Math Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs - Math Style

How does this work? I played Spooky Skeletons and Monster Mash for Halloween; however, you can play any music you want. 

Teacher directions: 

• Split students into two groups - I had one group report to right side of room and one to the left side of the room when they were out. 
• Round one take 1 chair away from the center of the room, play music and have student who doesn't have a chair go to their side. At the end of the round, place a math problem on the board for students to solve. If students in the game solved this incorrectly, they were out. 
• Round two - take  away two chairs, play music and have students who are out move to the appropriate side of the room. 
• Repeat until only one student remains. 

Once you have students on both sides of the room out, have them race to see who can complete the math problem on the board the quickest. They may talk to each other but students in the game could not. If the students on the right side of the room solved it correctly first, they chose someone from the left side (from the center-still in the game) to be out.

I have 31 students in all of my classes so I had 3 students going out every round otherwise we may not have finished a game. 

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Pumpkin Patch

Get into the Halloween Spirit... With the "Pumpkin Patch" Activity. 

I found the following pumpkin by doing a google search for reusable pumpkin images. 

Next, I wrote problems from our current unit on the pumpkins. I made 31 pumpkins with different math problems on each because that is my largest class.  

Then, I cut them out, hole punched them, and tied a string through the hole long enough to fit over the head of a student in class and hang as a necklace. 

On Monday, students will choose one to wear and put on like a necklace. They will solve their problem first. (The answer to their problem is on the back of the pumpkin so they can check it! Next, they will partner with another student in the room and solve each other's problems. They will check each other's work. Then partner up with someone new and repeat the process.

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Functions - my Introduction

I launched with this video - which I absolutely love. It was created by a group of Algebra 1 teachers. 

Once we watched the video, we created a graphic organizer that you see below:

We took problems looked at function in various forms (mapping diagram, table and set of ordered pairs). On the inside of the flap, we identified domain and range. 

Finally, we played a Kahoot to check for understanding which they loved. If you've never played Kahoot, check it out here! 

www.getkahoot.com

Why don't my students understand translations?

Translations are a topic that students struggle with. Why?  Because they can't visualize them. They don't know what the functions look like or how adding/subtracting numbers affects the parent function. 

First, I would launch by using Desmos. Have students graph y=x^2 then y=x^2 + 1, y = x^2 + 2 , y = x^2 + 3 and look for the pattern.  (Great application of looking for repeated reasoning!)

Next, have them graph y = x^2, then y=x^2 -1, y = x^2 - 5, etc and look for the pattern. 

Then, y=x^2 with y=(x-1)^2, y=(x - 4)^2, etc. Then y=(x+3)^2, y=(x+5)^2, etc and look for patterns. 

Once they see the shifts, (up, down, left, right). Check it with something concrete.  

I used a sticky wicky that I found in my house and a small sheet of graph paper. You could give each student a pipe cleaner, they can bend them to form a quadratic then shift them on the graph paper. You can give them different equation to graph and they can physically move the pipe cleaner on their graph paper to where they would shift from the parent graph. 

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"Sort It"

One of my favorite activities to do in class is a sort.  There are two types (closed) where you give students the categories and (open) where they sort and write the categories. We are going to be doing a closed sort in class this week.

I am going to give my students a copy of the properties shown in the google document below.

Teacher directions: 

• Copy the problems (enough for each group to have one set). I use a different color paper for each group. 
• Cut apart the set and place them in a ziplock bag or envelope. 
• Distribute an envelope or ziplock bag to each group. 
• Give students the categories for the sort. (simplify, multiplication property of equality, distributive property, etc.)

Student directions:

• Take the problems out of the bag. 
• Sort them into the appropriate category. 

After the students have sorted, discuss the properties and where they placed them. If you have a document camera, this would be a great to use with that. Want more activities like this? Sign-up for our emails using the form below: 

How many cups does it take to reach my height?

I wrote on my smart board:  How many cups does it take to reach my height?  Then I asked students to generate a list of questions they wanted me to answer. They came up with:

• How tall am I?
• What type of cup are we using? (When they asked this, I gave them two styrofoam cups but they weren't allowed to touch them yet)
• How are we going to stack them? 

Next, I had them make an estimate for the amount of cups needed and I recorded their guess on the board. 

Then, I had them solve the problem and write their strategy on their personal whiteboards. I gave them 10 minutes. 

I had them present their solutions to the class. Some wrote equations, others guess and checked, some made a table for the pattern. 

Finally, we actually stacked cups to me. This lesson took roughly 39 minutes. 

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Person Search

Tomorrow my students are going to be participating in a search within our classroom to get to know each other. 


Directions:

• Give each person a copy of the person search handout. Get your copy here: https://themathmentors.mykajabi.com/p/ice-breakers
• Students will walk around and interview each other. They may ask a question such as, "how many siblings do you have?" It can't just be yes or no. If the answer matches a square, have that student initial it. If not, ask another question. 
• Repeat until the entire sheet is initialed.