In a time and society where students spend more time communication through text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and 14 other social media platforms that I cannot even begin to name, I find an ever increasing need to get my students talking to each other fact to face. As a result I have been on a quest this year to implement as many collaborative activities as I can. I have used many of them throughout this school year and have had some amazing results that include increased communication, retention of information, assessments grades and more positive attitudes (overall)! Throughout the summer I will be sharing some of my favorites, some of my other favorite math teacher-authors and many others so that hopefully they can become your favorites too! Today I am excited to share with you my Surface Area and Volume of a Sand Castle activity! As we were finishing our three-dimensional figures unit in Geometry I was looking for a really good way to a) get the students talking and b) show them how the different figures can share dimensions to build the structures that we see on a daily basis. Since I do not possess architectural skills and summer is upon us I decided to build a Sand Castle (as "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" is running through my head). I started with a goal of including as many of the main solids that I could and managed to include prisms, cylinders, cones, pyramids and even a hemisphere! I worked to have the solids share bases, sides and dimensions whenever possible. This is what I came up with! I also came up with a second version that has the figure divided into 11 smaller figures to help struggling students visualize a path to follow to solve it. Additionally, this helps students to organize their work so that you and they can identify an error if they make one. (I did not, however, hand this out to begin with as I wanted to see what they would do with it first!) Before implementing this as partner/group collaboration piece I sat down and created a list of questions that I could ask as I walked around the room to point students in the right direction, get them thinking, communicating and solving without actually giving them the answer. Some of the questions that I came up with: 1) Are there any surfaces that aren't exposed? Alternatively - are there any surfaces that shouldn't be used in surface area? 2) Have you thought about breaking any of the larger figures into smaller ones? 3) How are you arranging your work so that you can go back and check it later? 4) Are there any dimensions that you don't have? How can you find them? 5) Do the unused surfaces from the surface area get used for volume? FREE!!!! Finally the day arrived to implement this and I must say, it went AMAZINGLY! After my students got over the expected moans and groans and sat down to start working on it, they had fun with it. I heard great discussion, collaboration and genuinely helping each other understand instead of just giving each other the answer. I set forth the "rule" that their final answers had to be within ten of mine (to account for rounding error) and that whoever was the closest won a prize (extra credit, candy, excusing of an assignment, ect.). My students quickly turned it into a competition and worked hard to earn the prize. I ended up with multiple students hitting my answer down to almost the decimal point - which is great! :) Based on the feedback I can honestly say that they enjoyed it and felt that it really reinforced the concepts we have been learning in this unit! I have put the entire activity, including a multi-page answer key that highlights each piece and how to find their surface area and volume up in my teacherspayteachers store. You can pick it for FREE here :) I would LOVE to hear how you use it and implement it! Please comment below!
Looking for ideas for teaching the Pythagorean Theorem? I’m so excited to share with you some of my favorite activities for this topic. This is one of my favorite things to teach all year, and
Online math resources for both teachers & students - free math lessons, practice quizzes, videos, and digital activities for distance learning!
Given polynomial side lengths, your algebra students will find areas and perimeters of rectangles while practicing polynomial multiplication and addition. Students are also asked to evaluate their expressions given a value of x. This engaging activity links what students already know about finding areas to working with polynomials. Included inside are 10 task cards (each with 3 questions), 2 additional challenge cards that ask students to find the area/perimeter of an irregular shape and of a circle, a student answer sheet and an answer key. Also includes a link to the GOOGLE forms version of the task cards. Includes both print + interactive digital versions Included in: Algebra Activities Bundle You may also like: Algebra Word Wall Voyage to the Treasure! Multiplying Polynomials Game Multiplying Polynomials Digital Math Escape Room Activity
activities for teaching slope free
Are your Algebra 2 students struggling with polynomials and polynomial long division? There is a free PDF cheat sheet in this post that can be downloaded, printed and given to students for their notebooks. The sheet can also be enlarged for a math word wall.
Maths gems 4 - weekly post of secondary maths teaching ideas
The Free to Discover blog will give you strategies and tips for teaching math to middle and high school students using differentiation and discovery.
Fun scientific notation activities
A blog about free resources for the secondary math classroom.
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." ― Dalai Lama
Boost grades and the understanding of early algebra concepts that can make or break the long-term study of algebra through middle and high school and on to college. Textbooks and classes cover so much over months at a time that the details at different stages of learning are passed up with expectations of students remembering all the details of every stage of learning. This 6 page laminated reference guide is expertly authored and designed to offer a quick detailed overview of all stages of early algebra learning. So all concepts can be seen at a glance before reading texts or listening to instructors, during study and homework, or further into the class for refreshing before quizzes and exams. It can help the math-rusty parent homework coach as well to get the algebra gears turning again so you can be the homework hero. Topics covered include: Number Systems Operations Algebra Concepts Translating Words into Algebraic Statements Algebraic Equations Algebraic Inequalities Coordinate Plane Geometry Ratio, Portion, Percent
8 awesome activities to teach approximating square roots. Ideas and resources for practice, lesson hooks, and more.
