Why You Should Celebrate Pi Day in Your Classroom!

That’s it. I’m bringing back holiday celebrations into the classrooms. And when I say holidays, I really mean Pi Day. I am absolutely passionate about Pi Day. I am so obsessed I don’t realize that other people do not feel the same way about it and some people don’t even know what Pi Day is! Can you believe that there are people in the world who don’t know about Pi Day? We need to inform them! Pi Day is that magical day where math geeks and pie enthusiasts unite and celebrate the wonders and deliciousness of all things circular with a main focus on FOOD! Also, Pi Day is one of my favorites because there are so many educational activities you can do with your students!

Key Lime Pi

I must admit, my main drive to bring this Pi Day holiday into light is because of food. This is important because I’m sure many of your students also love food. Pi Day is all about the pies. Apple pie, Shepard’s pie, even Spinach pie if you’re so inclined. But the best type of pie has got to be everyone’s favorite, the pizza pie. Pizza is crucial. Pizza is magic. Pizza makes your lesson important.

If you teach math, then you know that teaching math is difficult. There is a strict and packed curriculum you have to follow and not much room to stray from the curriculum. Most of the curriculum is dry and students find it hard to relate. What if you can teach a lesson that resonates so deeply that your students will remember the concepts for the rest of their lives (and not give it back to you after they take their tests)? A break in routine is just what you need to get your students’ attention. Save your area and circumference of circles lesson for that special time (March 14th)! Or you can use Pi Day as an opportunity to review the concepts surrounding circles.

Pizza Pi!

The image of the pizza is guaranteed to help. In the younger grades, you can introduce geometric concepts. A slice of pizza is like a triangle, but when you put it together, it becomes a circle! Fractions will be so much easier to understand with pizza! All of a sudden, your entire class will understand what a quarter looks like because that is the part covered in pepperoni! If you’re feeling ambitious, you can make a pizza with your students (I have a recipe) and scale the ingredients up to feed the entire class in a proportion lesson.

What if you teach something else? Well, have you ever wondered about what pizza does to your brain? A quick science lesson will show your students the chemical reaction that goes on inside the making of a pizza and what it does inside your body. (Spoiler alert: the tomato sauce and cheese is an addictive combination.) You can talk about the nutritional value of a pizza, or how yeast releases gasses to make the crust rise. Who doesn’t like to talk about releasing gas?

Don’t get me started about Art. There are SO MANY Pi Day Art activities you can do with your students. Decorate your classroom with Pi Day artwork as beautiful as the number Pi itself! I can go on and on about how magical Pi is (never-ending, just like the decimal digits of Pi). I can be quite irrational about the subject too! (I have WAAAY more Pi puns up my sleeve!)

You can discover the history of how pizza came to be in a social studies lesson. I’m not a Language Arts teacher, but I’m sure you can have your students write an essay about why pizza is the best food on earth. I even came up with a quick poem created by words with the same length of the digits of Pi (3.1415926…). It goes like this:

“Pie. I love a treat, delicious to anyone.”

 

Okay, so it’s not a particularly long poem, or a good one, but I tried. Your students will probably do better than me. Join forces with your team teachers and make an interdisciplinary Pi Day lesson, complete with a pizza party! Barring any major food allergies, you might even be able to bring in some dessert pies! I remember when my co-teacher brought in a pie made in a square pan. When asked about that, she told our students “Oh! I heard that pies are square!” Get it! Pi r squared?! The area of a circle formula was one that our students remembered that year—because of that one square pie.

Because Pizza Pis aRe Square!

Isn’t it worth it to celebrate some things in the classroom? I know there isn’t that much time to take out of our busy schedules, but I would argue that lessons like these—fun, relatable, thinking out of the (pizza) box lessons—are way more memorable that anything they can get from a textbook or practice test. I know I’ll be celebrating Pi Day this year. Will you?

P.S. If you need an educational Pi Day activity, I have a FREEBIE!

Pi Day FREEBIE & Other Activities!

Halloween Activity: Bring Art Into Your Math Class (Or Your Home)!

They're finally here! Joining my original Jack-O-Lantern is Frankenstein's Monster, a Vampire Bat, and Skull & Bones! (Check out my FREE Jack-O-Lantern Activity below.)

