Work 'Uniform' and BARGAIN Award Ticket Cards

I am a full time Mathematics teacher, but I also take Year 8 girls Softball for Tuesday afternoon sport! Such a stunning group of girls who have done EVERYTHING they can to ensure I am comfortable with all the rules and calls! :)

The last three years I've always had 'recreational sport' which is for students who don't want to play a team sport, don't make it into a team or don't like sport! This is ssssooooo different!

All HPE teachers and afternoon sport teachers were offered a school 'work shirt'. I must say I LOVE wearing a consistant uniform every Tuesday that students recognise but also other schools can easily recognise!

In addition to this, I found these 'ticket awards' at K-Mart where they had discounted them from $2.50 down to $1! Needless to say I have 15 packets now! :)

I'm looking forward to using them along with my new container of stationary rewards! :) I will put a photo of this up soon! :)

Valentines Day in Maths - PHOTOS

After yesterdays blog post about the Valentines Day Math Activities I was going to do with my years 9s, I thought I would upload some photos of their work!

They really enjoyed being given the opportunity to not only work in pairs, but to be a part of the Year 9 Math wall and demonstrating ownership and pride in their understanding and work!

There were so many students helping others who had missed some lessons and needed some guidance, along with two students who managed to create two seperate hands rather than attached hands with a heart in the middle! lol

Valentines Day in Maths! Middle and High School



At my High School, apart from selling and having roses delivered to students (fake ones!), we don't seem to cover Valentines Day like its covered in Primary School.

SsssoooOooOoooOooooooo... I'm going to change that!

I saw this AMAZING idea somewhere where you fold a piece of A4 paper in half, place your hand so that your thumb and index finger touch the creased side and trace!

I made the mistake on my first one below to place my thumb straight which means your heart looks a little sad! You will have to get your little ones to bend their thumb a bit to make more of a heart shape!

I am using these with both my Year 9s tomorrow. They are going to work in pairs to complete a table, graph and determine the rule based on a rate I give them.

I created this example for students and I will put them up on their Year 9 Bulletin Board when they finish!

I know I will hear from them "I heart Maths",but that is what I'm hoping for!

DIY Bulletin Board Borders & Template



Template traced and cut out!

Since it's three weeks into the first term, and typical HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS are COMPLETELY, UTTERLY, TERRIBLY, bland... boring... mind numbing... PLAIN!

I didn't think of buying any bulletin board borders over the break and wanted to brighten up the room sooner rather than later! :)

I created a template and used some of our 80cm wide coloured cardboard (we only had pink!!!!) but this is the finished product!

This looks very peach coloured, but it's pink! Much better though :)

If you CLICK on either of the template images below (Or HERE and HERE) you can download them as two seperate images from google docs, print them onto an A4 page and trace them onto your own cardboard! A great item to laminate and re-use year after year!



 

Bookwork, Expectations & Integers in use with Year 8!

I've just realised that this photo makes the day look muuuuccchhh more sunny than it actually was!

It was a miserable morning full of heavy rain, a sunny first break where I had to run trials for the Year 8 Girls Softball team, and then a rainy lunch time!

I'm very lucky to have some Year 9 girls who play club softball helping me out! :)

It's always so hard for the kids in their undercover area when some don't actually stay that dry in wet weather! :(

I thought I'd show you all this BIG blue ERASER/ RUBBER that I bought for my step-son Max as he's always misplacing his normal sized rubbers! Seriously, it's 15cm long and hhhuuuggeee! I love it :)

I know the one mistake a LOT of teachers make in high school, is not showing students bookwork expectations! How do I know this? I end up with students in year 9 with terribbblleee book work with no heading, margin or date!!

Students come from primary school and spending the whole day with one teacher and specialist teachers with all their books in the one room, to having four or more different teachers EVERY day with different books and expectations for EVERY teacher for each subject! How confusing for them!

My Year 8 Math Homework Books

I spend my first lesson with all my Math students (no matter the year level) focusing on my expectations of their book work. We use three books:

• Summary/ Theory - Which is the main note taking book that contains teacher examples.
• Exercise - Which is where students complete their textbook or worksheet work.
• Homework - Where students complete any homework task.

