Exciting news! After starting my summer Dollar Deals last Tuesday, some other middle/high school math teacher friends and I have decided to team up to provide some great deals on math resources for the rest of the summer!

Every Tuesday from now until July 26, a bunch of great math teachers will be providing one of their resources for just $1. You can search #mathdollardeals on TpT OR just stay tuned here at my blog for links to the various resources. Unfortunately this week I am on a road trip and won't be able to get all of the links on this post, but it is easy to find the deals by searching #mathdollardeals in the TpT search! This week, my Dollar Deal will be this Area and Perimeter Sort for 6th grade math. Although I created it for 6th grade, they could also be pretty useful with 5th or 7th graders!


"Dollar Deals" are Coming this Summer!

This summer, I have decided to try something a little different. Every Tuesday, I will be posting a different math resource in my TpT store for just $1!






With it being the first Tuesday of summer, I figured there is no better day to start than today! The first resource up are these Exit Slips: Perimeter, Area, and Volume - for 6th grade math. Each of the nine topics included have four problems, which increase in difficulty. These exit slips could be used as a check as students leave the class, in math centers, small groups, or in lots of other ways! Check them out and stay tuned every Tuesday for the new deal!

To make sure you don't miss out on the future Dollar Deals, follow my Instagram and Facebook pages, where I will be posting updates!

Instagram: @middleschoolmathman
Facebook: Middle School Math Man

Math Brain Teaser Challenge!

Sometimes the best classroom ideas come once textbooks are turned in, no new math lessons are in the plans, and the school year is winding down! This year, whether it was a result of creativity or that end-of-year desperation, I tried out a new math brain teaser activity in my classroom. It turned out to be a fun way to keep the 6th graders engaged (and moving!) as our final week of school came to an end.

It's actually a pretty simple concept. I searched around online and found some free math brain teaser problems that I thought would fit my class. I threw the ones that I liked into a PowerPoint, so that I six total brain teasers, each on their own poster. They looked something like this.


There are plenty of great sites that have fun brain teasers, but the primary two websites that I pulled mine from were CoolMath4Kids and Math Warehouse.

Next, I posted the six brain teaser posters around the room. Each problem also had a basket and scrap paper next to it for students to write and place their guesses. To start the activity, students walked around at their own pace, reading and attempting to solve the problems. I let them go in any order. After a student attempted a brain teaser, they wrote their name and answer on a piece of scrap paper, and placed it in the basket next to that problem.


After about 20 minutes, we got back together as a class. One at a time, we went through the solution to each problem. After solving it, I drew answers out of the basket for that problem. The first correct answer to be drawn from each basket won a prize (in my class a mint or a Starburst)! Hope you enjoyed this quick and easy activity... it could really be adapted to any grade or subject, it is just a matter of finding the right level of brain teasers for your students!