I'm pretty excited because this project has taken me a month to create and I'm finally done! My boys love crafts where they can glue pieces together and I thought, why not make the pieces from geometric shapes and have a conversation with them about the properties of the different shapes. They're three. They're old enough to understand the concepts, right? This is what happens when you have a math teacher for a mom.

Many years ago, I created my first Jack-O-Lantern Halloween activity for my seventh graders. I was teaching in NYC back then and my students had no interest in textbooks or worksheets. They seemed to be tough kids, but much to my surprise, almost every single student tried to make a Jack-O-Lantern! They weren't too cool for this activity! 

I started my students out with a bunch of clues and they had to figure out the shapes and sizes of each piece of the creature. They had to use their knowledge of the properties of shapes and how to find area and perimeter to solve the clues. This was good for middle school students, but after I had my own kids, I wanted to extend the activity so younger kids can also take part in it.

What is the first thing you learn about in geometry? The SHAPES! I brought it down to the basics. I designed a template with the shapes of each creature and filled it with all the vocabulary associated with each shape. (The template also provides a visual aid for students to discover concepts about area and perimeter.) I believe in building math literacy at a young age because the language part of math is what many of our students get stuck on. If we integrate the math vocabulary into our daily lives, our kids will have an easier time understanding it in school. 

I've been having so much fun creating the new characters and thinking about how simpler shapes can be put together to form more intricate ones. How often do we stop to think about how a design is made? What are the smaller pieces it takes to create something bigger?

When I was creating this activity, I tried to include all the different measurements and dimensions of each shape. The questions were designed to get students thinking about the relationships between the dimensions and the different shapes. Bigger shapes can be broken down to smaller shapes to find area. Perimeters can be taken apart to find length of sides. Properties of shapes can help you find missing measurements. These problem solving skills are essential in every day life, even when you don't realize you are using them! 

This project also made me think and problem-solve. I remember some of my students in NYC didn't have money to get all of the math drawing tools needed to create the circle for the Jack-O-Lantern. We talked about it and thought about what we essentially needed to make a circle. A circle is just a collection of points equidistant from the midpoint, so we figured we can create a circle with a straight-edge ruler. We measured out in all directions from one point with a ruler and all the markings we made created a circle! 

This memory from many Halloweens ago inspired me to create a bigger and better version of the activity. If my middle schoolers can have fun making these Halloween decorations, I'm sure anyone can!

Have a happy Halloween!

How to Make a Dragon for Chinese New Year!

Dragons are synonymous with Chinese New Year, appearing on decorations, celebrations, and even red envelopes! To get ready for the new year, I made a dragon with my boys as a festive decoration for our house. 

The dragon symbolizes strength, wisdom, and the unification of a nation. One theory of the mythical dragon's origin is that totems representing different tribes were merged when the tribes united. This is a popular theory because it shows the strength behind different groups of people coming together as a group and a theory that I believe is a good story for our children to learn. 

To decorate our home, I enlisted the help of my three year old twin boys and their love for putting their mark onto everything. I felt it was only fitting that our family got together to create this Chinese New Year Dragon, since the whole idea behind the origin of the dragon was combining forces. I think this would be a great classroom project too! Imagine all the students working together to create the longest, strongest dragon, representing their class. 

Before the boys were introduced to the project, I prepared the body of the dragon by stamping out the shape with my own prints on a long roll of paper. 

This gave my boys a guideline to where their prints should land. Otherwise, disaster.

While the base layer dried, I set up the orange and red paint, suited up the boys, covered every inch of furniture with newspaper, and let my boys loose with their interpretation of how the scales should look on the dragon.

Needless to say, we went straight to the kitchen sink to wash off as soon as they were done. 

Here is what the body looked like after the boys were done.

As the body was drying, I cut out the rest of the parts of the dragon. I got the head, arms, and claws from my clipart set, but you can draw, paint, or cut out your own. 

I cut out the body, attached the head, arms, and claws, and we were done! My boys had a blast helping me make this dragon and they love seeing it on display in our house, proudly telling everyone they made it. Try this activity with your children or your students! If finger paints are too much to handle with a large group, another idea is to have them cut out the shape of their hands and layer them together to create the look of scales to make the body. Have fun crafting, and have a happy Chinese New Year!

