I used this evaluating trig functions square puzzle recently with my trigonometry students. We glued our completed puzzles in our interactive notebooks. This puzzle was created and shared by NCTM Illuminations under the name “Trigonometry Square.” While I liked the idea of this puzzle, my students struggled with the fact that there were too many …
Practice Structures
This is my first year teaching trig, so I’m figuring out a lot of things as I go. There is no textbook. No pacing guide. Just my own experiences with taking trig in high school to guide me. This is both exciting. And scary. My memories of high school trigonometry involve lots of graphing on …
I created this point-slope form dice activity for my Algebra 1 students. This year I did something wrong. Something seriously wrong. What did I do wrong? I’m not entirely sure. But, my students are convinced that point-slope form is easier than slope intercept form. This. Has. Never. Happened. Before. My students normally dread point-slope …
I created this coterminal angles card sort activity for my trigonometry students to complete and glue in their interactive notebooks. Students have to sort the angle cards into groups that are coterminal with one another. Then, they must take a blank square and write an additional angle that was coterminal with the other angles in …
I got a chance to experience the no fives dice activity for modeling exponential decay at a common core workshop that I attended (OGAP) during the summer of 2013. Illustrative Mathematics has a similar dice activity called “Decaying Dice.” I am blogging about the activities that we worked through in an effort to both make …
I want to highlight this multiplying radicals square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 3 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive. These square puzzles are often known as “Tarsia puzzles.” Make …
I want to highlight this factoring polynomials square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 2 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive. These square puzzles are often known as “Tarsia puzzles.” Make …
I want to highlight this one variable inequalities square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 1 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive. These square puzzles are often known as “Tarsia puzzles.” …
This normal distribution question stack activity was my introduction to a new practice structure for math class – question stacks. Since then, I have gone on to create question stacks for a large number of math topics. Several months ago, my statistics students were struggling A LOT with normal distribution. Our textbook just didn’t have …
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 …
Place Your Bets is a review game I created to spice up our end-of-year review for our state end-of-instruction exam. I have a gambling problem. No, it’s not what you think. I’m actually not a gambler. I’ve never set foot in a casino in my life. Though, my student council kids certainly tried to get …
My Algebra 2 students created this different forms of a quadratic function foldable to glue in their interactive notebooks. For the first day of this lesson, we created the foldable and wrote the names and formulas for each form of a quadratic function on the outside. We didn’t take any notes on the inside of …
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 …
Last Tuesday was my first time to see my students since the previous Thursday thanks to the stomach bug, President’s Day, and the weekend. My Algebra 2 students were lamenting the fact that we were stuck inside at school on a beautiful day. It’s slowly started warming up in Oklahoma, and I couldn’t be more …
One of my favorite statistics activities for introducing probability is Probability Bingo. Probability Bingo is not your typical bingo game. You aren’t looking for five in a row. Instead, the winner is the first person to fill up their ENTIRE bingo card. I once attended an AP Summer Institute for AP Statistics at the University …
I’ve come across the idea of creating four types of slope name art from multiple places online, so I’m not exactly sure who to credit. Most recently, I learned of it from Pam J. Wilson and Mrs. Hester. It’s a variation on two activities that I did last year. So, my students have been working …
After playing log war, a student asked if there was any way we could play logarithm bingo. Umm…I’m not sure if log bingo exists. Let me do some checking. Sure enough, log bingo exists. I found a version called MATHO on ILoveMath.org. (Apparently, this link is now broken, so I have uploaded the MATHO Bingo …
To give my Algebra 2 students much-needed practice with logarithms, we played log war. I printed and laminated decks of logarithm war cards. There are many different sets of log cards available online to download. I chose a deck created by Lisa Henry. Her download is no longer available online, so I have posted the …
Logarithm Speed Dating is the perfect activity to give students practice converting between exponential and logarithmic form. Source of Activity I learned about logarithm speed dating from Amy Gruen who refers to it as “Super Speedy Quiztastic Fun.” How Does Speed Dating Work? When you first print a mathematical speed dating activity, it will look …
Remember my giant shower curtain coordinate plane? I am just so ridiculously proud of this thing. I love it. I’ll be honest. Not all of my kids thought it was as cool as I did. A bunch of them had a “Ms. Hagan, really?” expression on their faces when I introduced it to the class. …
Today I want to share a independent vs dependent variables card sort I created for my Algebra 1 classes to glue in their interactive notebooks. Last year, some of my students really struggled with the difference between dependent and independent variables. So, this year, I set out to teach this topic better. I’m pretty sure …
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 …
I created the prime and composite numbers chart to glue in our Algebra 2 interactive notebooks at the beginning of our unit on radicals. Before we could delve into simplifying radicals, I needed to refresh my students’ memories regarding prime and composite numbers. We color-coded a hundreds chart to keep in our notebooks for reference. …
I downloaded this Linear vs Nonlinear Card Sort Activity from Middle School Math Aplenty on Teachers Pay Teachers. I used our lesson over linear vs non-linear graphs as graphing calculator practice for my Algebra 2 students. Students rearranged each equation to get y by itself and entered it in their graphing calculator. After getting their …