Today, I just want to write a quick post about a #MTBoS resource that I hope everyone is already familiar with. I used it a couple of weeks ago in my classroom, and the experience was such a fun, positive one! The resource is Which One Doesn’t Belong? The idea is that there are four …
Miscellaneous Activities
Today I’m sharing a creative way to use candy (in this case Skittles) for a modeling exponential growth and decay activity in Algebra. Last summer, I attended several weeks of workshops and conferences. At the first workshop of the summer, I got to participate in an activity that used M&Ms to model exponential decay. I …
Here’s a hands-on lesson I put together to teach my Algebra 1 students to evaluate and graph functions using function machines made of flip chutes. Let me set the stage so you can see where this falls in my Algebra 1 curriculum. At this point in the year, my Algebra 1 kiddos have reviewed the …
My statistics class recently worked through a probability activity involving a Russian fable regarding marriage from the MEP Demonstration Project. I’m gonna be honest. My students and I have way too many conversations about my current relationship status. I’m not married, and that bothers them. Students have stopped me in the Wal-Mart parking lot to …
I created this fly activity to introduce my students to the history of the coordinate plane and give them much-needed practice graphing ordered pairs. In college, I was always taught to begin my lesson plans with an anticipatory set. I always struggled with these. I couldn’t quite remember my teachers ever using them when I …
This is a picture of a foldable that I created for my students to use as they walked through a rational and irrational numbers exploration activity. This activity did not go as planned. I thought it would take one class period. After one class period, we had only started to scratch the surface. I ended …
I realized I never wrote about the literal equations scavenger hunt activity I did with my Algebra 1 students for much-needed extra practice. During our unit on linear equation, my Algebra 1 students really struggled with converting equations from standard form to slope-intercept form. So, I decided to save our unit on systems of equations …
Today I want to share a guess the age activity I used with my Algebra 1 students to introduce the concept of absolute value. Monday was my students’ first experience with absolute value in Algebra 1. A few students who took Algebra 1 last year already knew what absolute value was. A few others wrongly …
We started our Describing Graphs Unit in Algebra 2 by playing some domain and range pictionary. I used the domain and range graphing cards from Zero-Knowledge Proofs. I gave each student two pages of cards to cut apart and keep in their notebook. My students were surprisingly impressed by the small pocket we created to …
Today I want to share an Adding and Subtracting Polynomials Activity I created for my Algebra 1 students. One of our objectives in Algebra 1 is that students will be able to add and subtract polynomials. My students are usually pretty good about remembering to distribute the negative when the second polynomial is written in …
I want to share a hands-on circumference activity I created while I was still a student teacher. This year, I am the algebra teacher in my school. I teach Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and College Algebra. The only math class I don’t teach is geometry. Our other teacher teaches all of the geometry classes and …
After my Algebra 1 students finished their standard form of a linear equation foldable, I created a standard form cut and paste activity for my students to complete. I chose a equation in standard form that I wanted them to practice converting to slope intercept form. I printed each element in the original equation, new …
Do you want to give your students lots of practice finding the slope between two points? Do you want to spark the interests of your students about what you will be learning that day? More than that, do you want to spark the interests of every single person who walks into your room? Inspired by …
I learned about this clock partners strategy from the Global Math Department’s meeting over favorite review games. I actually haven’t used this as a review game, but I have used it on days where I need students to do a ton of practice. Instead of just giving them a worksheet, I ask them to draw …
Today, in Algebra 1, we had a snowball fight. My students had never done anything like this. Well, for that matter, I hadn’t either. This idea originated from Kate’s blog as a first day of school getting to know you activity. Well, we’ve been in school almost a month, and I teach at a very …
Today I want to share an Integer Operations Work Mat with sea of zeros I created for my students to complete integer problems with both counters and a number line. I’m so excited about my Algebra 1 class next week. We’re starting integer operations. And, I just can’t wait to teach my students how to …
Last week in Algebra 1, we completed a scatter plots activity with m&m’s. Goals for this scatter plots activity: First the students were given a sheet of graph paper and a handful of M&M’s. After drawing an x- and y-axis, I had the students scatter their candy over the graph. Jumping straight into vocabulary, we …