Free printable PDF math templates for algebra, algebra 2 and even geometry, some of which will work great in middle school math. I LOVE math templates. It makes life so much easier to know my warm up is all set to go. When I first wrote this post, I had only made 4 Algebra and Algebra 2 templates. Since then, I've added a whole bunch more.
Learn how to make your own math worksheets in 5 easy steps! You can use programs you probably already have on your computer...
This idea came from Sarah when I saw her quadratic formula template. I teach this topic a little different so I modified it to fit the method I use in the classroom. Below you will notice with more time I have changed these templates again to hopefully make them more understandable to my students. Sarah's Original: Modified Version 1: Modified Version 2: Examples of Student Work: If you would like to download the files you can find them below: Sarah's Original My Modified Version 1 My Modified Version 2
The difference between primary data and secondary data - a comparison chart. What is primary and secondary data? Definition, sources, advantages.
I break up Points, Lines, and Planes into 3 foldables. For some reason, students seem to have a hard time understanding the following concepts and after these 3 foldables, students totally get it! Day 1_ Introduction to Points, Lines, and Planes I introduce the following foldable and students write down the definition, illustration, and naming for each of the following 6 terms (Point, Line, Ray, Line Segment, Opposite Rays, and Plane). Every year, the most common misconception for my students is correctly naming a ray. On the front cover, I tell students to write "Name a ray with the ENDPOINT FIRST!" After our foldable, students complete the cut and paste activity that is on the left of their foldable. Students have to correctly match up the definition, illustration, and naming of the 6 terms. I try to encourage students to not look at their foldable for the first 5 minutes. Day 2_ Collinear, Coplanar, and Intersection of Lines and Planes I have learned that with harder geometry concepts, less is more, and that is why I made "Intersections of Lines and Planes" foldable so short! If you overload students with information on harder concepts, students get very confused (very fast). First, I introduce "Collinear, Non-Collinear, Coplanar, and Non-Coplanar" through the foldable below. On the front, I normally draw 2 big arrows connecting Collinear to Non-Coplanar and Co-planar to Non-Collinear (forming a big X). After the foldable, I have students close up their notebook and try the crossword puzzle below over the following 10 terms: Point, Line, Line Segment, Ray, Opposite Rays, Plane, Collinear, Non-Collinear, Coplanar, and Non-Coplanar. I post these 10 vocabulary words on the board so students know what to choose from. After the crossword puzzle, we jump right into the "Intersection of Lines and Planes" foldable. After the foldable, we complete another cut and paste activity where students sort real world examples of the intersection of lines and planes. This is probably one of my favorite INB pages because students always refer back to this page when identifying intersections of lines and planes. If a student is stuck on how to name the intersection of a plane and a line, I sometimes hear students tell each other "think of it like how a dart touches a dart board." (LOVE!) If your curious about the homework assignments that I assigned, let me know, and I can update this post! :) If you like this, here is a Gallery Walk that I use once we complete this lesson. You can find the following foldables and activities here: Points, Lines, and Planes Foldable Points, Lines, and Planes Cut and Paste Chart Collinear and Coplanar Foldable CrossWord Puzzle Intersection of Lines and Planes Foldable Intersection of Lines and Planes Real World Examples
Are your Algebra 2 students struggling with the steps to sketch polynomials? In this post are links to activities I use in my Algebra 2 class to teaching and practice sketching polynomials. Also includes links to a few free pdf printables that work well in an Algebra 2 class.
For Math Awareness month, check out these 10 conversation starting infographics that highlight some interesting stats about math education
If you haven't tried using the Desmos tool in your classroom yet, check out their activities to use in Algebra.
Over more than a decade, the author has developed a 14-point plan for encouraging students to engage deeply with math content.
