Unit rates show up everywhere. What an awesome topic to teach kids- they’ll definitely have lots of opportunities to use it in their “real” life. Unit rate is so applicable which also makes it something students may understand a little bit more easily. When you look around the internet for ideas for teaching unit rate, you’ll see a lot of grocery store examples. These examples will get you a good start, but there’s no reason to stay stuck in the grocery store.
Unit rate shows up in so many different fields. In this post, I’ll share with you some of my favorite unit rate activities that will get students understanding, and even looking out for, unit rates.
Another great thing about unit rate is that it’s directly related to slope. That makes it the perfect background builder for students learning about slope for the first time. In addition, once students understand unit rate they’ll have that as resource and concept to go back to when they’re learning about functions.
In my class we learn about slope for a few days, and then we shift over to unit rate. Then, after a week with unit rate we go to functions. I don’t know what I would do without unit rate as some type of mental glue to make slope stick in their brains.
The 10 12 unit rate activities:
- Unit Rate Mazes
- Unit Rate Task Cards
- Scategories Anticipatory Set
- Unit Rate Escape Room
- Unit Rate on a Graph Coloring Page
- Let’s Make a Deal
- Bad at Math and Real Life Unit Rates
- QR Code Game
- Sugar in Soda Project
- Zombie Velocity
- Comparing Unit Rates Graphic Organizer
Let’s dive in
Each of these activities has its own flavor. As you look through them, I hope you find several that will work for your unique classroom. You’ll notice that the list includes activities for small groups and independent work. Also, there are some activities for bell ringers, class practice, review, or homework. Let’s dive in and get to know the activities for this topic.
Unit Rate Mazes
These three unit rate mazes give students a good chance to practice solving problems. This format is a great break from traditional worksheets and can be used in a variety of ways. I use mazes for bellwork/daily warm-ups to start class off with independent practice or cyclical review. By looking at the path students follow I can quickly see how they’re doing, which makes correction and feedback much easier to do. For more ideas on using math mazes in the classroom, check out this post.
If you’re like me and just can’t enough games in your math classroom, be sure to join our exclusive Maze of the Month club. Just sign up and you’ll get a FREE math maze sent right to your inbox each month. Plus, club members get other freebies and math goodies all year long.
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Can’t wait to see you there.
Unit Rate Task Cards
A few weeks ago when I saw that our unit rate unit was fast approaching, I realized I didn’t have any task cards on this topic. I use task cards in just about every unit I teach because they’re just so versatile. I love to have them when doing whole class examples on the overhead, as well. So, I decided to make a set of unit rate task cards.
Middle schoolers are a little goofy (and so am I) so I decided to make my task cards a little funny. They have a theme of penguins and pirates. Students get to practice the skills of finding and making meaning with unit rates, and at the same time they’re entertained. This set of task cards includes 20 questions and they increase in difficulty. The last 4 cards are my favorite because they give students a chance to practice answering questions that have more than one correct answer. That is a big push in my school and students have struggled to get the hang of it.
I used the cards yesterday with my classes and they were a big hit. To start the class off I first modeled a couple of different types of questions while students followed along. Then, they worked on the rest of the questions with a partner. I always let them check their answers on the back of the task cards, so they get immediate feedback on how well they’re doing. To get more tips and tricks for using task cards, check out “10 Ways to Use Task Cards in the Math Classroom“
Scategories Anticipatory Set
This is one of my favorite new tricks for starting a lesson in the middle of a unit of study. Basically, we play a game of Scategories in about 5 minutes and it gets students’ juices flowing about unit rate. Also, it gives me a general idea of what students are understanding and remembering. I played it a few days in a row and students showed a lot of improvement over the course of a few days.
Here’s how I play it:
- Every students has a whiteboard or SmartPal dry-erase sleeve. They write “unit rate” at the top.
- I give them a set amount of time to write down everything they know about unit rate. Usually, we go for 1 to 2 minutes. It can be characteristics, examples, vocabulary, etc.
- While they are individually compiling their lists, I’m also compiling my list.
- Once the time is up I have students show their boards, so that I can see where they’re at with the topic. Then, I show my board on the projector at the front of the room.
- Here’s where the game part comes in. I go through each of my answers and if anyone in the room has the same answer as me then we both cross it off. For every answer I have that no one in the room has, I get a point. For the students, they get a point for every answer they have that I don’t have. Basically, I’m playing against the whole class and the students are playing against me as individuals.
- After I’ve shared my answers, then everyone who has something that I didn’t say shares their answers. Finally, we compare points. The person with the most points wins.
This idea seems so simple, but is an excellent anticipatory set and a smooth way to build background at the beginning of class. Also, there’s absolutely no prep.
