit.  If you can think of any mythical monster, it is in this book.  It really was varied.  We read about creatures like Cerberus to the Jersey Devil.  His t-shirt was made of some of his favorite creatures.  It was good, but I would rather he drew them or made them in some way.

• The next crop of pictures are from a group I call my Girly Girls.  If there is a book about a boy, shopping, and nail polish this group is all over it!  I often have to remind them to stretch themselves as readers.  However, notice the book choices when left on their own.

I think you get the picture! 

• This next group would be some of my advanced readers.  They are a tough group.  They have very high reading levels, but finding books can be tough because the content is not always appropriate.  These books were chosen from at-home reading with parent approval.  In the classroom, I'm not sure I would have given a green light to all these books.  I find with advanced readers, they get caught up in being able to read advanced books, but don't really have the skills yet to deeply comprehend what they are reading.

Hands down my favorite shirt!  Look at the face of the boater.

If you are going to read Jaws by Peter Benchley, this is the perfect t-shirt!

Not a lot of information on it, but her book talk was great.

I should note that they all had more information about the book on the back of their t-shirts, but I figured we are already on picture overload without my posting two pictures of each.

Here's the funny thing about this particular book talk.  One of the rules was that you could not give away the ending of your book.  My friend who read the Hunger Games gave a great recap without telling the ending.  Of course, did I think about that when this friend got up to talk about the sequel, Catching Fire?  Oh my!  You should have hear the groans when in the course of talking about this book she totally told the ending to the first book.

• This last group of pictures is just a mish-mosh of different books my fifth graders are enjoying.



UPDATE (6/2013)  I have to thank you all as this is one of my most popular posts.  Over a year later I still get emails asking me for the rubric I used with this project.  I'm sad to report that I have looked high and low and just can't find it.  I have looked on my computer and even went through my files hoping I had a hard copy on file.  Nope. :-(  But, any rubric you would use for an oral book report would work.  

  Okay, one more UPDATE (6/2014)  Believe it or not, I still get emails asking me for a rubric for this project.  I still don't have one for ya!  BUT, I found a great one that will work beautifully.  It's a Teachers Pay Teachers product by Runde's Room, a great blogger with an amazing blog!  She has created a book talk pack that includes an information sheet, student guideline sheet, information organizer, and a rubric for assessment.  You can click HERE to go directly to the product.  I purchased it a while back, and can tell you it will work well with this project.  It wouldn't include the t-shirt for scoring, but you could just add that in and I think that would be easy to do if you follow what she did on the rubric.  Anyway, hope this helps those of you still looking for a book talk rubric.

So, that is what my friends have been up to this week.  Well, that and today was PI DAY!!!  We had a lot of fun.  The four other fifth grade teachers I work with and I rotated among the five classes doing different pi related activities.  Part of my activity was a reading of the book Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander.

It's actually part of a series of books that does a fantastic job in explaining some geometry concepts in a very entertaining way.

We finished the day with pie, of course!  In all, my parents sent in eleven pies for twenty five children.  Yeah, I have a serious pie belly right now! But, oh it was good!

How was your pi day?

Finding Fun

Hello!  I know, I've been gone for a while.  Sorry about that.  You know I have been reorganizing my room.  I was at school every day last week until 6 or 7 at night.  I finally have my room about 95% done.  However, by the time I got home, ate dinner, and graded some papers, I was just too tired to post.  So, the plan was to post over this weekend.  I took lots of pictures of my room and am excited to show you.  That would have worked if I hadn't left my camera in my classroom on Friday!  Oh well.  I promise to post it all during the week since I will be back to normal hours. I also have pictures for some other posts I wanted to do this week. I was just going to post without the pictures, but it would take too much explanation.  Besides, I know when I read blogs, I like pictures. 

In the meantime, I was thinking about how we lead such test-driven lives these days as teachers.  In teaching 5th grade, I feel like I often have so much to cover that the fun stuff gets lost.  We don't have time to make something, we have curriculum to learn!!  But, don't we all know that some of the best learning happens in the activities and projects that are fun?  So, I decided to search the web for some learning fun.  Below are some art projects and just some fun stuff I've found around the web that look like something your friends and mine will enjoy.  The title of each project is the link to the activity and the source for the pictures I used.  Take a look.  Maybe you will see something you like!

Literacy

Expository Writing: How To

How cute is this?  There is a teacher in my building that does this every year.  When you see the bubble gum faces all together on a bulletin board, you can't help but smile.  This idea has been around for a while.  You can find it all over the web, too.  That must prove it's a good one!  What I like is that the writing part can be simple for younger friends, as in the picture above with just a "first, next, last" prompt.  Or, for older friends, they can write the entire expository essay.  The link will take you to The Teacher Wife blog.  She shows the entire project in more detail.

