The Smiley Emojis of Linear Systems

So... finals are approaching and so is the end of our Systems Unit. Frantic planning for next semester and engaging activities for the end of this one are flying through my mind and OneDrive. 

Thinking ahead to Polynomials, I searched the internet for some activities as I wanted something new for adding and subtracting. I like all activities to be instant feedback so wanted something along those lines. In the past I used this assignment from charlotte_james615 at TES.

It is perfect and she has a ton of versions but I just needed to change it up as I have quite a few repeaters. Enter this brilliant piece of Polynomial activity magic from Strength in Numbers on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Honestly, it was just what I needed the week before finals. I quite enjoyed coloring the hearts with my Twistable Crayons! 

Enter Inspiration!!! As we are wrapping up Systems, I need a little more practice on finding the intersection in the calculator. Hmmm... what do students know that they could draw... enter Emojis! Emojis were picked by some of my students and below is a completed student one!

I decided I wanted several version since I was only asking them to complete 4 problems. I did 4 problems per page but all the answers are the same. Each page has 4 different answers though!

This was strictly to practice calculator skills but I have provided both word and PDF for you in case you want to change it. After my first grammar mistake ridden WS, I think I have it streamlined. Every answer will be used and each of the 3 pages has different emojis.

The students got pretty serious about their emojis! 

Loves seeing that A in 'STEAM' learning in full force. And the best part, it was exactly the practice they needed and brain break they needed all in one!

The font I used was KG Payphone and you can download it free here at dafont.com! As always, I am providing you the Word and PDF! 

Download the activity for free HERE!

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.

If you see any mistakes, please let me know as I already found a horrid grammatical error I didn't notice before they were printed for class. December teacher brain!

Enjoy!

Lisa

Equations and Systems Math Lib

Quick post to share my equation writing Math Lib!

 

I had one day to spare before we started working on our semester review and decided to put together more writing equations and systems from word problems practice.  My students have become pro's at solving the systems word problems and just need more practice on writing the equations themselves.

I of course, had to make it themed but didn't go with just one this time.... I went all over the board.  How will our tale turn out?  Who did what where and with whom?

The solution and story is theirs to discover.  There are 10 problems total.  I've printed the questions in color to hang around the room or hallway and given each pair or student the Math Lib Sheet to fill in.  There really is not any work to show but there is a correct 'story'.

Students will answer the scenario with the equation or system that works them put that bolded answer in the designated blank.

There are 4 equations and 6 systems problems to write.  They would be appropriate for Algebra and beyond.

You can download both my Word and PDF versions here for FREE.  The font I used is KG Payphone and you may download it 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

Star Wars Systems of Equations Activity

Good Day Jedi!

This is a short post to share an activity I did and wanted to provide both versions.

Last Friday, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away outside Houston, Texas, I reached the pinnacle of my teaching career when I thought to do and created a Star Wars System of Equations from a lightsaber battle.  I am the resident teacher/Star Wars nerd of the school so how this has not occurred to me before, Understand, I do not!!

This is me Homecoming week.....

It was a little more difficult than I planned to have both lightsabers line up correctly and even at that, there could be some interpretation for Luke's on the bottom graph (it was my favorite picture so I was making it work).  Regardless, I thought it a fun and nice review of writing equations and finding solutions to systems of equations.

You may download the PDF or Word document.  I did it in PDF because I used the Star Wars font and wanted it to appear formatted correctly for you.  You may also download the Star Wars font for free here to use with the Word version.

When I did it in class, it went well and I got to use my new board tools from the Math Grant I'm in from UTMB in Galveston in collaboration with the Texas Regional Collaborative.

I am also wearing my Darth Vader necklace and bracelet to get in the spirit.  I couldn't do Vader because I couldn't blast the Imperial March through the halls since we had state retesting today :-(

After I tweeted this I had a couple other related items shared.  One was a Game of
Thrones Systems from Mariève Gagné.  The link for the Word version is here and the PDF here.

The other contribution was done in Desmos by Mme Garg.  She did a New Hope Desmos style with sliders and height referenced for Obi-wan:

You may access it here.

Thank you both for the additional activities for us to use.  I love new ideas and sharing and am thankful you both did as well.  I'm already brainstorming other ways to use this idea too!

And by the end of the day... I present Harry Potter Systems of Equations!  

You will need to be liberal with your accuracy here but it was super hard to find pictures of multiple wands.  One point is also not exact and they will need to use the calculator.  This is a skill we teach so I added it in.  If you do not like it, just change the axis to be the solution.  You may download the PDF here and the Word document here.  I also used a Harry Potter font which you can download free here to keep formatting.

