whY Bingo

So, for the first time in like 7 years, I thought about this bingo game I had put together years ago.  I searched the recesses of my hard drive to come across it thinking it would be great for STAAR Camp.  STAAR is our state standardized test.  As I reviewed it to share with the team, I was thinking.... 'why haven't i used this in forever?!!?!  What a great review and spiraling activity!!!!'  I think, too often, I get excited about something new and forget there are incredible things already here for my students.  I'm also easily excitable about new activities that I often get carried away!

Sometime, over 10 years ago, I came across this incredible Bingo template created by Steve Mashburn in 2001.  It is Ah-maz-ing!!  It creates 25 unique Bingo Cards.

Here is a selection of the cards.  His mastery at work!  I admire people so much that can use Excel to this masterful degree.

Here is his original template.  I've looked extensively for where his original is posted and cannot find it.  There are, however, about a billion teachers who have used, referenced, and published it.  There are quite a few who have provided versions of it for you to use so try googling!  One great site that made several versions you can download for free is I Want to Teach Forever.  You can access their materials here.

So, all those years ago, I created one for Equations (mostly linear).  The essence of my teaching high school math is my students knowing and using y=mx+b.  Surprisingly, there can never be too much practicing, too much reviewing, or too much mastery in this skill.  So that is how I came up with whY Bingo.  It's all about that y.  I used questions that we saw repeatedly on testing and highly missed ones.  This was before our testing and TEKS change so some questions have moved down to intermediate school but are still relevant and necessary fundamentals.  **If you are a intermediate school teacher, be sure and check vocabulary as I know slope and y-intercept are not used in your instruction.**

Below is a close up view of a couple of my student bingo cards:

I used a Power Point as my 'calling cards' instead of strips as these are items that needed to be seen by the students and not just heard.  And some were super long!  These were very basic and just on white slides.  These were my early days of Power Pointing so please forgive. Here are some selected power point slides:

You may download the Power Point here.  I also saved it in PDF here.

The power point says they may fill in a blank Bingo but I've learned this can take an extensive amount of time and that is why I love the template that pre-prints them all mixed up for them.  

Of course, me being me, I did a 30 question Power Point for a 25 question template so I actually have 2 sets of bingo cards getting the extra 5 questions on the spaces.  You can download them in Excel or PDF here.  I have a laminated set of both and just mix them up.  you could also print so the students could work or take notes (and you won't have pinto beans all over your floor ;-))

I think this is excellent review, especially for STAAR or end of the year standardized tests!  Plus they get to play a game.  And why haven't I used it in fever?!?!!?  Ugh!!!  Already done and ready,  so that would have saved me time and as a teacher, we have so much extra time we just need more things to fill that empty void.

Hope you enjoy and please feel free to share or let me know if you see any needed corrections!

Thanks,

Lisa

Exponential FUNctions - Graphing

And today.... we graphed!  Below are the fabulous notes I received from my colleague, Mrs. Villarreal.  

I, of course, had to 'font' them up and fit them to my students needs with fill-in-the-blank and interactive notebook grid lines.

These are the finished ones.  I must place a disclaimer here: this is only the third time I have taught these.  In order to even learn them (as I had not done them in 20 years) I used these incredible resources I found on the internet by following along on this link.  Pretty sure I could not have done it as proficiently (or even 'ficiently') without these resources!  I wrote more about it on my earlier blog post here.

Download all the notes in both Word and PDF here for FREE!

I followed this up with another activity from Algebra Accents available on Teachers Pay Teachers:

$3 and it saved me about 4 hours of planning and manipulating!  Completely worth it!  The graphs were beautiful.  I know that a lot of blogs share free resources and that is generally what I do with mine.  I usually create activities that save me that $2 or $3 only to realize it takes hours sometimes away from my family.  This unit, I've used a lot of paid resources and as a result, I've been able to spend extra time at home and planning for my class.  Money well spent in my opinion.  Only took me 17 years of teaching to figure this out!  And this blog has helped me to appreciate the time that goes into creating activities like these! 

