Ideas + Resources + More for the 5th - 8th Grade Math Classroom
Here is activity #2 for the ordered pair cards I posted in my last blog post. (If you missed my post on a fun, free activity for teaching slope, you can read it here). This is an activity on graphing in the coordinate plane that gets kids up and moving around the room: Give eachRead more about Moving Around the Room with the Coordinate Plane – Activity Idea[…]
Slope is an important topic for pre-algebra, 8th grade math, and algebra. I was trying to come up with a new idea for practicing slope and I came up with the following: I made 32 cards with ordered pairs on them. All of the coordinates of the ordered pairs are between -3 and 3. IRead more about Teaching Slope – Fun Activity Idea[…]
One of the things I like best about teaching in a Catholic school is the ability to celebrate religious holidays like Christmas with my students so I am always looking for ways to incorporate the fun of the season into my daily classes. Here is a collection for some of my favorite Christmas activities thatRead more about Fun Christmas Ideas for the Middle School Math Classroom[…]
UPDATE: Check out my new Interactive version of this game! Today I am writing about my absolute favorite (and my students’ favorite) review game: Attack! Let me start by listing the reasons I love this game: It requires NO PREP It requires NO MATERIALS (other than a chalkboard/whiteboard) It can be used inRead more about A Review Game That Students Love – ATTACK![…]
I am a HUGE fan of group work! I love having students work together in my math classes for practice work, problem solving, review games, etc. Occasionally I allow my students to pick their own groups, but more often than not I assign them because: No students are ever left out or the last oneRead more about A Creative Approach to Grouping in the Middle School Math Classroom[…]
Last year my husband (who is a software developer) and I created the interactive game Noggle that has been a big hit with teachers using it in their classroom! My students absolutely love the game and from what I have heard from other teachers, their students do, too. The problem with our original Noggle game, though,Read more about Interactive Noggle Game: Play a Round for Free and Chance to Win Full Game![…]
I think factor trees are one of the coolest “tools” for middle school students! Students tend to like them and they have several different uses in middle school math. Here are the 5 ways I use factor trees with my students: 1. Prime Factorization This is the most obvious use of factor trees and it’s typicallyRead more about 5 Ways to Use Factor Trees in Middle School Math[…]
Just a quick post today (to make up for my last 3 being sooo long)! Does anyone else have students who can’t seem to draw a decent coordinate plane on a piece of graph paper? I never would have thought that tracing a horizontal and vertical line on a piece of graph paper would beRead more about Coordinate Planes Freebie[…]
Multiplying and dividing integers are, in my opinion, the hardest operations to teach to students and it took me a few years before I found a good way to have these operations make sense to students. After I am confident that my students are comfortable adding and subtracting integers, I move on to the finalRead more about Hands-On Integer Operations (Part 3: Multiplication & Division)[…]
After I spend 2-3 days teaching integer addition (click here to read my post on adding integers) and am confident my students are comfortable with it, I move onto subtraction. I start by giving students two color counters again and put an easy question on the board for them to solve independently: -5 – (-2)Read more about Hands-On Integer Operations (Part 2: Subtracting Integers)[…]
