Algebra 1 Activities Collection

Build a set of DIY nesting boxes to help illustrate the real number system to students. When the integer box fits inside the rational number box, students will be able to visually see why every integer is a rational number but every rational number is not an integer.

I created this set of real number system cards several years ago to give my students much-needed practice determining which subsets of the real number system a number belongs to.

This exploration activity will get students thinking about what happens when you perform various operations with rational and irrational numbers.

I created this always sometimes never dice activity for classifying numbers according to the real number system. We completed this after sorting numbers using our Real Number System Nesting Boxes. I always hated Always, Sometimes, Never questions when I did them as a geometry student in high school. But, I decided to give it a try with my students.

These Always Sometimes Never questions will get students thinking about the meaning of absolute value, opposite, reciprocal, and opposite reciprocal.

This War activity will give students lots of practice with math vocabulary including absolute value, opposite, reciprocal, and opposite reciprocal.

Rolling dice to generate random numbers for an activity always makes for a lot of fun. This Roll a Number Dice activity for reviewing absolute value, opposite, reciprocal, and opposite reciprocal is no exception!

Practice the vocabulary of absolute value, opposite, reciprocal, and opposite reciprocal with this engaging 2 truths and a lie activity.

Speed Dating is one of my favorite ways to get students out of their seat to practice. I only use this practice structure with topics that allow students to quickly do a problem in their head.

I love this One Incorrect Order of Operations Activity that was shared by Greta Bergman. Students are given 8 expressions. 7 of the expressions simplify to -13. 1 of them doesn’t.

I created this order of operations question stack activity to give my Algebra 1 students extra practice applying the order of operations to some rather involved expressions. These order of operations questions are specially designed to expose students to various grouping symbols including parentheses, brackets, absolute value bars, radicals, and fraction bars.

Can you use your knowledge of the order of operations to put the missing parentheses back in each number sentence?

This lovely exponent task helps teachers assess if students really understand what exponents and coefficients mean.

To kick off our review of exponent rules, we played an exponent rules review game that I found on Nathan Kraft’s blog.

After creating a foldable book of exponent rules, my students needed some practice problems. This was the perfect time to pull out an exponent rules card sort activity.

I created this exponent rules review game in February of 2020. It exposes students to actual ACT questions from past released exams, and it gives students a chance to play the role of exam writer by crafting tricky distractors for each question.

I ran across this exponent rules match-up activity in the Algebra Activities Instructor’s Resource Binder from Maria Andersen. It was the perfect activity to review exponent rules with my students!

Help your Algebra 1 students gain a strong understanding of the distributive property with a fun lesson based on the concept of fast food combo meals.

Students will get lots of practice working with the distributive property in this self-checking question stack activity.

In this activity, students were given eight different algebraic expressions that needed to be simplified through applying the distributive property and combining like terms. Seven of the eight expressions simplify to the expression in the center. Find the one that doesn’t.

I created this factoring vs distributing card sort activity to show my algebra students that factoring isn’t something to be afraid of. It’s just the opposite of distributing.

NCTM Illuminations has an excellent PDF based resource on using the area model to teach both the distributive property and factoring out the greatest common factor. I used this resource frequently during the six years I taught Algebra 1.

To give my Algebra 1 students some practice on combining like terms, I assigned them to work through a combining like terms maze in their groups.

Check out how to use the 2 Truths and a Lie structure to have students think critically about combining like terms.

This Combining Like Terms Cut and Paste Activity really helps students understand what a term is in an expression.

This sorting cards activity for evaluating expressions can be used several different ways in any algebra classroom!

I gave my Algebra 1 students a One Incorrect Activity from Greta Bergman to give them some extra practice with evaluating expressions. Students had to evaluate expressions until they found the one that didn’t equal 36.

Students will get lots of practice working with evaluating expressions in this self-checking question stack activity.

This version includes very basic expressions.

Students will get lots of practice working with evaluating expressions in this self-checking question stack activity.

This version includes much more complex expressions.

Your Algebra 1 students will never forget to use parentheses when substituting values into an algebraic expression after you make them take the parenthetical promise pledge.

In the past, I did a similar activity to this called Algebraic Oath Cards.

I created this Add Em Up Activity to practice one of the new skills included in Oklahoma’s math standards – non-standard operations.

This sorting activity gives students lots of practice with various problems involving non-standard operations.

Use this dry erase mat to figure out what students already know about translating between algebra and words before you jump into your lesson!

I created this Translating Algebra Around the Room Activity to give my students extra practice translating expressions, equations, and inequalities. This activity is structured in such a way to emphasize that there is not one correct way but many ways to write a math problem in words.

Help students remember which expressions go with which operation in this fun, action-packed flyswatter game.

I created this Expression Equation Inequality Foldable to give my Algebra 1 students practice translating and sorting between expressions, equations, and inequalities. We glued the resulting foldable in our Algebra 1 interactive notebooks.

Students will love solving equations, crumpling their paper into snowballs and having a fun and engaging snowball fight in math class!

Can students solve the equations correctly so they know which lots to bid on and which to avoid in this fun solving equations auction review game?

Give your students lots of much-needed practice solving equations with variables on both sides with this fun sorting activity.

This Open Middle Style activity will really assess whether students understand what will make an equation have one solution, infinite solutions, or no solution.

Get students up and moving around the room while solving literal equations with this fun, easy-to-create scavenger hunt activity.

I highly recommend this Literal Equations Connect 4 Activity from Math by the Mountain. It is a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers, and my students absolutely loved it. When we stopped the activity, my students literally begged to do more!

I created these leveled practice cards for solving absolute value equations when I taught Algebra 1. There are three levels of problems so that students can start with problems of an appropriate difficulty level.

This visual systems of equations task from Marilyn Burns is a true classic!

I first experienced the All Tied Up in Knots activity for exploring systems of equations at a Common Core workshop I attended in the summer of 2013. I finally tried the activity in my classroom with my Algebra 2 students, and it was an awesome introduction to solving systems of equations.

These balancing act puzzles from Heather Sparks make a great bellwork activity. They are also a great addition to units on equations or systems of equations.

I want to highlight this one variable inequalities square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 1 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive.

I created this one variable inequalities card sort activity for my Algebra 1 students to complete before we moved on to looking at two variable inequalities. Students are given five number lines and five equations/inequalities to match up.

This speed dating (or quiz quiz trade) activity will help students learn how to graph solutions on a number line.

This Compound Inequalities Question Stack is a great self-checking activity to give your algebra students some much-needed practice with solving and graphing compound inequalities on a number line. I originally created this activity to use with my Algebra 1 students.

This investigation activity helps students understand why we have to flip the inequality symbol when multiplying or dividing both sides of an inequality by a negative.

Last week, we got to play one of my favorite algebra games ever: Slope Dude Says. Before playing the game, I had to make sure my students had been introduced to Slope Dude.

Check out the awesome artwork created by my Algebra 1 students using the four different types of slope.

When I taught Algebra 1, I ran across a fun slope treasure hunt activity for practicing the concept of slope (or gradient, for my international readers). My Algebra 1 students really enjoyed this slope treasure hunt. The activity is appropriate for middle school math as well.

This crow and the pitcher activity for introducing the concept of rate of change was a huge hit with my Algebra 1 students. My math students loved getting out the science lab materials to do a lab activity since they usually only see the labs I have set up for my physical science students.

This slope name art activity is the perfect way to introduce students to the four types of slope.

During my first year of teaching, I assigned my students to draw a picture and label the different types of slope in the picture to create slope art.

I created this hole punch activity to give my Algebra 1 students practice finding rate of change from a graph. When I teach Algebra 1, I intentionally avoid using the word slope for as long as possible.

Practice finding average rate of change from equations, graphs, and tables with this self-checking question stack activity.

This linear auction activity was a fun way to practice linear vs non-linear functions in Algebra 1.

I created this flyswatter review game to give my Algebra 1 students practice identifying the different forms of linear equations.

After my Algebra 1 students finished their standard form of a linear equation foldable, I created a standard form cut and paste activity for my students to complete. I chose an equation in standard form that I wanted them to practice converting to slope intercept form. I printed each piece of the process on colored paper to give to my students to unscramble and arrange.

