Valentine Musical Hearts

Yes, I realize that Valentine's Day was yesterday but we are doing Valentine's activities all week. I have a birthday week so why not celebrate each holiday for a week.  We've done minute to win it games and now are going to do musical hearts. 

I love playing games but playing the same one over and over gets boring. If you tweak the game slightly it make it new again. 

How will this be different from musical chairs? We've already played that!

First, we will be walking to love songs (this is a link to our playlist) https://youtu.be/ZGoWtY_h4xo?list=PLD7541336B0EF26A9

Teacher Directions:

• Split your class in two groups. 
• If the group has 10 people then place down 9 hearts. 
• Place the hearts in a circle for each group.
• Start the love song. Students will be competing against member of their own team to begin with. 
• Once the music stops, they have to stand on a heart and complete a math problem. If they complete it incorrectly, they are out. 
• Once they are out, they will go to one of the chairs on their side of the room. They will still solve the problems on the board. It now becomes a race. The first group done wins and I will remove an additional heart from the other team. 
• We will continue until only one person remains from each team or one team is eliminated. If we have one from each team, we will place one heart in the center of the room. I will start and stop music (without looking - I don't want to influence the ending) and the winning team will receive one point. 

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Minute to Win It Math - Valentine's Edition

I love games and have attended some minute to win it parties which were a ton of fun. I'm bringing a Valentine's edition to my math class next week.

Materials Needed

• One bag of tiny conversation hearts.
• Cups - You need two per group (I purchased them for $.99 from Walmart)
• Plates - 2 per group (I bought Valentine plates from Walmart)
• Straws - One per group, per class (this was the only game I played with only one person from each group because I didn’t want to buy that many straws)
• Chopsticks - one pair per group
• Nerds - we flipped these because I couldn’t find Valentine candy corn
• Spoons - enough for your largest class

My students were in groups of 3-4.

The top three teams earned points:

1st place = 3 points

2nd place = 2 points

3rd place = 1 point

Game Directions:

Candy Flip: I gave each group one package of nerds. They were Valentine’s edition (they had a pink side). They started with pink side down and had to flip it to land pink side down again. Once they did this, they passed to the next person in their group. They were done once everyone in their group went. If they had a group of 3, one person went twice. First group done

Candy Relay: place one cup at the front of your room (filled with hearts - doesn’t matter how many - make sure each group’s cup looks about the same), place another cup at the end of your room across from the first cup. Give each student a spoon. One student fills their spoon with hearts from their full cup, pass it to next student, pass to next student until it reaches empty cup, place hearts in empty cup.

Notes: only hold spoon with one hand, if any candies fell - they all had to go back to original cup even the ones still in the spoon.

The team with the most candies in their cup at the end earned 3 points, second most 2 points and third 1 point.

Candy Pick-up:  Give each team (12 candies) on a plate, one pair of chopsticks, and a second plate. Using chopsticks, had to be held in only one hand, they moved candies from one plate to the next. If they had 4 in their group, they moved 3 pieces each or 3 in their group, they each moved 4 pieces. First team to finish won.

Candy Straw: I used the same plates (with 12 candies from the game above) and they had a straw. One person using only the straw moved the candies from one plate to the next.

Optional Game: Candy Stack: Give them each their cup from the relay. They have one minute to make the biggest stack of candy hearts they can. The team with the highest stack wins.

Teacher Directions:

• Give each group a certain amount of time to finish problem set 1. I used three minutes. Then play game 1.
• Give each group a certain amount of time to finish problem set 2. Then play game 2.
• Repeat for problem set 3.
• For problem set 4, I did one problem at a time (we only finished through 4a).

I have a 43 minute class period and we did a warm-up to begin before launching into the games.

