Make it Middle School

Vertical learning can transform a math classroom. When students get out of their chairs and work on non-permanent surfaces, they start to communicate and think more effectively. The following set of 67 problems are examples of activities I use to engage student thinking. The problems allow students to approach math from more than one perspective. As my school year progressed, I would randomly use different problems to review concepts taught earlier in the semester. These problems and this approa

Once students have reviewed all four operations with integers, have them put their knowledge to work creating a game where other students guess their integers based on clues they provide. Samples are provided which model what students are expected to do.

Teaching students how to do operational work with integers is an important skill, yet students must also learn to think more deeply about integers. Creating riddles is a good way for your students to work with sets of different number and work beyond operational questions. This product has a couple of examples for students to use as models when they create their own integer riddles.

This video reviews how to graph a linear pattern. Two different patterns are placed on the same graph so that students can see how the slope changes depending on the pattern rule. The lesson concludes with a brief introduction to the run and rise of a line created by graphing a linear pattern. As with other videos in my distance learning series, music and GIFs are incorporated to make the instruction more engaging for students.

This video walks students through the definition of scientific notation and how to convert a number in standard form to one in scientific notation. GIFs and fun music are used to help with student interest and engagement. Like other videos in my distance learning series, this lesson is meant to offer a review of the concept. No work is assigned.

This video attempts to put the fun in math fundamentals. Using the symbols of an angel and devil, the video goes over some of the rules children will need to help determine whether a number is prime or composite.

This video has an excellent review on how to obtain common factors and multiples from larger numbers. With some upbeat music and funny GIF's, students learn how to obtain the GCF and LCM of numbers using prime factorization and a Venn diagram.

This video is a quick and fun lesson on how to use a tree diagram to represent a larger number as a product of prime factors. The video keeps things light and moving along with a few funny GIF's to help with student attention.

This video is designed to review square roots with children. Using perfect squares as a guide, students learn to use estimation to determine the value of square roots that are non-perfect. Music and GIFs are included to make the video more engaging for student viewing.

The following video shows 6 different infographics from 2015-2020. Each infographic looks at some of the numbers behind the most popular apps and services on the internet. Students get to connect with their own experience, predict trends, and see if there is a relationship with some of the data be constructing a scatter plot using two variables. A rubric for teachers is attached.