Monday Must Reads: Volume 35

Well, Spring Break has come and gone. Instead of spending my days hiking in the mountains and dipping my feet into a rather freezing lake, it’s time to embrace factoring polynomials. To help get back in the teaching mindset, I’m once again compiling some of the awesomeness I’ve seen recently on twitter and in my RSS reader. Be warned: this is an epic volume of Monday Must Reads due to the fact that I took a week off due to Spring Break.

Dot Talk Image

Lee C. Dawson shares an awesome image to use for a number talk/dot talk.

Math Teaches Us… Mural

Mrs. Piacente-Cimini shares a photo of an awesome hallway mural at her school.

Trig Sun Dials

Mr Winstanley inspires with an awesome trig-inspired sun dial lesson.

Transformations Bulletin Board

I absolutely love these classroom decoration pics shared by Jodie Green!

Circle Theorem Bunting Decoration

Columbus Cube Origami

Miss Green has inspired me to add “Research Columbus Cubes” to my never-ending to do list.

Volume of 3D Shapes Play-Doh Activity

Laura Goetz combines calculus with Play-Doh in an awesome lesson.

Estimating Lengths Using Integrals

Laura continues her use of non-traditional materials with this calculus lesson involving stickers and dental floss.

How Many Balloons?

Linda Antinone poses an interesting question involving a koala and balloons.

Converting Units Starter Image

Jean Annette Jones shares a photo that would be perfect for any lesson on converting units.

Graffiti Party

Jennifer Hooker inspires with an algebra-themed Graffiti Party.

Quadrilateral Graffiti Project

Shana Coker takes a different twist on graffiti in the classroom – geometry style this time.

Growth Mindset Bulletin Board

Also from Shana Coker: an awesome growth mindset bulletin board!

Trend Lines with String and Stickers

Becky Pickett shares a brilliant way to form lines of best fit using string and stickers!

Angles of Elevation and Depression with Paper Airplanes

Jennifer High shares a great way to introduce angles of elevation and depression.

Linear Inequalities with Straws

And, now I need to add striped straws to my shopping list thanks to this awesome graphing linear inequalities lesson from Jennifer High.

Shrinky Dink Geometry Lesson

Jennifer also shares an awesome geometry lesson involving shrinky dinks.

Exponent Rules with Pattern Blocks

Jennifer High shares a new-to-me use for pattern blocks involving exponent rules.

Exponents Task

Katie England shares an intriguing exponent task.

Natural Log Gift

Kevin Spry shares a math-y gift that I know most of my readers would love to have!

Popcorn Discussion Question

Fawn Nguyen shares an awesome visual for sparking a great discussion.

Straw and Tape Review Activity

Looking to engage students? Check out this straw and tape activity from Erin Dwyer.

Book Recommendation

Suzanne von Oy shares an intriguing book recommendation, Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty.

Multiplying Polynomials Egg Hunt

Stephanie Nichols combines polynomials with an egg-citing egg hunt.

Inequality Valentines

How adorable are these inequality valentines from Daria Resnick?!?

Alphabetic Math Poster Project

Mr Stackhouse shares an awesome alphabet based math project that I am definitely stealing either for next year or for the end of this this year!

Surface Area Sculpture Project

Mr Stackhouse also shares an awesome surface area project.

Investigating Pi with Hula Hoops

Sabrina Grasso shares a brilliant use for a hula hoop while celebrating Pi Day.

Pi Skyline Artwork

I’ve seen skylines made of pi before, but Sarah Gyimoty takes it a step further with the first 180 digits of pi!

Parabola Drawing Activity

Sarah Gyimoty also shares a fun activity where students describe parabolas for the other student to draw. I always tend to forget about this powerful activity structure.

You are Not a Tree

Mr. Topp has an awesome quote on his wall that I believe deserves sharing. “If you don’t like where you are, change it. You’re not a tree.”

Place the Parentheses Order of Operations Task

Carrie Persing shares an awesome order of operations task where students must figure out where to place parentheses to make true statements.

Mathematical Communication Bulletin Boards

Henrico County Math shares some great bulletin boards to improve mathematical communication.

Rounding True False Activity

I also really like this sorting task from Henrico County Math. I feel like this could be easily adapted to other math topics.

Inspiring Classroom Decor

Simon Cox shares a photo of an inspiring math classroom in Azerbaijan.

Pirate Escape Rom

Shaun Kennedy inspires with an escape room that he and a few other teachers built in his school.

