Mrs. Cain's Favorite Things

Our favorite math things! Did anyone else run home to watch Oprah at 4:00 after school? I can literally remember being so excited to see Oprah's "Favorite Things" Christmas episodes and dreaming about having all of those things. I think we all have favorite things that we use every single day in our classroom and/or at home as teachers. Here are a few of my favorite things!

1. Favorite Holiday Activity
Sugar Cookies! I grew up sitting around the table with all my cousins making a giant mess of sprinkles and eating way too much sugar. My mom would make the sugar cookies from scratch and we would have fun using all the cookie cutters to make the perfect cookie(and sneaking some raw dough). She would then let us use icing and sprinkles galore! I know for a fact there was finger licking involved so germs were definitely being spread! My uncle would eat them anyway! On a side note, I actually do not even like sugar cookies as I am more of a pecan chocolate chip/oatmeal raisin type girl. But, I love the experience! I think this is the most important part to remember-experiences.
I am a work smarter, not harder type of mom so here are my shortcuts:

1. Buy sugar cookie dough in the rolls. I love Pillsbury!
2. Buy a couple cookie cutters from the holiday section at Walmart(they are like 97 cents). Don't go overboard. You just need a few!
3. Buy ready-to-spread icing and divide into some bowls. Let your kids count how many drops of food coloring they have used and watch as the colors change with the addition of drops.This can become a great ratio and art min-lesson!
4. My mom had a great idea to put sprinkles into cupcake liners in a cupcake pan to *hopefully* eliminate dumping of sprinkles. I told my kids to use their fingers(after we washed our hands) to get sprinkles onto the cookies.
5. Enjoy the experience! I put down towels on the floor for easy cleanup and let the kids eat a cookie(or two!). My dog licked up any fallen and left behind sprinkles. Have fun with it!

 

Showing off our icing and sprinkle fingers! See our dog Stella in the background?

2. Favorite Math Activity

I love, I mean LOVE all my Christmas math Coordinate Graphing Mystery Pictures. It never fails that I have students that need a refresher with the coordinate plane. We have so many standards in eighth grade that use the coordinate plane that it really is tied with my curriculum. I use my mystery pictures as a decoration as well! These make fabulous sub plans, early finisher activities or extra credit for the end of the semester. Here are two of my favorites. Click the picture to get these for your students!

Christmas Math Coordinate Graphing Mystery Picture

Christmas Math Coordinate Graphing Mystery Picture

I also love my Math Movie Questions to accompany the movie Elf, Frozen, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. These are all standards aligned! This is a great way to have your students doing math while rewarding them with a movie!

3. Favorite Teacher Tool
Y'all! I just recently started playing around with using Google Forms to help me give feedback to my students quicker and it has been amazing! Students can use their own devices to do this! Even if you are limited with technology and are not a 1:1 school(we are not!), you can use Google Forms to create a "quiz". You can even assign feedback for incorrect answers! If you assign point values to each question it will grade it for you! Go to the settings on your Google Form and click the tab titled Quizzes. Choose the settings you want and go back to your Form to assign the correct answers and point values. I have done this with plain worksheets so I can get immediate data in one class period. This helps me see quickly who needs remediation and who needs an enrichment activity!
*Be on the lookout for a blog post soon about more details on how to make any worksheet into a Google Form Quiz!
Another favorite teacher tool is the obvious-FLAIR PENS! I thought everyone knew about these special little gems but it is still widely not known how amazing these pens are. I use them to fill in my guided notes during class, grading papers, and pretty much everything else. See below to win some for your own classroom!

→GIVEAWAY details:
I am giving away a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card(will be sent through email) AND
a 12-pack of FLAIR PENS(will be sent through Amazon) to ONE awesome teacher!!
1. Simply like my Facebook Page
2. Comment on this Blog Post with one of your favorite things!

Now it's time to hop on over to Middle School Math Man's Blog to enter another giveaway! 

**Giveaway end Monday, December 18, 2017 at 8:00 P.M. EST!**