You Oughta Know About....VersaTiles!

It has been like two months. I know.

As teachers, you can understand me when I say...

I am having "that" school year.

So my afternoons have been crawling from under work commitments to  wallowing in self "is-this-what-i-wanna-do-forever"ness.

But I digress.

What better way to make a comeback than with this

I had a GREAT time with this Blog Hop during #Back2School, and I love the ideas that Jasmine (Buzzing With Mrs. McClain) comes up with so I decided to give it another go....

...and I plan to hop over to her blog after I am finished to see what she has been up to!!

So for the HOP.

I thought "You Oughta Know About" - V E R S A T I L E S!!

I Ab-SO-lutely love them. 

And I just got them for my kiddos on Wednesday!!!

Yay!!!

What are they you ask?

Taken COMPLETELY from the ETA Hand2Mind VeraTiles Website:

"VersaTiles is a unique skill practice and hands-on learning system that is proven to help teachers meet rising expectations and support standards. It allows students to work individually, in work stations, or as a class to practice essential skills using an innovative answer case that disguises learning as fun. The program covers a wide range of detailed skills and instructional objectives across Math, Language Arts, and Science. Unlike tedious workbooks, VersaTiles provides students the opportunity to persevere and find the answers themselves, making it perfect for differentiation. "

(O_o) ? <---the "show me pictures cause I read and think all day" version of that copy/paste monstrosity face

Basically, its a self-correcting activity that students can do individually and/or with a partner. I plan to use it as a finish early activity or something I can have a kiddo grab to work on a skill they are struggling with.

Also they are pretty low maintenance. Once your kiddo gets a handle on " the numbers represent which question, not your answer" then they can fly free. 

 And self-correct as they go. If they answer them correctly they will get the pattern shown in the book.

Let me also say the magic phrase we all wanna hear....

They are Common Core Aligned.

lol.

The kit comes with books that are separated based on skills areas that students are learning.

Here are a few disguised as awesome kid faces:

It also comes with a Teacher Resource Guide. The guide includes a breakdown of what is where. That way you do not have to page flip.

I teach a pretty small Comprehensive Special Education CSEP population, as some of you know already, so I got a starter kit for each grade level...3rd and 2nd (I teach 3rd and 4th but my kiddos are performing 1+ grade levels behind in some skills). This kit comes with:

1 copy of each skill book (8 books)

1 teacher guide

1 answer flip case

ALSO, sprung for an additional flip case because my rotations groups are 2-3 kiddos. 

I lucked out and got funds from my school for both starter kits and the extra answer case for like $182. I plan to copy from my books as masters be totally legal. hehe. They do sell class set cases fyi, that come with multiple copies of each book.....  but they are definitely like $300 bucks. 

Welp! Thats what I thought you ought to know...

Follow my blog and in the next week or so, I plan to share a way to get some funds when the "school funds and teacher bucks" just AINT 

aren't rolling in.

Until then...

Stay Classy San Francisco

Oh and "I Mustache" that you go get "your hop on" with my fellow Ought-to-Knowers.

An InLinkz Link-up