Idea Galaxy

Adventures in Junior High and Mathematics

Rachel

13 Activities to Make Practicing Surface Area Awesome Sauce

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For my 7th graders, surface area usually is one of the hardest topics we do all year. I work with a lot of students who don’t have a solid foundation with math and especially with spatial ideas. When they take the final test on surface area, they have to really be able to conceptualize a three-dimensional idea in a two-dimensional drawing. To get them there, students need to see surface area in the 3-D realm and then we need to help them transfer everything to paper.

I find that they just need a lot of practice and a clear transition from the real life learning to the drawings. The eleven thirteen activities in this post will help your students get that practice they need with surface area, in both the 2D and 3D worlds. [Read more…] about 13 Activities to Make Practicing Surface Area Awesome Sauce

12 Activities to Practice Cross Sections of 3D Shapes Like a Ninja

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Finding the shape that results from cutting a three-dimensional shape is a fun topic. Students really enjoy this topic. When you look for ideas for teaching this topic, you’ll inevitably find an introductory activity using play-doh. Students make the 3-D shapes out of play-doh and then cut them with a string of some sort. But there’s other ways to help students see and understand this topic, so I’m sharing 12 other activities today (but you can see some different versions of this play-doh activity here and here). [Read more…] about 12 Activities to Practice Cross Sections of 3D Shapes Like a Ninja

Math Review Game That Works: Whiteboard Football

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Are you ready for some football?

This football game gets students mentally into math review. In fact, this is the best team game I’ve ever played with students. It students working together in a way I’ve never seen before. And from a preparation standpoint, this game is simple to prepare for and easy to explain to students. It’s quickly become one of my go-to review activities in my math classroom. Let me break down exactly how we play math football in my classroom, and share some extra game resources with you. [Read more…] about Math Review Game That Works: Whiteboard Football

11 Activities that Make Practicing Scatter Plot Graphs Rock

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Sometimes we get to teach things in 8th grade math that don’t have a lot of calculations and that have very real applications. That happens to be the case with scatter plot graphs and I love to teach it. Also, students learn a lot about slope and y-intercept and now they get to put it together with real world things. The downside is that we don’t get very many days in our schedule to teach it, so I try to pack a lot of fun and engagement into a few days. Today I’m excited to share with you 11 great activity ideas and resources to use when teaching and practicing with scatter plot graphs. [Read more…] about 11 Activities that Make Practicing Scatter Plot Graphs Rock

10 Awesome Activities for Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators

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Fractions seem to get a lot of bad press. So many students get turned off by fractions and think that they aren’t good at fractions. I’m not exactly sure why this happens, but I know that if we give kids more positive experiences with fractions that we can change this. In my classroom we use a lot of games when we’re practicing and I find that students get really engaged when something is presented as a game. This works especially well with topics like adding and subtracting fractions. So, I’m super excited to share with you 10 awesome games and activities to help students become pro at adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators. [Read more…] about 10 Awesome Activities for Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators