The idea for this building and naming polynomials activity started out like many of my ideas do. I start thinking about the topic I’m teaching, and I ask myself “What if…?” This week, the topic was polynomials, and the question I asked myself was “What if I could create some sort of puzzle for polynomials?” …
Miscellaneous Activities
We had some fun playing the Fraction Capture Game in Math Concepts. We haven’t reviewed improper fractions yet, so we’ll get another chance to play with an increased level of strategy after that.
Earlier this week, I challenged my chemistry students to a Black Box Activity Challenge. The idea is that they would be given containers where they could not see the contents. They would have to use their resources to create a hypothesis regarding what was in the container. My goal was to give my students a …
This Evaluating Functions Spider Puzzle was the perfect practice activity for my Algebra 1 students. These spider puzzles are the creation of Andy Lutwyche, and they are a free download on TES. Andy has created spider puzzles for many other topics as well that are well worth checking out! I use these spider puzzles inside …
I am a huge fan of these dimensional analysis shape cards that were created by Kathryn Freed to introduce students to the concept of converting units. I have used them with both my physical science students and my chemistry students. To use them, I give students a starting shape and an ending shape. They have …
I highly recommend this Literal Equations Connect 4 Activity from Math by the Mountain. It is a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers, and my students absolutely loved it. When I told my Algebra 1 students that the activity was over, they begged “Can we please do just one more?” That’s the sign of a …
During the Summer of 2016, I attended a section called “Fun Functions” by CPM at the OCTM Summer Conference. That is where I learned about this function machines activity. Given a starting value and an ending value, students had to arrange the function machines so that if the starting value was used as the input …
I’m back to cleaning out old draft posts. Today, the plan is to share about a sticky note challenge I issued my math concepts students. At my school, math concepts is a class for freshman that are not yet ready for Algebra 1. The puzzles in this post were taken from the Transition to Algebra …
It’s summer which means it’s time to clean out the drafts folder in Blogger! This post has been sitting as a draft since September! My math concepts class (a class for freshman not yet ready for Algebra 1) really working on SolveMe Mobiles this past year. If you aren’t familiar with SolveMe Mobiles, you need …
This cut and paste dimensional analysis activity makes the perfect introduction to dimensional analysis. I used this with my chemistry students with great success. It is available on Teachers Pay Teachers from Teacher Friendly Chemistry. Students have a bank of conversion factors to choose from. They cut out the ones they need for each problem …
Short and sweet post today to let you know about an awesome chemistry gossip activity I found for FREE on TpT. I gave it to my physical science students as a “let’s get back in work mode since we haven’t seen each other for five days as a result of fall break” activity. It only …
This year, I’m teaching two courses for the first time. These courses are physical science and math concepts, a class for 9th graders who are not yet ready for Algebra 1. These new-to-me classes are stretching me and my teaching in a very cool way. I’m being exposed to new teaching techniques, and I’m able …
I created this deck of significant figures ordering cards as part of my collection of five stations activities for practicing significant figures in physical science. This activity features fifteen cards. Each card has a number that has anywhere from one to five significant figures. Students didn’t know this, but there are three cards with one …
This significant figures looping cards activity was the first of 5 activities I prepared for a set of significant figures stations. I found these looping cards online on TES (link no longer active). I changed the font, edited the table so each card would be the exact same size, and modified the wording of a …
I created these significant figures stations activities for my physical science students to work through as they practice significant figures. This was my first time ever using stations where different students were doing different activities at the same time. It was great and entirely chaotic! I set up 5 stations for my students to work …
I ran across this scientific notation dominoes activity while planning my scientific notation unit, but I didn’t end up using it. I am still including it here because I think it is a great activity! Link to Download Scientific Notation Dominoes Scientific Notation Dominoes
Combining Like Terms Activity (Version 3.0) I modified my combining like terms strip activity that I have used for the past two years. This year, I added a box for students to write their simplified answer in. I think it really helped them organize their work better! Close-ups of each problem: Looking for a fun …
Today, I want to share a set of scientific notation ordering cards I created to use as a sort of formative assessment to see what previous knowledge my students had about scientific notation and how they were progressing as we moved through our different notes and activities. I did not come up with the numbers …
Looking for a geometry proofs activity to give your students some extra practice with this tricky topic? Check out this idea I learned about recently at a math teaching conference. I learned about this geometry activity while attending a session titled “Taking the Practice Out of the Worksheet” by Judy Schwarz of Moore Public Schools …
I really like the looks of this geometry concentration matching activity that I learned about at a math teaching conference recently. I learned about this geometry activity while attending a session titled “Taking the Practice Out of the Worksheet” by Judy Schwarz of Moore Public Schools at the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer …
Looking for some self-checking activities for geometry class? Check out these ideas I learned about at a recent conference I attended. I learned about these geometry activities while attending a session titled “Taking the Practice Out of the Worksheet” by Judy Schwarz of Moore Public Schools at the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer …
I learned about this Stump the Teacher Activity from Judy Schwarz while attending a session titled “Taking the Practice Out of the Worksheet” by Judy Schwarz of Moore Public Schools at the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer Conference. It goes as follows: Give students a textbook section to read. Set a timer. When …
Today I’m sharing some fun function activities. This is my second blog post recapping sessions Shaun and I attended last week at the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer Conference. Be sure to check out my previous post on High Yield Geometry Routines! The second session we chose was called Fun Functions by …
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of having Kara Tobey observe my classroom. She’s a first-year math teacher in Little Rock, AR, and she’s got an awesome blog that you should definitely check out: Algeotrigcal. I especially love the questions tab she has on her blog where she writes about questions she is pondering …
I could tell my Algebra 2 students still needed a lot of practice dividing polynomials using the box method, so I put together this activity. We did this activity the day after we completed our dividing polynomials using the box method foldable. I decided to devise some dividing polynomial jigsaw puzzles for my students to …