Bowling Math

Hey, Green Friends! I apologize for being absent for so long at this blog, but I'm here now at least, and I hope you all have been well!

I've seen this green math-tastic idea for awhile now, and wanted to try my hand at it. Students knock down pins that contain some sort of math objective... pins can have numbers they need to add or subtract, math fact problems, or students can try to create a certain number using the numbers on the pins they knock down. We're practicing estimation and rounding, so I customized this game for that purpose.

What I Did:

I drink those DanActiv yogurts in the morning, although I know I've got to stop with all the useless plastic they create. But for now, I've at least transformed them into a fun learning game for my students.

After I washed the bottles and took of their wrappers, I created some labels using Avery.com and labels 5410.

I found the bowling ball at Goodwill, and the find made me so excited, I had to do a happy dance right there in the toy section which I immediately regretted. :P

How to Play:

1) Students take turns trying to knock down the pins.
2) After their roll, they pick up two of the bottles that fell down. They round and add them. Their partner(s) use a calculator to check.
3) If they're correct and made a strike, they earn two points. If they're correct and didn't make a strike, they earn one point. And if they're incorrect, they earn no points.
4) Continue play until center or group time is up. The winner with most points wins.

My students used dry-erase boards for their work, but I've created a recording sheet, also, that you can use for whatever skill your students are practicing with this game. Just click the image for your copy.

Thanks for stopping by, green teachers!

Plastic Lid Facts Game Giveaway at Hojo's Blog!

Heather from Hojo's Teaching Adventures was so kind to recently spotlight my math fact bottle caps idea and even better yet, she is doing her own giveaway of addition math fact plastic lids. Yay for green teachers!! I hope you will take a quick second to participate in her giveaway (it ends this Wednesday, June 6th, 2012). All you have to do is follow one of her social sites - super easy! Click the picture for a chance to be a lean, green, teaching machine next year with this recycling math game!

Math Facts Bottle Caps Giveaway!

"Ok guys! The winner of this giveaway was number 2 (starting at the top and counting down) which was TeacherKing55! Thank you to all for participating, and remember that even if you didn't win, this activity is a freebie that you can do yourself by clicking the word "here" down below. I will try to gather up some bottle caps for another giveaway really soon! Thank you for "going green" in your classroom!"

My Random Number is

2.00

Random Number Calculator

Hey everyone! This Saturday, I am sending this box of 120 bottle caps and addition math fact labels to one lucky winner. You may or may not have seen this activity here, which is free, but it's super fun and engaging, and my students have enjoying practicing their math facts all year long with these bottle caps (not to mention it promotes recycling, yeah!). This box of caps and labels would be a great green activity for your students. They can help apply the labels and then check each other's bottle cap math facts to make sure they are correct. This leaves you with absolutely no prep time needed for an awesome math activity that students will love.

So how do you win this goodie box of recycling math fun? Here are two ways to enter:

1) Follow this blog and comment on this post.

2) Link up any posts of your own that involve recycling here at The Green Classroom and comment below (You can do as many as you'd like and make sure to comment each one separately). To link a post, just click on the "By Material" or "By Area." Then click on the appropriate material or subject area and link your post. Thank you!

3) Share this blog on any social medium (pinterest, facebook, your own blog, etc.). Promote green education!

* Contest will end on Saturday, April 28th at 11:59 est.

Math with Caps and Egg Cartons

Game #1:

Have you ever looked at the caps of hairspray bottles and laundry detergent and wondered what you could do with these bright, colorful, nondecomposable items? Well, I have, too. I hated throwing away things that seemed like they had educational potential. So, I stored them all year long until finally, a few weeks ago, I had a lightbulb moment.

Using the top of a cardboard filing box, I squeezed in as many caps as possible. Big ones, small ones.

Since we were practicing equivalent fractions, decimals, and percents, I wrote percentage problems involving money on Avery stickers on the outside of each cap (I think it would have been better on the inside.). Then I place some clear tape on top to protect the label. On the bottom of the cap I wrote the answer.