I loved Sarah’s inequalities notes over at Math = Love. I changed them a bit to meet the needs of my class and here is what I came up with: So I used these notes with my class Friday, figure…
Yes, I am loving some foldables right now! The kids love them too. They get to cut, glue, hi-light, and write in little boxes. Plus, when they are studying, they can just flip up and look at one…
A few weeks ago, @lmhenry9 sent out a tweet asking about Cornell Notes in math class. This morning, @aanthonya sent out another request. Since Cornell Notes are a staple in the AVID classroom, I thought I would post a "how to" on using Cornell Notes in a math classroom. Rationale If you do a google search on Cornell Notes, you will find pages and pages about the history of Cornell notes, why you should use them, what the benefit is, etc. However, what is harder to find is the down and dirty, how do I do this, what's so special about C-Notes, etc. Honestly, when I first heard of them at the start of my AVID journey, they scared me. I remember sitting in my first AVID summer insitute stressed because I had NO CLUE what they were talking about! Unfortunately, I felt that stress for quite a while because it took time for me to understand that C-Notes weren't as scary or weird as they seemed. They are really just the same notes I had taken for ages in a slightly different format. Setting up the Page If you've heard of C-Notes, you've probably realized that there's some formatting that needs to be done. There are C-Note generators online or you might create your own C-Note blackline master (see the one we use in our AVID classes here). However, both of those require you to run off copies, which may not be feasible, depending on your allowed copy count. :) Enter in the Cornell Notes Bookmark. This is an idea that I got at the AVID training several years ago and I instantly loved the idea because I could have put contact info, important formulas, etc on this bookmark and kids could also use it to draw a straight line down their notebook paper to create their 2-column format. Of course, cutting out 100 of these bookmarks isn't the most fun way to spend the week before school starts in August, so I definitely suggest finding a great TV show to help keep your mind occupied :) So, now that all the bookmarks are printed on cardstock, cut out and 3-hole punched, kids are ready to start making their notes. Lay the bookmark on top of your notebook paper and use the edge as a guide to create your left/right columns: C-Notes have 4 main parts. The heading, which is where the name/date/hour/topic information goes, the left and right sides, and the summary area. Some of the newer versions of C-Notes also have an area for the Essential Question (inspired by UbD). Here's the general layout of the page: Let's take some notes!! So now that the format of our notes is all done, it's time to take some notes. You'll notice above that the right side of the page is a bit wider. This is the area for the bulk of the notes. The right side is the same type of notes that you've always taken - the fast and furious scribbling of all of the information that you could get down at once. (This is obviously not a student paper - I did it this morning to show you an example) Right side filled in: You'll notice that the above picture really looks like a traditional page of notes. The beauty of Cornell really is in the left side. After the notes are taken in class, students are supposed to review the notes within 24 hours and fill in the left side. They are supposed to read over what they wrote on the right side and put short reminders and cues to themselves. You'll see below where I went back and reviewed my notes to fill in the left side. Left side filled in: Now if you noticed above, I said "students are supposed to" twice... that means, in my experience this rarely happens :) Typically what happens in my experience is that they fill in the left side as they go with topic changes, subtitles, etc. The beauty of the left side, whether done at the same time or 24 hours later, is that the kids don't need to read ALL of the right side scribbles in order to get the gist of the lesson. They can scan through the left side cue words to refresh their memory or to find something quickly. (This has been a brillant addition to my note-taking during PD as well :) Love being able to quickly scan the left side!) The final part of the C-Notes is the part my students hate the most. :) The summary section is admittedly the toughest part for students and teachers to do. Again, students are supposed to revisit their notes 24 hours later or so (comes back to that whole "forgetting curve") and write a brief summary of the notes. My students complaint was a valid one... they summarized what the teacher said/wrote on the right side. Then they summarized that again to write their cue/questions on the left side, now they were expected to summarize again at the bottom and they were just summarized out! But kicking and screaming, I recognize that being able to summarize was an essential skill for academic success. To combat some of this, I would sometimes let them do a "tweet" (limiting their response to 140 characters) or a "6 word memoir" of the lesson, which really shows off how much you can say in just a few words. Summary filled in: I've taken notes... now what?? I've already shared above my love of the left side. But there are other benefits to C-Notes as well. You can use the left side to predict test questions that the teacher might ask or commonly, use the C-Note format as a study guide. For many of my students, they would work their test review in C-Note format, with the problem on the left side and the work/solution on the right side. Then fold their paper on the line and you have an instant "flashcard" like study system. Now in case you are thinking - well, that's all fine and good, but I'll never use something like that!, let me leave you with a real-life page of notes that I took at a workshop. You'll notice that I'm just as bad as my kids in the summary section, but look at the benefit of that left side! MUCH easier to scan down the left side to see what I want than to read all that stuff on the right side! :) Good luck on your C-Note journey!
