Everywhere we look, there is data to interpret. There is data about sports, elections, health and trends in our society. Learning how to read and organize this data is important and empowering to students as they make their way through their education. Before becoming a teacher, I worked in the environmental consulting field between leaky gas stations and the Department of Environmental Protection. Part of my job was to collect data from soil and water samples at gas stations, interpret this data and report on it. I learned at this job that data interpretation is more subjective than I had ..read more

In this post are a variety of engaging fall math activities perfect for Halloween and Thanksgiving! This collection features math pennant activities that allow students to create festive classroom décor while reinforcing their math skills. Transform your classroom with these fun, interactive projects that celebrate the season!  These pumpkin rounding decimals pennants ask students to round numbers with decimals into the hundredths to the nearest ten, whole and tenth. Each of the 30 pennants has 2 problems on it.  "I absolutely love this resource! A good theme i ..read more

While replying to feedback on TPT recently, I was struck by a few math word wall reviews and wanted to share them with you:  “This package was FANTASTIC! My only regret is that I don't have more wall space! My walls have become a resource for my students. And we know that students' visual memories of these important math concepts each time they look up and view them! The resources were very clear - great font. Absolutely love this resource!”  – Michelle A, Grades 6-9 {MIDDLE SCHOOL and ALGEBRA} Math Word Wall Bundle  “This is such a great resource! My students loved being ..read more

We've all seen versions of that viral PEMDAS problem going around social media making everyone lose their minds. Division comes first as we read the expression left to right, but the parenthesis make it seem like maybe we should multiply first:  In this problem, we'd follow the rules of order of operations to simplify to: 100 ÷ 4 (5) 25(5) 125 125 is the correct answer in this example. But what about people who swear the expression simplifies to 5? Are they wrong? One of the reasons this problem causes so many arguments online is because of the division symbol. The problem can be i ..read more

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a budget project where students mix and match a career, apartment, car and habit to see if their spending falls within given budget guidelines. Will students stay within budget with their choices? Students pick a career (6 choices), a car (4 choices), a home (4 choices) and a habit (6 choices), and calculate their net monthly income using the 70% approximation.  Why use 70% to estimate net income? This is an approximation of net income from gross income when all deductions are not known. It's a helpful estimation when deciding to ..read more

If you are getting ready to head back to school, there is a back to school bonus sale happening this week on TPT and on my website. Everything in both stores is 25% off during the sale with code BTSBONUS24 at checkout. This is a great time to get big discounts to start the school year on: math word walls,  digital math escape rooms,  consumer math curriculum, financial literacy activities, algebra activities,  algebra 2 activities, back to school math,  math pennants,  all bundles, and everything else.  How it works on ..read more

There's a big sale happening this week on TPT and on my website. Everything in both stores is 25% off during the sale with code BTS24 at checkout. This is a great time to get big discounts to start the school year on: math word walls,  digital math escape rooms,  algebra activities,  algebra 2 activities, back to school math,  math pennants,  all bundles, and everything else.  How it works on TPT: My TPT store will be set to 20% off on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 6 & 7, 2024. With code BTS24 at checkout, you w ..read more

Get to know your new students through numbers with this back to school name plate math activity.  Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers, and enter their numbers on the front of their desk plate. The questions are editable, so you can change them to best fit your students.  There are 2 slits in the bottom of the name plate to cut and slide together, allowing the name plate to stand on its own.  Once everyone's desk plates are complete, students can look around the room at their classmates' numbers and see what they have in common ..read more

Math Dollar Deals are back for July 2024-- our 9th annual celebration! Each Tuesday in July, my math friends and I will be putting math resources on sale for just $1. How it works: Each Tuesday in July, you will find links here to math resources on sale for $1. The resources will be on sale just for the day. You can find all of the week's math dollar deals by searching #2024mathdeals on TPT or by clicking on the thumbnails below: Tuesday July 2, 2024 coming soon! Tuesday July 9, 2024 coming soon! Tuesday July 16, 2024 coming soon! Tuesday July 23, 2024 coming ..read more

So you have a big, blank bulletin board in your math classroom that has seen better days. Maybe the cork is falling off, or maybe it was an old chalkboard that needs a new life. Let's jump right in with a super simple idea for starting fresh and creating a colorful background for your bulletin board-- dollar store tablecloths. The tablecloths I found were 54-inches by 108-inches, so one will cover an entire 4-foot x 8-foot bulletin board.  I trimmed a black tablecloth to 4-feet x 4-feet by measuring and cutting the tablecloth while folded hotdog, then trimming off the width to 4 ..read more