Tried it Tuesday...gettin' organized, givin' thanks, & cashin' checks...

It's Tuesday...my favorite day of the week because I get to link up with my buddy, Holly, from Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday. 

So...what do I get for pickin' on Holly for the Saints beatin' the Bills last week??? I get...a loss from the Saints AND a loss from the Miami Hurricanes against Florida State Seminoles...while I was AT the game.  I also got a ginormous blister. I'm not pickin' on anybody else anymore.

Miami (me) & Florida State (Jerm)...we don't agree on ANY teams!

Tried It Awesomeness #1: Finally organized my Math games/task cards

I bought this shelf several years ago from a Chinese restaurant for $20.  They used to store trinkets on them. If I would've known how handy it would come in for me, I would've bought every one they had for sale.  It's the new home to all of my Math games that I finally got around to organizin' completely.  I had the kids help me start the organization process back in September, but just got around to buyin' buckets(Dollar Tree) and printin' labels.  It feels really awesome to have all of the games stored in the appropriate place.

*Edit-I just realized I spelled "operations" wrong on this label.  I will be fixing this tomorrow first thing.  How embarrassing!

I wanted to keep the labels simple because there is so much goodness goin' on with the games themselves.  I used a Sharpie to label each envelope at the top with the grade level & domain/strand. (Ex: 5.NF)
I purchased a wonderful 5th grade math pack from MissKinBK at the B2S sale on TpT this year and it covers so many areas that my students still need extra practice with.  Love!


Tried it Awesomeness #2: Thanksgiving Question Cards

Miss Nelson and I have paired up again to create some new items for Double Trouble...be sure to like us and check out some of our fun stuff.  We have lots of laughter when creatin' together.  

Thanksgiving Question Cards
Question cards to spark student discussion or prompted writin' has been a HUGE hit in my classroom this year.  We started out the year usin' Mustache Question Cards & then Halloween Question Cards.  My kids really enjoy them.

Question: Do you like to go out of town for Thanksgiving, or stay home?

Question: Describe the perfect Thanksgiving holiday.

Question: What does your family do after your Thanksgiving feast? 

Tried it Awesomeness #3: Writin' checks for the teacher
Last week we learned how to write checks, balance checkbooks, and how to budget our money while learnin' about addition and subtraction of decimals.
We used a wonderful interactive website to practice these things.  I believe these are real life lessons that every child should be required to learn.

Fun for Kids:
1. Writing a Check
2. Balancing Your Checking Account
3. Living on a Budget

For further practice, I had the students write three checks: one to the teacher, one to a friend in our class, and one to their favorite charity.  They had a budget of $111.11.   Check out the Memo lines...my kids know me very well!
I found these checks online here.

The grand total from my students was $1,012.05.  They are so very generous!
Now...who knows of a bank where I can cash these things?

Be sure to check out the rest of the awesome Tried Its on Holly's blog!