Naming, Classifying, and Angle Pairs: A Rummy Game

Here is an activity that I tried recently.  I try to incorporate card games into my class whenever I can.  I find it somewhat sad that  need to teach my kids how to play card games but once they know how to play, I can repeat the activity with various content throughout the year.  Rummy games work well with anything where you can come up with 3-4 representations of the same item.  In this case I used vocabulary words, diagrams, and notation to create sets.

I have also used similar Rummy games for various graphing practice (match the table, function, graph, verbal description).

Once the students know how to play Rummy (or any other game), they enjoy the game aspect more than a traditional worksheet for practice.  I typically have kids yelling with excitement when they complete a set.  I even occasionally have kids bending the rules of Rummy to help their classmates form the sets that they need since they will sometimes play with their cards visible to other players rather than hiding them.

Beginning Geometry Notation and Vocabulary

I tried this activity today.  The kids took turns being the reader and the drawers.  The reader read the the symbolic phrase using proper vocabulary then the drawers tried to sketch the described diagram.  The reader used the image on their card to check their teammates responses.

I found this idea on Sandra Miller's blog.

Here is a sample of the student work.

The kids really seemed to enjoy it.  There was a lot of laughter and learning while solidifying their understanding of notation and vocabulary.  The kids finally started to see the importance of the differences in segments, rays, and lines.

Classroom Set-up 2015-2016

I'm am teaching in a hybrid learning environment again this year.  You can read about that here.

Here is how I have arranged my stations:

direct:

independent:

collaborative:

I used a bunch of posters that were shared by Sarah Hagan and Meg Craig

So excited for the new year!!