I needed a little extra practice on multiplying binomials so I decided to do some more STEM integration. I've been surprised by how many students seem to enjoy the creativity coloring aspect so like to give them a chance to 'brain break' with the work.
Thinking back on my Emoji Math one (you may read about it and/or get it here), I asked the students what they would like to color. The definitive answer was something different! Enter, Walter! Walter is my Space Center Houston USB Hub Buddy that regularly sits atop my desk and helps encourage me. I received him while attending SEEC, the Space Exploration Educators Conference. It is incredible and if you ever get the chance, GO! I cannot speak enough about what an incredible experience it is. People come from around the WORLD! Sorry, back to the topic at hand, h👀ere is Walter Algebr-ing and downloading...
So I'm looking for a robot outline to use for the activity when Walter pipes up with his hand in the air... So I made him in a word document. He's very excited to make it onto an activity! Look at the Joy!
So the activity, students will multiply the binomials, match it to the answer below which tells them how to decorate that 'Walter'. There are 3 versions in the same document so all 12 answers/designs are used.
Easy way for them to have instant feedback and assessment. Plus, they get a little relief before factoring! Get my Walter Activity, Robotic Binomials HERE for FREE! The font I used for the title and directions is KG Payphone and you may download it free here at dafont.com. I have also saved it in Word and PDF for you. For answer keys, please email camfan54@att.net from an official teacher school or professional account that I can verify. I have had a number of students and generic email accounts request keys. I don't want to ruin the integrity of an assignment for any of you. Thank you and hope you understand. Enjoy! Lisa
Quick post to share my headband for finals review. It is slope-intercept form and the students identify the slope or y-intercept to lead them to their next problem. It has been a long time since I've created something new so wanted to share in case you are looking for a nice quick essential review this week!
Get the directions and all my other headbands for free on my previous post here!
For any keys, please feel free to email me at camfan54@att.net from your school or professional account. I've had students try and email for keys in the past but luckily their email said student! Enjoy the end of your year!
If you have previously read my blog, you know I usually go overboard! I usually end up creating something extravagant or if I get a new manipulative, I try to work it in everywhere. This summer and school year, I was awarded several grants and as a result, I had to caution myself to not go so overboard that I overwhelmed myself and my class. Enter this quick post about using Sphero to find slope!
The WS is somewhat simplistic and the robotics integration is really more engaging than intense but it was a different way to find slope form 2 points. As many students as wanted to were able to drive a Sphero on the coordinate grid I taped onto the floor. I would then tell them to name the coordinates from two Spheros to put on their WS.
I displayed the WS on the board so they could copy down if they were 'busy' driving. After a few problems, I changed one axis too. You might want to be cautious if you make negative points dominant for differentiation.
On a couple of problems, I also changed the scales and made each tick 2 or 1/2. You could really do anything you wanted!
This was just how we practiced slope from 2 points. I also had problems on the back to write the equations but we had not reviewed that skill yet.... I had a lot of Professional Development this month!
While this was not an intense integration, it was effective and engaging which is always a desirable outcome!
Get the WS here for FREE! The font I used for the title was A Little Sunchine and you can download it here for FREE!
Several years ago I attended a session from a teacher in Clear Creek ISD named Ms. Brumbelow. She presented an activity where the students went around the room to solve problems but each one had a point value that they earned. The points were based on difficulty.
I liked the idea of differing points and the opportunity to complete what 'you want to do'. Personalized, individual learning nicely wrapped up in a classroom activity. First, I gave some basic intercepts notes. My students have previously learned intercepts so no more than a review was necessary. I used this foldable from Math by the Mountain on Teachers pay Teachers.
It was perfect. I loved how concise it was yet covering everything necessary! I'm a firm believer in using what I can find. This foldable was well worth the money! For the assignment we did the Around the Room/Pick Your Points Assignment. I do not have a creative name for this so all suggestions are welcome!
Students receive an answer sheet that is not numbered as I do not want them influenced in any way of what problems to pick.
I then have all the problems hanging around the room and in the hallway. Students have complete freedom to answer whichever questions they want to get up to a hundred points. i recommend they do extras in case they get one wrong. Below is a selection of points included the hardest 30 point question!
In case you are curious, majority of these problems are taken from the released STAAR Tests (Texas Standardized Test).
I have it in both Word and PDF for you. And of course... I do not just have generic fonts! You can get the title font, KG Girl on Fire, for Free here at dafont.com. For any keys, please feel free to email me at camfan54@att.net from your school or professional account. I've had students try and email for keys in the past but luckily their email said student! Enjoy! Lisa
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!
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!
I already shared the first part of my quadratics unit and wanted to share the rest! I will also be sharing all the activities we created for Algebra 1 that I do not cover in MMA in a later post, including vertex form, graphing using axis of symmetry, etc. You can see the blog for the first part of quadratics here. It also includes some polynomial stuff as it is combined with quadratics in MMA.