I always make sure that homework sheets are copied in colour! Why you ask? Doesn't it look more engaging and bright being in a colour? I know I'd rather do my homework if my book looked appealing! Some little ones even coloured each question or each letter to add additional colour! I love it!

A colourful HW book neatly in 'invisible' columns.

I've shown my students how to communicate what they're thinking rather than just give an answer. For a simple question like:

-6+9

=3

Doesn't require any 'thinking' or communication because it can just be solved. Whereas:

-5+-10

= -5-10

= -15

The signs I've coloured red is what students circle, then in the second step, re-write it so its more clear and organised, then the third step to solve! One example of this is below.



Circle, show how the signs change, re-write it and solve!

 I LOVE when they make a mistake, because their middle step is often correct (which means they can recieve some marks for it) but they made an error in the final step! Much more clear to see their 'thinking/ communication'!!

 

If your little ones are looking at integers, now or in the future, these Integer question cards are FREE, go over five levels and contain ANSWERS! :)

TpT Sunday SUPER Sale up to 28% off!!!!

THIS Sunday TpT is having a HUUUGGEE Super Sunday SALE!

My WHOLE store will be discounted by 20%, PLUS when you enter TpT's promo code 'SUPER' at checkout, you will recieve an additional 8%!

A great excuse to stock up on some great items you have on your wishlist or one you've been keeping your eye on! 

*Promo Code "SUPER" Expires 02/03/13 Midnight Hawaii-time*

The COMPLETE Perimeter, Area & Volume Collection

This complete collection contains over 174 pages and at least 7 Math Centre resources (with various levels and activities in each centre) to use in your classroom.

To make for an easier unit download, I have included the FREE Math Posters, FREE Perimeter, Area & Volume Wordwall, Free Dominoes and for FREE for you, Math Word Wall!!!!

This would all cost $27.25 to buy individually, but  20% off for bulk purchase makes it $21.80! Over $5 savings!

See the links for more detailed information due to the number of activities included.

Perimeter, Area & Volume Math Center Cards #2 - Valentines Day & Regular theme

Circumference & Area of Circles - 8 worksheets with Answers

Math Center Volume of Prisms - Rotation Cards

Perimeter, Area & Volume Math Center Cards #1

Christmas Perimeter Activity Cards

I Have, Who Has - Area of Square & Rectangle

Unit Conversion, Perimeter & Area Pack

FREE - Perimeter & Area Posters - A4 or A3

FREE - Perimeter, Area & Volume Word Wall - 20 words

FREE - Aussie Area Dominoes - Square, Rectangle & Triangle

Math Word Wall - Other words for....

Distributive Law Math Centres

This very bright and engaging distributive law math centre is ready to just print, laminate and use! There are 272 question cards over 5 levels! 

Easy to read instructions and answer keys provided for all activities. One landscape and one portrait recording sheet provided for each of the 5 levels.

It also comes with a game board which can be used as five separate leveled games or as one large game board with all the cards in use!

See thumbnails and preview for more detailed information due to the number of pages included.

Distributive Law Word Wall contains 18 word walls and 6 blank word walls.

For a short time this Math Centre is 20% off!

I look forward to using it for my second unit of the year! It's taken some time to put together with aaalllllll (272) of the question cards aaaannndddd answers, so it's been two weeks in the making around school, work and holidays!

Gazebo, MAJOR Storms & Tornado's in Australia!? WhAt!?!?

Our Gazebo is finally complete!

So this is the COMPLETED & furnished Gazebo we finished building over the holidays! 

After 3.5 months of working during the holidays, after school, then over the Christmas break, voooolllaaaaaaa! :)

Apart from the power lead over the roof from screwing the iron sheets down, and the birdbath without its top and other such picky things, we're so pleased with it! 

So this was completed 1 week ago. The weather since then has been rainy, clouds, storms, rain.... :( AND THEN.... I wake up to THIS this morning!

Not my photo but bayside

"Qld again in grip of deadly flood disaster", "Five tornadoes leave trail of destruction" and "Defence force at Qld's disposal: Swan" to say the least...

TORNADO... in Australia!? In Queensland!? Talk about a rarity, and to think that 2 years ago at this time we had the terrible floods that took so many lives unexpectedly, and flooded so many areas of Queensland from Toowoomba to Brisbane City.