5 Fun and Easy Chinese New Year Activities!

Chinese New Year is about family, food, and lots and LOTS of red and gold decorations! People start buying and making decorations weeks before the Chinese New Year. Houses are covered in flowers and decorations, people buy new clothes to wear, and families gather together to celebrate. To get into the holiday spirit, my boys and I did a few crafts to help decorate the house and to teach them about the history and meaning behind the holiday.

Make a Lantern

Lanterns are displayed everywhere during the Chinese New Year. Before Chinese New Year, people start decorating their houses with lanterns covered with lucky symbols and vibrant colors to bring in luck, fortune, and happiness into their homes.

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the new year, which is also the first full moon. During the festival, people light lanterns and set them afloat into the sky, or adrift into lakes, rivers, or the sea with their wishes for the new year. You can recreate the beautiful image of a sky full of lanterns by coloring in and decorating lanterns for your house or classroom!

There are many ways to make a lantern for Chinese New Year. You can simply cut the shapes out of colored paper (Make it a math activity and talk about the shapes you would use to decorate the lantern). Or you can find a template and use various art materials to make the lantern your own!

 Here are the links I used to make lanterns with my sons:

https://owlswellblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/3-quick-and-easy-chinese-new-year-crafts/

http://planetforward.ca/blog/chinese-new-year-lanterns-an-eco-friendly-craft-for-kids/

http://www.crafty-crafted.com/festive-crafts/ang-pao-ball-lantern/

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Chinese-New-Year-FREEBIE-2356602

Make a Dragon

I love the idea of the Dragon. Nobody really knows where the idea of this mythical beast came from, but there is speculation of its origin. Some people think it might have been a whale, alligator, or some sort of animal seen from afar that started the idea.

Others think the idea of the Dragon came from dinosaur bones that have been dug up. How else would you explain the size and shape of the bones?

My favorite is the idea that clans in China used to choose an animal to represent their group. As they came together to build bigger and bigger clans, they would combine their animals on a totem and the strongest, biggest clans would have the totems with the greatest number of animals on it. I love this idea because it symbolizes people coming together, working together, and supporting each other. I think this is the idea I will be sharing with my boys. We did, after all, worked together to create our Chinese New Year Dragon with all our handprints!

We used paint to create the body of the dragon with our handprints, but I’ve seen it done where people traced their hands on colored sheets of paper and cut out the shape of the hand instead of using paint.

Here is a Dragon craft link I found that inspired our family dragon:

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/chinesenewyear/ChineseDragon.asp

Finger Paint a Flower Blossom Tree

During Chinese New Year, houses are decorated with bouquets of beautiful flowers. Did you know that different flowers have different meanings? Peach blossoms, plum blossoms, and peonies, are rich with symbolism. Red and pink flowers are popular because the color red is seen as lucky. Azaleas, narcissus, water lilies, and pussy willows are also widely used to decorate homes during Chinese New Year.

I recently found an activity where they painted flower blossoms onto a tree and I loved it so much I tried it with my sons. Can you tell which one was mine? Apparently a turtle blew into one of their trees and knock off all the flowers. Still, I love it. 

Here is the link where I found the Blossom Tree Painting:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/blossom-tree-painting

Make a Good Luck Charm! 

If there is one decoration that is essential to Chinese New Year, it has to be “Good Fortune” signs.  Red diamonds with gold symbols of lucky Chinese characters are posted everywhere in houses and businesses. People believe that these signs will bring luck and prosperity, longevity and happiness to their lives. Couplets with good wishes or statements are also displayed in hopes that the people living in the homes will have a healthy, prosperous year.

Since my boys are still learning how to write, I printed out a template for them to decorate. For my own signs, I printed the template out on red paper and went at it with a gold metallic marker. I also used these symbols to decorate the blank lantern template to give it a more dimensional look.

Here is a coloring page to make your own Good Luck Charm!

http://www.misspandachinese.com/chinese-new-year-craft-fu-%E7%A6%8F-lucky-word-sign/

Learn about the 12 Animals of the Chinese Zodiac!

