As I am filling out my requisitions for next year I am a little overwhelmed by the large variety of DESK TAGS/Plates!! I think they are a great resource for the kids, but what do you find essential to have included on your dest tags? alphabet, colors, NUMBER LINE?!!
Also, is a number line something that is used often enough in the first grade that I should be ordering a large classroom one?!
I think that they are a great resource, but I take them away towards the end of the year, because I want my kids to try addition and such without relying on them all the time.
has a great desk tag. It has the colors, right, left, alphabet, number line and number grid. It comes in both D'Nealian and zaner bloser. I find that my students use it all the time. I love having those resources handy for them to use right from their desk.
A large classroom number line is really helpful also. If you can, get one that shows numbers smaller than zero, and up to at least the number days in your school year.
My students have desk tags that have the alphabet and a number line to 20. I purchased these from Really Good Stuff online and they don't stick to the desk, they come right off! They are Great!
My students have begun to use the number line in the 2nd half of the year. They rarely used it in the beginning but used the alphabet to make sure they were making a letter correctly. Hope this helps.
I laminate my desk tags and then put 2 Velcro dots on the name tag and match them to the Velcro dots on the left/upper corner of desk. The karger tags need three dots. The Velcro I get is about the size of a dime. The kids can unhook name tags to really scrub desks. I give a prize for good looking name tags at the end of the year as an added oncentive to leave them alone.
the name tags from Really Good Stuff...I've used them for years. And a resounding YES to a class number line. I'd also invest in a large, poster sized 100 chart that is laminated so you can do whole group activities to emphasize the patterns when counting by 2, 5, 10......
As far as name tags, I do tape mine down w/ clear packing tape and give incentives for keeping it clean. I do it once a month or so.
I used library tape this year-it's just 2 inch scotch tape-and I completely covered the desk plate with an overlap all around as well. This has lasted very well all year even with daily washing. Other years I have skirted them with masking tape but the kids pick at the edges and it eventally loosens. They can't seem to pick up the edges of the library tape!
we use Everyday Math and its handy to have a number grid on desk tag--we use these INDESTRUCTABLE ones from really good stuff--they are a little expensive but last all year (except for a couple "pickers)--they are D'Nealian too
Last year I bought a large colored number line at our Dollar Tree. It came in several sections that I had laminated. It was easy to put the sections that I needed with magnetic tape for all the class to see.
I use contact paper and my kids rarely peel off them off their desks (none did this year, amazingly!). Next year though I think I might try the velcro dots, I like the idea of being able to remove them to clean desks. Is it hard to remove the dots at the end of the year from the desks though?
I am moving up to first next year from kinder and I just went to a workshop where the presenter had a really neat idea about the number line. She has her kids create their own number line at the beginning of school (a big, class-sized one out of construction paper-one number per sheet) and she has it taped down to the floor in the back of her room. For each number, the students are told to represent that number in as many ways as they can-using dots, the number itself & number word, tallies, money, addition, whatever. They do a lot of activities at the beginning of the year where they get to "walk" the number line and practice adding & subtracting in relation to the number line. I was so excited when I got back from the workshop that I tried this with my kids this past week and it has been AMAZING how it has helped them with their number sense...so I'm definitely going to do it next year with my first graders! Just an alternative to purchasing a large classroom number line.
This teacher also has them make their own small number lines (I'm guessing out of a strip of adding machine tape) that they get to keep in their math tool boxes.
It's nice that you get to order the desk tags-I have to pay for mine out of pocket!
I'm not sure where I found them, but I replace my name tags at the mid-year point with name tags that have word wall words on them in addition to the basic number line, color words, and shape names.
I've also put number line desk tapes on the back of sentence strips and laminated them. I've had this classroom set of number lines for a number of years. These portable number lines are great because students can take them with them when they're working somewhere other than their own desks.
05-04-2009, 04:31 PM
I think they are a great resource for the kids, but what do you find essential to have included on your dest tags? alphabet, colors, NUMBER LINE?!! 
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