Another fabulous option that I completely forgot about until this writing was this one:

And the icing on the cake?  It's FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Simply click the picture above to be taken to this incredible FREE resources from Lisa Tilmon!!!

In years prior, we used this note sheet for our 3rd day of Exponential Functions.  This was after graphing and regression lessons and assignments from this link. 

                             Download these in both Word and PDF here for FREE!


As always, please let me know if you have anything to add or see any needed corrections!

Thanks!
Lisa

Exponential FUNctions - Growth and Decay

Today we started exponential functions and I thought I'd share my notes, activity and next day warm-up with you.

I would like to preface this post with today is the Monday after Spring Break, most students (and teachers :-) ) seemed to have forgotten the basics.  

Student: How do I know if it is growth or decay?  
Me: What does the problem say?
Student:  Well it's increasing...
Me: Both inwardly and verbally... **Sigh**

This is how my whole day went but luckily the material was pretty easy for them to grasp.  

My colleague, Mrs. Villarreal prepared some notes that were fabulous for Growth and Decay and shared them with me.  I, of course, had to 'FONT' them up and added a few fill in the blanks for guided notes.  I also have this really strange 'absolutely cannot stand comic sans font' affliction.  I don't know why I have it but it is a very real thing that generally means I have to change every resource ever done to a different font!  Her original notes are available in Word and PDF for FREE.  Thank you so much for sharing Mrs. V!!

My revised notes below are available in both Word and PDF.  The font I used in Word is KG Payphone which you can download from Dafont.com here for FREE!  I also changed the interest formula to the continual interest formula per some earlier discussion with colleagues.  I wrote more about it here which also has notes and an activity.

Here is the key as well:

The notes went exceptionally well but my students have seen this before.  I taught exponential functions quite different when I taught Algebra and they have only been in our Algebra 1 Curriculum for 3 years now.  The first year was one of those 'learned them while the kids did' years!  Luckily I found a great resource online from a teacher who shared and it made all the difference.  I followed this link and found a wealth of knowledge.  I'll post all the ones we've used in a later post.  It is one of those I researched the sharer and personally e-mailed to thank them.

For the activity, another fabulous resource from one of my favorite Teachers-Pay-Teachers go to sellers, Algebra Accents.  In this activity she has 48 problems!  24 open ended and 24 multiple choice.  Well worth the $3 investment!  Since it is a newer TEK in Texas for Algebra 1, finding appropriately leveled problems for our students can be a challenge so I am all about the convenience and would have spent more that $3 of my time creating something.

I prepared it by printing one colorful set of the open ended task cards and a different color set of the multiple choice ones.  I laminated them and stacked them in the back of the class.  Students had an answer sheet for both colors and could work at their own pace.  The problems are fantastic!

I'm planning on continuing the cards tomorrow with the following Warm-Up:

The instructions read: 

Label each equation and graph as linear, quadratic or exponential.  Then match the graph with its equation.

One of our TEKS is comparing the different functions and I thought this a nice reminder before our next lesson over graphing.  Download it in Word or PDF for FREE!  The font I used in word is Harry P available on Dafont.com here for FREE!  I know, it's just a title but I have a problem... at least I admit it :-)

Hope you had a great weekend!  As always, please fell free to contact me with any questions and feel free to share!  

Thanks,

Lisa

Puzzle Pizzazz: Volume 1

So.... when I do something from an existing idea, I usually go a little overboard.  OK, so I usually go A LOT overboard spending extra hours and trips to the copy machine to make it perfectly formatted.  This happened last night.  The ever inspiring Sarah Carter posts her weekly puzzle table puzzles and I usually spend hours recreating them to post in my room or the hallway.  I do not have extra space so all of mine must be displayed vertically.

