Squares, Cubes, and Fractional Exponents

     I have decided that this year I am not going to be able to get a full blog post done! It seems like this is one of the busiest, craziest years I have had in a very long time. Everyone I talk to in my district feels the same way so I am not alone, thank goodness. How about all of you? Are you feeling the same stress that I am? Or is it just my district? Just letting you know that the foreseeable future is going to be short posts with a few pictures. At least that way I will still be able to do some reflection and sharing with all of you.
      The other day, I was browsing the teacherspayteachers site, one of my favorites, and I found a great interactive notebook page from RoxyGirl on Fractional Exponents. I like the way she laid out the problems so I bought it and used it with my 8th grade Pre-Algebra class. I really like to have a practice page to go on the left so I created a sheet for the kiddos to do.  I also had them write the answers on the bottom half of the sheet as well. This was a great extension of the lesson but a bit difficult for my lower level students. 

I cannot show the right hand page because of copyright but go to  RoxyGirl at teacherspayteachers to see or buy it. One of my goals in my never ending quest to help my students with their number sense is to show the different forms of numbers. These notes fit into that category perfectly.

Click here to download Square and Cube roots and Fractional

Exponents practice page. 

     I am absolutely loving my Interactive Notebook this year. There are so many pages and topics I have to share and hopefully I can do these short posts until everything calms down a bit.

Til next time,

Jan

Perfect squares and square roots

     In a previous post I shared the flash cards that I had students make to memorize their perfect squares and square roots to 25.

Click here to see flash cards for perfect squares and square roots (make sure to download the document to see square roots as well) and the previous post.

     In the past I have had limited success with this because some of the kids would not take home or look at their flash cards to study. Well this year I tried something different. Even though I only have my students for 45 minutes a day, I have them pull out their flash cards and take the first 4 minutes of class to study them individually. Then they work with their partners for 3 minutes each quizzing each other on their facts.   Then they put their flashcards away and we orally recite the facts. I say 1 squared they say 1 and so on. This 10 minutes a day has helped them tremendously. We are working on Pythagorean Theorem and the kids are seeing the benefit of knowing their perfect squares by heart.
     Some of my lower level students forget their cards, I think because they don't know them and are embarrassed to work with their partners. I work with them in a small group during that 10 minutes. It has helped them to have the individual attention and we go over some of the square roots orally together. They really like doing this and they are learning some of these facts.
      Next week I will be calling each students aside and checking to see how many they know. The students who have them all memorized, so far about 8 out of 87 Pre-Algebra students will have their name put on the wall of perfect square masters. I will have to find something else for them to memorize during our 10 minute period. And as if I am not nerdy enough, I am teaching the students this song to the tune, "We will,  We will, Rock you."  They clear off their desks and do the:
pound, pound, clap -
pound, pound, clap -
on their desks to the song.

Here are the lyrics:

I know my squares
up to 25,
and I'm going to say them,
for you right now,
and if you think I can't,
that's a BIG MISTAKE!
we're squaring numbers,
all over the place.

Refrain:
We will, we will, square them!
We will, we will, square them!

Me:   Ready, set, 1, 2, 3, go:  1 squared
Kids: 1
Me: 2 squared
kids: 4
Me 3 squared
kids 9
... do this to 10 squared.

Refrain:
We will, we will, square them!
We will, we will, square them!

Me:   Ready, set, 1, 2, 3, go:
Me: 11 squared
kids: 121
Me 12 squared
kids: 144
... through 15 squared.

Refrain:
We will, we will, square them!
We will, we will, square them!

Me:   Ready, set, 1, 2, 3, go:
... squares through 20.

Refrain:
We will, we will, square them!
We will, we will, square them!

Me:   Ready, set, 1, 2, 3, go:
squares through 25

I know my squares up to 25,
I just said them for you right now,
I told you I could,
I made no mistakes,
we're squaring numbers,
all over the place.

Refrain:
We will, we will, square them!
We will, we will, square them!

     I am here to tell you that the kids love this and come in everyday asking if we can do the song. Everyone is exhausted by the end of the song and shaking their hands, but they are all smiles. I do have to talk to the teachers in the rooms near me to see if they are testing because we make a lot of noise. My students who need movement have had their sensory input for the next couple of hours and my visual and auditory learners have used their senses as well. A win, win situation. I do lead the pound, pound, clap - at the front of the room to keep the beat the same. Maybe one of these days I will actually be able to record a class doing this.

                                                  Til next time,

                                                        Jan