Combining Like Terms Maze Activity

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1 Free Download of Combining Like Terms Maze

3 More Activities for Combining Like Terms

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To give my students some practice on combining like terms, I assigned them to work through a combining like terms maze in their groups. I found this maze online here (page 12 of the PDF)! It looks like it’s from some sort of enrichment workbook or resource, but I’m not sure where it is from exactly. If you recognize this and know the source, please let me know so I can share it with others!

The PDF of the combining like terms maze was a bit messy looking, so I did some cutting and pasting to pretty it up.

I printed a class set and slid them into one of my favorite tools – dry erase pockets!

MATH = LOVE RECOMMENDS…

I cannot imagine teaching math without my dry erase pockets! They instantly make any activity more engaging and save me countless hours at the copy machine since I can use the same class sets of copies year after year.

Here are my current go-to recommendations:

If you don’t have a classroom set of dry erase pockets, you could also use heavy duty sheet protectors. But, I highly recommend investing in a classroom set of the pockets since they are so much more durable.

Combining Like Terms Maze Activity for Algebra or Middle School Math Class

After passing these out to my class, I instructed them to read the instructions before starting. They obviously didn’t listen to me because I was soon being asked “Do we start from the top or the bottom?” Ugh. I’m five years into this teaching thing, and I still don’t know how to get my students to read the instructions.

Student working on combining like terms maze.

I thought this combining like maze would be a BREEZE for my students to complete, but they found it really tricky. In retrospect, we should have done a lot more practice problems on our dry erase boards BEFORE I gave them this maze! What I do love about this maze is that all of the problems are made to look like they could possibly simplify to 3m^2 + n. So, students really have to think critically!

Free Download of Combining Like Terms Maze

Combining Like Terms Maze (PDF) (2857 downloads)

Combining Like Terms Maze (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (919 downloads)

I also recommend checking out my cut and paste activity for introducing combining like terms!

Puzzle Solutions

I intentionally do not make answers to the printable math puzzles I share on my blog available online because I strive to provide learning experiences for my students that are non-google-able. I would like other teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms as well without the solutions being easily found on the Internet.

However, I do recognize that us teachers are busy people and sometimes need to quickly reference an answer key to see if a student has solved a puzzle correctly or to see if they have interpreted the instructions properly.

If you are a teacher who is using these puzzles in your classroom, please send me an email at sarah@mathequalslove.net with information about what you teach and where you teach. I will be happy to forward an answer key to you.