QR Codes and Bottle Cap Fun!

Technology is awesome because not only does it keeps students engaged, it's also usually pretty environment-friendly! So, I've decided to combine two fun items I've been incorporating in my classroom - QR codes and labeling bottle caps - to help students practice ordering fractions, multi-digit multiplication, and long division - just a few skills we're going over in fourth grade right now.

Let's start with ordering fractions:

I made 8 bottle cap groups with six fractions in each group using Avery lables (1" circles 5410).

And then, lo and behold, did you know you can make QR codes in Avery? On the left-hand tool bar, there is a button for making bar codes and QR codes. So, I made QR codes for the inside of the bottle caps. Once students put the fraction bottle caps in order from least to greates, the QR codes inside the bottle caps should reveal the numbers 1-6 in order.

Am I making sense? (It's been a long day!) If not, or if you need more explanation with QR codes, just go ahead and download this freebie farther down the page.

Now on to multi-digit multiplication and long division:

 I made 6 problems each, using the same Avery labels.

Then, through the QR code button on the Avery website, I made QR codes with the answers to put on the inside of the caps.

Got a scan app on you right now? You can scan the QR code above, and you will see just how this works! You should see the number 4,836 which is the product of 62 x 78, whoo-hoo! There's such a fun feeling when you scan a QR code! And your students will feel it, too, I promise!

Click on the image below to download the freebie.

I also have some really fun QR code titles for just $2 a piece. Click on any image below for more details:

Or I have all four titles bundled together at a discounted price of $5.

Happy QR coding!

Ideas for Recycling Chocolate Heart Boxes

Don't throw those chocolate heart boxes away! (Although I know we don't want reminders of eating way too much chocolate at Valentine's Day!). But you really can use them in many ways in your classroom.

1) Obviously you can use them for storage containers for manipulatives, cards, etc. Jennifer from Empowering Little Learners has a great parent letter to send home to save heart boxes for your classroom. Click the image for her post.

2) MATH - One student gave me an adorable chocolate heart box that is perfect for holding bottle caps (So you know I was happy!) So, after eating all the chocolates inside for breakfast, I came up with a game for practicing equivalent fractions, decimals, and percentages.

The pretty box!

I placed Avery stickers with fractions on the top of each bottle cap. See how they fit in perfectly? This should work with any chocolate box that has round chocolates.

Then inside each bottle cap, I placed an equivalent percentage sticker, and then inside each hole I placed an equivalent decimal sticker.

So, students will play by pointing to a bottle cap and naming its equivalent decimal and percentage.

If they're right, they keep the cap. If they're wrong, they need to put it back. The student with most caps, wins.

  

Click here to download instructions and the labels.

You will find that I put the fractions and decimals on one page and then repeated the fractions and percentages on the next page. I apologize about that, but I decided to add percentages half-way through the creation and Avery can be a little difficult when you try to change labels.

3) READING - Here's a really cute idea from Finally in First for using heart boxes with real and nonsense words. Click the image for the post.

 

 So, here are just a few of many possibilites. Do you do any cool activities with heart boxes? Let me know, and I'll link it up here at The Green Classroom!