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. I created a …
Expressions
The last year I taught Algebra 1, I put a humongous emphasis on translating between words and algebraic symbols. 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 …
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. One year, several of my students really appreciated this structure for working out their problems. I …
I’m here today to share some Roots Solutions Zeros X-Intercepts Posters. Yes, that is a mouthful. Yesterday, I started doing some serious planning for teaching Algebra 2 in less than a month! I’m at a new school that has adopted new textbooks, and I’m not exactly the biggest fan of the chosen Algebra 2 book. …
As a fifth grader, my classmates and I always looked forward to the days where the flyswatter game was on the agenda. Mrs. Murray, my teacher for science and social studies, would use the game to help us review our vocabulary words at the end of each chapter. Each vocab word would be written on …
I used this “One Incorrect” Distributive Property Activity from Greta Bergman to give my students extra practice with the distributive property and combining like terms. 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 …
I decided my Algebra 1 students needed more practice with combining like terms, so I created this page of combining like terms practice problems for our interactive notebooks. We did these practice problems after completing our Combining Like Terms Cut and Paste Activity. On top of needing a bit more practice, there’s the fact that …
I created this like terms frayer model template for my Algebra 1 students to complete before did our hands-on cutting and pasting like terms activity. Free Download of Like Terms Frayer Model
On Sunday, I shared a question stack I made to review the distributive property using printable business cards. Today, I want to share a different version. I created this question stack for my Algebra 1 classes to review evaluating expressions. If you’ve ready my blog for awhile and can keep track of my hundreds of …
In a previous post about creating cards for a speed dating activity, I mentioned that I had started using printable business cards for my speed dating cards instead of printing them on card stock and laminating them. I’ve also been doing the same thing for question stacks. Last year, I purchased a bunch of Avery …
Before we started translating between words and algebraic expressions, equations, and inequalities, I decided to figure out what my students remembered about this process from previous math classes. I created a chart to be printed on 11 x 17 cardstock. I printed one chart for each table group. Then, I slid each sheet of cardstock …
A few weeks ago, I shared a free template I created for using 2 Truths and a Lie in class. Specifically, I shared examples of using the practice structure with a few vocab words: absolute value, opposite, reciprocal, and opposite reciprocal. Recently, I used the same template with a different topic: like terms. I loved …
Quick post today to share a foldable I made to review the distributive property with my Algebra 1 students. This is one of those topics that my students have seen since they were in the seventh grade, but they still make mistakes. Here are the two most common mistakes I see: 3(5x – 2) = …
After completing our distributive property foldable, I wanted to give my students a bit more practice. That’s how this set of distributive property practice problems was born. Free Download of Distributive Property Practice Problems
Since I’ve already blogged about my INB notes for Non-Standard Operations and my Add Em Up Activity for non-standard operations, I decided it was finally time to blog about one of my favorite activities that I’ve created this school year: Non-Standard Operations Sorting Cards! I’ve done quite a few Question Stacks lately, so I decided …
Last year was the first year that non-standard operations made an appearance in Oklahoma’s math standards. That was also the year that I mistakenly thought that I would just throw non-standard operations into the same skill as evaluating expressions. After all, they are pretty much the same thing, right? Though I may have thought so …
Non-standard operations are one of the skills that are in the new Oklahoma standards that weren’t in the old standards. So, I need to work on building up activities for this topic. I decided to create an Add Em Up activity to give my students practice with these weird looking problems. Students are given four …
We kicked off our lesson on evaluating expressions with the parenthetical promise. Every year, I force my students to make the following promise to me: I, _, do hereby promise that I will always use parentheses whenever I substitute values into an algebraic expression. I make them sign the promise and date it. Every year, …
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 are always eager to get their work checked when they get an answer that isn’t 36. Usually, I …
Next, we glued in our first pocket of the year. I pre-printed the steps for evaluating expressions on the pocket. Super proud of how it turned out! Inside the pocket, we put four practice problems that we completed. See all those lovely parentheses?!? Free Download of Evaluating Expressions Practice Problems with Pocket
After reviewing the order of operations, we completed this negatives and exponents graphic organizer in our Algebra 1 interactive notebook. I think in the future, I would make this activity into some sort of card sort instead. I also wish I would have had a place where students formally recorded the difference between a negative …
I created this foldable to give my Algebra 1 students some practice with the order of operations. These were definitely complex problems. I wrote them to involve negatives with exponents, absolute value bars, radicals, and fractions. One of the key skills I am trying to teach my algebra students is that there are more types …
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 challenge students to complete problems until they find the one that doesn’t equal -13. I tell them that when they find that one, …
I created this order of operations graphic organizer for our Algebra 1 interactive notebooks. My students may have been looking at order of operations problems for years, but these problems most likely didn’t contain grouping symbols such as absolute value bars, radicals, or fraction lines. My students need practice with this broader definition of grouping …
In this combining like terms maze, use your knowledge of combining like terms to make your way from the top of the maze to the bottom of the maze by only traveling through equivalent expressions.