I implemented this linear equation of the day routine in my Algebra 1 class to help keep them graphing throughout the year in order to keep the concepts fresh in our brains for the end-of-instruction exam at the end of the year.

Introduce linear functions with a fun and engaging lesson about how many cups must be stacked to equal their teacher’s height.

I created this point-slope form dice activity for my Algebra 1 students. They used foam dice to generate random points and then used Desmos to check that they had written the equation between those lines correctly using Desmos.

Looking for a fun game to give your algebra students practice writing linear equations from a graph? Check out this Turkeys in the Oven Game.

I love this graphing linear equations activity that uses transparencies. Students are given a coordinate plane template and a small strip of transparency paper with a straight line printed or drawn on it. Students have to use the transparent line to graph each of the following linear functions.

I created this linear vs non-linear card sort activity for my Algebra 1 students to glue in their interactive notebooks.

I decided to create a two variable inequalities card sort activity to introduce the topic to students before we even took notes over the topic.

I created this graphing inequalities work mat when I taught Algebra 1 to help my students conceptualize what it actually meant to graph an inequality. So often, I have a tendency to just give my students a set of steps to follow without making sure they understand why we are following those steps.

One of my favorite activities for introducing the concept of a function in Algebra 1 is to host a Function Auction.

This function vs not a function card sort activity is the perfect way to assess whether or not students can apply the definition of a function to determine whether a relation is or is not a function. This card sort activity provides students practice classifying graphs, tables (both horizontal and vertical tables), ordered pairs, and mapping diagrams as either a function or not a function.

Do you want to play a game of evaluating functions war? My Algebra 1 students are required to be able to evaluate functions from a table, equation, or graph. Last year, I taught these as separate skills. This year I combined the skills and created this engaging and fun game to give my students lots of much-needed practice evaluating functions.

This Evaluating Functions Spider Puzzle was the perfect practice activity for my Algebra 1 students. These spider puzzles are the creation of Andy Lutwyche, and they are a free download on TES. Andy has created spider puzzles for many other topics as well that are well worth checking out!

I created this representations of a relation telephone game to give my Algebra 1 students practice switching between the four different representations of a relation: set of ordered pairs, input/output table, coordinate plane, and mapping diagram.

This function machines activity from CPM never fails to get students engaged and doing lots of math!

After making my Function (or Not) Puzzle to give students practice classifying relations as a function or not a function, I was eager to make a similar open middle style activity to practice a different skill. I settled on creating an evaluating functions activity that would give students practice evaluating functions.

I created this function vs not a function puzzle to help my students practice determining if a relation is a function or not a function.

I used the same cards that we used for Domain and Range Pictionary to create an interactive domain and range foldable for my Algebra classes.

Students are sure to get lots of practice with domain and range with this pictionary style activity!

Help students to understand how function machines work with these hands-on flip chutes.

In the past, my students have always done a good job of finding domain and range from a table or set of ordered pairs in Algebra 1. This method of drawing boxes for domain and range has really helped them understand how to find domain and range from a graph.

I really liked how this Win Some Cash task went with my Algebra 1 student! It was a great introduction to different types of parent functions.

I created this set of 20 domain and range challenges for my Algebra 1 students to work though as a review for our quiz over domain and range.

This popcorn graphs activity is one of my favorite ways to practice writing stories for graphs with my Algebra 1 students.

Students were given six cards. Each card had ONE of the following filled in: situation, variables, or sketch of graph. As a class, we filled in the missing information and classified each card as discrete or continuous.

Help your students discover the vertical line test for themselves!

I created this ghosts in the graveyard review game to give my Algebra 1 students some much needed practice with independent vs dependent variables.

In the past, some of my students really struggled with the difference between dependent and independent variables.  So, I created this card sort activity to try to remedy this.

Functions are fun when you teach them with this DIY shower curtain coordinate plane that you can easily make with supplies from the dollar store.

One of my favorite ways to help students to memorize the quadratic formula is to lead them in quadratic formula songs. Here are several different songs I have used with students.

