Paper Crafting in Math Class?! Say whaaaat?

Yup - you read that right! :) In the math class I am taking (problem solving methods for elementary school teachers) we had two assignments that involved paper crafting. The first one, which we had to do at home, was to create a Base 10 Model, which in real life are blocks that children use as a tactile tool to add and subtract. Some of you may remember using these yourselves (like I did) or you may have seen your kids use them. I made mine out of cardstock paper, but really they would be three-dimensional and look something like this:

Each little square counts as one unit, the rods count as ten units, and the big square is one hundred units. These don't look three dimensional in the picture, and I suppose they don't have to be, but usually they are in the form of blocks so that moving them around is easier. 

For the actual assignment, we had to cut our own Base 10 blocks. We haven't used them yet, but when we do our hands will be videotaped while using them to add or subtract to show that we understand this method. Here are my Base 10 paper blocks:

We had to create four 100 blocks, 30 rods and I believe 30 little squares. I used my paper trimmer to cut them to their proper size:

100 block - 10 cm x 10 cm

10 rod - 1 cm x 10 cm

1 square - 1 cm x 1 cm

The second assignment we had to do was to create fraction circles. This had to be done with the teacher before or after class for safety reasons because we used an Ellison Machine. Now, I had never heard of this before, but after using it I definitely know what inspired the Cricut! You lay your paper on top of your "template" which is a wood block with your shape on it, on the tray. You push the tray 1/3 of the way in, and then bring the lever down. You then push it another 1/3, bring the lever down, and another 1/3, bring the lever down. You pull the tray out and lift your template - and out comes your cut! We used cuts in the shape of fraction circles (you'll see in the pictures) but I found a really great picture online of an Ellison Machine with the templates and other shaped cuts. 

We had to cut two of each size fraction circle and each had to have their own color so that when we work with them as a class we are all working with the same pieces that can be easily identified. Here are my fraction circles:

(From top left to bottom right) 1 whole, 1/4, 1/8, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/3, 1/4, 1/12. I tried to space each of the pieces out a little so you could get a better feel for what they looked like separately. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I always like to change up my posts. As a future teacher, I found this really interesting and loved the fact that I got to paper craft as a homework assignment. I thought it would be interesting to share with all of you. :)

Do any of you own an Ellison Machine or have used one before? I'd love to know more about it!

Ashley

DESIGN TEAM CALL EXTENDED!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the design team call has been extended an extra week until Sunday October 9th. Information can still be found on the Design Team Call page. :)


Thanks!


Ashley

A Sparkly Congratulations

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine went by WAY too fast. Tonight I thought I'd share with you the congratulations card I made for my blog candy winner, Maribel. 


For those of you that have been following me for a while, you know that I absolutely love using glitter. Even though it's messy at times, I love the added touch it gives to the cards I create. I only had a few colors to start with, but as soon as I received a 50% off one item coupon at Michael's I knew exactly what I wanted:

I'm really sorry about the quality of this picture, I took it at night when there was no natural sunlight. I tried to find a product picture online but couldn't. :(

It originally cost $29.99, so about a dollar per color, but I got it for $14.99. Yay! The glitter is super fine (which you'll see in the pictures below) but I love it! I love having all different colors to choose from (30 to be exact) it's so much fun! Each color also has a cute little name, for example the yellow is 'sunflower'.   This one is made by Recollections but I know Martha Stewart also has a product similar to this.

So enough of my glitter babble, let me show you the card:

Here's a close-up of the glittered letters. There's a small glare from the sunlight, sorry about that.

I absolutely love the colors of this card, the color combo is so fun and cheerful. I have chipboard letters in a variety of different colors, and in this case I found glitter that matched the chipboard pieces and then applied it using an Elmer's glue stick. I love how enhancing something simple can make a creation look so great. To make this card I also used:

- Green, blue, purple, white and pink cardstock paper

- Patterned paper by The Paper Studio (I can't remember the name, I'm sorry!)

- 'congrats' chipboard pieces

- Blue, green, purple, pink and black glitter

- Elmer's glue pen

- iRock with blue, green, white and purple gems

- Blue flower chipboard embellishment

- Black sparkly ribbon

- Green, purple and pink brads

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by! I really appreciate it. :)

There's also plenty of time left to apply for my first Design Team. You can do so by clicking here.

