Mathemagical strategies from pdc, cj5 and mscc

4/5 Mathematicians Agree!  You + These tip/tricks = Amazingness

A big thank you to  the Math teachers at Pitchess Detention Center (Kimberly VanScoyk, Jamie Roach, and Lynne Winner),
County Jail 5 (Cynthia Wolley), and Maple Street Correctional Center (Anna Flores).

Goooo Math team!!! 

Do nows 

Can you solve it? 

Write or project a problem on the board chosen to help build algebraic thinking through discussion.  

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Math Term of the day

Project a Math Vocabulary word on the screen for discussion. Students make an entry into their Math Dictionary, writing down the word and its definition, and then using it in a sentence. Then, try showing a short video or play a song/rap about the term.

PEMDAS EXPRESSION OF THE DAY

Simplify an expression, using the rules for order of operations, that results in the date. Use lots of roots, exponents, parentheses, fractions, etc.  For example,  if the date is the 26th write 3^2 (that means to the 2nd power) + 4^2 + 1^2.

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war games

Use a deck of cards to practice whatever math skill is desired following the same rules as the classic game War.  For example, each student plays a card; if practicing multiplication, the first student to multiply the numbers on the cards correctly gets both cards!  You can make up extra special challenges for the face cards, such as Jack=Times Ten, Queen=Divide by Two, King=Squared, etc. Great for increasing Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division skills!

METAPHORS AND CATCH PHRASES

use quarters and clocks

When the students are working with 25s... have them think of quarters.  When the students are working with 5s... have them think of clocks. 

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the bop bop rule! 

When you are subtracting a negative integer (4 - -2) you can "bop bop" it, making each of the negatives into a positive every time you say "bop". If there's a parent (number) in between the two numbers then you can't use the rule.  ​

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the butterly for multiplying fractions

Students can draw a butterly to help them remember what operations happen where when multiplying two fractions. 

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Algebra scales

Picture balancing an algebra equation like balancing a scale. 

down and dash! 

To practice adding negative integers, turn a normal subtraction problem (subtracting a positive or "normal" number) into addition of a negative integer by turning the subtraction into an addition and the positive into a negative!  Make sense?  No?  Look at the picture!

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library books to explain why -- = +

Imagine you take out 4 books from the library.  Now you owe 4 books.  You now OWE 4 books, or in integer terms we could you you have NEGATIVE 4 books, or (-4).  You read 1 of them and return it.  You've SUBTRACTED a NEGATIVE book, so you've gone from -4 to -3.  Then one day the librarian calls you and tells you that they don't want those books back, you can keep them!  You LOST the NEGATIVE, meaning that now you have POSITIVE 4 books!"

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it takes a family to divide! 

Try out this one to help students remember all the steps! 

projects inspiration! 

recognizing patterns activity! 

Check out this cool activity worksheet about multi-step word problems and recognizing patterns! 

Worksheet

Key

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graph a mystery picture! 

Lots of websites have free graphing mystery sheets! ​

Check out mathaids.com or this pdf! 

math + science  pbl at pdc! 

​In this cool multi-day project at PDC the students built bridges  for math and physics credit. They used popsicles and glue and then on the final day had a competition to see which bridge could hold the most books!