This self-checking question stack activity is the perfect introduction to factoring quadratics. Want to practice multiplying binomials instead? Just turn all of the cards over!

Looking for a fun way to practice the quadratic formula? Students have to recite the quadratic formula from memory to one teacher, one family member, and one additional person of their choosing.

After the success of using a quadratic formula template in my quadratic formula foldable, I decided to create a quadratic formula dry erase template for my students to use throughout the rest of the quadratics unit.

I ran across a PDF titled “If the IRS had discovered the quadratic formula…” while searching for something else related to quadratics. Kudos to Daniel J. Velleman from Amherst College for brightening my day!

Help your students gain confidence factoring trinomials with GCFs using this self-checking question stack activity.

I love using X Puzzles to introduce factoring quadratics. These puzzles are also known as sum and product puzzles since the goal of the puzzle is to find the two numbers that have a given sum and product. Read this blog post to learn about how I turned them into a fun review game!

I am really liking these quadratic area puzzles from Chritsopher (Bow Tie Teacher on twitter) that are posted for free on TES.

I have been a fan of this factoring puzzle for factoring quadratic trinomials since I worked through it at a Common Core workshop I attended (OGAP) in the summer of 2013.

Each side of the square shares a factor with each of its neighboring sides. Determine the missing values that make this statement true.

This matching activity is the perfect way to practice factoring monic quadratics (when a = 1).

Check out Shaun Carter’s ZERO game to help motivate students to why it might be useful to factor quadratics.

Students are given cards featuring six graphs of quadratics, six equations in vertex form, and six descriptions of the transformations needed to form the graph from the parent quadratic function.

I was inspired by Journal Wizard to create a Quadratic Formula Tangram Puzzle for my algebra students to glue in their interactive notebooks.

Mr. Canning created an open middle style puzzle which involves placing the numbers 1-9 in the missing blanks to create 9 factorable quadratics.

Help students discover the parts of a parabola using this fun paper folding activity that produces a parabolic curve from only straight folds. This works especially well with wax paper!

This building and naming polynomials activity never disappoints. I have used it with students almost every single year since creating it.

This naming polynomials speed dating activity will get kids up and moving around the classroom and talking about math.

Today I want to share an Adding and Subtracting Polynomials Activity I created for my Algebra 1 students. One of our objectives in Algebra 1 is that students will be able to add and subtract polynomials. These polynomial building cards can be used for so many different activities!

I want to highlight this factoring polynomials square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 2 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive.

I created this adding and subtracting polynomials in function notation activity for my Algebra 1 students.

This human polynomials activity gets students up and moving in math class. It is a great way to keep students engaged while building their math vocabulary skills.

Students are always super engaged when I do egg hunt activities with them. This multiplying polynomials egg hunt activity is no exception.

These area model puzzles were a perfect introduction to the box method before we jumped into factoring using the box method!

We broke out the algebra tiles in Algebra 1 this week to learn how to multiply polynomials. My students had never seen algebra tiles, so first I had to teach them how they work. Read more to learn how I introduce algebra tiles to students.

After reviewing the definition of a polynomial, we completed this polynomial or not color coding activity. We glued the final results in our algebra interactive notebooks.

Yesterday, I was able to use the simplifying radicals dry erase mat that I created to help my Algebra 1 students organize their work while simplifying radicals.

This dice-based activity is the best activity ever for reviewing square roots. I have never had more engaged students in my algebra classes!

I created this like radicals card sort activity a few years ago when I was still teaching Algebra 1. Students are given 25 cards featuring radicals that range from square roots to fourth roots. Students must sort the cards into groups of like radicals.

I want to highlight this multiplying radicals square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 3 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive.

Make practicing operations with radicals fun with this self-checking question stack activity.

Students will get lots of practice simplifying radicals with this square tarsia puzzle.

I really like this lovely radicals task from Terry Stickels. It simply asks: Which of the following is the smallest?

This isn’t as quick a problem to answer as you might think it would be. It will definitely get you and your students thinking about radicals!

I try to give my students a taste of history and the WHY of what we’re doing when we rationalize the denominator of a fraction.

This self-checking activity will help your Algebra 1 students gain fluency with rationalizing the denominator.

