Teacher Hackin'

You would think with a long summer at home I would be

bloggin', bloggin', bloggin'.

But nope, I got busy with stuff around the house...

... visiting with family...

... meeting celebs...

... celebrating birthdays...

...and eating donuts.  Lots and lots of donuts.

But a friend gave me a nudge, and here's a quick and easy

teacher hack I came up with and wanted to share:

the part-part-whole tray for manipulatives.

I started with the Ziploc little square thingies and the longer ones. 

(No pic of the packages, because I went delete-crazy with my files.

But, look! They even have those dang little Box Top coupons on them!)

I turned the lids over, put tape to hold them in place...

.... put a piece of duct tape sticky side up, so there wouldn't be a sticky bit

to catch fuzz and stuff...

... made a duct tape cross...

... and reinforced it with more duct tape.

I hot-glued a square of felt to make it a little more fancy...

... flipped it over,

 and voi-freakin'-la,

a little tray for kids to use when learning about

the part-part-whole math strategy!

(The paper mat can be found for free here.)

The containers nest nicely in the lids, but aren't glued down,

so they can be easily stored.

So.  Back on the blogging horse.

Let's see if I can keep it going.