Lesson Plan : Yack in the Box

This lesson involves the students working with fractions. The students begin by creating a bigger rod by combining two or three rods. The combination of rods represent one whole unit. Students form addition and subtraction sentences involving fractional lengths of the other rods. The students also will also be able to represent fractions with equivalent expressions. They can begin with combining yellow and black rod, calling it yack rod. Then students will use the white rods to see how many they will need to represent an equivalent rod. The process will continue until the orange rod is use to represent the length of the combination of two rods.

NLVM : percentages

This week I was playing with the Percentages found in Number and Operations in Pre K-2. I like this manipulative because I know that students still have a problem with percentages even at the high school level. The good thing about this is that it lets you input the values yourself. For example, you can put in the whole, the part and it will compute the percentage for you. You can also work backwards, where you can input the percentage, the part and it will compute the whole. The equation that is use is a ratio and proportion equation. Part over the whole equals the percentage over a 100%. If you try to input a part that is greater than the whole, it will tell you that the part needs to be less than the whole. That way the students will understand that while working with numbers where the maximum is a 100 percent, the part can not be bigger than the whole. It would be a good intro to the possibility of having numbers over a 100 percent.

Lesson Plan : Concrete Foundations

Number 7th-8th : Concrete Foundations
Objective: Writing and Solving Equations


Students will use the cuisenaire rods to write equations containing variables. Practice combining like terms, and visualize concepts of the properties of addition. Students will begin by determining how many other combinations can be made to form a wall of a certain length. Then students will be giving a list of equations representing walls made of stone. Each equation will have a missing "stone" and students will use the rods to find out the missing "stone". Example would be: red+green+purple = blank+green+purple. After they are done students will share their results. Students will use the concept of combining like terms and replace the blanks using variables.

Online Manipulative: Online game templates

http://www.murray.k12.ga.us/teacher/kara%20leonard/Mini%20T%27s/Games/Games.htm

This website has a lot of powerpoint templates. Most of them are blank and are ready to use. For some you can fill in the questions and answers. Some are just templates to keep score where you ask the questions yourself. The website is useful and you can change the templates to your liking.

Geo Board Lesson Plan(2)

I found this lesson on the cd. It is called Pythagoras Delivers the Mail. The objectice of this lesson is to devise methods for finding areas, learn about Pythogorean Theorem. The lesson starts with the students creating a triangle, any size, using the geoboard and drawing it on the center of a dot paper. Using a ruler draw a square congruent to the side of the triangle. Then they would need to find the area of each of the squares. Repeat the process with an obtuse triangle and an acute triangle. Students will then share their results with each other. Students will be told that there is a relationship to the squares and the right triangles. Students should notice a relatioship known as Pythogogearn Theorem. Students will be presented with a real life problem to relate their understanding to the lesson.

Virtual Manipulative : Base Blocks Decimals

The virtual manipulative that I found was under the number and operations grade 6-8. It is called Base Block Decimals. I like this manipulative because it breaks down the process of the subtracting and adding decimals. If there is something that students hate just as much as fractions or more it would be decimals. The program goes from one decimal place to 3 decimal places. It uses blocks to represent the given problem and lets you choose the base of the blocks, from 2,3,4,5 and 10. What I also like the fact that it uses fractions to break up the columns. When adding decimals all you have to do is group the blocks. When subtracting you have to match the blue blocks and the red blocks to cancel each other out. The only problem with this is that when dealing with 3 decimal places the answers are wrong. It is a a good manipulative to start dealing with decimals.

Lesson Plan ; The Square Challenge

OBJ: Determine the area and perimeter using different techniques/strategies (such as Pythagorean Theorem, logical reasoning or square roots).

Materials: One Geoboard per student and about 5-8 rubber bands.

Students are to create different squares and determine the area. Students will be told that the distance from each peg is one unit. Students will be encouraged to show of the different types of squares that they found, and to explain how they found the area. After the show and tell, they will be asked how you can determine the perimeter of the squares. Students may show combinations of different techniques and completely different strategies to come up with area and perimeter.