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 …
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 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 …
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 …
I created this factors race activity to give my math concepts students practice listing all of the factors of a number. I shared it on twitter in January 2018, and it’s only now making it to my blog in January 2020. Better late than never, right?!? To prep for the activity, I printed 4 sheets …
I want to share a factoring quadratics practice activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. In the Oklahoma math standards, students are first exposed to factoring quadratics in Algebra 1. However, they are only exposed to factoring quadratics where the leading coefficient is 1. These are called monic quadratics. Thus, my Algebra 2 students …
Yesterday, I got the urge to create something. Creation is one of my favorite parts of my job. I love to put in some time and effort to create an activity for my students to use. I find not only the process of creation to be re-energizing but also the act of seeing students all …
I want to share a combining sets challenge activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. My brain has finally started letting me think about next school year. Of course, I’m not thinking about it TOO much yet. For one thing, this school year is still ongoing, at least for a couple more weeks. Due …
I created this find the flubs activity to give my Algebra 2 students some extra practice with set notation and interval notation as well as number lines. This was the perfect review before beginning domain and range!
A few weeks ago, I tweeted about a trig identities matching activity I created. I promised to share the files, so that is what I am doing today. Sorry it’s late! This is a different activity than the trig identity group challenge I shared a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I actually used this …
This past week, my pre-calculus students have been tackling verifying trig identities. I came down with a cold Sunday night, took Monday off at the insistence of my husband, and suffered through the rest of the week. Introducing trig identities while sick and lacking energy/motivation on Tuesday was not my best and brightest idea. So, …
A few weeks ago, I had my best lesson of the year so far in pre-calculus as we were studying the 12 basic functions. My students were engaged like never before, and they became super competitive throughout the activity. They did way more questions than I ever would have been able to get them to …
I used Shaun Carter’s ZERO! Game with great success to motivate factored form of quadratics. I presented this as a “game day” after we had talked about vertex form of quadratics and standard form of quadratics and BEFORE we started factoring quadratics the next day. It was PERFECT for an Early Release Friday with shortened, …
I love this graphing linear equations activity that uses transparencies. Students are given a coordinate plane template and a small strip of transparency paper with a straight line printed or drawn on it. Students have to use the transparent line to graph each of the following linear functions. For each function, they must then record …
It’s quite a bit past Easter now, but you could still use this multiplying polynomials egg hunt activity if you don’t care about being relevant to a current holiday. 🙂 A few years ago, I picked up a bag of Easter eggs at a garage sale. I didn’t know exactly what I planned on using …
Last month, I shared a building polynomials activity that I created. Since then, numerous teachers have shared photos with me of their students completing the puzzle. This makes me super happy! Since that activity has proved to be so popular, I thought it was time to share another activity I created to go along with …