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It seems like as soon as I get one Monday Must Reads post written, it’s time to write another one! I don’t know how it is for you, but I feel like this school year is really flying by!
Enjoy my list of must-read ideas from the last week!
High 5 Shout-Outs
Hedge shares a photo of a section of her dry erase board dedicated to “Hedge High 5’s.” I love how she uses this as an opportunity to recognize students who are willing to take risks in the name of learning.
Function/Not a Function Card Sort Activity with Post-It Notes
I LOVE card sorts. So, I was super excited when I saw how Mickie Gibbs turned her door into a card sort area for student created relations/functions on post-it notes.
Triangle Puzzle for Adding Decimals
Megan Tuttle gave her students lots of decimal adding practice last week disguised in a fun triangle puzzle. This idea could be adapted for so many different math-y things!
Radian Discovery Activity with String
Kristen Fouss makes the tricky concept of a radian come alive using a common household object: string! I’ve done this with pipe cleaners before, but I like this idea of using lots of different sized circles instead of just one.
Desmos Responses Warm-Up
I also loved how Kristen used her students’ answers from the previous day’s Desmos assignment as her warm-up the next day!
Highlighting the Number Zero
I’m so excited by the classroom display that Jessica Strom is building as her students discover ways in which the number zero shows up in their course. How cool!
Turning Two Step Equations into One Step Equations
Teaching students to solve equations is hard. I love how Joy Kranefuss has her students turn two-step equations into two one-step equations to solve!
Chemistry WODB
I’ve seen lots of Which One Doesn’t Belong? problems used in math class. Amy Roediger shares the first WODB problem I’ve seen for chemistry class!
Normal Distribution Dry Erase Template
One of my favorite classroom supplies is a set of 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:
Michelle Russell uses sheet protectors to achieve the same end-product. Having taught stats before, the idea of having a reusable normal distribution curve to draw on is BRILLIANT! My students were always reluctant to draw the diagram themselves and would end up messing up their calculations.
Fun Probability Questions
Mr. Fredericks makes probability fun by posing some fun questions to his students. Definitely adding this to my probability unit later in the year!
Data Collection with Banana Preferences
Ilona Vashchyshyn poses one of the most fun data collection questions I have ever seen. What is the perfect ripeness of a banana? This would be fun to pose in class!
Sample Size with M&M’s
Laura Vogel uses different sized packages of M&M’s to illustrate the impact of sample size on calculating margins of error. Brilliant!
Ionic Bonding Speed Dating Activity
Destinee Johnson gets students moving around the room to form ionic bonds with one another with a fun speed dating activity. Definitely doing this in chemistry!
Visualizing 3 Dimensions
Liza Goldberg helps students visualize three dimensions by attaching masking tape to a corner.
Simon Says with Function Families
I love playing Simon Says with types of slope. I call it Slope Dude Says. Jennifer Williams uses Simon Says to practice function families. How fun!
Can Percents Be Greater than 100?
Jocelle Skov‘s students were working on percents. She had the perfect response when her students were debating whether a percent could be greater than 100!
Angle Types Visual
Mark Kaercher shares an awesome visual for angle types. I’d love to recreate this with a brad that lets students move the angle around the circle!
Exploring Mass with Bubblegum
Stacey Ward brings bubblegum to class to illustrate an important concept involving mass.
Exponent Dice Game
Stephanie Goldberg created a fun exponent review game involving dice. I would love to adapt this to involve negative numbers as well!
Color-Coded Exit Tickets
Michelle Vanhala has her students place their exit tickets in color coded baskets based on their level of understanding. I’ve seen this done with folders before, but the result is often disorganized. Baskets, though, are an idea I can totally get behind!
Estimating Lengths with Radicals
Fred G. Harwood shares an intriguing task to get students thinking about estimating lengths involving radicals!
Estimating Length with Radicals
Kent Haines also shares a great activity for investigating length involving radicals. How would your students respond?
Inverted Graph Paper
Julie Steiner shares a resource for a need that I’m sad to say I didn’t even realize exists.
Until next week, keep the great ideas coming!
