Monday Must Reads: Volume 25

Happy Monday! For me, this marks the first full week back of the semester, and I am excited! We only had one day last week, and I have to admit that I was dreading going back. Once kids got in my room and we started the 2018 Challenge, I was reminded just how much I LOVE this job.

Here are what I have deemed as this week’s must reads. I hope you enjoy reading through these ideas. There are actually two weeks worth of ideas here since I skipped a week of Monday Must Reads due to New Years.

Multiplication Chart Decor

For years, I’ve had thoughts of somehow putting up a giant multiplication chart as part of my classroom decor. I’ve never been able to figure out how to pull it off, though. So, I was super excited when I ran across this awesome picture shared by Tom Loud.

Illustrating Systems of Equations with Linking Cubes

Kat Hendry shares a brilliant idea for using linking cubes that I’ve never seen before. Use them to illustrate systems of equations!

Real Life System of Equations

Here’s another intriguing idea for teaching systems of equations from Mrs. Akgul. I like the idea of posing questions based on real life data. The article is here.

Lake Erie Ice Data

I am looking forward to using this data provided by Math In The News when we get to scatterplots and regression.

Mathematician Labels

Pam Wilson inspires with her mathematician table labels. I tried taping the labels to the tables this year, and it has been an utter failure. I’ll definitely be hanging table labels from the ceiling next year. I love the idea of exposing students to famous mathematical thinkers on a daily basis. Learn more about this idea on Pam’s blog!

Handshake Problem Variation

Have you seen the adorable, viral video of the quadruplets taking turns hugging one another? Joe Karlovsky offers up an idea to turn this into a math problem.

Elf Puzzle

I know Christmas is in the past, but I ran across some more Christmas themed puzzles on twitter, and I can’t not share them. Otherwise, how will I find them again for next Christmas. This Elf puzzle from Maths@ KPS looks fun!

Candy Cane Puzzle

Here are some others from KPS Maths that also caught my eye.

Christmas Chocolate Challenge

Prime on a Lime Challenge

Here’s another idea from KPS Maths that can be used year round. I can see students really getting into this “Prime on a Lime” challenge. I would love to see what students came up with on their own!

Pentomino Vector Puzzles

Teaching translations? You MUST check out this pentomino puzzle from Access Maths. You can download the puzzle here.

Staff Shout-Outs

Liz Mastalio shares a shout-out she received from a coworker. I wish my school did things like this!

Sequences Venn Diagram Task

OCR Maths shares an intriguing task that combines sequences and Venn Diagrams.

Mathematician Bulletin Board

The SJB Numeracy Department shares a photo of a “Mathematician of the Term” on a bulletin board. LOVE it!

Mathematicians of the Past Bulletin Board

Miss Hughes shares another inspiring bulletin board that features famous mathematicians.

Snowman Puzzle

Another goodie from Miss Hughes – a fun problem involving the snowman language.

Angle of Elevation Shadow Task

Nicole Miranda engages her students with a fun, hands-on angle of elevation task.

5 Steps to Zero

Jerrold Wiebe poses an interesting task involving the numbers between 1 and 9. I can see this task leading to a lot of great math talk!

Visualizing Transformations on a Learning Carpet

I’m also jealous of this learning carpet!

Point of Confusion Post-It Notes

I LOVE this idea shared by Miss Davis where students have to self-identify their point of confusion.

Dorm Room Design Coordinate Plane Challenge

Gina Bostwick gets her students thinking about college early with this dorm room design challenge.

Representing Equations

Kent Haines posed a question on twitter that really caught my attention. How would you represent 2x + 3 = 17?

Statistical Questions Card Sort

Teaching about statistical questions? Check out this awesome notebook page from Cheryl Leung!

Linear Graphing with Smarties

Want to make your graphing lesson more hands-on? Karyn Jackson says just add smarties!

Pin the Tail on the Number Line

I also look forward to trying Karyn‘s idea of Pin the Tail on the Number Line in the future.

Box and Whisker Plots on Lockers

Miss Gray brilliantly has her students use lockers to make box and whisker plots.

Multiple Ways to Rationalize the Denominator

Benjamin Dickman recently blew my mind. How come nobody every told me that there were multiple ways to rationalize the denominator?!?

Equations vs Inequalities

I’m super impressed with this thinking map created by Chris Depew‘s students to compare and contrast equations and inequalities.

Box and Whisker Plot Weather Project

Check out this awesome data analysis task that is also from Chris Depew.

Archaic Math Terms

Jo Morgan has written a very interesting blog post about words we no longer use in mathematics. I highly suggest reading it! I’ve flipped through some old math textbooks on my own recently, and I was blown away some of the vocabulary myself.

Chicken Wings Task

Joel Bezaire kicks off the new year with a fun task. I’m curious how my students would approach this.

Factoring Matching Task

Susan Russo shares an interesting find in an old textbook. How would today’s students perform on this task?

My Favorite Lesson

I love the “My Favorite…” blog structure that @druinok recently used to sum up her week. One of my goals for this new year is to be more intentional with how I use my time both in the classroom and at home. I would love to set goals and follow up on them each week/month/etc in this style. Check out the rest of the post here.

Until next week, keep up the awesome idea sharing!