Teaching Volume and Surface Area of Cylinders

You want to really give your students incentives to learn how to calculate the volume and surface area of a cylinder? Bring in cans of soda.

--Give them each a ruler and a can of soda.
--Tell them you need both the volume and the surface area of the can or they don't get to drink it
--Watch the percision to which they measure and calculate

Variation:

Don't like soda or drinks in the classroom? Use paper,

--Have them color it first
--Than tape it
--Than measure and calculate

Using Sidewalk Chalk To Teach Scientific Numbers

Give each kid a worksheet with 5-10 scientific word problems. Have them draw a big square and put their name on it (like it was a real worksheet). Than have them write out each questions and answer it like so

Differences Between Mean, Median, Mode and Range

Simply fold a piece of paper long ways (hotdog for you elementary teachers) and make three cuts. Have them write the word, than the definition than a picture like so

Teaching Probability Of Events (Likely, Impossible, Certain, Etc)

This is an easy way of teaching your students to distinguish between Certain, Likely, 50/50, Unlikely and Impossible

Pythagorean Via The Bleachers

Notice how the bleachers form a 3D triangle from the side view? The legs would be the height and the base whereas the hypotenuse would be the distance going down the bleachers.

--Giving each of your students rulers have them measure the base and height of the bleachers

--Next, have them estimate the hypotenuse via calculation

--Finally, have them measure the hypotenuse and see how close they were

Create Math Cartoons

By JeremiahDyke | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

You can create films and strips through http://www.toondoo.com/ for free. This would be great for math labs or smart boards. Yet, you can also do this the old fashion way

Staple a bunch of cut up pages (cut to squares) together to form a small booklet. Then have your students write out the math problem like

2x + 5 = 10

--For every page have them rewrite the problem with only slight variations toward the solution.
--Keep doing this till the last page which shows the problem solved
--Finally, flip through the booklet like a cartoon and watch the problem solve itself

Use it a cheat sheet for the test!

Integer Tic-Tac-Toe (Teaching multiplication of negatives and positives)

I created a tic-tac-toe game to help kids distinguish between multiplying negatives and positives. Use the same board but use + and - instead of x and o.  Next have each player pic a square that is theirs. Have them place a + or - symbol beside the square and what ever goes inside must first be multiplied by the - or the +.

Example,

if you place a - inside a "+ charged square" the square becomes negative

if you place a - inside a "- charged square" the square becomes positive

Optimus PrimeNumber Alg Robot

They must solve for the unknown variables to beat the robot

Subtracting Integers With Hats

Assign each student a number from -10 -> 10

Have students make hats and color their numbers on the hats

Have all students leave their hats on their desk and go to the back of the room and form a line

Give each student a problem -9-1 = ?

They must solve the problem , go to the seat with the correct answer and place that hat on their head

New Ways to Teach Number Lines

Use Steps or a Football Field

Pythagorean Shoes

Have students take off their shoes, right shoes lined up behind right (left behinf left). Have students use C^2 = A^2 + B^2 to calculate the hypotenuse

Got a Lot of Shoes? Let's Learn Pythagoreans Theorem

What you'll need:

shoes

ruler or yard stick 

pen and paper

1st: gather up as many shoes from your closest as you can 

2nd: Since our Pythagorean Theorem only works for 90 degree triangles. line your shoes up to for the letter L (like this)

3rd: Label one line of shoes (we call legs) of your triangle A, and the other line of shoes B

4th: Measure each line of shoes with your measuring device and record them on your paper

     A =

     B =

Now we have enough information to solve the distance from the tip of one line of shoes to the tip of the other line of shoes. We call this line the hypotenuse 

5th: Using Pythagoreans Theorem A^2 + B^2 = C^2 solve for the distance of C, our hypotenuse. 

C = Square root(B^2 + C^2)

6th: Plug in your recorded information for A and B and solve for C. Hint: make sure your using the same units like inches or cm's. Record your answer below

C =  

7th: After recording your data, use your measuring device to measure the hypotenuse (the distance from the tip of one line of shoes to the tip of the other line of shoes). Did you get the same answer?

Questions To Ask Yourself

Say, instead of measuring with your ruler you counted up the size of each shoe for the distance of each line of shoes. Would your answer change? Why?

If you would have mixed multiple units of measurement like cm's and inches while working on the project, versus using the same measuring unit, how would this have effected your answer? 

Yawning Applications

Have your students stare at the following picture for 60 seconds and count the number of yawns. You may use the data in percentage, mean, median, mode or graphing problems.

