Special Right Triangles Practice Book
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I created this special right triangles practice book for my trigonometry students to glue in their interactive notebooks as part of our beginning of the year geometry review.
This was our last topic to review before delving into actual trigonometry. I don’t know exactly what it is about special right triangles, but I LOVE them. Okay. I guess I say that about a whole lot of math topics. I guess this means I’m in the right profession. 🙂
Me: Class, today we are going to be learning about two special types of right triangles. These two triangles are going to become your BFFs.
Student: You said there are two of these triangles?
Me: Yes.
Student: Oh goody. That means I will have at least two friends now.
My students make me laugh so much. They are the best.
My entire goal for interactive notebooks is to create a resource for my students that they actually use. I decided that we would put each of the special right triangles on an index card. Then, we made a cute little pocket to hold the cards in our notebooks. The kids got SO excited over these little pockets.
Here’s what we wrote on our reference cards:
The idea behind these cards is that students could keep them out while working on their assignments. When I teach trig again, I will tweak these cards a bit. I would have students label the 45-45-90 card as a; a; a radical two right underneath the 45-45-90 heading. And, I’d do the same for the 30-60-90 card. I do like that students had to check which side length was opposite the angle they were interested in. This really made them stop and think about what opposite means on a triangle.
One of my students thought that making the cards was a silly little exercise. But, a day or two later, she told the class that these were the most helpful things in the world. It was awesome to watch my students use these cards and encourage their classmates to use them as well. Hearing them tell somebody to get out their cards and use them = PRICELESS!
I would love to find a way to include more index cards in my notebooks in the future. Hmmm….
A go-to foldable for me to make is a poof booklet. I have a file on my computer where I can quickly change out the practice problems, and I instantly have a new foldable to use. My students never cease to be amazed by these poof booklets!
I think the smiling right triangle adds the perfect finishing touch to the page! 🙂
Inside the booklet:
I made students circle whether the triangle represented a 30-60-90 right triangle or a 45-45-90 right triangle. In the future, I would probably have students fill in the blanks for both the angles and the side length ratios so they sat exactly on top of each other. Hindsight is 20/20.
Because I LOVE my students, I also included two word problems.
For more info on how to assemble a poof booklet, check out this tutorial I wrote for a poof booklet for another topic.
Slightly Modified Version of Special Right Triangles Practice Book
In 2016-2017, I made some slight modifications to this practice book.
Free Download of Special Right Triangles Practice Book
Special Right Triangles Practice Book (PDF) (1160 downloads )
Special Right Triangles Practice Book (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (893 downloads )
Special Right Triangles Practice Book 2016-2017 Version (PDF) (873 downloads )
More Geometry Teaching Resources
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- Right Triangle Trig Formula Sheet
- Pythagorean Theorem and Distance Formula Notes
- Pythagorean Theorem Day Celebration Ideas
- 25 Fun Geometry Puzzles
- Missing Angles Notes
- Classifying Triangles by Angles and Sides Notes
- Sankaku Puzzles
- Tricky Triangles Puzzle
- Triangular Turkey Puzzle
- Three of Five Puzzle
- SOH CAH TOA Notes
I stole all of your Algebra 2 radical stuff as well! I'm moving slower than you which works out perfectly since I am teaching special right triangles tomorrow. Thanks, as always. 🙂
Love the way to remember complementary and supplementary! My geometry students were just asking this week if there was a good way to remember it!
Hi Sarah, this is something that I think you will like. When you have the kids solve equations you have them circle the pair of numbers that adds to be zero, but when they divide to make one you use a crossing-out notation.
What I have found useful is using a big fancy 1 in place of the crossing out notation- you know, the kind that has a sort of uptick on top and a line underneath. That way, the notation that you use is consistent with what you want the kids thinking. Circle the zero pairs because a circle looks like a zero, and use a 1 to do the "crossing-out" because you are dividing to make one. Hope that makes sense!
I apologize if this posted twice.
Sarah, I now find myself checking your blog before I begin a new unit. You have a gift for content presentation, and I thank you for sharing it with the world
Aaron Bieniek, I love the 1 idea! I will be stealing that.
Thanks Teri! I'm always stealing ideas from others, so I'm glad someone else can use some of my ideas!
I like your blog. Many good ideas I can use in my classroom. Thanks
You're welcome!
Thanks you Sarah for sharing this with us. I am going to do INB for trig for the first time and I love your stuff! I was looking at your review unit (unit 1) and I don't think I need to do all of it, but I do like the mastery tracking sheets but I can't find one in unit 1. Do you have that available somewhere?
Thanks!
Diane C.
Hi Sarah! Thank you so much for all your wonderful foldables! I have lost count of the number of your foldables I have stolen since we started implementing ISN's! I would really love to steal your "calculating distance between two points" materials, but when I click on the link for all your Unit 1 materials, I get a message that the web page is not available (I tried both Chrome and Safari). Could you post a different link? Thanks so much for EVERYTHING! Yours is my go-to blog when I begin a new lesson!
OK, so it must have been an issue with my connection at work… I can now access all of your beautiful files! But I couldn't wait, so I made a foldable of my own that is a complete rip-off of yours! You should be able to access it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0P9t8NhIb22NWw2OHZZVHJIVmM/view?usp=sharing
Thanks again for everything!
Even though I love math I would never put sooooo much hard work and effort for making a file! XD still amaaazingg work done by you. It makes math simpler and easier! Awesome work!
Thanks for reading my blog!