Mathsational

Here are two more activities that I have tried in class recently. Linear Inequality TIC-TAC-TOE: I borrowed this activity from @MathBerts and adjusted the directions to make it work in my classroom.  Since I teach in a hybrid/station based classroom, students need to be able to complete their assignments without a teacher leading the activity.  Most of my students enjoyed the activity.  I had just one problem in that I had small groups of kids all using the same game board.  I would recommend possibly copying each board on a different color of paper to alleviate this issue. Domain and Range Go Fish: This activity is a real winner.  The kids LOVED it.  I can't explain it, but every time we play go fish, they go nuts (in a good, on task, highly engaged sort of way).  Shockingly, the first time we play Go Fish, I have to do a mini-lesson on how to play.  Kids can be so deprived these days :(  This activity really helped my...

We all know that it is important for students to understand content deeply and be able to apply what they have learned.  However, there is still a need for basic skill practice from time to time.  My students hate worksheets as much as I do, so I've tried to come up with some more creative ways to practice skills. Some of my favorite alternatives to worksheets are board games, color-by-numbers activities, and task cards.  Here are some examples that I have used recently. Angle Addition Board Game:   Directions and Questions    I put out the directions and the cards and allow students to choose one childhood board game.  Right now I have snakes and ladders, trouble, and candy land. Angle and Perpendicular Bisector Color-By-Numbers   I have collected some color by number images here that I pull from for these activities.  Then I just copy and paste some worksheet problems to create the activity. Area and Perimeter Task Cards ...

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 visi...

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.

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!!

3 Act Math lessons are a great way to introduce a unit.  It is especially cool when you can create a real need for the math that students are about to learn either by making it possible to find a solution or by making the solution easier to find. The basic concept is  Act 1:  Show some sort of media image or video and let kids ask questions.  Choose a question to try to answer.   Act 2:  Have kids tell you what other info they need to answer their question.  Research or provide that information. Act 3:  Reveal the solution. The whole process takes quite a while, so you can't do this every day and make it through all of your content.  However, I like to use these on the first day to introduce a new chapter.   Here are some of my favorite 3-act collections Dan Meyer 101 Questions Andrew Stadel Dane Ehlert Kyle Pearce

The only 'bad' thing about the MTBoS might be that there is soooo much out there and it can be hard to keep up with it all.  OK, really it is impossible to keep up with it all.  Here are some of my go to resources that I search when I have a lesson coming up but I don't have anything interesting to do with students on that particular topic. Common Core Problem Based Curriculum Maps - Geoff Krall of Emergent Math has organized thousands of problem based tasks.  He has sorted them by grade level, Common Core standard, and subject.  Seriously, so much good stuff that my mind explodes every time I visit the page. Desmos Activities - Interesting activities that are ready to use in your classroom.  Until recently there were only a few activities posted, all of high quality of course.  Lately however, new activities are being posted more often. Yay! The Math Projects Journal Lessons/Curriculum Maps - Chris Shore has organized projects for middle...