Now we're ready to play! Using any kind of small plastic balls (the ones I used were for storing Squinkies that I bought for my Squinkie graphing game), students toss one and try to land it in one of the caps. If they do, they solve the problem. My students used individual white boards to work it out. Then they checked their answer on the bottom of the caps. If they were correct, they earned the money that went with the answer. If they were wrong, they earned no money at all, and it's the next players turn.

The kids really enjoyed this game.

Game #2:

I had to make a big wedding cake that involved more than 30 eggs, so I bought one of those large egg carton trays. As I began cracking the eggs one by one until the carton was empty, I knew that there was another tossing game to be had with this item. So, I got two Sharpie fine point markers - one red and one brown (couldn't find black). In one corner I wrote a number in red. The red number serves as the answer. Then in the other three corners I wrote three numbers that I knew would achieve the red answer number if the correct operations were used.

So, on to how to play. I found ping pong balls work great. They actually drop in perfectly without bouncing all over the place. Students take turns tossing a ball in one of the holes on the carton. Another student has a timer and begins timing the person who is playing. That player has to create a problem using any of the operations that will give them the red answer number. If they do that within 30 seconds, they earn a point. If they don't, they don't earn any points, and it's the next player's turn.

It was actually very tricky getting all the numbers to work out correctly, and one student did point out an error to me today. So, I think I will color those four corners black and it will be a "Lose Turn" hole.

Also, the four corners of this carton were very thin, so it was hard to use any number but one. However, none of my students seemed to have a problem with reading my pitiful handwriting.

So, here's some ways to reuse and recycle during this Earth Day season. And honestly, as long as we have this Earth, it is always Earth Day season, so let's keep doing all we can as teachers to reuse materials and help preserve Mother Earth for the future of the precious little ones that we teach.

Happy Recycling!

Recycled Calendars for Puzzle Math

I totally jacked this idea from Teacher Tipster. You can see his super video here and get a chuckle at the part where he struggles to get down on all fours :P (I think Chris Farley lives on.). He used the idea of recycling old calendar pages (hope you held on to your yours) to create ordering puzzles.

You 1) cut them into even strips of about one inch using a cutter. Then, 2) using stickers at the top, you write a set of numerals, alphabet letters, pattern shapes, etc. After mixing the strips up, 3) students place the strips in order, and they know they're correct if the picture matches up.

I made a bunch of these puzzles for putting decimals and fractions in order from least to greatest as you can see above and below.

This is a great self-checking game that can be used in so many ways. A big thanks to Teacher Tipster for his ingenious creativity.

Happy Recycling!

Vocabulary Recycling Soccer Match!

So, I snagged this cute idea on Pinterest from the Making Learning Fun Blog on converting strawberry baskets into hockey goals and having students practice skills with bottle caps. Here in the South I decided to make them soccer goals, not hockey :P.

Here's what I did for this fun game that really kept my Spanish immersion students engaged in practicing some tough science vocabulary on light.

Preparation:

1) A student brought in two plastic strawberry baskets.  I cut one side off of each, so they could be positioned like soccer goals.

2) Then I made some Avery #5410 labels with our light unit vocabulary. I put the definitions on tops of bottle caps and the terms on the inside of the caps.

Rules of the Game:

1) To play, students place the "goals" on opposite ends of the table.
2) Taking turns, they choose a bottle cap, read the definition, and name the corresponding term.

3) They check their answer on the inside of the cap, and if correct, they can take a shot at their opponent's goal by flicking the cap with their finger. If it goes in, they win the cap. If it doesn't, they return it to the pile. If they don't know the definition, they return the cap, and it's the next person's turn.

(Casi! The heart box in the background serves as the storage container for the caps.)

4) Continue playing until all caps have been won. The winner with the most caps wins.

This game is fun, free (except for the Avery labels), and good for the environment. Give it a try!

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!