Help students reflect on the development of their vocabulary related to radicals before, during, and after your unit.

My Algebra students completed this arithmetic geometric or neither color coding activity after we created our arithmetic, geometric, or neither foldable in our interactive notebooks.

I created this classifying sequences activity to give my algebra students practice distinguishing between geometric and arithmetic sequences. I also threw in some other sequences which we classified as neither.

Each line in the picture represents a different arithmetic sequence. Can you fill in the blank circles?

These creative puzzles are the creation of Naoki Inaba, a prolific Japanese puzzle creator.

This activity will help your students visually understand what we are doing to a data set when we find the mean.

This Tenzi vs Splitzi data collection activity was the perfect set-up for practicing finding measures of central tendency with my Algebra 1 students.

Check out this Always Sometimes Never Activity for Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. This was the perfect way to review the measures of central tendency with my Algebra 1 students. I used this activity as a last-minute review before our quiz over finding measures of central tendency.

Can you find a set of numbers that satisfies each challenge involving the mean, median, mode, and range of the data set?

Students must add one number to the data set to make it have various means, medians, modes, and ranges. My students did not want to put this activity down!

How hard can it be to stand on one foot with your eyes closed? Your students will find out with this fun blind stork test that is perfect for collecting data to analyze in Algebra 1.

Data collection is fun when it involves playing Tenzi! Students will play various Tenzi variants and use their collected data to create boxplots which can be easily compared to determine “Which version of Tenzi is the hardest?”

Your Algebra 1 students will love creating their own custom magnet which can be used to create class dot plots.

Don’t settle for random data sets from your textbook to analyze. In this dot plot of the day activity, students will practice describing data sets involving data collected directly from their classmates.

Once you have created your dot plot magnets, ask your students “How Many States Have You Visited?” This is a great first dot plot to make and analyze as a class.

The numbers and labels are missing from these dotplots. Can you use your logical reasoning skills to match each dotplot with it represents?

How many items will your students count in the allotted time? Have your students create a graphical display of the results. How does the true value compare to the class results?

This data set analyzing the ages of male and female academy award winners is the perfect introduction to back-to-back stem-and-leaf plots.

Students were given a plastic sleeve with a hidden picture puzzle and a card with a picture to locate within the puzzle, a MyChron timer, and a data recording sheet to glue into their interactive notebooks.  

Students will practice finding a five number summary and determining if there are any outliers by looking at salary data for the OKC Thunder.

Students use this helpful dry erase workmat to help them organize their work while finding the five number summary of a data set and using that to find IQR and outliers.

How well can your students estimate 30 seconds? This is the perfect quick data collection activity to get a fun set of data to analyze.

I created this let’s make a graph activity to give my Algebra 1 students practice making various types of data displays. We needed to practice making bar graphs, box-and-whisker-plots, circle graphs, and stem-and-leaf graphs.

Students take turns building scatter plots using m&m’s and having their classmates determine if the scatterplot has positive, negative, or no correlation.

This Candy Grab Lab is one of my favorite ways to introduce students to the process of linear regression.

I learned about using twizzlers for linear regression from Tammy Ballard with Wake County Public Schools. I modified her activity to create my own twizzlers linear regression lab that met the needs of my specific group of algebra students.

This Desmos activity kept students engaged and interested while learning how to draw lines of best fit by hand.

This hula hoop scatterplot activity gets students moving in math class while learning about how to create a scatterplot and use that scatterplot and linear regression to make predictions.

This starburst scatterplot activity ended up being one of my favorite activities of the year!

I created this tongue twister linear regression activity for my algebra students to use while collecting tongue twister data in their small groups. Students work in groups to collect data regarding the amount of time it takes various numbers of people to recite a tongue twister.

Warning: don’t try this bouncing tennis balls linear regression activity if your classroom is on the 2nd floor. The science teacher below your classroom will not appreciate it.

I was inspired to give my students the true colors personality test after attending a workshop where we did this personality test as one of our activities. We took turns going around the room saying what color we found as our result.

When comparing the amount of time it took for different numbers of students, we were able to perform a linear regression to figure out how long it would take the entire class to speak their results.