Ashley

DT Challenge - Altered Tea Light

Hello fellow bloggers! :) I recently became a part of another design over at Becky's Sweet Creations. This week's challenge was to create an altered tea light. Let me tell you, it was definitely a challenge! Majority of my creations are cards and I only do very few altering projects - this was definitely unique! The challenge was posted on Monday (I know, I know, I'm a little late posting this. But better late than never, right?) you can view all of the other design team's creations here.

Sorry about the blurry picture, I cropped it and unfortunately the quality didn't remain as good as the original. For my altered tea light, I painted it with blue acrylic paint and then hot glued decorative shells around the border, and added some blue and green glitter on top. It was really simple and fun to make!

Unfortunately it wasn't dark out when I took the picture, but I tried to get a good perspective of what it looks like when it's lit up. I cupped my hand around the tea light so you could at least tell it was turned on.

Sorry to make today's post quick, this week has been absolutely CRAZY. I'm so sorry for my lack of posting! 

Just a reminder that the design team call is open until next Sunday, October 1st. Anyone is eligible to apply, I'd love to have you on my first design team! :)

Thanks for reading!

Ashley

Successful First Storytime!

Hi everyone! Today I thought I'd share with you something different from what I usually post. Part of my job as an employee in the children's department of a library now entails doing a weekly storytime for 3-6 year olds. This was something completely new to me, so I was definitely nervous! It ended up going really well, I read the book The Parrot Tico Tango (see the picture below). I'm trying to stick with a "food" theme for each week, and this week was fruit.

This is the front cover of the book (which I took from Amazon.com) the story is about a parrot, Tico Tango, who goes around and takes a different piece of fruit from each of his friends in his rainforest. At the end, he can't carry it all and he drops it, and his friends turn it into a fruit salad. The story is so cute and is so vivid and bright!

Each of my storytimes will include a craft (my favorite part!), so I figured the perfect craft would be for each of the kids to make their own fruit salad. I printed each of the fruits used in the story onto colored cardstock and cut them out. They looked like this:

Lemon, cherry, date, papaya, grapes, fig and mango

Each of the kids had fun choosing which fruits they wanted to add to their fruit salad, which they made by using a glue stick to apply the fruit to a paper plate. I also used a flannel board to help tell the story, so I made a felt parrot and felt fruit so that the kids could better understand the story.

This is the front side of all the pieces. I attached cardstock paper to the front with a hot glue gun so that the parrot and the fruit looked more realistic, and not just like felt. I found a parrot coloring page online and printed it, and then colored it using markers so that it matched the parrot in the story.

This is the back side of the parrot and the pieces of fruit, which is what they would have looked like if I didn't include the cardstock paper.

Is this something you guys would like to see more of? I always like to change things up a bit. It's a 6 week storytime session so I would have plenty more to share. I could also try and include pictures of the kids crafts and also of the storytime itself. Let me know what you think! :)

Ashley

Design Team Call!

Made Especially For You is pleased to announce it's first design team call! Applications will be accepted until October 1st. Please see the Design Team Call page for more information.


Ashley
especiallymadeblog@gmail.com

And the winner is...

...Maribel Encarnacion at I Love Scrapping! Congratulations Maribel, you are the winner of my first blog candy giveaway! I will be e-mailing you with the details, you have one week to claim your prizes. :)


I would just like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone that participated! I reached my goal of 200 followers, yay! (It may say 199, but I have had multiple people tell me the 'follow' button was not working).  Thank you so much to anyone who passed along the giveaway to their friends, posted about it on their blog, or liked the Made Especially For You Facebook page. And of course, thanks to my new followers, I so appreciate you taking the time to stop by, I promise I'll make it around to all of your blogs, too! :)


I would love to do another giveaway once I am close to reaching 300 followers. It was so fun and went by so fast! Happy three month blogaversary, Made Especially For You! :)


I'll return to regular posting later today (I wanted to announce the winner as close to midnight as possible). Stay tuned for storytime crafts, sparkly cards, and a design team call!


Ashley