Sunday, December 27, 2009

Play Doh Algebra

So much fun for the kids! Takes about 10-15mins to complete one problem

Monday, December 14, 2009

Cutting Out Advertisments to Calculate the Discounts

Have Students Give Their Parents Homework

If your students can explain (and grade) their parents homework, they have mastered the material

Pin The Tail On The Real Number Donkey

What About Using A Math Lab

The goal is to transfer the questions on the students standardized tests into an actual hands-on lab

Using The The YORD to teach Y-axis, Output, Range and Dependent Variables

The YORD is special creature that helps students with distinguishing the coordinate system in terms of (x,y), (input, output), (Domain, Range), (independent variable, dependent variable)
Y- Y-coordinate (x, y)
O- Output
R- Range
D- Dependent Variable

Santa's On A Budget (Discounted Wish List)

Have you kids write their Christimas Wish List for Santa using discounts

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Teaching Polygons with Poems

I start the class with a silly personal polygon poem

"There was a girl named poly.
Poly, poly-o-gon.
Of her forms were many,
and now they all are gone
Tri, quad, penta, hex, hempta...
octa, non-DECA!!"

Wait till you see the silly things your kids will write about (Have them stand on their chairs to read it).

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Teaching Absolute Values Using Two Poles

We know that an absolute value is always a positive number because the symbol is asking how far each number is from zero. Since we can think of the absolute value symbol as a positive machine (where negative numbers turn positive) than we can use this image to construct a happy machine!

What you need: Two poles or sticks and some student volunteers

Have student volunteers form a line and act grumpy and negative

Have student one-by-one walk through the poles

As they walk through the poles have them become happy or positive

A Great Way For Doing Group Work

Using large construction paper have students complete the same problem and write their answers in the middle

Teaching Percentage Change

Using The Speed of Light to Teach Proportions

Other Ideas For Teaching The Real Number System

Playing Real Number Darts

(many variations)

Give students the number, for example Pi.
Have them either

1. ball the number up and throw it at the right position on the diagram (irrational).

2. Have them make a spitball and shoot it at the right position

Pin The Real Number Tail on The Diagram

Use a poster to draw a number system on the wall. Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students come to you and pick a number out of a bag and take a piece of tape
Have students tape the number in the right position on the diagram

Jumping Toward The Real Number

Use a poster or sidewalk chalk to draw a number system on the ground. Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students come to you and pick a number out of a bag.
Then have students jump to the right position

Real Number Basketball

Using small basketball hoops (you may use cups, or boxes), label each hoop Irrational, Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students shoot a ball to the correct hoop

Real Number Twister
(Get permission from administrator)

Using a poster draw the twister board as shown above. Label each circle , Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole. Ask for three volunteers
                       Call out random numbers to make them stretch and reach the correct category

Creating a Real Number Maze
Create a maze by hand or print one through

Label each street Irrational Rd, Rational Rd, Natural Street, Integer lane or Whole Street

Pick a few random numbers (pi, -3, 0) that need to move through the maze. Students will need to navigate each number through the maze while paying attention to each street so that they don’t disobey the real number system. For example, the number zero may not navigate through any street named Natural because it would violate the number system.

Real Number Hot Potato

Cluster students into groups of five.

Have each student label their self either Irrational, Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole

Giving one of the students a ball

When you yell out a number, students must throw the ball to the right person.

For example, yell Pi, and students must know to throw the ball to the irrational person.

Teaching the Real Number System

Using a diagram like that shown below there are various ways to teach the real number system.
Having Students Create Their Own Diagram

Have students take the concept show in the diagram above and create their own diagram for the real number system. For example, here are some examples of what students have produced for me.

Beware, students have a habit of drawing a shape and randomly labeling parts. Therefore, you must make them aware that their diagram must be mathematically consistent. For example, if they use a face for their diagram, they may label the eyes rational and ears counting, etc. This would be incorrect since counting numbers are within rational numbers.

High-Five Exponents

High-Five Exponents
The most common mistake students make with exponents is they multiply the base times the exponent verses the bases times itself. The purpose of this exercise is to help students recognize such error.

Write the following exponent on the board 5^3
Tell the students that the 5 represents fingers and the three represents the number of times we high-five. Therefore, have students high-five someone beside them three times.

Have students chant times between each slap
Then write the following exponent 3^5 on the board
Have students use three fingers and high-five with three fingers five separate times.