Middle School Math Moments (now Cognitive Cardio Math)

Many years ago (I have no idea how many!) I used this coloring activity with students. I don't remember where the idea came from, and I had even forgotten that I ever used it! (The memory is really going!!) However, I was looking through an old "November" file to find some ideas for today (for the substitute to use - I took a personal day), and found the tracers and examples in my file. Once I found it, I DID remember that the kids used to really enjoy this activity. So, I gathered materials (graph paper, tracers, colored pencils, thin black markers, construction paper) and left them for the sub, with these directions: 1. Students take one piece of graph paper (I use the tiny squares, but younger students could use larger ones). 2. Place the tracer under the graph paper and trace the outline and details of the shape. 3. Color the squares with different shades, alternating light and dark (I like to use colored pencils rather than markers). 4. When finished, o...

When I taught elementary school, I often pretested every math unit. During some years, it was a requirement, and as a grade level, we regrouped the students according to the pretests. Other years, it was simply something I did on my own, to guide my instruction. When I started teaching math at the middle level, I sometimes pretested, but often found that most of my students needed instruction in the majority of the skills on the pretest.  Because math classes are shorter in middle school than elementary, and because I always felt behind in the curriculum, I gradually stopped my pretesting practices. However, this year, many of my students seem to have better background knowledge and mastery of more of the skills than in previous years. In addition, my classes are smaller than normal. This combination led me to try pretesting our decimal unit, to see what the needs were. I found that while some students answered 17/20 questions incorrectly, others answered only one or two que...

Yesterday I was home sick, so since we had just finished a unit, it was a good day for the sub to give a pre-assessment for our decimal unit. I wasn't able to look at the assessment until today, so I couldn't use it to plan until today/tonight. The students did do a little bit of work yesterday with writing decimal numbers in word form, and we have worked on comparing decimals several times so far this year in Daily Warm Ups book, so we reviewed those ideas today and then did an activity. The first step in the activity was to match each card with a decimal number in standard form to the correct word form. Students were permitted to work alone or with one partner, and the matching didn't really take that long. I did have similar numbers (like 9.68, 9.068, 9.0068 etc), so that the students had to read carefully and take some time to compare those similar numbers. Click to download the activity . Once they had their matches, I checked them before they moved on to or...

Happy Halloween! Although, it didn't feel like Halloween at school today, because our students aren't dressing up until tomorrow. So, today, we had our algebraic expressions/equations test (which meant no homework for Trick or Treat night!), and will play Fall Footloose tomorrow for a fun Friday/Halloween math class. But, this post is supposed to be about playing Bingo!  We did that yesterday, to help prepare for today's test. I started using this Bingo last year, and it has worked out very well. The Bingo set has 11 different Bingo cards (worksheets), and the students must solve the one-step equations on their cards before we can play. I haven't laminated the cards because I like the fact that they can write their answers right on the cards, making the numbers easier to find when I call them. Click to see Bingo on TPT The kids did a great job solving as quickly and quietly as possible, so that we could get down to playing. It took students about 15 minutes t...

**Update - flash freebie time has passed, but the link will still take you to TPT if you are interested in the product. Thanks! This is my first Flash Freebie ! It will be free for a few hours:-) Click to go to TPT. The other day I made an "I Have, Who Has" for solving addition and subtraction equations. I don't usually use I Have, Who Has in math, because I feel like it takes a while to get through the game (depending on the concept), and I don't want the kids to get too restless.However, I thought I'd give it a try! I made 32 cards, so that if future classes are larger, I have enough for each student (hopefully class size doesn't go over 32!) Overall, it worked out well for all four of my classes. The first class took about 20 minutes to finish the game (many of them were writing out their work for each problem). In the next period, I told them that they didn't need to write out all of the work, but could solve it mentally or using the calcula...

Today, I watched students using my whiteboards and was just SO glad that I've been making better use of them! (The students really enjoy using them too!)  I've had my little whiteboards for quite a long time, so I took some time to re-tape them with colorful "Duck" tape over the summer. They are definitely more attractive now! Though I've had these whiteboards for at least 15 years, I haven't used them all that much in middle school....yes, I have pulled them out from time to time, but they weren't a part of my regular activities...I don't really know why. I used them much more often when I taught elementary school. Anyway, since re-taping them, I have kept them out on my counter, in sight, and maybe that's why I think of them more often. Today, students completed a Footloose activity for algebraic expressions, and of course, they all finished at different times. So, as they finished, I had students sit at an empty group of desks, with the whit...

Ah, Tuesday. I find my brain searching for how to write an interesting post, but it just doesn't seem to be able to find it!! Anyway, quickly - today we worked on evaluating algebraic expressions when the variable was a given value. Tomorrow we'll practice a bit more and then move on to translating between words and math (using variables). We've done a little bit of this already, through our Mental Gymnastics book, so it won't be brand new. However, we will use the circle chart I made today to remind students of the operation words that will help them translate between words and mathematical expressions. (I decided to go with the circle organizer after I found my " Memory Wheel " templates in my closet today!) I made a quick graphic organizer for this, and will give students the choice to either use the organizer or simply draw their own in their notebooks....I'm curious to see how many choose to draw their own as opposed to using the organizer....I...