Algebra tiles help make math visual for students, and paper algebra tiles take it a step further because we can cut them into fractions. In this post are a few short cut paper algebra tiles videos for solving 1-step and 2-step equations that include when x is a fraction.
This first equation is a simple 1-step equation where x is being divided by 4.
Next up is another 1-step equation where the coefficient of x is a negative fraction.
If you're a middle school teacher, I'm sure you've been hearing "Six Seven!" nonstop this year!
We hadn't heard it in our algebra 2 class until about a month ago, when the 67 floodgates finally opened and now "67!" is an almost daily occurrence. It came up recently when solving x^2 - x = 42 (though this was on purpose).
As math teacher Ms. Campbell wrote, "Truth be told, it's the least offensive tiktok trend in years (at least for me!) And math teachers sure can have fun with it." Very true. And it's nice that math finally made it into a trend!
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| Six Seven Number Sort |
This SIX SEVEN real number system sorting activity has students sorting numbers made of up of sixes and sevens into whole numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers categories. The activity includes the sorting mat, 18 numbers to sort, and a key.
Algebraic expressions can be translated, just like any other language. When middle school math students learn how to translate algebraic expressions correctly, they begin to see algebra as the language it is and more than just a random set of rules. In this post, there are a few algebraic expressions activities to help middle school math students practice translating algebraic expressions into numbers and symbols, along with some research supporting a varied approach to teaching math.
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| Editable Back to School Desk Plate |
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| Golden Spiral Back to School Math Pennant |
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| Back to School Picture Puzzles Escape Room |
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| Back to School Picture Puzzles Escape Room |
It's hard to believe it's almost the end of the school year! In this post, I want to share a few end of the year math activities to keep students engaged in these last days of school (and also having some fun).
The first is a new end of the year math escape room that comes in both digital and print form. Students use their logic to solve for the values of summer-themed pictures in equations while celebrating making it to summer break.
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| End of the School Year Math Escape Room |
The digital version of the escape room is an answer-validated GOOGLE Form that eliminates your need to grade. Just check the Responses tab to see which students successfully broke out.
Students use their logic and algebraic thinking to unlock 5 locks by finding the values of summer-themed pictures in equations. Questions are grouped 4 per puzzle, resulting in five 4-letter codes that will unlock all 5 locks. All answers are positive whole numbers.
The printable version of the escape room has a NEXT STEP box that lets students know which puzzle to visit next. They can start on any of the 5 puzzles. The download also includes a printable graphic organizer to help students keep track of the pictures' values as they find them, a student answer sheet and an answer key.
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| Dear Students, My Advice is Pennant |
This year's students give their best advice to next year's students in this dear students, my advice is pennant activity. As students walk in next year, they can read all of the good advice this year's students left for them.
Browse all math pennant activities
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| graphing grass project |
Lastly, I have written about this graphing grass project so much, but only because of how much students enjoy it. Students plant grass seeds, then measure and record the growth over a few weeks. You can learn more about this project in this post.
As the school year wraps up, I hope you remember all of the wonderful learning experiences and opportunities you gave your students this year. They have been so lucky to have you as their teacher!
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| End of the Year Math Escape Room |
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| My Advice to Next Year's Students Activity |
Here's a super simple poster to help students remember inverse operations when solving equations in algebra. There are 4 variations of the poster so that you can use the one that matches your curriculum's notation.
It was February break here this past week, so I rested a lot and worked on a pack of 16 math worksheets for Pi Day. The worksheets include:
Details:
The circle, cylinder and cone sheets come in 2 versions-- one for using 3.14 and one for using the calculator's pi button.
There are 2 versions of the word search, both with 15 Pi Day themed words to find. One word search has a 20x20 letter grid, and the other has a 15x15 letter grid. The words are the same between the two versions.
The puzzle sheets include number puzzles, picture puzzles and mazes. The number puzzles ask students to use the order of operations, arrange given numbers into a grid to make sums, arrange operations around four 4s to make given numbers, and figure out missing numbers in crossword-like puzzles.
Students simplify expressions with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and groupings on the order of operations sheet. Answers fill in missing digits of pi to the 35th digit.
The 2-step equations sheet asks students to solve equations to figure out the missing numbers in facts about Albert Einstein's life.,
The last page is a Pi Day coloring sheet for all ages featuring Albert Einstein.
You can see all of the worksheets included here: Pi Day Math Worksheets
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| Pi Day math worksheets |
Mathematician Katherine Johnson was a trailblazing NASA scientist back in the 1950s and 60s.
Her work was so important that after NASA started using computers in the late 1950s, astronaut John Glenn refused to fly on his 1962 orbit around the Earth until Johnson checked the computer's calculations by hand. She was invaluable to NASA and to the US space program for 33 years.
To give students a way to learn learn more about Katherine Johnson's life, I put together a 2-step equations color-by-number activity. The activity is editable if you would like to change any of the equations or facts for your students. You can access the activity for free here.
"We needed to be assertive as women in that days – assertive and aggressive – and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be. In the early days of NASA women were not allowed to put their names on the reports – no woman in my division had had her name on a report. I was working with Ted Skopinski and he wanted to leave and go to Houston, but Henry Pearson, our supervisor – he was not a fan of women – kept pushing him to finish the report we were working on. Finally, Ted told him, "Katherine should finish the report, she's done most of the work anyway." So Ted left Pearson with no choice; I finished the report and my name went on it, and that was the first time a woman in our division had her name on something."
- Katherine Johnson, Black Women Scientists in the United States, Indiana University Press, 1999
Students solve for each picture, then type their 4-letter code to move to the next puzzle. They can only move to the next puzzle if their code is correct. I added a graphic organizer to the activity to help students keep track of each picture's value as they find it.
Next is a set of pumpkin pennants for simplifying algebraic expressions. Students simplify their expression, then color and hang their pumpkins as classroom décor. The completed pumpkin pennants make a cozy classroom or hallway display.
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| Free math resource library |
Before becoming a teacher, I worked in the environmental consulting field between leaky gas stations and the Department of Environmental Protection. Part of my job was to collect data from soil and water samples at gas stations, interpret this data and report on it. I learned at this job that data interpretation is more subjective than I had thought. For example, dropping one more monitoring well into the groundwater upstream from a leaking tank will drop the overall average of the amount of gasoline in the groundwater at a leaky gas station. I lasted 3 years in that field before making the move to teaching. It wasn't for me.
And then there's the difference between mean and median when it comes to home prices and pay. Often the median is given in these situations so that outliers don't throw off the data making the numbers appear greater than they are. Interpreting this data and talking about the differences makes for interesting classroom discussion.
In this post I want to share a few fun activities you can use in your classroom to teach data analysis.
