Do your students struggle finding common denominators when adding and subtracting rational expressions? I created this finding common denominators activity a few years ago when I was teaching Algebra 2. I found that my students needed plenty of practice identifying what the least common denominator should be before we ever spent time practicing how to …
Miscellaneous Activities
This parent graphs of trig functions clothespin matching activity has been in the making for multiple years. Several years ago, I discovered a Parent Graphs of Trig Functions Worksheet from Robyn Wolfe of Carlisle Schools. Overview of Activity I used the worksheet with great success in my pre-calculus class, and I remember writing a note …
I created this fun quadrants unlocked activity to give my pre-calculus students some much needed practice determining the signs of trig functions in various quadrants. In my many years of teaching trigonometry and pre-calculus, one of the topics that my students have struggled the most with is using facts about one trig function to determine …
I created these categorical vs quantitative variables hold-up cards to help me understand how well my statistics students were grasping the concepts of categorical and quantitative variables. I based a lot of our lesson off of one of my favorite statistics books: Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data by Allan J. Rossman and Beth L. Chance. …
I ran across this exponent rules match-up activity in the Algebra Activities Instructor’s Resource Binder from Maria Andersen. It was published by Cengage in 2011. I thought it would make the perfect review activity for exponent rules for my Algebra 2 students. I did find a copy of the activity uploaded online (page 7 of …
One of the end-of-year activities I did with my statistics students was to explore the four color theorem. One of my students had been begging for weeks for me to let them color. I don’t think this was what she had in mind… Of course, I didn’t tell them the name of the theorem. I …
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 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 …
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 …