I'm in LOVE

…with FOLDABLES! Or at least infatuated. Maybe obsessed. I’m not sure if the origami-like aspect of them first caught my attention. Or if it was the visual nature of organizing information. Adding in a splash of bright colors makes them even more appealing. Needless to say, I am addicted to foldables. If foldables ever broke up with me, I’m afraid I would unfortunately become its stalker.

Calvin introduced me to my first foldable two summers ago during CAMT. Remember weaving placemats out of construction paper in Kindergarten? This particular foldable is a close cousin to it. The intriguing part is the “magic” of the other hidden book. I use this foldable to help my students learn their squares and square roots.

During that same conference, Melissa and I stood in line for nearly two hours to be able to get in Dinah Zikes’ presentation. I think we barely made it in when the doors were slammed shut because the maximum occupancy had reached its limit. We were in heaven! The hour zoomed by like a flash of lightning. We left thirsting for more.

As a teacher, have you ever spent endless hours trying to create thoughtful, fill-in-the-blank notes for your students? Then to be heart-broken to find them abandoned on the cold, linoleum floor, or worse, wadded up and pushed to the back of an A-B-C gum infested desk. I have.

[Side note: A-B-C translates to “already been chewed.”]

Those precious notes were your babies. They weren’t to your students. The students had not invested any time in crafting those notes.

When opportunity presents itself, I would introduce a foldable for my students to take notes on. I don’t know why but I was genuinely surprised to discover that many of my students last year kept up with their foldables and referred to them when they got stuck on a math problem and needed a quick refresher. Then it dawned on me. Foldables allow students to take ownership of their learning. Retention increases. Grades improve. Student is happy. Mom is happy. Teacher is elated.

Today in my pre-algebra classes, I took Carnegie's Bridge to Algebra's first lesson on Picture Algebra and divided their problem-solving sequence into four parts.


Then for the algebra classes, the students made a foldable of Algebra Properties. Instead of me defining the properties and going over examples, the students worked out a group of problems for each property and had to generate their own definition. A "discovery" lesson does take longer to implement but is well worth the time.

I dare you to try one with your students. You’ll all be hooked before the hour is over. I was.