It stopped raining for 10 min today!

Now this!!!!! It's been broadcast on TV 24/7 with full coverage since I woke up this morning, so they're really on the ball with plans to look after everyone and evacuate on time! Because we're located so close to the bayside ourselves, we're getting some VERY strong wind gusts hitting the house/ windows, so I'm hoping it holds out!! 59 to 66 KNOTS winnndddddddddd here! 116km/h or 72mph

AND to think we go back to school on Tuesday... Today is Sunday! We're awaiting EducationQueensland announcements Monday afternoon to let us know what schools will be returning and others closed. What a stressful start to the school year for students, parents, school and teachers alike!!

Perimeter, Area & Volume Activity Cards - Valentine's Day & Regular Themes!!

I've been lucky enough to have some time on my hands to complete a second set of cards around perimeter, area and volume!

Unlike the last set I created, Perimeter, Area & Volume Math Center Cards #1 has three sets of 12 cards, this set has three sets of 16 cards with an increased difficulty level.
ALSO 20% off this item for a little while! :)

There are two themes to this set so you can use them all year round! A Valentines Day theme and a Regular theme. All answers are provided to the cards to make student checking much easier!

It seems I will have more laminating to do now! *I secretly LOVE laminating!!* :)

FREE Probability Math Centre/er

I've finished a probability FREEBIE for you all tonight! It's a multilevel Math Centre waiting just for you to print and laminate (we all have a laminating addiction... admit it! :) )

I've made some changes to this unit and also added more to my Probability Unit on TpT!

Easy to read instructions and answer keys provided for all activities!

Included in this freebie is: 

-Blank Word Walls for your students to add their own probability words (Excellent to give students ownership of their learning!)

-Probability Shapes Level 1 - __out of __ (16 Questions)

-Probability Shapes Level 2 - Writing as a fraction (16 Questions)

-Probability Items Level 3 Worksheet - Writing as a fraction and simplifying (10 Questions )

It's about to hit midnight here and we go back to school in just over a week! I'm in denial! I know I am because I wouldn't be up this late otherwise! I need to get back into the 'school' routine ASAP!

Finally finished NEW Data Unit 20% OFF!

This unit has taken a lot of time to put together and I'm so pleased I'll have it ready for the new school year! :) So far I am teaching year 8 and 9's with 11 and 12 PVM, but if I get my Day 8 transfer, I will be teaching year 7's!
Awesomely this data unit will be able to be used with any of these year levels/ classes!
This Data Unit is 20% off on in TpT Store and I will upload it very soon to TeachersNotebook!

It includes:

• 16 word walls with 8 blanks, 6 domino mean, median, mode & range math centres over 2 levels
• 8 Math Centre A4 page Worksheets
• 1 x Math Game with three different game boards to choose from with 132 cards (33 mean, 33 median, 33 mode, 33 range.

In Australia, we're all getting ready to go back to school in the next two weeks! TWO WEEKS!

WHERE did those HOLIDAYS go!?

They allllwayyysss FLLLLYYYYYYYYYY by, but I guess that means we've enjoyed the holidays to make them fly! :)

Our school voted on the student free days to be Wednesday, Thursday & Friday from 9am-4pm, so we're back in 11 days!

The kids don't come back until Tuesday 29th January because Monday is Australia Day's public holiday in lieu of because the public holiday is on the Saturday!

Between now and then we have a roof of a Gazebo to build, finish renovating downstairs, make a new FREEBIE and prepare for the new school year!

Any FREEBIE ideas!? :) 

Teaching Math with Meaning GIVEAWAY 3 x $10 TpT vouchers

The lovely Alison from Teaching Math with Meaning is giving away THREE, yes 3 x $10 TpT Gift Certificates! 

Alison is also a fellow 'Aussie' and is also addicted to Maths, so I cannot help but promote this awesome giveaway & SALE.

Alison is also having a 20% off sale from the 3rd to 6th January at her TpT Store! 

I will blog again very soon as now having over 100 + Blog followers, 100+ TpT followers and 100+ TpT feedback given, it's time to celebrate somehow! :)