Did you know that Jade Emperor called all the animals to enter a race to determine the order of the Chinese Zodiac? The Chinese Zodiac is always fun to learn about; finding your Zodiac Animal from the year you were born, seeing if the characteristics of the animals were true to your personality, and seeing the types of people you are compatible with (apparently I am not compatible with ANYONE in my family, but we make do!).

There are many ways to teach your children about the Chinese Zodiac. You can read a story about Race of the 12 Zodiac Animals, talk about the different personalities of each animal, and if you have little ones, teacher them the names of each animal and the order of numbers. Have your children try to figure out the results of the Race before you read them to story so you can discuss how the different strengths can help you succeed even if you are not the strongest or fastest person.

There are so many traditions for the Chinese New Year. I had a great time introducing some of the traditions to my boys with these crafts. I hope you have found a fun activity you can do with your own children to get them interested in learning about this vibrant holiday! 

Have a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

Check out my FREE Chinese New Year Lantern Coloring Sheet!

First Day of School Success!

The first week of school can be the most hectic with the pressure of needing to learn all of your students' names, making sure everyone settles in and is taken care of, amongst the many other things that need to be taken care of, whew! The first few days provide a time for you to connect with your students and to create cohesive bonds between your students before diving into your curriculum. It is the time for first impressions, to set the tone, and the opportunity for you to show your students they will enjoy learning in your classroom. You can have fun with your students while fitting in a math lesson or two, just by getting to know them better! 
 

So many names, so little time!

If you have trouble remembering all of your students' names the first week of school, don't worry, I did too! Learning a hundred names took time and I used to have to rely heavily on my seating chart. Then I discovered an activity and tool that has made my life so much easier—foldable personalized nametags! I realized my students have always enjoyed foldable activities. After seeing how engaged my students were while creating their name tags, I realized this activity is DEFINITELY the way to go to start the school year! I no longer had to look down at my seating chart to call out a name. I spoke directly to students without wasting a second of my time and they felt like I already knew who they were. Like them, I also make a nametag for myself and keep it on my desk for the rest of the year. 

Make It A FUN First Day of School!

For our first day of school, we would spend the better part of the day creating the name tags, going around the class introducing ourselves, and sharing our interests. If time permitted, we would also have sets of categorical data lined up for us to display on a graph. Usually we get to graphing our birthdays - a topic that was quite interesting to my students (perhaps in anticipation of parties?) - allowing us to quickly see which months had the most birthdays and whose birthdays were in the same months. Already, my students were engaged in a math activity. Their first lesson? Math is EVERYWHERE, even in this exercise of introductions! Not only did this activity help me have one less thing to worry about in the classroom, but it also gave my students the opportunity to find out more information about me, my birthday, and my favorite things, which helped them feel more at ease. 

Wait until the second day to go over the rules!

This is a great way to introduce yourself and to get to know your students, but also a fun way to review how to display data! You can discuss what type of graph is best to display categorical data and then create a bar graph or pictograph to depict the class data.  My students and I make predictions about our class data, then we collect the data and display the data on bar graphs on the board. They were having fun and learning math on the first day without realizing it!

The years I had a Smartboard, I would just take a screen shot to save the information and print it out to post on my bulletin board. Before that, I made a poster size copy of the graphs and took pictures to save our work. If we had time, I had my students analyze the data and make up questions using the information we gathered. I choose to do this activity on the first day of school instead of going over classroom rules and the supply list because it helps me bond with my students and develop a rapport from day one.  

Your students want to get to know you.

Try using this activity to connect with your students this year. When I first started this activity, I used construction paper and markers. Since then, I have designed a worksheet that folds into a nametag so that my activity would flow better and we would be able to get to the graphing part of the lesson sooner. Have fun getting to know your students. Your students will enjoy learning about you.

Wishing you a fun-filled successful start to your new school year!

Carnival Time!

It's the end of the school year, and many of you are wrapping up lessons and having more fun with your classes! A great way to get the school community together is to have a carnival where family and friends can come, play carnival games, and enjoy themselves! 

There are many ways you can bring carnival activities into the classroom as well. Here's an article from Scholastic with a few simple activities you can create with your students.