Expository Writing:  Description

No pictures or links for this one.   However, there are some pictures on my camera at school.  I'm posting this one anyway.  One of the activities I do for our expository writing for description is have my friends write a description of a favorite object.  We then trade papers, and based on only what was written, another friend draws the object.  Without fail, my more detailed writers get the better pictures. When my friends get their pictures back, it is suddenly very clear to them what they may have left out of their description or how their writing may have confused the reader.  I have them revise their writing, and they are always 100% better.

Fairy Dust Pencils

This is from the preschool blog Fairy Dust Teaching.  She makes these pencils for her friends when she is ready to teach how to hold and use a pencil.  It got me thinking.  Wouldn't it be fun to have your friends make a special pencil or pen to be used ONLY for final copies or special projects?  I'm not sure I would go with the glitter on the pencil.  That might get awfully messy, and I would be afraid of what all that glitter would do to  my pencil sharpeners.  However, if you are decorating pens, I'm thinking about all the patterned duct tape they have out now.  Your friends could cover pens in strips of that and have feathers poking out the top.  Just thinking off the top of my head here.  This might be a fun way to spark some writers.

Book Covers

No pictures or links again.  Well, sort of.  Let me explain.  This is something I have done with my friends with great success.  I have them find a book they have read and take construction paper to fit it for a new dust cover.  I like to do it the size of the book because we actually leave the new dust covers on the books when we put them back in our class library. For the project, they have to create an original cover illustration, and the back will have a "grabber" summary that does not give away the ending.  I'm sure some of you have done this project already. 

Now, I actually do have a link.  ReadWriteThink.org has a book jacket maker online.  Your friends can just plug in all the information and it will generate the book jacket.  You can select to do just he front cover, front and back, or the full dust cover.  You can also select if you want it done in color or black and  white depending on the printer you have available to you. 


Math
Favorite math joke of my friends: 
What did the social studies book say to the math book?  Dude!  You've got problems!
See, they are as corny as I am.  We are a perfect fit!  Anyway, here are some fun math artsy things for ya.

The O.R.E.O. Project

Have you seen this one?  Sadly, I saw it after I had already finished teaching the concepts of mean, mode, median, maximum, and minimum.  However, I'm thinking it will be fun to do during those last couple of days of school when my friends have already essentially checked out.  The link above will take you to the project instructions, but if you want to see real life application, visit Rundee's Room blog.  It is a great blog to follow.  If you visit her site, you will see exactly how she conducted the activity.  This may not be so much about art, but in the end they can make some crazy Oreo sculptures.

Math About Me

This is a great project for the beginning of the school year.  Your friends create a poster that shows all the numbers that are important in their lives.  Shows how math is all around us, and it could be a great get-to-know-you activity.  I'm thinking if you wanted to do this later in the year, you could require your friends to use other number names that the class would have to figure out.  For example, instead of saying I was born on May 8th, they might say they were born on four squared divided by two.  The would write the equation of course, I just couldn't figure out how to type in an exponent!

Math Maps

I really like this, but there was no link.  I found this on Pinterest.  The link above will take you to the board it was posted on, but the link is "uploaded by user" so it doesn't take you to a web page.  However, the comment notes that the kids are given a set of directions to follow so that the map includes parallel lines, intersecting lines, perpendicular lines, a variety of angles and geometric shapes, and more.  I'm thinking you could probably write your own directions for this.  Maybe not directions as much as just saying your map must include X,Y, and Z.  Then, it's up to your friends to be creative.

Science and Social Studies

source

Honest to goodness, when it comes to science, that picture above says it all for me!  Science is my least favorite subject to teach.   I really feel as if it is a different language sometimes.  However, I find when I do hands-on projects or activities with my friends, we all understand the concepts much better.  What follows may not be science experiments but more art centered activities.

Teaching Landforms

This is from the Crayola web site.  They give you all the directions.  Of course, they endorse all their projects in the process.  However, I was thinking this would be a great way to include an environmental aspect to the lesson by having your friends use old magazines to do this.  They could tear out pages that have the colors and textures they are looking for.  They could also search at home for any stray papers that might work.

Lava in a Cup

This is very cool!  This is an area of science I don't cover, but I would love to try this anyway.  The supplies and steps are super short and simple.  It's the last step, sprinkling salt on top, that makes the "lava" bubble up and down the glass.

Sedimentation

This is from a home schooler's blog.  This one actually follows scientific method and involves just a few simple materials to conduct the activity: rocks, sand, soil, and a jar.  Then, like in the picture above which is from the blog, your friends can recreate their results.  I would probably do this as a small group activity rather than have each friend do their own simple to keep the mess and supplies to a minimum.

YOU MUST GO TO THIS PHYSICS WEB SITE!!!

