Math Curse

As I was reorganizing my classroom library this summer, I realized in the middle of building the shelves that I was doing a whole lot of math! AND, it was math that my students would be learning throughout the year!

Problems lead to questions, which lead to answers that can be solved mathematically.  Why not share this with my students at the beginning of the year to show them that I, too, do math... even during the summer. A bonus is that a bulletin board is also created so it's not left blank. :)

Since I read aloud Math Curse at the beginning of the year and do an activity with it already (students find and write their own math problems they find throughout the day), I figured it would be a good board to display.

The board features all the questions and problems I encountered through this one task of making bookshelves:

Here is where my problem starts:

In order to solve, or even start, this problem/project, I had even more questioning that took place (that involved math):

What materials will I need?

How much will materials cost?

Um, different sized wood screws?

How long is this going to take?

Um, what about the fact that my initial sketch drawing doesn't anticipate thickness of wood?

What are other costs?

So, what type of math did I do today?

 I cut out pictures of myself (and my cute kid) stuck in the "whirlpool" of math craziness, following the book's theme: