Ok, I admit it! I have become addictied to Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT for those of you that understand this obsession!). I finally uploaded my first product a few weeks ago and now I am thinking daily about what I could make. It has actually made me more organized. Whew - I can actually say that I am becoming more organized! YAY! Would you like to take a look at my store? Go HERE and you can let me know what you think. I would love more advice and feedback.

My kiddos (that is my loving word for my students) were so excited today because we played "Make My Shape". Talk about an easy and fun way to get my kids excited about learning shapes. I cut different one-inch width strips of multi-colored paper. Then, all I did was give clue about to which shape I wanted my kiddos to make. For example:

Me: I am thinking of a shape with four sides.

Kids: (They are busy grabbing paper strips and making rectangles, sqaures, rhombii, parallelograms, etc.) Ooooh, I know this one!

Me: All sides are equal length.

Kids: (Some don't change anything and others are scrambling to find new strips) Yes! I knew I was right! I told you I knew it! Oh, I got this one.

Me: It is not a square.

Kids: (More scrambling for more strips of paper to make their shapes work) I was right!

Me: What is my mystery shape?

Kids: Rhombus!

Sure, I have some that didn't have it right. That is when we talked about each clue and how it kept narrowing our choices until all we had left was to pick the correct shape.

I did this in small groups. Yes, I teach in small groups. It is fabulous. I have about 6 - 7 kids in a group. The other two groups are busy in the room. One group is either working on an independent seatwork activity or group/partner game while the second group is at math centers around the room. Math centers (did you hear the music?) are my favorite! I will post a blog soon about to how they work and how they are the BEST THING EVER. My kiddos actually get sad when we don't do math centers.