A peek at my Pythagorean Theorem Unit

      At last, my finalized Pythagorean Theorem unit. I feel like I have been working on this forever. I love all of the activities that I have found and it was difficult to narrow it down to the following lessons. Here is a list of the major activities that I am doing with my students starting next week. This is going to be fun!

     

Pythagorean Theorem Investigation

     I will introduce Pythagorean Theorem with the Starburst candy activity. I was inspired by Pam Lucken's video to use Starburst candies as a manipulative to form the sides of the triangles. I have seen the same project using other manipulatives as well. I just think candy will be fun. My goal is for the students to be able to discover the Pythagorean Theorem on their own. When they have finished the activity it will go in their interactive notebooks.

Students will need:

•   A copy of the Starburst Triangle Investigation and direction sheet.
•  A plastic bag with 340 Starbursts in each bag. (Maybe 350 to account for accidental eating.) 
•    A plastic bag with triangle measurement sides for the six triangles they will model.
•    Paper, pencil and straightedge.    

                                                   

Click here for: Starburst triangle investigation and
Triangle Exploration Worksheet ( adapted from Alexander Sabitino, Picking Pythagorus.)
Directions for Starburst Exploration, Starburst triangles to measure pg 1, 
starburst triangles to measure pg 2

         My students will follow the directions on the Triangle Exploration worksheet and create triangles with the side lengths given on the cards in their envelopes. They will determine if the sides form a triangle, classify what type of angle is formed by the largest angle and if the area of the smaller sides cover the largest side.

Pythagorean Theorem Foldable

The next day we will make this foldable and place it into our INB'directions for Starburst activitys.

Click here for Pythagorean Theorem foldable template.

Interesting Lessons

     Time for some interesting problems from Mrs. Hester's Classroom and Embrace the Drawing Board. Check their entire lessons on the link provided. I love these two lessons.

Lessons from  Mrs. Hester's Pythagorean Theorem Lesson.

And here are some more wonderful INB pages from Mrs. Hester's Classroom.

Lesson Will the TV fit, from Tim's 3 act from Embrace the Drawing Board.

Pythagorean Triples

    In the past, Pythagorean Triples have been one or two problems where the topic has been mentioned and not much more. I plan on spending a few day on triples this year.

     OK, I don't have this foldable completely finished but thought I would give you a preview. Final foldable will be posted soon. Promise!

And here are some videos.

     I love Robert Kaplinsky - Wizard of Oz, Pythagorean Theorem problem. See if you can find all the errors in the video before looking at his answers. I can't believe that so many of my students have never seen this movie. I may be dating myself but we watched it every Thanksgiving when we had only 4 channels to watch on TV. My how times have changed.

       Some teachers would probably use this at the beginning of the unit, but I want my students to have lots of practice with Pythagorean Theorem before they see this video. I am going to use it at the end of the unit. They will have practiced many times and be able to verbalize or write down the errors they see.

        

And of course, Dan Meyer's 3 act, taco cart lesson. Check his site to see all 3 acts with questions and more. It is outstanding and the kids love guessing to see who will get to the taco cart first.

Distance Between Two Points 

     I'm excited to use Mary's lesson distance between 2 points at Curiouser and Curiouser. Read Mary's post to see the rest of the lesson. I'm hoping that the hallway outside my classroom is large enough for this. If not I will go to the main hall of the building. I like how the students will need to decide how to measure the sides. I've already started to think about how to group the students for this activity so they will be successful. Thanks Mary for posting this lesson.

     I know that I will  add to my plans throughout the unit. My lesson plans change depending on the students needs. Look for photos of students in my next post.

 Til next time,

      Jan 

Pre-teaching before Pythagorean Theorem

      The Pythagorean Theorem unit is going to be so much fun to teach this year. I have never had the time to go into this topic with the depth that I plan to this year. There are so many great activities it is hard to narrow it down. My Pre Algebra students need to review some of the prerequisites for this unit so I took the 1 1/2 before spring break to review some of these concepts.

1. Measuring and Classifying Angles
     The students always love working with the protractors and after 4 long days of state testing it was exactly the type of activity they needed. We measured and drew angles adding these pages to our INB's. This foldable came about by accident. When I printed up the flash cards for perfect squares and square roots (see below) there were empty flashcards on the last page. I printed the flashcards on card stock and couldn't bear to not use it. In my mission to use scrap paper, I created this foldable. :)

The students used protractors to draw their own angles where the green post it is.

     I love utilizing materials that I have. In hindsight I may arrange these horizontally next year so they all fit onto one page.

2. Measuring and Classifying Triangles
     We completed this foldable and practice sheet from 4mulaFun  for our INB's. It was a good review of triangles for the kids and they are getting so much better with the cutting and pasting  activities. I finally gave up on glue and have the students tape their foldables in their notebooks. They were a nightmare with the glue, it was everywhere and the tops would get clogged. I used glue sticks but they didn't last long at all. Tape is expensive so any ideas from my readers is appreciated.

3. Sum of the angles of a triangle.
     I didn't really need to review this topic for Pythagorean Theorem but my students background is lacking so as long as we were talking about triangles and angles, I added this in for them. I can't believe I never saw this activity before to show the sum of the angles of a triangle equal 180 degrees. It takes no preparation on the part of the teacher and I used paper from my scrap basket. YES! I had the kids take scraps of paper and draw an acute triangle, right triangle and obtuse triangle. The size or angle measures were up to the kids to decide. Then they colored or marked all the angles of the triangles. I then had them rip the angles and reassemble them to form a straight line. So easy and a great visual for them. It took a few tries to get the angles lined up so it is like a puzzle. They loved it.

