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
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!
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!
Repairing the "I'm Bad at Math" Attitude
After teaching middle school math for almost five years, I have found that one of the biggest hurdles and misconceptions for students is their attitude and confidence in their own math abilities. As a math teacher, one huge challenge is changing the "I'm bad at math" attitude that some students enter the year with. Of course, not all students carry this attitude with them. Many students are confident in their math skills. However, I think that making a dent in the attitude of students who lack that confidence might be the most important, and challenging, part of teaching math. Here are a few classroom routines and ideas that I have found to help repair and change the "I'm bad at math" mindset.
(1) Make Math Fun
After reflecting on my first year of teaching 6th grade math, I found out very quickly that I needed to make math fun and engaging. I think the first step in changing the attitude of students who have struggled in math is making math class a place they enjoy coming to. One of the classroom routines I started is the Math Joke of the Week. It takes about 10 minutes per week to look up a fun (or corny) math joke and get it up on the board. Students love it when the joke is something they can try to guess, and I always hear about it quickly when I forget to get a new joke up.
Incorporating some random fun routines and things around the classroom can also start to get these students to enjoy coming into math class. Last year, I blogged about some of the fun things around my classroom. Although a lot of these aren't math related, I think they can help the general attitude of the students who come into the class!
I also have tried to make the learning process more fun for my students. In 6th grade math, we play a lot of math games that reinforce the concepts we are learning about. I've created many of these, but have also found a ton of awesome ideas floating around as well. My students love playing this Kaboom (also called Zap) game, which I adapted to practice solving equations. One of the other favorites are the Connect Four games that I created for various topics. My Connect Four: Multiplying Decimals is a freebie in my TpT store! As much as possible, I have tried to make learning and practicing our math concepts into some sort of game or engaging activity.(2) Get Kids Moving
Many of my lessons during my first year of teaching involved me at the overhead projector (yes, I was still using an old-school overhead projector) and students at their seats watching me do examples. Reflecting on that first year, I discovered a few things. Number one, I probably damaged my eyesight by looking into that dang projector all day. Two, I was doing most of the work while students sat and watched. And three, a lot of the time students weren't sitting and watching... they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, not paying attention, or just flat out bored (and looking back I don't blame them). This structure made it difficult for me to reach the students who felt they were bad at math. I switched to a math workshop structure, where students rotate around the room to different stations each class period. This structure allows me to meet in a small group with all students, which helps me reach the students that normally struggle. Whether it's math workshop, or some other structure, I feel like it is important to get students out of their seats. Of course that's not to say we never have stretches where we are taking notes, watching me do problems, etc., but I have tried to limit the length and amount of these. More details about how I run the math workshop are at the tab at the top of my blog!
(3) Challenge Students
All students enjoy a challenge and some competition... at least if there is a prize involved! Although my Challenge of the Week problems are often completed by my students who are very confident and strong in math, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of students who try these problems. There is nothing more rewarding than when a student who usually finds math difficult, gets the challenge problem. I put up a new problem every Monday. Students have until Thursday to enter (it's optional). On Friday, we go over and discuss the answer as a class - any correct answers get a mint! This is another routine that is pretty easy to set up, takes minimal time each week, and is a great way to stretch students thinking! If you are looking for some 5th/6th grade level problems, a full-year set is free in my store. The optional, low-risk, nature of the Challenge of the Week really encourages everybody to try it since there isn't any penalty for getting it wrong.Area Review (Parallelograms, Triangles, Trapezoids, and more!)
It has been all about finding areas recently in sixth grade math! The last week or two, we have been finding the area of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids, and circles (with some perimeter and circumference thrown in there too!). For a while now, I have been trying to find a good way to review these concepts. This last week, I thought I would try an activity that worked pretty well last year with my sixth graders during our volume unit. This activity gets students up out of their seats, moving around the room, talking about math, and analyzing each others work!
I began by creating six different posters that each focused on a specific concept. I started pretty basic, with the area of a parallelogram. The other five focused on the area of a triangle, area of a trapezoid, area of a circle, circumference, and one challenge problem! Each student started by getting 6 different colored Post-it notes. On each of the posters, I put one of these different colored Post-its in the corner, so students knew which color to do their work on for that problem. After assigning them a poster to start at (3-5 students per poster), they went around the room solving each problem on their Post-it notes. Here are a few shots of them in action!
