Skip to Content

AP Calculus AB Activities and Resources

Supplement your AP Calculus AB curriculum with these hands-on activities and resources for teaching a first-year calculus course.

ap calculus activities on top of image with glasses sitting on top of books.

This is only my second year teaching AP Calculus AB, so this blog post is definitely still a work in progress. I will update this post as I create more calculus activities for my students.

Year-Long Resources

These resources are designed to be used throughout the entire year of AP Calculus.

AP Calculus AB Unit Dividers

ap calculus ab unit dividers 

Keep yourself and your AP Calculus students organized with these free printable unit dividers for each unit of the AP Calculus course as laid out by College Board in the Course & Exam Description (CED).

Each unit divider features the approximate AP exam weighting for that unit.

Parent Function Posters

parent function posters hanging in high school math classroom

Your AP Calculus students will benefit throughout the course from having an easy-to-access visual reminder of the different parent functions they will need to be familiar with throughout the year.

Unit 1: Limits and Continuity

Limits Calculus Poster

Limits are about the journey not the destination poster for calculus class.

I was inspired to create this limits calculus poster by a quote from Tony Record in one of his AP Calculus videos on YouTube.

“Limits are about the journey, not the destination.”

Limits Graph Sketching Activity

limits graph sketching activity for calculus

I created this limits graph sketching activity to give my AP calculus students some much-needed practice interpreting limit notation.

Unit 2: Differentiation: Definition and Fundamental Properties

Derivative Power Rule Bingo Game

Calculus Power Rule for Derivatives Bingo Game Activity.

Give your calculus students practice applying the power rule for derivatives with this fun bingo activity featuring 40 unique printable bingo cards for free!

Unit 3: Differentiation: Composite, Implicit, and Inverse Functions

Derivative Rules Chart

derivative rules chart

Having trouble remembering all of the different derivative rules? Check out this free printable derivatives formula chart I created for my AP Calculus students to use as a reference. It is available to download both as a PDF and WORD document.

Trig Derivatives Memory Tool

Coordinate Plane Graphic with Signs of Coordinates.

Are your students struggling to memorize their trig derivatives? Check out this memory trick from Jonathan Claydon.

Unit 4: Contextual Applications of Differentiation

Coming Soon!

Unit 5: Analytical Applications of Differentiation

Concavity Posters

Bulletin Board Mock-Up with Text "Free Printable Concavity Posters" Two Posters with Text "Concave Up Like a Cup" and "Concave Down Like a Frown"

Are your calculus students struggling to remember the difference between concave up and concave down? Check out this free printable set of concavity posters.

Graph Sketching Activity: Connecting f, f’, f”

calculus graph sketching activity connecting f, f', and f"

This calculus graph sketching activity for connecting f, f’, and f” was inspired by a worksheet shared by Mike Koehler at the AP Calculus AB Summer Institute I attended the summer before I taught AP Calculus for the first time.

Unit 6: Integration and Accumulation of Change

Coming Soon!

Unit 7: Differential Equations

Coming Soon!

Unit 8: Applications of Integration

Coming Soon!