Snowy Slope Practice

I am always looking for new ways to engage, especially if it's cheesy. And if you are too, here is an activity for you! A comprehensive slope review with a snowy cheesy twist, solve the riddle!

Students will solve the problems then look around the room/hall for the answer (I print on bright colored half sheets). They will then fill out the riddle on the back based on the word under the answer.

There is also an individual activity with all the wall sheets on one page as below:

As always, these are fully editable so you can use it for any concept or change it for specific needs.

And, I love fonts! I provide both Word and PDF but if you need to change and don't want to mess with formatting, I use the font KG Blank Space which you can get for FREE on dafont.com here!

Get ALL my resources for FREE here!

I included both versions of the activity for whole class and individual student.

As always, please let me know if you see any errors that need correcting!

Enjoy!

Lisa

Hocus Pocus Math Havoc!

Ok, I have been very remiss in my blog posting so please excuse any grammar or just plain tired mistakes! The big thing is getting the fun stuff out there for you to use so here I am. I hope you can have some fun with these!

The Sanderson Sisters are at it again! Running Amuck, Amuck, Amuck and creating havoc looking for BOOOOOK!!!

Last year, we were a little excited about the new Hocus Pocus movie and as a result, I created Hocus Pocus Focused Fridays! The students really seemed to embrace the theme and as a result, several activities were born.

I created these Math Lib activities for both solving multi-step equations and finding slope from 2-points, both very important building blocks in high school math. 

I used the same story for both as I created it for 2 different classes (my Seniors wanted in on the action!). 

So I present to you Equations (pictured below) and Slope from 2-points 'Hocus Pocus Havoc'!!

Students will walk around the room/hall and look for the answers to each problem. They will then write that word in the blank 'Math Lib' to complete the story. Each one is used only once and there are distractors.

Below is the absent student activity that has all the wall sheets on one page. You will receive both versions in Word and Pdf.

As always, these are fully editable so you can use it for any concept or change it for specific needs.

And, I love fonts! I provide both Word and PDF but if you need to change and don't want to mess with formatting, I use the font Barnie Kids which you can get for FREE on dafont.com here!

Get ALL my resources for FREE here!

I included both versions of the activity for whole class and individual student.

As always, please let me know if you see any errors that need correcting!

Enjoy!

Lisa

What's Your Mission... Patch?

Last February, I attended NASA's Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.  One word, WOW!  What an incredible experience.  I attended every minute of learning and really got caught up in the magic and amazement of space exploration.  Now, I live around the corner, could probably walk to NASA so to say, I took it for granted would be an understatement.  I knew it was there but now I realize what a gift it is.

That is Walter posing in my pictures of the legendary Gene Kranz and the Shuttle Mock-up.  He attended many a session with me throughout the weekend.

I had never heard of SEEC until this year and hope to never miss another one.  Starting with this post, I will be sharing several lessons that were inspired by SEEC that my friend Valerie Blackburn and I developed for our Summer Camp that we made Space themed after attending SEEC!  It really had us wrapped up in the moment and still using the knowledge 4 months later to help foster learning and creativity in students!

This blog entry is to share the Design Your Own Mission Patch activity we developed from a great presentation by Brian Ewenson.  Below is the patch that Walter and I created to represent me as a teacher!

Valerie and I wanted to embrace the A in STEAM learning and allow for not only creativity but some personal ownership and self of each team member.  We were blown away.  Every 'Mission' (table group) really embraced the activity and theme.  Below were our patches and Mission Worksheets.

 

 

 

These were fabulous.  The WS template (pictured below) was to allow freedom to pick things that represented them, rather it be video games or pizza!  We wanted them to own their Mission

There is a great lesson template online from New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science LodeStar Astronomy Center that can be found here.  Me being me, or course, I had to make it harder on myself.  I needed like 10 Patch options so every option was available to the students.

We also had a handout developed from all our research and gave one to each group so they knew the history and inspiration that goes in to a Mission Patch design.  The above lesson from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science LodeStar Astronomy Center has some great information.

You may get our badge templates and rubric here for FREE!

I want to use this in my math class next year.  I think it would be a great way to set a math goal and have the students tell me about them selves.  It can be used beyond Space learning!  I love how our students embraced the activity and taught us about themselves!

Enjoy,
Lisa

Headbands Are All the 'Math' Rage!

Where do I start with this little piece of genius I was taught a few summers back?!?!  There are no words for the educational value of these 6 strips of paper.  

Way back in the summer of 2016, my life was forever changed when I joined a grant through Texas Regional Collaboratives.  UTMB in Galveston had a Grant taught by Valerie Blackburn and Jennifer Clayton.  

So of course, I needed to create one for my class.  This little gem was shared and it has snowballed on our campus!  Yes, almost all levels of core math use it now. 

The first one was a little more intense than I realized and lasted way longer than I planned BUT the results were well worth it!  We spent 30 minutes in my Algebra 1 class doing the slope from tables one.  I was able to get a lot of formative assessment and in the end ALL students completed and worked diligently on 6 critical problems. 

This resulted in one of my favorite teaching moments of all time... 

Student: 'What's the point of this?'

Me: **thinking quickly of a witty response** 'When you put it on your head, you are learning by osmosis."  **secretly hoping they buy this**

Students:  'Oh my gosh, we are learning about that now in biology!! Cool!!'

Me: **thinking score cross-curricular vocabulary.**

I sent it to my principal laughing at the cross-curricular tie and it ended up going all though the district.  I even had teachers telling me students were wearing it in the cafeteria.  Later that year one student pulled it out and put it on during a test and when I asked him why, he said it made him feel smarter.  #teachermoment

Now let me share how to create your very first headband!  Any 6 problems will work and it is basically like a scavenger/mouse hunt.  You place the answer to a different problem on the left of the headband and a problem in the middle.  They solve the problem and connect/match it to the answer on a different piece forming a complete headband!

What I made a mistake of and was a reason the first time took so long was that you want to make all pieces connected like above.  The first time I had each piece with a space between and those precision cutters took forever!

AND DO NOT make them in order either... or then you have to redo and mix them all up... I've already been there, done that!

Each student recieves one copy of the headband to cut and construct.  I have a cut one projected on the board to show expectations. Sometimes I'll work one but most of the time I just demonstrate my expectations about connecting.  They solve the problem and look for the answer on another piece them solve that problem until they are back to the first piece.  Instant assessment for them which are my favorite kind of activities. 

I also have all mine designed to fit on 1 page.  Just as an FYI... these are great for those dark colored papers you might have that you can't really use for a WS.

AND don't worry, I've got templates for you as well as ALL my headbands shared below!

Another tip is to have students tape or staple them together so they can put them on right away.  And they will likely need to overlap and measure as they go.  I make them show work on the bands and just cover the answer or arrow.  One kiddo ended up making a belt instead so they can be pretty big. 

Here is what a couple of completed ones look like...

To store them, I just added a headband envelope in our notebook.

I'm not really sure how to say that I love these things!  I love seeing seniors wear them and post on their social media.  I even offer some credit for wearing them outside my class.  Anything to have kids talk about math!  

Some get creative with their'Headbands' too...

Get all resources here for FREE!!!  

I have them both in Word and PDF as always!  If you want my font, Janda Curly Girl, it is downloadable for free here!  It's one of my favorites!!

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 rage!!
Lisa