Project Runway Geometry

Toni Madison took her lesson to the next level with Project Runway Geometry Edition. I love these quadrilateral inspired looks!

Straw Bridge Challenge

McSteiger Science shares several awesome projects for the STEM classroom.

Discount and Sales Tax Project

Cardboard Bridge Building Activity

Real Game of Life

Flag Challenge

Ice Rink Dilemma Project

Mathonyms

Mr G James shares a link to an awesome website that creates Mathonyms.

Check out my Mathonymn.

World Compliment Day

Thanks to Christee Joesten, I now have plans to celebrate World Compliment Day next year.

Ellipse Foci Activity

Christee Joesten also shares a creative lesson for finding the foci of an ellipse.

Graphing Calculator Posters

Ms. Ferraro shares some awesome posters that every graphing calculator using math teacher needs!

Tweeting Favorite Methods

I also love this idea from Ms. Ferraro to having students justify their preferred way of multiplying polynomials.

Cake Boss Classroom Makeover

Lisa Edinger shares an inspiring photo of her sister’s math classroom which she turned into the set of Cake Boss to introduce their new unit.

Index Card Tower Challenge

Allison Hartwig shares a great engineering challenge using index cards.

Building Pythagorean Theorem Problems with Washi Tape

Mrs. Lambert inspires with the use of washi tape to create pythagorean theorem problems.

Skittles and Starbursts Systems Task

Mrs. Lambert also shares a great systems of equations task involving skittles and starbursts.

Coordinate Plane Rug

Leslie Byrd has me wondering, “How do I get myself a coordinate plane rug?”

Classifying Real Numbers with Ping Pong Balls

Colin Pettegrew shares a new-to-me visual for the real number system involving cups and ping pong balls.

Paper Challenge Pick Up Brain Break

Jennifer shares a fun, brain-break style activity that only requires some determination and a piece of paper.

Make Math Out of Your Name

Jeff Hottel shares a fun activity for the first week of school.

Jenga Tower Challenge

Jeff also shares a creative challenge involving Jenga blocks.

Radian Aerobics

Mrs. G‘s radian aerobics activities makes me miss teaching trig!

Trig Identities Brown Bag Challenge

Mrs. G inspires with a brown-bag trig challenge involving trig identities.

Marshmallow Linear Data Collection

Mrs. G also shared an awesome linear investigation activity involving marshmallows.

Wall of Lies

MrsPop shares an activity called “Wall of Lies.”

End Behavior Dancing

MrsPop also inspires with end behavior dancing.

Parabolic Curves

MrsPop continues her awesome twitter sharing with some parabolic curves.

Playing Card Systems of Equations Activity

I love MrsPop‘s idea of challenging students to come up with a set of systems with a specific solution generated by playing cards.

Birthday Polynomials Project

Check out this awesome work on birthday polynomials from MrsPop‘s students.

Exponent Rules WODB

Greta Bergman shares a WODB for exponent rules.

Suction Ball Review Game

Mariah Bailey shares a fun review game involving a suction ball.

Vitruvian Man Activity

Kay Kubena shares a great stats activity involving da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

Hose Clamps as Manipulatives

Lana Steiner shares an awesome yet unconventional manipulative for working with circles.

Math Lesson With a Tire

Stacey Travis shares a great hands-on lesson that only requires a tire.

Pi Day Trophies

I am amazed at Lisa Rode‘s creativity in creating these Pi Day trophies.

Radius Matching Activity

Henk Reuling shares an awesome interactive task he created. Isn’t this just a gorgeous activity?!? Check it out here. Be prepared to change the language, though!

Measure of Intelligence Bulletin Board

I love this bulletin board from Taylor McGaughey!

End of Year Competition

Needing some ideas to encourage your students to complete their assignments? Check out this competition from Kjersti Fried.

Counting to a Billion

I really like how Matthew Oldridge has posed this question to be multiple choice.

Playing Card Suits WODB

Simon Gregg points out that playing card suits are a natural WODB. How cool!

School Wide Pi Day Celebration

Already thinking about next year’s Pi Day celebration? Make it a school wide celebration with this idea from Pep Anton Vieta.

Systems of Equations with Swords

Madelyne Bettis encourages sword play when introducing systems of linear equations.

Sequence Task

Mr Knowles shares another great sequence task.

Until next time, keep up the awesome sharing of ideas!