Once students got to their starting point, I gave about two or three minutes for them to solve that problem on their Post-it note. After the time was up, I had them rotate to their next poster. I debated having them just go around at their own pace, but this system of sticking together with their group seemed to work out pretty well! I was impressed with the great math conversations going on as they worked! There was a lot of "but don't we need to double the radius" and "it's a triangle, so we have to divide by two!" Once they had all gotten to each station, I gave them a minute or two to go back to any problems that they had not had time to finish. Then, once we were all ready, the students went around an placed their work (which was on each Post-it note) on to the correct poster. Each poster looked something like this...
Then, here was my favorite part. I gave the students three minutes to walk around and look at the work of their classmates. To give them something specific to look for, I had them try to find at least one thing we did well as a class and at least one mistake they found. The students really enjoyed walking around and looking at their work and it was a great way to spark a discussion about the different area problems we had been learning about. Here are a few pictures of students as they were analyzing each others work!
I really enjoyed using this one as a review and I love how it could really be used with any concept! I'd love to hear any questions or similar activities that you have tried in your classrooms!
Looking for more ideas to help review area concepts? Check out a few of these interactive activities from my TpT store!
I began by creating six different posters that each focused on a specific concept. I started pretty basic, with the area of a parallelogram. The other five focused on the area of a triangle, area of a trapezoid, area of a circle, circumference, and one challenge problem! Each student started by getting 6 different colored Post-it notes. On each of the posters, I put one of these different colored Post-its in the corner, so students knew which color to do their work on for that problem. After assigning them a poster to start at (3-5 students per poster), they went around the room solving each problem on their Post-it notes. Here are a few shots of them in action!
Once students got to their starting point, I gave about two or three minutes for them to solve that problem on their Post-it note. After the time was up, I had them rotate to their next poster. I debated having them just go around at their own pace, but this system of sticking together with their group seemed to work out pretty well! I was impressed with the great math conversations going on as they worked! There was a lot of "but don't we need to double the radius" and "it's a triangle, so we have to divide by two!" Once they had all gotten to each station, I gave them a minute or two to go back to any problems that they had not had time to finish. Then, once we were all ready, the students went around an placed their work (which was on each Post-it note) on to the correct poster. Each poster looked something like this...
Then, here was my favorite part. I gave the students three minutes to walk around and look at the work of their classmates. To give them something specific to look for, I had them try to find at least one thing we did well as a class and at least one mistake they found. The students really enjoyed walking around and looking at their work and it was a great way to spark a discussion about the different area problems we had been learning about. Here are a few pictures of students as they were analyzing each others work!
I really enjoyed using this one as a review and I love how it could really be used with any concept! I'd love to hear any questions or similar activities that you have tried in your classrooms!
Looking for more ideas to help review area concepts? Check out a few of these interactive activities from my TpT store!
Angles, Triangles, and the Start of Geometry in 6th Grade Math!
The second fun idea I found (again... can't take credit for this one) I was able to use with my math intervention groups this week. After we had learned about different angle relationships (vertical angles, supplementary angles, and complementary angles), I covered our front dry-erase table with table at various angles. I then went through and measure the minimum number of angles they would need to be able to find all of the missing angles without a protractor. This turned out to be a great problem solving challenge and really promoted teamwork and working together. I could also see this working out great as a math center during math workshop.
UPDATE: I recently added a full set of Angle Relationships Task Cards to my TpT store! It currently includes over 70 challenging angle problems and 4 different levels of difficulty!
With the start of geometry, I was also able to try out one of my newest units of Math Task Cards: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Transformations. I now have two sets of task cards up in my store. A set of Math Task Cards, which are a little more basic problems. Then, for students that finish these quickly, I have them try the Math Enrichment Task Cards. Having these more challenging task cards makes it easy to push my higher students and keep them challenged! Here are a couple shots of the prep and final product of some of these task cards. I always print out six cards for each topic, which is what I need for my math workshop front table group. If I have time I corner round the corners and laminate to help them last!
Geometry has also allowed me to finally get to what is probably my favorite Challenge of the Week problem! I recently updated this freebie with five more questions that could be used, so be sure to re-download it if you have already grabbed this one from my store in the past!
So that's what we have been up to in 6th grade math recently. I'd love to hear what you have all been working on in your classrooms! And how about some humor to get everyone on their way? Who knew that One Direction is now a swear word?
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