And for those who love to decorate, here is an article with ideas of how you can make your classroom feel like the inside of a carnival! With a few streamers, balloons, and crepe paper, you can create a feel of being inside a circus tent!

You can create your own Carnival Booklet with carnival-themed clipart or templates! Add activities to your booklet, or use the templates to create an ad book to generate revenue for your school! 

These activities can be used any time during the school year but the end of the school year is always a great time to relax, play games, and have fun with the kids. 

Have a great summer!

5 Fun Websites about Pi Day!

Pi Day is a holiday that math geeks and non-math enthusiasts can get into. Who doesn't love a holiday where we have an excuse to fill our bellies with sweet, scrumptious, delicious pie? Here are some websites I found with fun facts and activities to do during the celebration of Pi, a magically irrational number.

Let's start with some art projects. My favorite activities are the ones that integrate art into my math class. It's fun for the students (and for myself) and it gives them a break from the routine assignments. Here is a website with fun art ideas for Pi Day:

Pi Day Crafts

Here is a website with one of my favorite Pi Day crafts:

Pi Skyline

Pi Day is the most exciting day in Math class. It gives you an excuse to throw a party and have pizza and pies and maybe learn something along the way! Here is a website to help you plan that Pi Day party:

Plan a Pi Day Party for March 14

If you need more facts about Pi, check out this website here for 50 facts! There are math jokes, facts about the origin of Pi, and examples of Pi being used in the media:

50 Interesting Facts About Pi

 

Exploratorium.edu has a list of activities including the materials you need, the description of the activities, and the reasoning behind each activity and how it relates to math:

Pi Day Activities and Links

I hope you have a fun Pi Day with your students! This is one legitimate holiday which can be celebrated in math class, so go and have a ball (and throw in a pizza pie, an apple pie, shepherd's pie, whatever pie you can think of!). 

I've compiled the most interesting math facts for Pi in an information sheet that folds into a Poof Book for students. My boys were a bit young to understand the concepts, but they had a great time filling in the Coloring Sheet version of the activity. 

Check out my Pinterest board for new Pi Day Jokes!

 

Happy Pi Day!

Start Your Year Inspired!

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Up to 28% off all items in the store!

Turkey Craft Activities for Thanksgiving!

Construction paper turkeys are a great way to decorate your rooms during the season of Thanksgiving, but there are other activities you can do with them! As I was making turkeys out of construction paper with my boys, I realized that with these few simple pieces you can extend your decoration to three different activities.

The Thankful Turkey

I wrote down a couple of things I was thankful for on the feathers of my turkey and had a nice conversation with my boys about what they were thankful for. They apparently were thankful for treats, their grandparents, their monkey and bear (stuffed animals) and for daddy. I made sure they included their mom in the mix!

The Counting Turkey

I labeled several turkeys with different numbers and my boys stuffed the number of feathers that they turkey was labeled with between the head and the body. I glued down the bottom of the neck and wings to the body so the boys can remove the feathers when they're done and play again! I've also seen people attach their feathers to clips which makes the feathers reusable for each of the turkeys.

Here's an alternative way to do the Counting Turkey Activity:

And if you want to go deeper into math, try this activity!

You can line up your turkeys with each of them holding a number. Give out feathers with expressions on it and have your students stick the feather into the turkey holding the equivalent number. You can have it as simple as just addition to using all four operations. You can write out the factors on each feather and have the turkeys hold the number that the feathers are factors of. 

The Shapes Of A Turkey

My favorite activity is making different animals out of geometric shapes. Those activities show my boys that intricate shapes and characters can be made by putting together simpler shapes! In this activity, we talk about the geometric shapes and properties of each shape as we are building the turkey. This is a good way to start a conversation using math vocabulary and get our kids familiar with math terms and usage!

For older kids, you can talk about area and perimeter of each shape. You can discover what happens to the areas and circumferences of the circles when you change the diameter. How much construction paper do you need to make the turkey? How many feathers can we cut from one sheet of paper? Can we make two triangles from a square? Ask your child these questions to get them to think mathematically about their craft!

Have fun making turkeys with your kids and remember to reflect on all the things you are thankful for!

How To Make A Poof Book!

