Pyramids Snowball Quiz

This week we started finding the surface area and volume of pyramids. On Monday, we went over the following foldable. I have 2 deaf students this year in Geometry and I have learned that color coding certain pieces of information helps them understand the material better. I have had several interpreters come to me saying that geometry finally makes sense to them!

We started off the class period by labeling and identifying the important vocabulary terms that students will use throughout the unit. 

After the vocabulary terms, we jumped into finding the surface area and volume of a square pyramid, regular triangular pyramid, and regular hexagonal pyramid. 

This is the first year that I have used this flip-book and I have to say that I really liked it! I am also planning to use my other foldable (click here) as a review later on.

The next class period, we did a surface area and volume of pyramids "snowball quiz." I printed out the following document on colored cardstock (this helps when students are trying to find a new "snowball.") 

I posted question #1 on the board and told students that they had four minutes to solve it and put their answer on the box. 

After four minutes was up, I told them to crumple it up into a "snowball." They stared back at me for a solid 10 seconds before asking "Why?" I told students that they only had 30 seconds to throw the snowball to a different person in the classroom (time limit is a MUST). After 30 seconds, I kept question #1 posted on the board and told students to check the paper to see if it had any mistakes. If there were mistakes, they had 2 minutes to correct question #1. 

Repeat the same steps for question #2. After each question, I had a slide that showed all of the previous problems so students had something to reference when checking the work on the paper. 

After all of the questions were posted, I told students to crumple it up and put it in a box. I told them that I was only going to pick one paper and that it was going to be everyone's grade. 

Luckily, each class, I picked a WINNER!

Overall, all of my kids enjoyed this and I definitely wished that I could do this everyday since 99.9% of my students were engaged during the whole class period!

Here are the files for the snowball quiz: 

• Pyramids Snowball Questions
• Pyramids Snowball Answer Sheet

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Editable Area and Perimeter Foldable

This is an Area and Perimeter book that I created last semester to review with my level classes. I decided to use this foldable instead of my Area and Perimeter Flip-book (click here for previous post) because I wanted to give my students time to complete their Dream House Project in class. I used the flip-book as an extra study guide to help out struggling students.

If you would like to use, I included an editable template in PPT for this foldable. All you have to do is type in the boxes the questions that works best for your grade level.  

Here is a glance at some of the assignments that students did as extra practice/stations review. 

This was by FAR my favorite unit this year so far because students were able to create their own "Dream House" using real world materials. They even had their own budget! Students were extremely engaged and looked forward to coming to class to finish their "house" every day. :)

I also decided to create different shapes around my classroom and they had to use rulers and protractors (trig) to figure out missing lengths in order to find the area and perimeter.

If you would like another post in more detail about the Dream House project and other activity, I'll be happy to post this week!

Here are the files for the Area and Perimeter Book: 

• Area and Perimeter Book
• Editable Area and Perimeter Book

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Quadrilateral Properties w/ Card Sort

I changed it up this year and introduced these pages before my quadrilaterals flip-book (you can find in previous post ). I had students tape down properties of parallelograms, rectangles, rhombi, and squares on the left side of their notebook and had them tape down properties of trapezoids on the right side.

I told students, every day that we go through the different types of quadrilaterals, I want you to reference this page and write down key information that will help you remember. This will be your own personal "quadrilaterals cheat sheet" and its sole purpose is to help you come up with your own way to remember the properties.

After the unit was done, I glanced through students notebook and wrote down the most common notes. The pictures below are what most of my students ended up writing down in their INB. I did not provide students with any information to write down. 

After students taped down the blank properties in their INB, I had students complete a quadrilateral card sort. I told students to sort the cards and write down a short paragraph on why they chose to sort their cards that way. 

The following are the 3 most popular categories that students chose to sort their cards.

Popular Category #1: 5 different groups

Group 1: Angles on cards J, F, P, G, H, and C are all congruent.

Group 2: Angles on cards N and L are supplementary.

Group 3: On card A, only half of the diagonals marked.

Group 4: On cards I, D, O, and M, the angles marked are supposed to represent ninety degrees.

Group 5: On cards E, K, and B, the diagonals are congruent.