Last Friday, Mrs. Carter posted this blog entry:

As I'm sitting in my dentists office anxiously awaiting the fixing of my 48 hour old temporary crown, I repeatedly browse Twitter to take my mind off the horrors of a doctor office visit.  Then BAMM!  @mathequalslove posts her Five Things Friday blog link.  I immediately sigh knowing this blog post will likely lead to a late night in the upcoming week while I need to create at least 50 million things from her brilliance!  Seriously though, I do not know how I would be any sort of a creative teacher without Mrs. Carter.  My undying gratitude to her for being so creative and sharing!  

Luckily, Five Things Friday only had 1 thing that was a printable activity I needed!!!  Woohoo!  My husband and furbabies might get to see me next week.  😊

And then I made the mistake of continuing to scroll.... dang doctor anxiety!  And found her Puzzle Table Post below:

Guess Jon and the fur boys can handle a late night or 12 this week?!?!  The one that intrigued me was the Double Letter Puzzles shown below.

I'm thinking it stood out because I did not figure it out in my dentist fear soaked brain.  And then I saw her statement....

"They keep insisting that it must be an obscure math or science word despite my reminding them daily that it is an everyday word."

Challenge accepted Mrs. Carter's students!  I present a series of Double Letter Puzzles with math terms.  Please do not post the answers but feel free to email me at camfan54@att.net if you have questions about the solutions.

I've created 6 puzzles, all saved in Word and PDF.  I am a font junkie so I used one of my faves on the puzzles.  You can get the Cheri font here for FREE!

Some might be pretty obvious but I also knew what I was using.  I'm all about having kids use math vocabulary. 

This might not be perfect or the exact idea/concept of the puzzle designer but I like the idea of math terms and challenging students to think logically.

But 10 minutes later.... this happened!

Download all 6 of my puzzles here for FREE.

So I again spent a late night creating goodies and running between the printer, my classroom, and the laminator.  If I had a nickel for every hour Sarah Carter has cost me.... 💗💗💗😊😊😉😉

Thanks! 
Lisa

Exponential Function FUN with The Money Project!

Last week, on Friday, I realized I need one more major grade for this nine weeks.... and only had one week to get in a new unit and major grade!  No pressure at all.

Our next unit was Exponential functions.  Our curriculum for Math Models deviates quite a bit from Algebra 1 on Exponential Functions (which I have only taught twice before....).  While we are still going to work on the basics, they have a very finance/social science driven curriculum.  Enter: interest rates!  I have never taught them, only had students use them in a senior level course I have taught before.

So Monday when I entered the school and was in a 'hadn't had my coffee need a major grade quick' phase... one of my colleagues recommended a finance project she had.  It seriously covered almost every single TEK (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills- our state Curriculum Standards) I needed for the entire unit!

Project picked, I needed some notes.  In discussion, I learned that almost all interest is now compounded continuously as oppose to our standard Simple and Compound that I've always used.  I searched for some interactive notebook items but came up blank.  I couldn't even find a graphic that explained what exactly the e value in the Pert formula was!

I created this one and am really happy with how it came out.  My students just needed a reference for what everything is.  I was not wanting super intense notes.

Here is the entire project for FREE if you are interested.  This is courtesy my fabulous co-worker, Mrs. Shirly Boots for the original and inspiration.  I added a little more detail as I am making it a major grade and needed a clear rubric and wanted to try and add a little more detail for the students.

In the project, they will draw random amounts from me to use.  I did a variety of amounts $100-$500 and another from $5,000-$9,000.  I've included the amounts in the file as well for you.

As always, these are in both editable and PDF format because of my different font loves! 

Follow Up to my activity.... I am definitely going to 'tweak' the project for next year.  I'm going to make them choose the 2 investments and apply them to both starting amount for an apples to apples comparison.  They will also graph them separately.  I'll share that as well when I complete it.

Please let me know if you see any corrections or have anything to add.

Thank you!

Lisa