After we completed the attributes and solving by graphing, we completed a project with Ozobots. Read about it in detail here.
Here is a video of the outcome of the project.
After completing the project I realized the need for more practice in graphing. It has been an ongoing lesson in stoicism to have them graph accurately and not just sketch from the calculator!! I used the following worksheet which you may get for FREE here.
After this we needed to cover a few more concepts. The next we addressed was Quadratic Transformations. I completed a foldable inspired by the Teachers Pay Teachers Activity below.
I would love to see any resources you might have for transformations. This one was done before the TEKS change so the horizontal change will be added before next year. I'll edit them for the future and link them here.
I followed it up with this assignment from Teachers Pay Teachers Algebra Accents. Several years ago, I purchased her curriculum and found it to be worth every penny!
I printed the kids 12 task cards to complete for their practice. This was a great transformations assignment and I highly recommend the $3 investment! It was the perfect activity for transformations!!
Then we went back to good ol' factoring!! Solving by factoring was an algebra concept that often got skipped over a little. We were usually cramming this in right before our standardized test and just did not have a lot of time to work on it. Since my kids already had the factoring part of it earlier, I just needed notes emphasizing the connection to quadratic solutions. Back to the ever dependable and ah-maz-ing Mrs. Sarah Carter at Math=Love to have these available!!
I created my own typed notes as we do a lot of fill in the blank notes to emphasize certain vocab and save writing time. Get the word version here and the PDF here for FREE!
I broke these notes into 2 classes/presentations too. One class we did the top and a=1 examples. Many of my students did not complete their factoring practice assignments so I wanted to make sure they all had time and were working on this concept. After that part of the notes I had created another Clue activity but tailored it to my class and school. They really seemed to get a kick out of it and even high schoolers LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE their name on a worksheet! Get the word version here and the PDF here.
This card template was adapted from this Karen Cookie Jar Post. It is different than the factoring one I previously shared.
Next class, I presented the other 2 examples (a>1) and gave them another hidden picture activity. I made it a little less 'intense' than last time (the factoring one) and even let one of my classes give me picture ideas. The word version uses my new favorite free font, KG Payphone which you can download for FREE here! You may download the Word version here and PDF here for FREE!
I mix my mystery pictures up a bit to where I try not to create a pattern that you can see in the letters!
Then here it comes..... the one... the ultimate... the one way that works for any quadratic.... the QUADRATIC FORMULA!!! I love it, probably because I'm a math nerd but I'm gonna make 'em do it! We sing, we sing a lot during this time! I even have this activity for extra credit where they have to sing it to other teachers or staffers at school. My department head and I once had a sing off heard 'round the school.
Download this here if you'd like to edit for your class. I am of the Pop Goes the Weasel school of melody too, just so you know! There is quite a debate on the versions, which Sarah Carter writes about on her blog here. I also used this post to create my new notes for this year.
My students have all had Algebra 1 so the Quadratic Formula is nothing new. I wanted to create a little different note set to make it a bit more interactive. Enter, Sarah Carter, and we have a tangram Quadratic formula puzzle for our notes! I'm loving these. Since my students have already had Algebra, and likely the exact same notes, I wanted to change it up a little.
Download these notes here and the tangram (2 per page) here. Get the version for Algebra 1 here. Now for practice we have used this worksheet in the past for Algebra 1.
Last year, I wanted to mix it up a little and purchased this riddle activity on Teachers Pay Teachers. I prefer choosing activities that they have instant assessment to check their work. Not all but many of my activities are. I feel for students that work so hard and are doing something wrong the whole time, especially when they are at home working on it and it's something as involved as the quadratic Formula!
For my students this year, I created a Mad Lib Scavenger Hunt type activity. I will be writing about this at length later but you may download the Student WS for the activity here in Word (you will need the Jedi Font found here for FREE) or the PDF here. The accompanying wall sheets in Word here or PDF here! I have previously written about how I create my scavenger hunts here. This is the same idea except they are completing a Mad Lib. These are a combination of methods to solve as well, not just Quadratic Formula (actually there are only 2 you have to use the Formula for but you can edit for whatever you need).
Since these can be more than one method to solve, I created the activity for them to complete to see how both factoring and Quadratic Formula can be used. I know there are other methods but these are the only 2 taught in Math Models.
Download it here for FREE! For any keys, please feel free to email me at camfan54@att.net from your school or professional account. I've had students try and email for keys in the past but luckily their email said student!
Right now this is the rest of my Quadratic Unit! This was a crazy long post but hopefully you found something you can use! Please let me know if you see any mistakes or want to share! I'll add the remaining resources for Algebra 1 in another blog entry. Thanks! Lisa
