I was so excited to discover this Speedy Squares Activity for practicing quadratic regression several years ago. I have used it successfully with my Algebra 2 classes in the past. Sadly, regression is one of the topics we did not get to fully explore in Algebra 2 this past year due to losing so much …
Algebra Activities & Resources
I created this set of four set notation puzzles to give my Algebra 2 students practice with set notation. I sadly didn’t end up getting to use them this year due to COVID restrictions. Each of the sets puzzles features a half-sheet of paper with four sets (A, B, C, and D). There are 15 …
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 …
I created this dry erase template for my Algebra 2 students to use while learning to solve equations graphically using our graphing calculators. The idea is that students will write the equation at the top of the page. Then, they will put each side of the equation into their graphing calculator. I provided students with …
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 post is yet another of my catch-up posts. I have been going through my old twitter posts to make sure that everything that I have tweeted …
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. I printed off a bunch of practice questions for students to complete inside our dry erase pockets. If …
I really like this lovely radicals task from Terry Stickels. It simply asks: Which of the following is the smallest? I shared it on twitter, and I loved reading through people’s logical reasoning as they worked through the problem! I found this problem in The Big Book of Mind-Bending Puzzles by Terry Stickels.
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. Level 1 Questions – Absolute value bars are already isolated. Level 2 Questions – Students have one step to do in …
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 originally crafted this review game for my Pre-Calculus students. I wanted to …
I created this Sketch a Graph Activity to give my Algebra 2 students much-needed practice with the vocabulary we use to describe the key features of functions. This activity was based off of a problem in Pearson’s (now Savvas) Algebra 2 textbook. Even though the alignment of the textbook to the Oklahoma standards has left …
Just a quick post today to share an inequality and interval notation chart I created for my Algebra 2 students this past year. Due to COVID, I did not do my normal style of note-taking style in my classes this year. We were asked to do things with as little paper as possible due to …
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. Why are …
I created this Key Features of Functions Work Mat to use with my Algebra 2 students during our introductory functions unit. We used it to practice concepts including domain, range, increasing and decreasing intervals, positive and negative intervals, and x- and y-intercepts. I printed the Key Features of Functions Work Mats on 11 x 17 …
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 …
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. I originally came across this Slope Treasure Hunt (also …
Back in February, I learned how to use paper folding to create an ellipse. Since then, I’ve wanted to try my hand at paper folding a hyperbola as well. It’s taken a few months, but I finally did it! Previously, I have bogged about paper folding both parabolas and ellipses. I learned about folding a …
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. Years ago, I found a set of 5 pages of X Puzzles. I can no longer find …
I created this set of real number system cards several years ago to give my Pre-Calculus students much-needed practice determining which subsets of the real number system a number belongs to. This was one of our first lessons of the year, and it was a great exercise in understanding definitions, practicing mathematical precision, and using …
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. Some of the radicals are simplified. Others need to be simplified. Students must group the cards into piles of “like radicals.” …
Harry O’Malley shares a lovely logarithms task called “Swap Two.” The expression below has three digits. Swap the position of two of the digits to make an expression with: 1) the highest value or 2) the lowest value.
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 am really liking these quadratic area puzzles from Chritsopher (Bow Tie Teacher on twitter) that are posted for free on TES. They are inspired by Naoki Inaba‘s Area Maze puzzles with a quadratic spin on things. For next year, I think I would like to do some sort of activity at the beginning of …
Today I want to highlight a collection of Balancing Act Puzzles from Heather Sparks. Heather is a bit of a legend in the world of Oklahoma math teaching. She was the 2009 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. If you teach middle school math, her website is worth a browse. I am positive you will find …
I’ve 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. Over the last couple of days, I have been going back through these resources that I originally blogged about and giving each resource its own …
This identity crisis task from Mark Dugopolski involves creating an identity involving a rational equation. I like this type of task because it looks much scarier than it actually is until your math brain kicks in. Can you determine the value of a that will make this equation an identity? I found this question in …