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.