Tear the triangles into three pieces. Then assemble to form a straight line.    

A great visual for showing the sum of angles of a triangle.

     Yes, I know the top triangle isn't lined up in a straight line. Funny none of the kids caught that! Not to worry, I will fix it.

4. Creating a geometry star
     It was the day before spring break and nobody wanted to be at school. There was an assembly and the classes were shortened to 36 minutes and the kids were, you know, a bit excited. What to do? Since we were studying triangles we did this quick project. Most of the kids finished in the 36 minutes and they were busy the entire time, calm and happy. Isn't that the way it should be before break? Again, I like this because all that was needed was paper, pencil, ruler and colored pencils. Easy. And it gets better, it is free on teachers pay teacher from Virtually Montessori. After break I will post some of the pictures the students created.

         

5.  Square numbers and square roots.

     We are making flash cards to memorize perfect squares and square roots. You can go to kitzkitz  to make your own flashcards to print. We  will cut the flash cards and then put them into envelopes in our INB's. This idea is from Mrs. Hester's Classroom. I only had the kids do the perfect squares for this lesson. They learned this very early in the year but now I have them memorize the squares through 25. The envelope to make the pocket is from homeschoolshare. They have a fantastic collection of templates you can use that are free. They also have templates for foldables that you can type on and print up. Check them out, they are a great resource.

                Here is the link to the flash cards for perfect squares and square roots (make sure to download the document to see square roots as well.) The originals are large and good for a math center but they use seven pages of paper. When I printed the individual flash cards for the students, I printed 4 pages on one page. That way I only used two pieces of paper per student. I'm always trying to save paper when possible.

I gave the students  the smaller version of the flashcards and they fit in the pocket nicely. You could also have two pockets instead of just one.

     I hope there is something here that is new that you will be able to use. One thing I am noticing with Common Core is that everyone is teaching the same topic at the same time so there is so much available for us to use with the kids. It is amazing. I am finishing up my Pythagorean Theorem unit and hope to post it by the end of the week.

                                                                 Until next time,

                                                                         Jan 

    

Pythagorean Theorem - Real Life Lessons

     I have been searching for some real life application lessons for Pythagorean Theorem unit. You know the lessons that students can relate to, not the ones where you have a ladder placed against a building. I have found a two lessons that I absolutely love.

     The first is  Mrs. Hester's Pythagorean Theorem map lesson and it is exactly what I have been looking for. How often do our students actually handle a map and measure it?  And she uses a map of the town the students live in. Now that is something they can relate to and understand. I am sure there is a lesson that could be developed using technology but that will be for a later post.
                                           

     Mrs. Hester has students find how much cable AT&T will need to install U-verse lines in the town the kids live in. Unfortunately there are not many straight roads in the town I teach in. UGH! No wonder I get lost in this subdivision when I decide to take the back roads as a short cut. I'm determined to find a spot in this town that has straight roads. Until then I may just use Mrs. Hester's map. I love this lesson!
       
      The second lesson is Tim's 3 act, TV space,  at Embrace the Drawing Board.

     In this lesson, Tim has an area below a shelf, between two speakers and on a stand that he wants to place a TV. Will the Samsung TV fit in this space? Tim has more pictures with measurements and discussion questions. This again is the real life experience problems I am looking  for my students to do. They can relate to the problem and who doesn't want a big screen TV? Thanks Tim for this awesome lesson.

     As I have said before, I don't think I am a very creative person but I don't have to be. There are so many wonderful lessons out in Blogland that I can pull for my students to use. I don't need to spend hours making them, I can adapt the lessons that others have so generously shared. If anyone has other Pythagorean Theorem lessons they know of, please share them. I would love to see more of these.

                                                             Til next time,

                                                                    Jan

Three acts by Dan Meyer (taco cart)

       I discovered math blogs for the first time last year when I was getting my masters and doing research online. I couldn't believe I didn't know all these resources were available. One of the first bloggers I found was Dan Meyer. How did I not know about him? If you are new to reading blogs or you lived under a rock like I did, I want to introduce you to Dan Meyer (watch his video) and his 3 act lessons. Watching Dan teach this lesson is exactly what I needed to see. Now I can model and practice this teaching strategy myself. I need to slow down my questioning, increase the wait time to give students time to process the information, and then have them share.
     The kids love these lessons and they are amazing. The lessons are broken into 3 parts. The first part is a short video that sets up a problem for students to think about and predict what they think will happen. The second act is giving some of the information that they will need to solve the problem. You give them this after some discussion in class. Then the third act is the reveal or answer. But really, watch his video because it is so much more than that. I am going to use Dan Meyer's three acts taco cart lesson for my Pythagorean Theorem unit.

Click here Dan Meyer's taco cart act one

    I can't wait to use this lesson with my 8th graders over the course of a few days.  I would love to hear from teachers that have used this lesson with their classes. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.
     This is a link to Dan Meyer's 3 act spreadsheet. You are not going to be able to stop watching them! Enjoy!
                                                       Til next time,
                                                               Jan