I have a confession to make. I DO have a favorite. A favorite FOLDABLE!
(You thought I was going to say child, weren’t you? I would never admit to that!) 
It’s the POOF BOOK! Words cannot describe how much I love making Poof Books. You make an entire book out of ONE sheet of paper, with just ONE cut! How is this possible, you ask?  Let me show you!

It's amazing what you can make with one little sheet of paper! The Poof Book is a great deal of fun to make and my students loved it! You can fill it your own information or use one of my templates for various graphic organizers or activities! All these illustrations are included in my Poof Book Instructional Guide for a quick and easy visual aid for your students. I just put out an End of the Year "All About Me!" Poof Book template you can use when the days are getting warmer, your students' brains are melting, and the school year is coming to a close! Poof Books are really as fun as I make it out to be! Give it a try today!

Hope you and your students love the Poof Book as much as I do!

It's Teacher Appreciation Week!

Looking back on my life, I have many teachers to thank. I would not be where I am today without all the teachers, mentors, friends and family who have inspired me and taught me along the way. 

As educators, sometimes we do not see the results right away with our students. We need to keep in mind that we make an impact with every life we touch. They might not realize it now, but your students will remember you and all you have done for them.

I want to take this chance to thank my teachers and mentors. You helped me grow, helped me work out my problems, listened to me when I needed it the most, and inspired me to help others.

Now that I have children, I truly appreciate the importance of the influence of educators. My two little boys have grown much this year and it is all thanks to the people who read to them, who creates crafts for them to make, who listen to their stories (even though there is NO way they could make sense of what my boys are saying), who teach them how to be team players, and those who teach them how to be considerate of one another. It takes a village to raise children and everyone has something to contribute. So, I would like to extend a heartfelt Thank You to all the family members, friends, teachers, and coaches who had an impact on my children's lives.

Thank you teachers. 

The twins were hard at work making Thank You cards for their teachers!

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

As a big THANK YOU for all educators, Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a Teacher Appreciation Sale on May 5th-6th! Come check it out at Method To My Mathness!

Hi! Welcome to Method To My Mathness!

I am so excited to launch my new website and blog to share my ideas and resources with you! I have dedicated over a decade of my life to teaching math and this is a new step in my career as an educator.

Having kids was a life changing experience. Having TWINS made it hard to get back into the classroom. Daycare costs would have been my entire teaching salary and I wanted to be there to watch my boys grow up. Life with twins is crazy and fun but I missed being in the classroom! I realized it was time to do something when I started creating math projects for my boys (they were 6 months old at the time). I even started lesson planning! ON MY OWN! I know, It's just how I am. 

Before kids, I had spent all my time looking up new and fun projects to do with my students. Right from the start of my teaching career, I had been creating my own resources. I needed to supplement the ones I was given so I could differentiate and sometimes even to fill gaps in the curriculum materials. After having kids, I realize that not everyone has the time to create their own work. And that it was probably not a good idea to spend all of your free time doing work. My time away from teaching to focus on my kids has re-energized me, and motivated me to help others – teachers and parents alike. It’s the best of both worlds. I have now focused my time back to my teaching passion, and as a result I have a stockpile of resources and ideas I can now share with you! I've already released a sample of my work on TeachersPayTeachers.com and I have more on the way! If you want to check out what my resources are like, you can download a freebie from my store!

I love creating. When the things I create helps other people, that's even better! That is why I am so excited to create resources for you to use. Having twins has taught me the value of time and efficiency. I no longer have the time to do everything myself. As a teacher, I understand the importance of creating interest and having activities that are meaningful. I design my resources with that mentality. I create resources that are visually stimulating, intuitive, and FUN! My resources are designed to be versatile. Some can be used as a worksheet, a project, OR in an interactive notebook. Every student is different so it is important that the resources we utilize are adaptive and easy to use. 

I will continue to post the new ideas I find and the new resources I create. I hope my blog and resources will help you in your classrooms and create a fun and exploratory learning environment for your students. Tell me how it goes! I would love to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, contact me through Facebook, Pinterest, or Email! I am open to feedback and any new ideas of resources you might need. Let me know how I can help!

I cannot wait to go forward with my designs and see what the future holds!