Market Mondays: Mountain Language and Math

It's MONDAY! Typically, I'm not a big fan of Mondays but hey - it was President's Day so I had a much needed mini-break that enabled me to spend some time with my daughter.  Who is GROWING so fast - it's insane!!!  But anyway, back to Monday. Just because it's a holiday doesn't mean I'm going to skip my Market Monday post.  Today, we are going to talk about Mountain Language and Mountain Math - bulletin board editions.   (I specify that because they do have online editions now but I've never used them.) I was able to bring Mountain Language to my school late last year with the help of our 4th grade teacher. Both of us have had success using this product and convinced our principal to purchase the Language kit for grades 3-5, as we are trying to improve our language test scores on our ITBS testing.  We are hoping to add K-2 grade this year. 

Mountain Math in the right corner

Let me explain a little bit about these two products.  They are grade specific bulletin board sets that you use throughout the school year.  They are great supplemental resources to help support your math and language curriculum already being used in the classroom.  These kits help keep concepts that you are teaching in both subjects fresh by asking students 20 questions (which can be broken down to only a few a day or you can do them all at one time).  One of the best parts about these kits is that you can use them as a whole group activity, station work or for individual student use depending on your need and teaching style.

Picture from the website of Mtn Language

The questions depend on the grade level you teach. However, for example in 5th grade for Language, the students are given a word and then asked if it's plural or singular. Then they are told to put it in the opposite form.  There are also questions on subjects, predicates, antonyms, synonyms, abbreviations, punctuation, etc.  And for 5th grade math, students work out quick math questions that include fractions, decimals, place value, patterns and number lines to name just a few.  I have used both of these products in my 5th grade classroom. I currently use Mountain Language but also used Mountain Math back a few years ago at my old school district. I don't have Mountain Math right now simply because I was only able to pick one since my school was purchasing the kit.  However, I would like to get the math one again as it is a great review for students!  Plus - I like having bulletin boards that are actually useful.  :-)  I will take a picture of my Language Board and post it tomorrow.  I have a pretty sad pic of my Math Board but posted it anyway.  Forgive the quality of it please.

Okay - here are some quick pros and cons of the kits.

Pros:

• Price - for what you get I think these are realistically priced at $76.
• Great for skill review and keeping concepts fresh.
• Flexibility on how they are used in your classroom.
• Even though I've never used the online component, I'm going to have to list that as a pro as I think it would be great to incorporate technology with this program.
• Printed on thick card stock.

Cons:

• You have to cut them out as they come a large sheets of cardstock - as a teacher with limited time already this is sort of a pain.  
• They are not laminated, so if you like to have things laminated you will need to do it yourself.
• Size - if you have limited bulletin board space, they do take up quite a bit of room.  Which is why the online version would probably be the way to go.  However, they do have another option that you purchase which is smaller - it's the Center version. (So honestly with both the online version and center version you shouldn't have a problem but thought I should still be honest about the bulletin board size).  
• On the question sheet they provide for your students to use, they don't use proper vocabulary that is taught in class.  For example, on the language sheet, they ask students to list the word that means the opposite of the underlined word......  Um - you mean the antonym?  Why not just use that word? I work hard at making sure my students understand vocabulary especially since when it comes to testing, the proper vocabulary is used.  However, I fixed it by simply typing up my own question sheet and changed the wording of any that I deemed necessary.  (If you want a copy just send me a message with your email.) 

Overall rating for this product......4.5. I'm not a fan of cutting, laminating and needing to type up my own question sheet due to time which is what knocked it off .5 points but the general product is pretty awesome.

Do you have Mountain Language or Math in your classroom? How do you use it? Do you like it?

Market Mondays: Art Drying Rack

Here is the first feature of Market Mondays, in which I pick a product that I have used in my classroom and offer up a review.  Today's product is geared toward any teacher that teaches art or uses paints or other things that need to be able to dry in their classroom.

This year, I was determined to get a drying rack so I no longer had to have papers strategically placed throughout the classroom to dry after the students used either paint or something other medium that could possibly smudge.  Plus, I can't stand having miscellaneous papers left on a student's desk unless it's being used. I like things to be very neat and organized, so when I got the Sax Stack-a-Rack Drying Rack for my classroom, I knew it would be perfect!  This awesome product can be found on Amazon or at the Learning Outlet for under $100.

In order to better assist you, I broke down the pros and cons of this product for a quick review:

PROS:

• 25 shelves
• stackable so you can buy more than one and stack them on top of each other
• Can be hung on the wall or put on wheels (I have my on wheels so I can move it about the classroom)
• The perfect size for art projects on paper 11x17 or smaller
• Doesn't take up a lot of room which is a huge plus when you have limited space in your classroom
• Only $85.49 on Learning Outlet and you get FREE SHIPPING!
• It came already assembled - all I had to do was throw the wheels on.

CONS:

• The shelves do not lift up. Sometimes it is hard to see what shelf you are using and if there is a smaller piece of paper already there.
• It only comes in red. This worked for me since my classroom I use bold primary colors. However, there are a lot of teachers who use softer pastels.  But upon further inspection, I believe you could easily spray paint this to match your color scheme.  

Despite those cons, I still award this product 4.5 out of 5 stars.  It would have received 5 stars in the shelves were able to flip up. But hey - for $86 this is one awesome product!!  

Next week's product: Really Good Stuff Chair Pockets