In this fun and engaging Sevens Number Challenge, you must use exactly four sevens and your choice of arithmetical symbols to form the eight given target numbers. What is the Sevens Challenge? Using exactly four sevens, add arithmetical symbols between the sevenss to make each of the target numbers. You may use plus, minus, times, …
Order of Operations Activities
This collection of order of operations puzzles will give your students plenty of puzzling fun while applying the order of operations to a large number of numerical expressions. Each order of operations puzzle is available to download as a free PDF so you can easily implement the puzzle in your upper elementary, middle school, or …
Put your math skills to the test with this Christmas number challenge involving the digits in 12-25. Can you use the digits 1, 2, 2, and 5 to create expressions equivalent to each number between 1 and 25? I was inspired by the great success of the 3-1-4 Pi Day Number Challenge, and I wanted …
Are you ready to take on the Sixes Challenge? You must use exactly four sixes and your choice of arithmetical symbols to form the eight given target numbers. What is the Sixes Challenge? Using exactly four sixes, add arithmetical symbols between the sixes to make each of the target numbers. You may use plus, minus, …
Can you solve the Fives Challenge? Can you use exactly four fives and your choice of arithmetical symbols to form the target numbers? What is the Fives Challenge? Using exactly four fives, add arithmetical symbols between the fives to make each of the target numbers. You may use plus, minus, times, and divide symbols, as …
Can you solve the Fours Challenge? Can you use exactly four fours and your choice of arithmetical symbols to form the target numbers? What is the Fours Challenge? Using exactly four fours, add arithmetical symbols between the fours to make each of the target numbers. You may use plus, minus, times, and divide symbols, as …
Can you solve the Twos Challenge? Can you use exactly four twos and your choice of arithmetical symbols to form the target numbers? Even though Twosday (2/22/22) was nine months ago, I still have lots of blog traffic to the Twosday Challenge. I decided it was time to share a version of the challenge that …
I’ve been having a lot of fun recently posting these Make 30 Puzzles for my students to tackle on a daily basis. The goal of these Make 30 puzzles is to arrange the digits and any of the arithmetic operations to form an expression that evaluates to 30. For example, the digits 0, 2, and …
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 really like this order of operations activity that I am naming “Missing Parentheses.” I found it in the textbook Intermediate Algebra for College Students by Karl J. Smith and Patrick J. Boyle (free to borrow from the Internet Archive’s Online Lending Library). Yesterday, I shared a lovely set of 10 order of operations practice …
Today I’m sharing an order of operations practice worksheet based on a set of problems I recently ran across in an out-of-print textbook. I’ve been using part of my Spring Break to look through some math textbooks that have been digitized by the Internet Archive and are shared freely through their Online Lending Library. My …
I first ran across Erich Friedman’s Plus Times Puzzles back in 2019. I have featured several of Erich’s puzzles on my blog before including Arrows Puzzle, Ducks and Snakes Puzzle, Equation Rotation Puzzle, Connect the Dots, and Hidden Equation. I was super excited when I discovered that he has an entire page of puzzles online …
I really like this Chinese order of operations task that asks students to determine whether each pair of expressions evaluates to the same value. I think this would make a great introduction or review of order of operations.
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 …
Download a free printable order of operations poster set for your math classroom. Each section of the poster easily prints on colorful letter-sized paper to create an eye-catching display. One of the first decorations that I hung up in my high school math classroom after waiting an agonizing 10 days for the new wax to …
Grouping symbols are a difficult concept for math students to understand, so I created a free printable grouping symbols reference chart and poster for students to reference while in my algebra classroom. What are grouping symbols? Before students enter my math class, their familiarity with grouping symbols often only extends to parentheses. Elementary teachers often …
My Algebra 2 classes were participants in my action research project over remediating integer operations. Based on what group students were randomly assigned to, they received a certain set of notes. Group 1: Group 2: This second group of students used a number line and bingo chip to work out the questions. Then, we took …
Today I’m sharing a PEMDAS foldable I created to review the order of operations with my Algebra 1 students. We glued our foldable in our algebra interactive notebooks. The outside of our order of operations foldables lists the steps involved in PEMDAS. On the inside of our foldable, we worked through an example order of …
Today I’m sharing an Order of Operations PEMDAS Graphic Organizer I created to review the order of operations with my Algebra 1 students. We glued these graphic organizers in our interactive notebooks. I have to say I can’t take credit for setting up the order of operations as a hopscotch game. I originally saw it …