Problem Set #1 Simplify

1. 3x3y4*8x3y6
2. 10x2y18 * -3x5y10
3. 1/2x7y9 * -8x15y25
4. 17x21y32 * -5x13y20

Game Break:  Game #1

Problem Set #2 Simplify

1. (5x2y3)2
2. (-1/3x3y4)3
3. (10x25y10)3
4. (-x2y12)6

Game Break:  Game #2

Problem Set #3 Simplify

1. 3x2y*(4x3y5)2
2. 20x3y2*(1/2x3y4)2
3. (-x2y15)4*-7x15y21

Game Break:  Game #3

Problem Set #4

Determine whether the following scenarios would be best modeled using a linear or exponential model. Then, write an equation.

1. Ms. Hunter takes off 10 points for each day an assignment is turned in late. The assignments are worth 100 points each.  

Game #4

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Math Dodgeball

My memories as a high school math student involved going to class, sitting and taking notes.  Then doing 1-45 odds for homework every night.

I became a math teacher to help break that trend and do something different once I had my own room. Obviously we take notes, solve math problems, and do homework but I do it in a different way. Today, we were practicing the properties of exponents.

Yesterday,  we practiced expanding and recognizing the patterns for the properties:  product of powers and power to a power. Today, we worked on classifying. I placed a problem on the board and students classified it. However, we didn't just sit silently at our desks to do this.

 Student directions: 

• Take out a sheet of paper. 
• Label the front side - product of powers 
• Label the back - power to a power

Teacher Directions:

• Split the class in two equal groups. 
• Send each group went to a different side of the room

Students then they wadded up their paper (created during student directions) and a game of dodgeball ensued. We played for 30 seconds and the team with the most people remaining earned one point. At the end of the round, they classified the problem written on the board and simplified it. Then we played dodgeball again. By the end of the lesson, they had practiced exponent properties and had fun doing it!

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Get the Point Activity - Valentine's Edition

Teacher Directions:

• Create problems with specific point values. The more difficult the problem, the more points it should be worth.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Type out the problems with the point values next to them.
• Decide how many points you want students to collect during the activity. Note: To Differentiate - You could assign different point values to different students. You might eliminate the one point category for some of your students.
• Decide if you want students to complete each type of exponent problems (product of powers, power to a power, negative exponents)

Student Directions:

• Solve problems until you collect the appropriate amount of points.
• Make sure that you complete a problem from each type of exponent review.
  
  
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Disease Spreading

I launched the concept of exponential growth by coming to class dressed like:

I created a sheet titled, "Illness"  with different scenarios. 

• I spread the disease to one person then we each spread it to one person and it continued to spread from there. 
• I spread the disease to two other people and we each spread it to two other people. 

I definitely made an impression on my students. 

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Broken Heart Activity

Students are going to spend the day putting my hearts back together. This is one of our Valentine activities that I have planned.



I created the image above in Google Documents. I placed an exponential growth graph in one half and the corresponding equation in the other half. 



I also created these where students will match the equation with the asymptote and y-intercept.


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Amazing Math Race

Try this activity with your students!  They will love it!

Teacher Directions:

• Print out the problems on the next page and cut them apart. You will need a copy of each problem for each group in the amazing race.
• Place all of the problems of one kind in one of the big orange mailing envelopes. For example, all of the copies of solve by graphing would be placed into one envelope. You will have five total envelopes.

Solve by Graphing

y = -x + 5

y = -5x - 3

• Type clues to lead to each problem. My example clues are located on page three. Make about 6 copies of your clue sheet and cut them apart. Line them up vertically on your desk. Give each group a different clue (you might have to repeat). I lined them up like they are on the sheet prior to cutting. Once they return a clue, give them the next one down the column on your desk. For example, if a group begins with the superintendent clue, they would receive the harry potter group next.
• Tape each orange envelope at a location that matches one of your five clues.
• I had students race with an individual whiteboard which has a graph on the back. If you don’t have these, they could use paper and graph paper.

Student Directions

• Get a clue from your teacher. Decipher your clue and go to that location. Once at the location, take one problem out of the envelope for your group.
• Everyone in your groups needs to solve the problem.
• Return to your classroom to show your teacher your solution.
• Repeat the previous three directions until your group finishes the amazing race.