Unit Rate Escape Room
Escape rooms are such a fun way to get students practicing, and this unit rate escape room is no exception!
In this activity, students are trying to solve an overall mystery by solving math problems. They complete 3 puzzles while practicing, and then check their work. If they’re correct, the password checker will reveal a piece of the overall mystery.
This activity is completely digital. It’s built in Google Slides™ and will preserve students’ work as they complete tasks. It can also be easily assigned and collected electronically!
If you’re looking for a little more unit rate practice, you’ll want to check out the Unit Rate with Fractions Digital Escape Room activity here.
Unit Rate on a Graph Coloring Page
Coloring pages add a little pizzazz to the class. This Unit Rates coloring activity gets students practicing with the payoff of getting to do a little coloring. Students color silly pictures that catch kids’ attention. You’ll notice that the coloring is minimal. It gives them a little taste of something novel, but it doesn’t take a lot of class time. In fact, it seems to be a nice little brain break. More importantly, students get to sharpen their math skills by working on some problems to identify the unit rate on a graph. In this activity, one side has questions that challenge kids less and the other side will challenge them more. This coloring activity works perfectly for independent practice or homework, especially if the kids already have a pretty good grasp on the topic.
Let’s Make a Deal
This free resource for Let’s Make a Deal from Mrs. Satt can be downloaded on TPT. If you’re looking for a fast finisher activity, then this is one activity to definitely check out. I showed my students one example and then let them finish the rest on their own. At the end of the activity we talked about what surprised them about the different comparisons. Kids always have interesting insights and they liked this activity because of the real world aspect of the activity.
Bad at Math and Real Life Unit Rates
Due to the fact that unit rates show up so much in the real world, you’ll found examples everywhere. These two pictures are a fun way to talk about unit rate (link to Planet Fitness deal here, and for the soda display click here). Both of these pictures give students a chance to put their unit rate skills to the test and explain why some of these fall into the “bad at math” category. These work great for anticipatory sets or closure activities.
QR Code Game
One way to add technology into the classroom is to use QR codes. QR codes are square codes you add, like the ones in the picture below, and can be read by an app on a computer or a phone. When students scan the code, they see the answer, or whatever information you have the code reveal (read more about using QR codes in the classroom here). Kids love using these codes. I’ve used them many time with many different groups of kids and the result is always the same. They really get into what they are doing when they use these codes.
This Proportional Relationships QR Code Game includes 16 cards and asks questions about proportional rates and unit rates in given situations. Students have to find the unit rate in different contexts and compare them with other rates. On some cards they have to read a graph and then figure out the total after a certain amount of repetitions.
Sugar in Soda Project
We did this Sugar in Soda project from Math Equals Love in my summer school class a couple of years ago and it really made an impact. In this project, students figure out the unit rate of grams of sugar per ounce in different drinks. Then, they compare the drinks to each other. To make an even bigger impact, I brought in packets of sugar so students could really see just how much sugar was in each drink. You could also use some sugar cubes or plain old sugar to help them see the amount of sugar dissolved in each drink. Not only is this great practice with finding and understanding unit rates, it will make everyone think twice before grabbing that next soda.
Zombie Velocity
I didn’t create this Zombie Velocity activity, but it’s my kind of activity. It takes unit rate and applies it to zombies. The activity itself can be done on the on the floor and parts of it you complete on graph paper. This post walks you through the activity to find the velocity of a zombie and the velocity of a zombie’s arm. After finding velocity, there’s an additional activity on the same page to complete on graph paper and show the unit rate of the zombie’s velocity. You could even do this activity alone by giving students the velocity and having them chart it and find the unit rate. This activity definitely gives students some unique practice with unit rate.
Comparing Unit Rates Graphic Organizer
I love this Comparing Unit Rates graphic organizer from To The Square Inch because we can use it in our SmartPal dry erase sleeves. Also, it works well in the interactive notebook. You just have to keep encouraging the kids to use it- it’s something they should keep referring back to. Students don’t always use the most efficient techniques in their problem solving. This graphic organizer helps a lot of kids who struggle to keep everything organized.
As you can see, you put each rate in the rate box. Then, you convert it to a unit rate. After you have done that you compare the two rates. So simple and so easy.
Try one thing…
It can get overwhelming to try a whole bunch of new things. My challenge to you is to try one thing. For example, if they’re new for you, just try using task cards with this unit. If you like the task cards, then you could use them again in a different unit. I tried them for the first time a few years ago, and now I use them in every unit. I’m so glad I’ve found them! They’re perfect for my class on the the 3rd or 4th day of the unit.
Hopefully you’ll find things that work for you and that you can use over and over again for years to come. Anyways, give one of the ideas above a try and see how your classes react. Thank you so much for reading! Until next time.
