I have wanted to post this for over a week now so I can tell you how it went, but we keep having –40ºF wind chills in Minnesota and school is being cancelled. Now, I'm not complaining about a little extra free time, but I have been dying to see how this works with the kiddos! Anyway, since the school has already been called off for Monday and Tuesday looks iffy for having school, I thought I would just post it and let you all see it. (For those of you who use Saxon, I designed this to go with Algebra I (2007), lesson 47.)
I wanted to do something different with my Algebra students and reviewing percent of change. So I was thinking of something different than just a retail store markup or discount. I started thinking about real estate and that lead me to Monopoly! I decided that I would have my kiddos play a traditional monopoly game with a small twist. Before they could purchase a property, they would have to calculate a markup or markdown in their property value and pay the bank the correct amount. Also, after reading the card, they can not decide that they don't want to purchase the property. They must follow through with the deal. Other than that, a normal monopoly game would be played.
I thought that the competition of the game and the novelty of the new cards would be more interesting than a worksheet full of problems. I'll update after we play with any modifications or adjustments that we made.
Here are the cards that I made. I left it as an editable word document so you can adjust the cards if you wanted. There are 22 cards, one for each property for sale on the board. I didn't make them for railroads and utility companies. I was just going to let those go for the listed price.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Area of Complex Polygons
This is my polygon octopus (the student's told me to call it a jellyfish instead, maybe they are right). I know that it is missing 4 legs, but my art skills lack, or maybe just my patience, to get the other 4 legs onto the page.
I created this to go with Saxon, Course 3's Lesson 37. This lesson's focus is about decomposing complex polygons into other polygons and then calculating the area. Honestly, when I looked at it I thought it was a perfect lesson for jazzing up!
After reading my state standards (Minnesota is one of the few states that does not use Common Core), I found the one that matched up to this lesson and realized that composing a complex polygon and decomposing a complex polygon were both part of the standard. That made this activity perfect because students would do both!
I am going to start by simply placing the challenge before the students to create an animal using only polygons. This is great time to remind them that polygons are not circles! I will stress with the students that making the shapes the same will save them time later (because they will be calculating the area of the polygon animal).
After they finish their polygon animal, I am going to give them the worksheet that asks them to analyze their figure. I have it in the preview below, which is saved as a word document so you can alter it if needed. I ask the students to determine the area of their complex polygon animal, to determine the area it takes up on the page, and the probability of a coin landing on the animal if it is flipped.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Finding the best deal is harder than it looks...
I had another reminder this week about how different my childhood was from the students that I teach in my classroom today. I realized it this week while studying unit rates and watching my students try and find information in advertisements. I began to be very thankful that my parents taught me a lot about unit rates through very authentic and natural experiences.
My mom is a huge bargain hunter. When I was younger, she would scour the grocery store ads and compare prices. She had the calculator out and would go down to the unit prices to get the best deal. Even standing in the grocery store, she would estimate the unit cost of the generic peanut butter and the big brand name on sale. I remember whining many times about what was taking so long and my mother, ever so patiently each time, explained that you have to figure out the best deal to make your money go farther. She explained how she was figuring out the unit cost and often times asked me or my brother to get the next item on her list, but to get the best deal. Sometimes she even handed us a coupon and asked us to figure out if it was a better deal with the coupon or not. So much great mathematical conversation and mental math work was going on during those trips to the grocery store. I guess now I am thankful for always being dragged along with my mom. She taught lifelong skills that I still use every time I stand in the grocery store aisle trying to save a few pennies.
My kiddos aren't growing up like this today. This week, after defining unit rates, discussing them, giving practice problems, and my kiddos appearing ready to take on the world of unit rates, I was so wrong. The application of this skill is trickier than I anticipated. I gave my students free reign to find three products to compare by finding the unit rate and determining the best deal. I thought that this would be a great real world experience for them. I realized that they have a lot of trouble just reading a grocery store advertisement (which can be a completely separate lesson on ratios). The ad was 4 boxes of cereal for $8 and the kiddos were comparing ounces to $8, not $2. The kiddos also brought up items that were on sale for 25% off, but no price for the specific item was given. They wanted to know how to figure out the price. There were also lots of questions about how to calculate the unit rate, too! I thought that they were so prepared to handle this!!
So, it is regrouping from here. I have learned that this is not a life experience for them as it was for me. I assumed when I shouldn't have and I am regretting not building more background for my activity. My first plan is to reteach and practice again. I made a scavenger hunt for them to do. The Powerpoint is embedded below for you to use. I used free clip art from a Google search and I did use names from kiddos in the class. You can totally change that up.
My mom is a huge bargain hunter. When I was younger, she would scour the grocery store ads and compare prices. She had the calculator out and would go down to the unit prices to get the best deal. Even standing in the grocery store, she would estimate the unit cost of the generic peanut butter and the big brand name on sale. I remember whining many times about what was taking so long and my mother, ever so patiently each time, explained that you have to figure out the best deal to make your money go farther. She explained how she was figuring out the unit cost and often times asked me or my brother to get the next item on her list, but to get the best deal. Sometimes she even handed us a coupon and asked us to figure out if it was a better deal with the coupon or not. So much great mathematical conversation and mental math work was going on during those trips to the grocery store. I guess now I am thankful for always being dragged along with my mom. She taught lifelong skills that I still use every time I stand in the grocery store aisle trying to save a few pennies.
My kiddos aren't growing up like this today. This week, after defining unit rates, discussing them, giving practice problems, and my kiddos appearing ready to take on the world of unit rates, I was so wrong. The application of this skill is trickier than I anticipated. I gave my students free reign to find three products to compare by finding the unit rate and determining the best deal. I thought that this would be a great real world experience for them. I realized that they have a lot of trouble just reading a grocery store advertisement (which can be a completely separate lesson on ratios). The ad was 4 boxes of cereal for $8 and the kiddos were comparing ounces to $8, not $2. The kiddos also brought up items that were on sale for 25% off, but no price for the specific item was given. They wanted to know how to figure out the price. There were also lots of questions about how to calculate the unit rate, too! I thought that they were so prepared to handle this!!
So, it is regrouping from here. I have learned that this is not a life experience for them as it was for me. I assumed when I shouldn't have and I am regretting not building more background for my activity. My first plan is to reteach and practice again. I made a scavenger hunt for them to do. The Powerpoint is embedded below for you to use. I used free clip art from a Google search and I did use names from kiddos in the class. You can totally change that up.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Classifying Real Numbers is a Cakewalk?
I was totally inspired by a conversation I was having with my dad last Saturday. We were talking about a local grocery store chain's 45th anniversary celebration. One of the many events that they were having was a cake walk. Numbers were placed around the store and an announcement was made that the cake walk would be beginning and if you were near a number to please go and stand on it. Then a number was called and whoever was standing on that number won a cake. I thought it was a really cute gimmick.
In the conversation, I was telling my dad that they should make it more of a challenge to win. They should announce something like, "If you are standing on an irrational number and know why it is irrational, you win!" or "If your number is a natural number, you win!" My dad just laughed at me and told me "I'm such a math teacher." But, I really started thinking about it. What a fun way to review and move while doing it! So after some thought, I came up with a way to modify the traditional cake walk and have a fun review game too!
I first of all made the traditional numbers for people to walk around and stand by when the music stops. Since space is limited, I am going to have the kiddos clear their desks and put the paper plates on top of them. Then they will walk around the desks until the music stops. Whatever desk they are in front of is their number.
Next, I made numbers to pull out of a bucket that matched those on the paper plates. With each number, I have a question that the student must answer. I've embedded the questions as a Word document, so it can be edited.
If the student answers it correctly, they can choose a "cupcake" from the board and win a prize. I am going to give coupons for bonus points, sitting by a friend, no homework, etc. I did a Google search for free clip art and cupcakes and found some cute ones! I enlarged them on my computer, printed, and cut them out. I then glued them to the backside of a paper plate. I am going to just stand them along my chalk ledge. When the cupcake is chosen, I'll flip it over.
Also, there are only 12 cupcakes. Not everyone wins at this game and I know some kiddos will be disappointed. My reason for this is to make it easier to just draw another number if the student is wrong or doesn't know. I don't like having to chose another student when prizes are involved.
I want to use the cupcakes for other review games. So I decided to make my coupons have the cupcake that was chosen on it. Here is a picture of what I've done.
I'll update after I try it with my 8th grade Algebra students. I think they will have a blast!
Update:
I did this activity with my Algebra class on Friday and we played for about 20 minutes. I think that we could have gone longer, but I had other things to accomplish in the class period as well. So, yes, I had to be the mean teacher and stop the fun. :(
It was totally engaging and they were starting to think about where they wanted to be when the music stopped. There was more than just fun happening. I enjoyed watching them play and I started thinking about how more of them could play at once. One thing that I though of was to pull two or three numbers and have some type of face off. Maybe there could be red and blue numbers. The teams could get points for correctly answering but they still have to change places between rounds. I'm just brainstorming right now. I just know that I was pleased with the activity and engagement.
In the conversation, I was telling my dad that they should make it more of a challenge to win. They should announce something like, "If you are standing on an irrational number and know why it is irrational, you win!" or "If your number is a natural number, you win!" My dad just laughed at me and told me "I'm such a math teacher." But, I really started thinking about it. What a fun way to review and move while doing it! So after some thought, I came up with a way to modify the traditional cake walk and have a fun review game too!
I first of all made the traditional numbers for people to walk around and stand by when the music stops. Since space is limited, I am going to have the kiddos clear their desks and put the paper plates on top of them. Then they will walk around the desks until the music stops. Whatever desk they are in front of is their number.
Next, I made numbers to pull out of a bucket that matched those on the paper plates. With each number, I have a question that the student must answer. I've embedded the questions as a Word document, so it can be edited.
If the student answers it correctly, they can choose a "cupcake" from the board and win a prize. I am going to give coupons for bonus points, sitting by a friend, no homework, etc. I did a Google search for free clip art and cupcakes and found some cute ones! I enlarged them on my computer, printed, and cut them out. I then glued them to the backside of a paper plate. I am going to just stand them along my chalk ledge. When the cupcake is chosen, I'll flip it over.
Also, there are only 12 cupcakes. Not everyone wins at this game and I know some kiddos will be disappointed. My reason for this is to make it easier to just draw another number if the student is wrong or doesn't know. I don't like having to chose another student when prizes are involved.
I want to use the cupcakes for other review games. So I decided to make my coupons have the cupcake that was chosen on it. Here is a picture of what I've done.
Update:
I did this activity with my Algebra class on Friday and we played for about 20 minutes. I think that we could have gone longer, but I had other things to accomplish in the class period as well. So, yes, I had to be the mean teacher and stop the fun. :(
It was totally engaging and they were starting to think about where they wanted to be when the music stopped. There was more than just fun happening. I enjoyed watching them play and I started thinking about how more of them could play at once. One thing that I though of was to pull two or three numbers and have some type of face off. Maybe there could be red and blue numbers. The teams could get points for correctly answering but they still have to change places between rounds. I'm just brainstorming right now. I just know that I was pleased with the activity and engagement.
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