Decimal Operations Foldable

Tomorrow's lesson is on multiplying and dividing rational numbers.  What we find in 7th grade is that many students still struggle with decimal and fraction operations.  We just finished learning how to multiply and divide integers the other day.  Love the way Carnegie teaches integer operations.  That really deserves its own post someday.

Anyway, today was a half day and it was the perfect amount of time to correct homework and then finish a foldable they started last week (when we were doing addition and subtraction of rational numbers).  We also did a separate foldable on multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers (again another post for another time).

The material we covered today is expected to be mastered when they come to my class, but with many students that is just not the case.  The foldable I used can be found here.  I would like to make the multiplication example a bit more challenging, but beggars cannot be choosers and this foldable was already made and good enough for me to use for the purpose intended.  Someday I will make some original foldables, but with a new curriculum implementation that is a very low priority at this moment.

Front of the foldable

Foldable inside

Addition example projected on SMARTBoard

Subtraction 

Multiplication

Division

I really like projecting what the students fill in on their foldable.  We go through each example step by step and it goes MUCH more quickly if they are able to follow along with the SMARTBoard.

#Made4Math A few random things

This will be a quick post to share a few things I made today.  I realized that I have had a to do list of things I have been wanting to make on the computer since school started.  As is always the case, once school starts the things I want to do/make get replaced by the day to day minutiae of keeping a classroom running:  the planning, teaching, grading, reteaching, retaking, lather, rinse, repeat.

Seating charts/class lists binder

Vocabulary for word wall and CCSS posters

Math Focus Wall Labels

I finally was able to print out some new labels for my math focus wall.  I will be posting photos of the new and improved focus wall soon.  I have changed up what it looks like from what I had at the beginning of the year as I have seen what works and what could be improved.

After school I finished up my CC standards posters for The Number System domain (we are currently working on).  I also finished writing up the vocabulary words and will laminate them and the posters tomorrow.

Inequalities with sidewalk chalk

This is an activity that we did in my math classes way back in March (seems like forever ago), when we were doing MAPS testing so we were in block schedule, and we were having unseasonably warm weather her in WI (70 degrees in March is not typical here).  We were studying inequalities with my regular math classes.  Due to the block schedule we had two 51 minute math classes combined.  To break things up a bit I decided to take the students out to the front of the building and let them write and graph inequalities using sidewalk chalk.  The kids really enjoyed going outside (and normally it would have been too cold to do this in March, but we jumped at the chance to get some fresh air while learning our math due to the warm weather).

I had written out the inequalities on index cards and color coded them so the first card I handed out was a simple inequality with a positive number and eventually the kids did combined inequalities that involved a mix of positive and negative numbers.  I was careful to make the progression for them as I wrote out the inequalities.  The success they had helped boost their confidence before moving on the more challenging inequalities.  As each group finished they would call me over and if they were correct I would collect their index card and give them the next color (that's how I made sure the groups were getting different cards and progressing in difficulty level).

The kids wanted to be in the picture so here are their feet. (see the mismatched shoes?  I love middle schoolers and what makes them tick!)

This was a more complex combined inequality.

This group chose the bright blue chalk.

The students really thought this activity was more of a game then just practicing the skill of writing and graphing inequalities.  They loved using the chalk (which I bought last summer at the Target Dollar Spot).  It definitely broke up the long block schedule class that day.  I love when the students are able to be active learners and have fun while mastering our learning targets.