The Bulldog's Woof

  Spring cleaning?   Consider contributing to South Mrs. Joyce, one of our 6th grade Math teachers, has long used Lego bricks to help students visualize fractions. This year, she excitedly told me about the breakthrough of using MagnaTiles to visualize geometry in 3D. How many sets of magnetic blocks do  you  have sitting in box in your attic?? If your family's days of playing with magnetic tiles are a distant memory,  please  consider donating them to your friendly Math teacher! Once they're here, we find they are also a great way to spend indoor recess. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly middle school kids let their inner child run free as soon as certain things happen: You give them something to color, You read aloud to them, or They have downtime and toys like fidgets, MagnaTiles, Lego, etc. It never fails!  30 seconds in, and suddenly the kids are giggling and chatting--or attentively following along with a story--entirely engrossed in their ...