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This year I really changed how I taught my Number Systems Unit. I decided to teach a unit on Square Numbers and Square Roots. Then teach The Pythagorean Theorem Unit. My goal was for this unit to give the students a foundation of perfect and non-perfect square roots and set the students up for success with the concept of The Pythagorean Theorem and solving equations by taking the square root of both sides. Not only did I change the order of how this unit is taught, I completely changed how this concept was taught. I only had five days for this unit and I had to make those five days meaningful. :o) Math 8 Lesson - Square Numbers and Perfect Square Roots The first part of the unit was an introduction to Square Numbers and Perfect Square Roots. (Self-paced) “Digital” Time Tests After learning about square numbers and perfect square roots I wanted a way for the students to practice them by doing time tests. I didn't want to give the time test as a whole class and correct it. I wanted the students to do the time tests independently and without me. So I used the features in Showbie to create "Digital" Time Tests that the students could complete on their own and correct. As you can see the first page they opened up in Showbie tells them to turn off the annotations (which shows the answers). Then they are directed to set a timer for 3 minutes. They are then directed to take the time test and complete as many as they can in 3 minutes. As you can the annotations are off. When the time was up the directions tell them to turn back on the annotations and correct their time test. Here are examples of students taking the "Digital" Time Test. After the students corrected their time test they were to leave a comment in Showbie on how they did. I love using Showbie's comment feature to have the students reflect on their assignment. Students did the (self-paced) "Digital" Time Tests every day for the week. This really helped with their fluency of perfect square roots. Math 8 Lesson - Non-perfect Square Roots on a Number Line The next part of the concept was focused on Approximating Non-perfect Square Roots on a Number Line. This was just an introduction lesson and the focus was on determining the two whole numbers the non-perfect square root falls between. This lesson set the foundation for Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots. Math 8 Lesson - Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots The next part of the unit was focused on my new method for Estimating Square Roots (no calculator). I have always taught the method using "Ghost Squares" because it gives the students a visual understanding of non-perfect square roots. They have always liked this method. I realized after taking the CAASPP last year that this method was not practical for the students to be successful when estimating non-perfect square roots without a calculator. So I decided to tweak the method and use just the number line to estimate the non-perfect square root. For the first problem in the notes I merged the two methods to give the students the visual understanding. Then the rest of the problems were focused on just using a number line to estimate the non-perfect square root. The students loved, loved, loved this method. They thought it was super easy and didn't even complain about dividing by hand. #success Students did a round of Recorder/Reporter and the teams collaboratively estimated non-perfect square roots. (no calculator) iMath – Socrative (Self-paced) “Digital Task Cards” After practicing estimating non-perfect square roots with their teams, students did my Socrative (self-paced) "Digital Task Cards" lesson on Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots. Here is my Socrative Code. Feel Free to Use. :o) Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots: SOC-20210703 I made a Estimating Square Roots Dry Erase Mat for the students to use. (Feel free to use) Math 8 Lesson - Simplifying Radical Expressions The final focus of the unit was on simplifying and solving radical expressions. The focus was on basic equations and solving by taking the square root of both sides. iMath – Showbie “Paperless” Assignment Students practiced simplifying expressions and solving equations in Showbie. iMath – Tenmarks Practice and Review Students practiced Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots in Tenmarks. Socrative: Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots "Team Task" We ended the unit with my Socrative Collaborative "Team Task" on Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots, Space Race Style. Here is my Socrative Code. Feel Free to Use. :o) Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots "Team Task": SOC-20242278 Checking for Understanding This was a really quick unit and the students did good with the concept during the unit. My goal was to keep reviewing the concept so that they didn't forget. I accomplished this regular review by giving them one collaborative problem a week. The problems started out with just estimating one non-perfect square root. Once the students had confidence in solving those problems, I decided to challenge the students so I just started making the problems harder. Here are some examples of the problems and the students working collaboratively to solve them. The students rose to the challenge and persevered through the collaborative problems. :o) Do They Still Got It? I was getting nervous in weeks before the CAASPP. The students had learned so much this year and my fear was they were going to forget everything. So for the CAASPP Review Week I made a Socrative "Team Task" to review Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots. Socrative: CAASPP Review - Non-perfect Square Roots "Team Task" Here is my Socrative Code. Feel Free to Use. :o) CAASPP Review: Estimating Non-perfect Square Roots "Team Task": SOC-22817540 I loved the discussion and collaboration, but more importantly I loved that they still had it. Majority of the students could solve these problems successfully. :o) Unit Reflection I loved the changes I made to this unit. Everything was well thought out and worked perfectly. This unit could definitely use more time, but is doable in the week that I allotted. The new method is definitely a keeper. The students loved it and felt so successful solving these complex problems with no calculators. And teaching the students to solve equations by taking the square roots helped lay the foundation for my next unit on The Pythagorean Theorem. :o) Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog. Feel free to leave feedback.
The importance of teaching young minds financial literacy helps them understand the value of money. When we understand the value of money, we are able to handle our finances in a better way. Our hope is that this FUN holiday worksheet will help young minds understand the importance of budgeting, saving and avoid unnecessary expenditures. By providing students with the skills and experience to become financially literate before they reach adulthood, you can improve their future experiences with loans, credit cards, savings accounts, interest rates, and more. Our team is always excited and grateful to help teachers and students learn in more creative and innovative ways! Let's continue to make learning FUN! Thank you in advance for your support! Team FES *Note* This is a digital product to be downloaded and printed or used on a computer, laptop, or tablet of your choice. You will not receive a physical product.
Teaching function notation in math can be tricky! Algebra students will love this activity while taking notes or filling in their foldables.