Have I made myself clear?!  Just kidding!  But really.  You must go to this web site if you teach anything to do with physics.  It is all about making laptop books (interactive notebook?)  for a variety of physics concepts.  Honestly, all our notebooks should look like this.  Guaranteed to keep your friends interested and involved.  It takes what I did with my Newton's Laws of Motion flip charts  to a whole new level.  Here's a couple of pictures from the site for the light and sound laptop book to give you an idea.

Open it up, and. . .  ta da!!!!

I'm thinking you could add each component as you teach it.  There are many more fantastic ideas on this site.  I really like the magnetism book. 

Native American Stories

I have done this one!   The link above will take you to the Canku Ota web page, a Native American online newsletter.  The page will have the two pages below, as well as some other coloring pages.

For this project, I've had my friends write the story of a Native American tribe we have studied.  In writing the story, they use the symbols above to replace words as often as they can.  I've also done it as a fiction writing where they write a personal narrative telling about their day as if they were a Native American.  Instead of regular paper, I give them brown butcher block paper and a black Sharpie to write their story.  Then, I have them crumple and recrumple their paper until it is wrinkled and soft as buffalo hide.  They are always amazed at how the paper becomes soft as fabric.  If time allows, you can always go back with paint and color some of the symbols.   It's a fun project.

So, there you have it.  Just a few fun projects to spark some thinking.  How can we bring a little fun back in to our classrooms?  I'll be back on Tuesday with some pictures of my classroom and some other posts during the week.  Until then, have a great Sunday!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Math in a Tub!

Our district uses the Everyday Math  program. I think it is sometimes also referred to as Chicago Math.  I like it.  It is more rigorous than our previous math series, but there are some gaps in the program that would stop me from saying I love it. Just a personal opinion.  Nevertheless, it is a program that requires my friends to have a variety of materials available to them everyday, no pun intended!

There are 24 friends in my class this year, sitting at four tables of six.  I have set up one tub for each table which are stored in a cubby in the front of the room.

Each table has a "Math Captain" who is responsible for getting the tubs and debs at the start of each period.  Tubs being the blue bins and debs is our shorthand for the dry erase boards that sit under each tub.  It's a silly thing, but it is so much easier to say, "Use your deb" rather than saying, "Use your dry erase board." And, yes, I know I should be writing it D.E.B.

So, what is in the tubs? 

• First, we have a cup with red and blue pens and pencils.  This group needed a restock on pencils.  All three are used in the program, and I have learned to pick my battles.  My friends are required to have their own blue and red pen and pencils, but you know how that goes.  There's always someone who doesn't have something.  Rather than make it an issue, I keep extras in each tub.  It's easier for me to just provide extras than harangue them about not having what they are supposed to.

• Next, there are some eraser cloths for their dry erase boards.  Over the years, I have learned that this is a much more cost effective and functional eraser than the regular black block erasers.  These last forever and when they get a bit grungy I just bring them home and throw them in the washer.  They come out clean and work like new.

• Everyday Math comes with special decks of number cards that my friends use often.  Usually, if they are working in teams they will need more than one set.  Even if they are only using on set per a pair, they sit three pairs at a table.  This means I have three identical sets of cards out that can't be mixed up.  Can you see the problem?   It would be impossible to expect ten and eleven year olds to not get them mixed up occasionally.  To prevent the mix-up, I took all my cards home and marked each set with a different color or color symbol.  I also purchased soap cases at the dollar store to keep each set in.  I marked the case with the symbol that is on the deck of cards in the case.

I have three decks of cards in each tub.  The trick is to make sure the colors are not similar at each table so that my friends can easily identify which deck a lost or mixed-up card belongs in.  When I ran out of colors, we went to check marks of different colors.  It really has helped to keep the decks organized. 

• Everyday Math also come with a blue template for each friend.  There is one for each friend in the tub.  My district does not like us to send these home, but that's a little hard when some of the homework or test review materials require the use of the template.  My students each have a number, so I numbered each template in the corner.  This way, each students is responsible for their template.  So, yeah, I do send them home on occasion.

The templates are pretty cool.  They have a half and full circle protractor, a percent circle, a metric ruler, a standard ruler, all the geometric shapes and pattern blocks, and can act as a compass.  If we ever switch programs, I'm planning to hold on to these!

•  The last couple of things I keep in the tubs are a calculator for each student and two baggies with different colored cubes.  The cubes come in handy for some of the math games played in the program.

So that's how I keep my friends organized and ready to go for Math.  At the beginning of the period, the Math Captain get the tubs and debs for their table, and at the end of the period is responsible for gathering all the materials and returning them to the cubby.  Every month we change captains.

How do you organize for math?  Do you use tubs?  If so, what's in your tub?