Popular Category #2: 2 different groups based on angles and diagonals

Group 1: On cards C, D, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, and P, angles are marked in the picture.

Group 2: On cards A, B, K, and E, diagonals are marked or given in the picture. 

Popular Category #3: 2 different groups

Group 1: 

Students placed these cards in the same group because they are all part of the parallelogram "family."

Group 2: 

Students placed these cards in the same group because they have their own family since they do not have two pairs of parallel sides. 

This was my first card sort activity where I allowed students to choose how they wanted to sort the cards. Definitely going to be making more card sorts like these in the future!

Here are the files that I used if you would like to use!

• Properties of Quadrilaterals
• Quadrilaterals Card Sort

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Anchor Chart for Surface Area and Volume of Prisms

Today, I decided to create the following anchor charts for my geometry resource classes. The purpose of creating these charts was to give students an additional tool to support instruction and to move the students towards achieving success with finding the surface area and volume of prisms. I'm going to ask the librarians at my school to print these out as half size posters and laminate them for me to hang them up around my classroom for students to reference. It's faster for me to create this anchor chart digitally than to handwrite it.

This is my first year teaching a geometry resource class and I did not realize how much assistance and supplemental aids some of these students need. My resource classes are very small and one class has 8 students and the other class has 5 students. Last month, I learned that my school district is getting rid of these geometry resource classes so this has me scrambling to come up with ways for these students to be successful in my on-level classes for next year. I think I am going to create these charts for every topic in geometry and have them spiral bound for students to reference.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome since this is my very first "digital" anchor chart. 

Here is the file if you would like to use:

• Surface Area and Volume of Prisms Digital Anchor Chart

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2016-2017 Right Triangles Unit

Here are a few glimpses into my right triangles interactive notebook pages. I created several new pages this year and thought I'd share! :)

Day 1: Pythagorean Theorem

We went over this new flip-book that I created over the summer. We broke it up into separate sections to not make the lesson seem so long.

Some of my classes went through these Pythagorean Theorem Real World Applications Task Cards.

My resource classes made Rockstar Math Teacher's Pythagorean Theorem Real World Situations Poster.

Overall, this was a GREAT block day! I allowed students to do a "Pythagoras Project" to replace 2 of their lowest homework assignments. Here are two examples of students who opted to do this project.

Day 2: Converse of Pythagorean Theorem
This is also a new foldable that I created over the summer. I re-made Erin Atwood's Converse of Pythagorean Theorem Slider (Click Here For Her Free Slider on TPT).

Afterwards, we completed my Converse of Pythagorean Theorem Card Sort (that you can find here). Students showed their work in their interactive notebook.

Day 3: 45-45-90 Triangles

I have used these next couple of foldables for the past 2 years since I love them so much. You can find my original blog post when you click here. 

Day 4: 30-60-90 Triangles

These are also old foldables that I have used in previous years. You can find my original blog post when you click here. 

Students then completed my Special Right Triangles Color By Number (click here for original blog post). I found some typos that I will be fixing soon so I had some students choose their own colors :). Here is one example of the "correct" color by number and one where student chose the colors that they wanted to use. I may modify it in the future so students can choose their own colors.

Day 5: QUIZ (BOOO!!!); Students did well (YAY!!!!)

Day 6: Trigonometric Ratios
I have also used this foldable for the past 2 years but I am going to change up the right side of the foldable. I would rather them practice finding missing sides and angles of each given ratio. Here is a link to my original blog post (click here). You can find the homework and warm-ups that I gave students on TPT (CLICK HERE).

After foldable, students had just enough time to work in pairs to complete this Trigonometric Puzzles Activity that I made last week! LOVED IT!

Day 7: Angle of Elevation and Depression

Right Triangles = LOVE! I am excited to share some of my resources that worked well with my students. If it works well with your students, please let me know! I always love to hear feedback and/or any other resources that you use with your students.

Here are some of the foldables/files that I used throughout my right triangles unit: 

• Pythagorean Theorem FlipBook
• Right Triangles Real World Task Cards
• Converse of Pythagorean Theorem Foldable
• Angle of Elevation and Depression Foldable
• Angle of Elevation and Depression Left Side

I have the links to all of the other foldables in previous blog posts.

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