Sales Tax Fun!

Yesterday, I began my sales tax activity with my math students. I had given them a "mini-project" of making a sales paper to use for this activity. I gave them a week or so to complete it, and they really had a blast with it. They were excited about making their shoe stores, dollar stores, and "have-it-all" stores.

In this activity, they were to switch sales papers with a partner (I allowed them to use their own if they chose to). They would then GO SHOPPING! They had the opportunity to go shopping four times! They had to create four different shopping list, but of course, they just didn't have all of the money in the world. They were also given scenarios for each list. On the scenario cards, it gave students their budget and their sales tax rate. This gave them practice with different sales tax rates and also gave them a chance to relate sales tax to "real-life scenarios". It really blew their mind when I told them that they would have to put something back because their subtotal plus tax would be above their budget!

Here are some photos of our fun!

You can click on any of the pictures above to link to my TpT site to get this activity.

My students also really enjoyed the scenarios. Some couldn't believe that they only had $10.00 to go shopping, but then on the next scenario, they did not have any budget. They were ecstatic! 

Also, I will have to blog about my science class soon. We are learning about the reproductive system! That is always exciting!

Science is Awesome!

I have been having so much fun in my science classes the past few days. Some my students really have been getting into what we have been doing. We began our study on unicellular and multicellular organisms, and they really enjoyed the unicellular organisms! We watched several YouTube videos on the Volvox, Paramecium, Euglena, and Amoeba, and students had to take notes on what they noticed about each one. After this, I gave a lecture of my own. After a few days of learning about unicellular organisms, I had students create a "cartoon" dealing with these organisms. Here are a few examples of my fabulous students' work!

I'm just so proud of their work! Students can really surprise you sometimes! My students this year LOVE to color and create!

Today, we began our study of multicellular organisms. Before the lesson, I gave students several cards that said organelle, cell, tissue, organ system, organism, macromolecule, molecule, etc, and students had to put them in order in what they believe is the way that the body is organized. After students got it in the order they believed was correct, they raised their hands and I came to check. If it was correct, students could glue them onto a flow map that I already had created. This flow map could go into their interactive science notebook. They had a ball! I made sure that students had the correct order by the end of the activity. Here are some pictures of the beginning of our activity.

My students love to cut and glue!

I actually have this "body organization" activity on my TpT and TN account. Click the image below to go to the TpT page!

SNOW!

What a fabulous Saturday it was today! It decided to snow here in NC, and this is something that never seems to happen here! We get a little (A LOT) excited around here! Today was the first time that my dog Swirly seen snow, and it was hilarious. She would run, stop, and eat snow, and then she would do that all over again.

Since it was cold outside, and I couldn't really go anywhere, I sat down and thought about my plans for school next week! We have started an enrichment period once a week with a select few students that we feel need a little extra support. We have to use one of our planning periods, but I'm sure it will be worth it for the students in the end.

NC is new to common core, so it has been difficult to get the resources that I need to prepare my students for the end of grade tests. We don't even have textbooks to go along with the common core. I decided, today, that I am going to start creating practice "cluster" sheets to help my students prepare for these test!

There are fifty questions in all that will help students to master concepts need to succeed in the common core cluster: the number system.

I believe that practice makes perfect!

I can't wait to begin these packets with my students! There will be more to come!

You can find this at my TpT store and my TN store.

TpT: 7th Grade Common Core Cluster: The Number System - Review

TN: 7th Grade Common Core Cluster: The Number System - Review

Valentine's Day

I am already expecting an eventful day at school today! I love the middle school madness! I just found out that one of my students just broke up with his girlfriend yesterday, the day BEFORE Valentine's Day, and he is already flirting with another girl...ooohhhh! I'm going to have to be on the look out today for some girl drama. Gotta love it!

Check out my teacher's notebook site today. I'm throwing a Valentine's Day sale today just because. EVERYTHING is 15% off!


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Can't Wait!

I had to leave my students today :(. I took a half sick day to go to a dentist appt. today! 

I'm really excited to see how my students did on a simple interest activity that I left them. They have done one on writing and solving proportions, and they absolutely loved it! 

Students solve the problems in the work box and then they can cut the answer out of the answer sheet and glue it to the correct question!

I even had one student that told me she was engaged in her work. I was really confused...Do students really talk like that too? 

I was so glad that she was! I think the lifesaver with this worksheet is that students know if they got an answer wrong, because it wouldn't be on the answer sheet! They automatically know that they made a mistake. There is no more doing busy work and missing every problem! There are definitely more of these to come!!!

If you are interested in checking them out yourself, I have them on my TpT and TN account! The links are below!

TN Writing and Solving Proportions

TpT Simple Interest

First Post

This is my first post! This is actually my second blog, but I kind of just quit the other one! I really wanted to start another one so that I could share my fabulous experience teaching middle school with the rest of the world! I also need to catch up on the blog thing! I'm young, I can do it!

I am a 7th grade math and science teacher. This is my second year teaching! It has been a MUCH better year than the first year! If there are any first year teachers out there that are feeling down and out, it does get better!

I am also learning that there are ALWAYS things to improve on, but overall, this has been a FABULOUS year! I can't wait to share this with all of you out there!