And another.... General Grievous and all 4 of his Lightsabers!

These points are NOT exact and require the use of the calculator to determine the solution.  Both PDF and Word versions are available for download here.  For formatting in the Word documents, you will need to download the Star Wars Font from the link above.

Get my new Star Wars Systems Activity for free 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! 

Hope you enjoy the activities my fellow Jedis (or Siths depending on how you roll)!

Thanks,

Lisa

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Ahoy Mateys!!! It's a Systems of Equations Treasure Hunt with an Escape Room Feel!

Well... Earlier in the month I posted about my beginnings of an Escape Room with an Escape Box!  Within that I  posted about the systems mapping activity that I used with it that was inspired by a Twitter Post by @AnkerMath.  Here I will post a detailed explanation with editable files for you to use with your school maps.

Thanks Ms. Anker!!!

I emailed and received a map of the school that we give our parents and guests so it a nice clean copy.

It was a PDF so I used the Snipping Tool on my computer.  This is the GREATEST COMPUTER TOOL EVER!  If you are not familiar with it, do a search on your windows computer and pin it to your desktop toolbar.  It's Icon looks like this:

I 'snipped' different parts of the map and made 7 different maps to place a coordinate plane over.  You could do just one map of the whole school but I wanted to make their points in general directions and I wanted them all different so they could not just copy.  I pasted the map in a word document.  **You want to layer it behind the text**

I also created a table to paste over it for the coordinate grid.  These files are in word and available here.  You will want to download the Austies Bost Envelopes Font here so that you do not have to change any formatting in word.  I included the PDF so you can see what mine looked like. They are both vertical and horizontal so you can make it fit you map as desired.  

Then I found locations I could use that were accessible but not easily seen from the long hallway... didn't want them just seeing it from afar.  I did two systems problems on each map.  I did them already in y=mx+b as well.  You can adjust difficulty and do standard form of course but I wanted all kids to be able to do it.  At first, I thought it would only be like a warm-up and then we'd do notes.  TIME ALERT:  I know everything always takes longer than planned but this took the WHOLE PERIOD!  Just an FYI.

Every X was the same color too and just showed the X.  But of course, they could just go to any X right?  No WAY~!!  So every X had the flip answer to make sure they found the correct one.

Once they found their X, they had to take pictures and post them on Twitter or Instagram tagging the class account.  I did not allow SnapChat.  They could do themselves or just the maps and spots.  This is all specific in their instructions.

I demonstrated my expectations after they all received their maps.  I made them complete their maps before they left my class.  

Here- I'd like to take a moment of this blog post to discuss the social media expectation.  The day before the treasure hunt I posted for the class that they needed a Twitter or Instagram to complete this activity.  This led to some of the best real life discussions I've ever had with students.  I explained our district mission statement and core values and felt that the social media fit right in with this.  We discussed the expectation of privacy and how their accounts could influence their futures so if they had something on there they didn't want me to see..... that was probably something they wouldn't want a potential employer to see.  It was very well discussed among my students throughout the day.  WOW!  I'll leave it there.  

Here are some of their posts:

It was great!  After this, they them came back to me and received a hint card with a numeral that was part of a 3 number combination bike lock like below.  I got these at Dollar Tree.  

The 7th team received a hint card that told them what place a number was in.  I adjusted how I gave out the cards accordingly for how many groups I sent out.  They were weaved through my previously posted 'Escape Box' Treasure Chest.  The green baskets were also purchased at Dollar Tree and the zip ties from the 99 cent Only store which is NOT $.99 ONLY anymore I might add! 

The back of the chest is connected with zip ties so they HAD to undo both bike locks to flip it open. (Lesson previously learned!)

Once inside, they had a code to find out the final treasure lock.  I put it under the tool box (student suggestion) so they could not slip it out of the green treasure box.  Both the box and lock were purchased at Dollar Tree.  I laminated the combination sheet so they could write on it with expo markers and folded it in half.

Inside the treasure box I put candy and school stuff like post-its, pencils and pens.  The kids liked even the school supplies!  

This entire class was working the locks!

It was exhausting but great!  The kids actually thanked me!!  Thanked me for a learning experience!!  Several questioned the time I put into it (as if they had an appreciation of that!!! How often does something like that happen?!?!).  That makes every minute and dollar worth it.  Everyone seemed to be working hard and it accommodated all levels.  I did this after we did notes over graphing and an assignment.

In summary:  I LOVED the results.  The kids loved the results.  The kids did work.  The kids had an experience.  And the biggest take-away....

If you loosen your corset too much.... it doesn't hold stuff right!  

Thank you,

Lisa