Saturday means time to link up with Joanne to share what we do to motivate our students. Here I go! This summer during my trip to CAMT, I made some pretty big purchases. One of them was this interactive number line from Educators Outlet. The number line comes a HUGE number line. One side with hash marks, one without. photo credit Suction cups are included. I used magnet clips, they just held better. Tiny binder clips. Blue links Many, many,. many number cards. AND... blank ones as well. All the materials can be written on with dry erase markers if needed. This week, I used it to show rational numbers on a number line. I just grabbed a few and gave a few kids a card and had they place it on the chart. It was cool for the kids. The next day though, I made sure EVERY student had a number to place on the number line. I stood at my door and they had to randomly grab a card and link out of a bag. Their warm up (on the Promethean board) was to place that card in the correct place on the number line. It was only mildly chaotic. They did a pretty good job. This was WAY better than just having a few kids do it. When the tardy bell rang, I was able to walk in the room and immediately start discussing Math. It was a GREAT way to start the class and get my kids thinking math immediately. I only have 54 minutes a day with them, I have to use every one of them to the fullest! Since they choose the cards randomly, each class period had a different looking number line. It was great. As we were reviewing their cards, I found this at the end. I said, "Wait, what happened?" The student who did it, said, "I made it work!" Yes, she did! It worked out that I accidentally put a card larger than the number line went to. What a teachable moment for me!!! I will definitely be using the number line again. I am excited about the possibilities and hope to share more experiences we have throughout the year.