Small Pocket Chart Idea

Before I had a chance to start this post, I saw this on Pinterest using a small pocket chart to hold journal prompts.  Last year, I bought 4 small pocket charts from either the Target Dollar Deals or Dollar Tree.  I shop at both frequently and many times my purchases become a blur!

The ones I bought are purple, blue, green and red (wish they had yellow because my subject colors are purple, yellow and green).  You can see 2 of them below hanging on awesomely strong magnet hooks from Lakeshore Learning in Tampa.

My plan is to create challenge problems (or take some from here) and print them on business cards (numbered).  The problems can be used as a station or whole-class.  The charts will hold 3 business cards on each row.  I will definitely use the purple (Geometry), but not sure about other colors yet.

Words into Math

Last year, I found (and made my own version of) a study sheet called "Words into Math" for my students in Algebra 1.
(Credit: I Speak Math)

I decided this summer to adapt it using posters, word strips and velcro into an activity.  I bought colored poster boards at the Dollar Tree and began cutting out each sign from a different color.  I drew the arrow and parentheses on half sheets of white poster board.  I had bought word strips the year before at the Dollar Tree (yes, it is one of my favorite stores!)

I wrote out all the words from the sheet above on the word strips and trimmed them.




























I cut 1 inch strips of velcro and placed the soft side on the words and the other side on the posters.

Here is a picture of my work in progress.

This is what the students will see when they come in.  I will hand out the words on strips when they walk in.  Since there are 34 words, some students will get more than one.

I will explain the activity and have a couple of students at a time place their word(s) on the poster(s).  If someone is struggling, he/she can ask a classmate for help.

As a group, we will discuss the words and determine if all of them are placed properly.

This is my intro to word problem solving for all levels that I teach.  It will be new to some and a refresher for others.

These will be hung at the back of the classroom from the ceiling on clips with string (Lakeshore Learning store in Tampa).

This is what the activity looks like when it's ready to store.





Words into Math

UPDATED: I noticed that the picture of the Words into Math Worksheet and the uploaded doc had errors.  Both of those have been corrected and re-upoaded.  Sorry for any inconvenience!