So much of what we teach in 8th grade math seems to be preparing our students to solve systems of linear equations. Understanding what a linear equation represents in its many forms helps students to see what they are doing with a system of equations. Graphing a system of equations shows students the most visual representation. It also lends itself to using real life situations, so that students can put it into context.
To help you save time planning your systems of equations unit, I’m sharing with you 11 activities that help students understand how to solve systems of equations with graphing.
I find that students need a lot of practice with graphing lines before they have the skills to graph two lines. Graphing lines has a lot of little skills within it like positive and negative slope, what to do when the equation isn’t in slope intercept form, and what to do when there isn’t an x or y variable. Students need so many repetitions with all of this, and it can take a while before they become super comfortable with it. But don’t worry- to help you out I’ve prepared a list of activities that will get your students practicing the basics all the way to an applied problem.
The list of activities
- Graphing Lines Practice and Graphing Lines Practice II
- Smart Pal Practice Activity FREEBIE (link below)
- Whack a Mole
- Riddle
- Mash-up Math Video
- Graphing Calculator Activity
- Worksheets
- Desmos Lesson and Activities
- Shmoop Video
- Math Games Online
- Performance Task Summer Swimming
Let’s do this
You’ll see that activities have a variety of uses and you won’t have time to use them all. These activities work for different parts of the lesson and even different parts of a unit. Most of them work well as review activities later in the year to refresh students’ memories. Let’s take a look at these awesome activities.
Graphing Lines Practice and Graphing Lines Practice II
Students need a lot of practice graphing lines before it seems to click for all of them. One way I like to get students practicing is with these Whose Line is It? practice sheets. The cute animals and graphics add some fun to students’ practice. I even have fun debating with students about what type of animal some of the images are. I love how 8th graders can debate just about anything. If you use this earlier in the year you can bring it back out a few months later and do it again.
When I realized that my students still needed more practice, I created a second set of these graphing practice activities. If you can spread out the practice over a few weeks, it seems to sink in better.
For even more graphing lines activities, check out “8 Activities to Make Graphing Lines Awesome.”
Smart Pal Graphing Practice Activity FREE Download
To get students lots of practice with little set up, I love to use Smart Pals (dry erase sleeve) for some whole class practice with graphing lines. I don’t know what I would do without Smart Pals. They work great as a quick formative assessment and practice tool for just about everything. I’ve made sure that every teacher at my school has access to them! They have so many purposes and they work perfectly for practicing graphing lines and systems of equations.
To get students more practice graphing linear equations, you can download this graphing practice insert here. It’s simple to use- just print the two pages double-sided and have students slide it into the SmartPal dry erase sleeve.
This graphing practice page is designed for students to have enough space to write down the equation or equations and then graph them. On one of the sides it has the place for them to write the solution. That means that everyone’s answer will be in the same place and it is easy for you to check the whole room at once. This works great as a sponge activity because you can just pick it up and start practicing.
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Solving Systems of Equations by Graphing Whack a Mole
I think of this whack a mole activity as systems of equations with graphing on training wheels.
When students practice with these examples there are these little mole characters on the map. They guide students to where the lines should be. If a student’s lines don’t go through a mole, then they know they graphed it wrong. It serves as a perfect scaffold for students as they first practice because it has that extra support.
Solving Systems of Equations with Graphing Riddle
This riddle gives students a chance to graph systems of equations and find the solution. Students complete 12 problems and for each answer they add a letter to the answer of the riddle.
The riddle just adds a little fun to systems of equations practice. The systems problems include some equations that are not in slope intercept form. Also, there are some fractions and negative numbers as well. It gives students a good amount of practice for a class period.
Mash-up Math Video
Sometimes kids need to see lots of examples. Plus, they can often make more sense of the concept with some real world examples. Anthony from Mash-up math does a great job of doing both things. He explains things in a straightforward way. Also, he has a great real world example that he shares with students.
You can watch this video with the whole class or have students watch it individually. When I watch videos with the whole class I like to stop it and ask questions as we go. Usually, I give students questions to answer as we are watching the video as well.
Graphing Calculator Activity
In 8th grade math we use a graphing calculator a few times a year. This activity from Math Geek Mama really moves students to the next level with a graphing calculator. At my school we don’t have graphing calculators, so we use the Desmos app on the iPads or on our Chromebooks. Our state test is even going to use Desmos this year for some questions, so it’s perfect to have students use it. This graphing activity consists of 9 linear systems of equations problems and will blow your students’ minds.
Worksheets
I use the third worksheet on this page to give students extra practice. It works perfectly in my math lab class where students are always needing more opportunities to practice. I have students come to me and check their work after each question because I have a small math lab class. This way they get immediate feedback and can correct course right when they need to. In a bigger class I would have them check a couple at a time, and once they don’t have mistakes, then they can check in less often.
Desmos Lesson and Activities
This lesson from Desmos gives students the chance to interact with the concept of systems of linear equations. Students get to go back and forth from making predictions, trying things out, and then reflecting on their predictions. Desmos does a great job of using their graphing calculator technology and integrating it into a lesson. It works best as a whole class activity when you want to introduce the concept of systems of equations.
Desmos has 7 lessons related to this topic. You do have to create an account (it’s free) or sign-in with your Google account. You can pace the lesson and you can also see all the work that students have done. After you have completed a lesson with the class you could even have students continue to work on them on their own.
Shmoop Video
This video from Shmoop gives a short, silly example of graphing two equations to find a solution. It shows how to change the equations to slope intercept form as well. I like to use Shmoop videos because they are short and they give kids one more way of looking at the concept. Sometimes, that’s all it takes for someone to finally get it. Also, it gives us something we can all refer back to as a class. It serves as a background building opportunity.
Math Games Online
I love this practice activity from Math Games soooo much. Students get to practice graphing lines in a computer enhanced way. This activity also practices identifying how many solutions a pair of equations has. I really emphasize with students that you can see how many solutions a system of equations has. They can get some really awesome practice for both skills with this activity. It also mimics the computer enhanced types of questions students have to answer on our state test. This one is a definite winner.
Performance Task Summer Swimming
With this performance task activity from Illustrative Mathematics students get to use solving systems of equations in a real life situation. I use this when we are doing group work and students are ready for an independent challenge problem. They have to figure out how to solve the problem, create the equations, graph the equations, and explain what they did. This task takes them a little while to complete, and it puts their skills to the test.
Try one thing
If you’re new to teaching this topic, then you’ll probably want to use more than one activity on this page. But if you already have your lessons, and you want to spice things up a little, then I would challenge you to try one new thing. Sometimes when you step out and try something new, you find a diamond in the rough that quickly becomes a go-to activity. You just need to find the activity that will work the best for your students in your situations.
Find more systems of equations ideas solving with substitution and elimination here. Thanks so much for reading! Until next time.
