Pi Day

think I am posting more today just because I have so much to share from 3-14 onward. First and foremost, I took an amazing resource, shrank it down in size and used it for pi day.  Annie made an amazing resource for pi day.

I only got the fist 65 pages colored with my freshmen, but what a great testament to the patience that math requires. Comments such as "Whoa that is 6500 colored spaces!?", "I found mine", and "that is a long number" I think gave students a better understanding of the number pi, mathematics, and possibly a better grasp of how unimaginable infinity is as a mathematical term.  Even my panoramic shot couldn't capture the whole thing. Honestly, if you haven't taught figures like circles yet, this is a great activity. So check out her website here. 

Solving for the variable patchwork quilt

This idea is a twist from my previous school.  We talked about how we could display solving for a variable in a project or a creative manner.  The problem is that kids in 9th grade who just were introduced to variables are now having to solve with only variables.  They don't realize that this will definitely help them in geometry and other future math courses.

First cut tons of paper squares!  I make mine 4.25 inches by 4.25, mostly because it only requires three cuts with an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper.  The put the math work on the colored sheet of paper and the verbal explanation on the white sheets of paper.  Then, they put the grid together.  The beauty of it is that you can give smaller equations to lower level students and more multi-step equations to higher level students so that the final product comes together in a pretty multi-colored quilt.

Cold and Flu..time to catch up!

We have covered the remainder of the review for Algebra 1 and finally cracked open the textbook today.  I don't believe in a textbook driving the curriculum for a class, rather I use it as a learning tool for my lessons.  I found myself disgusted today to hear a coworker say "Well if they don't get it the way I teach it, they need to just find a video online to learn it.  I am cannot be responsible for them not getting it, I taught it."  I can't count the number of times in just my five years of teaching that I have changed a lesson the next time I taught it or changed a method in hopes that my students understand the concept better.  (I'm off my soapbox for now.)

So here is what we have covered since my last post...

Fractions

This semester my pre-assessment pointed out that majority of my students understood fractions, so we did not spend a great deal of time in this unit as I usually do.  My creative juices must have been flowing this day, because I love how my word art turn out for Improper fractions and Mixed Numbers. 

Expressions

My kids seem to think that this is an easy unit until I ask them to write an expression into words in two different formats.  This is the first time, I really get them to see how notes can help them not only study, but understand how to do their classwork.  Thanks again to Mrs. Hagan for some foldable ideas. 

I was super excited to find a way for them to use their interactive notebook to do their expression homework. I gave them a sheet of sentences and they determined the operation for each.

Math craft for the holidays

So my students had a half day of class before the winter break and I knew that they wouldn't be 100% in class, so I went searching the internet for a fun activity that would fit to state standards for South Carolina, but would keep the kids working instead of babysitting the kids for the day because they wouldn't work.  I stumbled upon a project online using only quadrilaterals, the students must make a Christmas/Holiday card.  I was floored by the adorable outcome of some of the cards.  They had to use at least one square, one rectangle, one kite, one trapezoid, and one parallelogram ( I assumed them making a rhombus would be too much of a mental challenge for them this particular day).  The other stipulation was that they could only use quadrilaterals on the front.