Math Activities - Learning Math with Mrs. Behling!

SCCTM 2015 Files

posted Nov 12, 2015, 6:01 PM by Kathryn Behling

If you attended my session at the 2015 SCCTM, attached you will find the files that I used! If you have any questions, please contact me at behling@gssm.k12.sc.us!

| Attachments: How do we keep it hot - TI - SCCCR_edited 8.25.15.docx SCCTM 2015 Presentation.zip

HSAP Jeopardy

posted Sep 13, 2013, 7:46 AM by Kathryn Behling [ updated Nov 12, 2015, 5:51 PM ]

This post is a shout out to one of my best teacher friends, Sarah Lesica. She made this awesome HSAP Jeopardy review game that I used with my students before the state testing. Even if you don't live in SC, this can be a good review of some basic skills for your students!

| Attachments: HSAP Jeopardy.ppt

Newton's Law of Cooling

posted Aug 23, 2013, 6:55 AM by Kathryn Behling

Newton's Law of Cooling is taught in Algebra 2, PreCalculus, and Calculus. Sure, we could just give our students the formula and tons of questions about sticking a pie on a windowsill for practice, or we could actually let them do it! This activity does require you to have access to some type of thermometer.

| Attachments: Water vs. Alcohol Cooling.docx

Histograms

posted Aug 19, 2013, 7:38 AM by Kathryn Behling

When teaching histograms, I like to come up with fun datasets for my students to work with. This activity is called Presidential Graveyard and the students create a frequency distribution and histogram on the ages at death of all of the deceased presidents.

| Attachments: Project Presidents - Histograms.doc

Linear Transformations Matching

posted Aug 12, 2013, 6:05 AM by Kathryn Behling

I LOVE doing matching activities with my students! Particularly when a subject is really hard for them, matching can be a fun way for a light bulb to turn on in their brains. I'm attaching a Linear Transformations Matching activity that can be used either in Algebra 1 or as a review in Algebra 2. The students have to match the graph with the equations with the written out transformations. I used it at the very beginning of Algebra 2 as a review and it really helped my students get a better grasp on transformations. Feel free to use it or modify it!

| Attachments: Matching Linear Transformations.docx

LRAM, RRAM, MRAM, Oh My!!

posted Aug 2, 2013, 6:07 AM by Kathryn Behling [ updated Aug 2, 2013, 6:12 AM ]

When I first started teaching AP Calculus, I really thought that approximations to integrals was something I could just fly through because all of my students would understand it. Well, as it turns out, I was completely wrong. For some reason (even though it seems insanely obvious to me), my students had so much trouble understanding how to draw those rectangles! So I had to think of an activity - and fast! That's when it hit me - spaghetti!

So I ended up buying lots of spaghetti and four different colors of spray paint and I stayed late in my classroom one night to paint tons of spaghetti (it was a trailer so I had the doors open to the outside). The next day, my students were given an integral that they had to approximate with LRAM, RRAM, MRAM, and the Trapezoid rule. They had to make a poster and, using the spaghetti, had to show me every single rectangle/trapezoid. I've done it two years now, and for some reason, something just clicks with a lot of them and they don't have as much trouble doing it from then on!

See my handout below!

| Attachments: Integral Approximations Activity.doc

Fun Fridays!

posted Jul 26, 2013, 1:22 PM by Kathryn Behling [ updated Jul 30, 2013, 6:25 AM ]

9th graders are a special breed of high schooler. Their brains are still in middle school, but their bodies are in my high school classroom.

My first and second years teaching, I found myself with year long Algebra 1 classes. That means I saw the students for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, all year long. This can be rough!

About halfway through the year, I realized that I had to do something to give my students a break at the end of the week while they were still learning. This is where Fun Fridays came from.

The Setup:

I put my students in groups of 4 with one strong, two weak, and three middle level students.
They spend 12 minutes per station for 5 stations.
One station is always an application station.
Each group only has 3 cards that they can use to ask the teacher a question - they must rely on each other!
At the end of the rotation, the students turn in their papers for a homework grade.
Each student then takes a short quiz. All of the questions come from the their stations. I have 4 levels of quizzes that go to the 4 different levels of students.
The student's quiz grade is 1/2 their own grade and 1/2 their group average.
The students always have a writing homework assignment.

The Fun Fridays activity I am uploading for you today is one I did towards the end of the year consisting of a lot of review. Enjoy!

| Attachments: Application Station.doc Graphing.doc HWWriting Assignment.doc Multiplying Monomials.doc Quizzes.doc Solving Equations.doc Systems of Equations.doc

I LOVE Activities!

posted Jul 25, 2013, 1:00 PM by Kathryn Behling [ updated Jul 30, 2013, 6:26 AM ]

Over my past five years as a math teacher, I have taught every class in a regular high school curriculum. Seriously. Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, PreCalculus, Calculus, CP Prob/Stat, AP Statistics. Not to mention both the CP and Honors levels of those things! In that time I REALLY loved doing activities - anything from math BINGO to a math scavenger hunt to showing Reimann sums with spray painted spaghetti noodles!

I'd like to start sharing some of those activities! My goal is to post an activity every Friday!

DISCLAIMER: These activities are not perfect!! They are really just to serve as a jumping off point for you to use in your classroom!