Today I want to share a connect the dots puzzle with you courtesy of Erich Friedman in Puzzle Box, Volume 2. If you love puzzles like this, you should definitely check out Erich’s Puzzle Palace which is chock-full of amazing puzzles. All three of the books in this series have been a lovely addition to my …
Practice Structures
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 …
When I ran across this count the objects task last fall, I thought it would make a great classroom activity for anyone needing to collect one variable data to analyze. The task is from Stephen Barr’s Mathematical Brain Benders: 2nd Miscellany of Puzzles. I see so much potential for using this activity in a statistics class. You …
This lovely exponent task is from Mathematics for the College Boards by Rich Barnett (Copyright 1967 AMSCO). Because each problem in the matching task involves the variable m and the numbers 2 and 3, the task really gets to the bottom of whether students understand the role played by exponents and coefficients. This is the same …
It’s a lazy Saturday morning that is turning out to be lazier than I had initially planned since I’m currently stuck on the couch with a sleeping baby on top of me. That means it’s the perfect time to share another puzzle that my students tackled recently on our magnetic puzzle wall (AKA dry erase …
Master the art of the squaring off puzzle! Rotate and arrange given rectangular pieces to create a perfect square, testing your problem-solving skills. Thanksgiving Break is here, and I am oh so grateful for these few days off. This year has felt like one long learning curve as I figure out what life looks like …
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!
I’m excited to share with you the Big Magic Puzzle. I love magic square puzzles, but I’ve never done much more with them in my class then give out the occasional magic square puzzle worksheet. So, when I ran across a different-than-normal magic square puzzle in The Ultimate Clever Puzzle Book, I knew I had …
For years, I’ve had it in the back of my mind and on many a to do list to create a typed version of my naming polynomials speed dating cards to share! My first set was created with index cards. I wrote the polynomials on the front of the index cards with magic marker. This …
Today I’m sharing a puzzle I’m calling Nine Squares Puzzle. A few days ago, Shelli tweeted about needing more puzzles for next year since her advisory students will have already seen the ones she has used previously. This reminded me that I too will have this problem because my Pre-Calc classes will be made almost …
Yesterday, after spending a bit of time laminating and cutting out the cards for the trig open middle task I posted about yesterday, As I was looking through the Open Middle tasks for complex numbers, I got the idea of creating a task involving the powers of i (imaginary numbers). I was shocked at first …
I’m here today to share a trig ratios puzzle with you. I’m currently using part of my summer to create some activities for my Pre-Calculus classes for this upcoming year. Last year, I felt like I definitely spent more of my time creating things for my Algebra 2 classes than my Pre-Calc classes. This was …
Recently, I was scrolling through pictures I had taken on my phone, and I realized that I never got around to blogging about the Kazu Sagashi Puzzles I used with my students back in April. I was introduced to this logic puzzle in 2016 when I discovered the amazing puzzles of Naoki Inaba. Inaba is …
I’m here today to share with you the Twelve Envelopes Puzzle. I’ve finally reached a point in the summer where my brain has started thinking about ideas for the new school year. Actually, I’ve been thinking about next year since around February or March, but I’ve finally stopped *just* thinking about next year and started …
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, …
Today I’m excited to share this Hidden Animals Puzzle with you from Frank Tapson. This year, I am teaching 4 sections of Algebra 2 and 2 sections of Pre-Calculus. Having four sections of one subject is always interesting because I find that keeping four different classes at approximately the same spot in the curriculum to …
I want to convince you why dividing polynomials using the box method is my favorite method for dividing polynomials. After taking a 2 year hiatus from teaching Algebra 2 to dabble in teaching physical science and chemistry, I’m back at it this year. One of the things I really missed about teaching Algebra 2 was …
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 …
Sadly, I’m finding that a lot of my go-to review games from the past six years at my old school just aren’t working for my new school. Having 30 students in a class is very different from having 10-16 students in each class. One game that has been working well this year has been ZAP. …
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 decided that a card sort was the perfect method to introduce my Algebra 2 students to the vertex form of a quadratic. My sweet husband even offered to create the card sort for me. He’s currently in grad school, and I think he misses creating classroom activities. Students are given cards featuring six graphs …
Day one and two are in the books! I’ll share a bit more about what I did with my classes on the first two days in a later post, but I want to go ahead and share the mathematical challenge I used with my students on the first day since I have got several questions …
After reviewing the definition of a polynomial, we completed this polynomial or not color coding activity. We glued the final results in our algebra interactive notebooks. If the expression was a polynomial, students colored it. If it was not a polynomial, they had to explain why. Free Download of Polynomial or Not Color Coding Activity
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 …