Thriving Not Just Surviving: Made4Math Mondays

Okay. So, I'm a little late for the Made4Math Monday extravaganza, but this post will mark my very first ...

How exciting! It almost makes this whole I'm a brand new teacher thing that much more real. I really cannot believe that I am about to have my very own students in... eleven days. Gah! Excitement!!

Anyways, Made4math... Having been inspired by stalking the previous Made4Math posts. I was inspired to make my own hanging file organizer, such as @fourkatie's post and @misscalcul8's post. But alas, after much searching throughout my town, I could not find any super awesome duct tape to match the file folders I wanted to use. So off to pinterest I went to find an alternative method for hanging file folders. There were so many options, but I fell in love with this post. So, I sat down with my materials. But once again, I found myself at an impasse. My non-crafty mind could not sort out I'm sure her very ~~useful~~ instructions. So I decided to test my non-crafty skills and make one sans directions.

Here's how it went:

First, I laid out my five folders. I laid them roughly four inches apart, which allows for plenty of space for regular papers to stand vertically without obstructing the title of the folder above them. It looked a little something like this.

Once, I had figured out about where I needed to make my whole punches. I measured and put a small mark on each side (left and right) of the folders. I started with the second folder. My thinking was, once I create a hole punch in that folder, I would be able to see where I needed to place a mark on the folder beneath it. So, all the holes would line up nicely like these pictures.

Then, once my holes were punched right through. I layered the third folder on top of the two I just punched the holes into. I put this one at four inches as well, and punched holes into it. Now I have four sets of holes punched into three of my folders. I pulled ribbon through, like this,

Then I knotted the ribbon and tied it into a pretty bow.

See.

Then I repeated the process with the next two folders. And ended up with a product that looked something like this.

Tada. My very own hanging file folder! I'm very excited about how this turned out. Let me know if you have any questions. My roommate also helped me complete some other #Made4Math inspired awesomeness. I'll put the pictures below.