Mathsational

I previously wrote about using the card game WAR as a wad to practice math skills.  Rather than using a standard deck of cards, simply make your own cards containing questions that have numerical solutions, then play as usual.  You can read the original post for more details.  In that post, I shared two versions of the game. One for exponent rules and one for evaluating logarithms . Here are a few more versions that you can use.  Be sure to share if you create any of your own :) Kindergarten - Numbers to 20 WAR Grade 4 - Milligrams, Grams, Kilograms WAR Grade 6 - One Step Equations WAR Algebra 1 - LCM & GCF WAR Algebra 2 - Powers of e WAR

Row games are great to use in class, but challenging to create.  Basically, students solve the problems from one column of a handout while their partner solves the problems in the other column.  Periodically, partners check with each other.  The answers to the questions in both columns should be the same.  This is where the magic happens.  The activity is self checking (either the answers match or they don't) and students know where to focus their efforts (on questions where answers do not match).  The conversations that you overhear during the correction part of the activity are very telling about the misconceptions that students hold. Here are 3 row games for you to try. Row Game Grade 1: Add and Subtract to 10 Row Game Grade 8: Exponent Rules  - I did not create this one, but you can find the original source here , along with many more row games) Row Game Algebra 2: Evaluating Logarithms without a Calculator

This year I've taken on the #teach180 challenge.  The challenge is to post one tweet per day showing a glimpse inside your classroom.  I'm also putting the tweets together in a biweekly blog so that I can share the resources that I'm tweeting about. Day 71:  Today was another quiz day.  There is sooo much grading to do at once when you choose to quiz all classes on the same day each week. Week 13 quiz today #teach180 pic.twitter.com/EzlgyBs60o — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) December 15, 2016 Day 72:  Today in geometry, we reviewed lines in slope-intercept form using ExploreLearning's Gizmo.  This is in preparation for working with the equations of parallel and perpendicular lines while reviewing for our midterm. Today in #GeometryChat we reviewed slope-intercept form of line with @ExploreLearning #teach180 pic.twitter.com/bdt6B9ltJF — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) December 16, 2016 Day 73:  Today in algebra 2, we played +Desmo...

This practice structure involves solving problems with quick mental math and comparing solutions.  I have found several math war games online and played them with my students.  Whether solving 1 step equations with pre-algebra students or practicing unit circle trig values with pre-cal students, my students always love this game. This year I played this version of war to review exponent rules with my algebra 2 students. Here are the directions that I used for the exponent rules version of war. I will be playing  this  version by  Kate Nowak  soon to practice mental evaluation of logarithms.  If you have other ideas for using war in your math class, please share.  I'm especially interested in geometry and algebra activities.