Play Doh Algebra

So much fun for the kids! Takes about 10-15mins to complete one problem

Cutting Out Advertisments to Calculate the Discounts

Have Students Give Their Parents Homework

If your students can explain (and grade) their parents homework, they have mastered the material

Pin The Tail On The Real Number Donkey

What About Using A Math Lab

The goal is to transfer the questions on the students standardized tests into an actual hands-on lab

Using The The YORD to teach Y-axis, Output, Range and Dependent Variables

The YORD is special creature that helps students with distinguishing the coordinate system in terms of (x,y), (input, output), (Domain, Range), (independent variable, dependent variable)
Y- Y-coordinate (x, y)
O- Output
R- Range
D- Dependent Variable

Santa's On A Budget (Discounted Wish List)

Have you kids write their Christimas Wish List for Santa using discounts

Teaching Polygons with Poems

I start the class with a silly personal polygon poem

"There was a girl named poly.
Poly, poly-o-gon.
Of her forms were many,
and now they all are gone
Tri, quad, penta, hex, hempta...
octa, non-DECA!!"

Wait till you see the silly things your kids will write about (Have them stand on their chairs to read it).

Teaching Absolute Values Using Two Poles

We know that an absolute value is always a positive number because the symbol is asking how far each number is from zero. Since we can think of the absolute value symbol as a positive machine (where negative numbers turn positive) than we can use this image to construct a happy machine!

What you need: Two poles or sticks and some student volunteers



Have student volunteers form a line and act grumpy and negative



Have student one-by-one walk through the poles



As they walk through the poles have them become happy or positive

A Great Way For Doing Group Work

Using large construction paper have students complete the same problem and write their answers in the middle

Teaching Percentage Change

Using The Speed of Light to Teach Proportions

Other Ideas For Teaching The Real Number System

Playing Real Number Darts


(many variations)

Give students the number, for example Pi.
Have them either

1. ball the number up and throw it at the right position on the diagram (irrational).

2. Have them make a spitball and shoot it at the right position



Pin The Real Number Tail on The Diagram

Use a poster to draw a number system on the wall. Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students come to you and pick a number out of a bag and take a piece of tape
Have students tape the number in the right position on the diagram


Jumping Toward The Real Number

Use a poster or sidewalk chalk to draw a number system on the ground. Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students come to you and pick a number out of a bag.
Then have students jump to the right position

Real Number Basketball

Using small basketball hoops (you may use cups, or boxes), label each hoop Irrational, Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole Cut up lots of numbers and place them in a bag/box
Have students come to you and pick a number out of a bag.
Have students shoot a ball to the correct hoop

Real Number Twister
(Get permission from administrator)

Using a poster draw the twister board as shown above. Label each circle , Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole. Ask for three volunteers

                       Call out random numbers to make them stretch and reach the correct category

Creating a Real Number Maze
Create a maze by hand or print one through puzzelmaker.com



Label each street Irrational Rd, Rational Rd, Natural Street, Integer lane or Whole Street

Pick a few random numbers (pi, -3, 0) that need to move through the maze. Students will need to navigate each number through the maze while paying attention to each street so that they don’t disobey the real number system. For example, the number zero may not navigate through any street named Natural because it would violate the number system.

Real Number Hot Potato

Cluster students into groups of five.




Have each student label their self either Irrational, Rational, Natural, Integer or Whole



Giving one of the students a ball



When you yell out a number, students must throw the ball to the right person.



For example, yell Pi, and students must know to throw the ball to the irrational person.

Teaching the Real Number System

Using a diagram like that shown below there are various ways to teach the real number system.

Having Students Create Their Own Diagram




Have students take the concept show in the diagram above and create their own diagram for the real number system. For example, here are some examples of what students have produced for me.

Beware, students have a habit of drawing a shape and randomly labeling parts. Therefore, you must make them aware that their diagram must be mathematically consistent. For example, if they use a face for their diagram, they may label the eyes rational and ears counting, etc. This would be incorrect since counting numbers are within rational numbers.

High-Five Exponents

High-Five Exponents

The most common mistake students make with exponents is they multiply the base times the exponent verses the bases times itself. The purpose of this exercise is to help students recognize such error.

Write the following exponent on the board 5^3
Tell the students that the 5 represents fingers and the three represents the number of times we high-five. Therefore, have students high-five someone beside them three times.

Have students chant times between each slap
Then write the following exponent 3^5 on the board
Have students use three fingers and high-five with three fingers five separate times.
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