Volume, Cylinders, Cones and Spheres

     This is a post that I just never finished from the end of the school year. It has been sitting in my draft box gathering dust so I'm going to share it as it is. These are some of my favorite lessons and videos for the 8th grade volume unit. I wasn't able to use them all because I just ran out of time, you  know how the end of the year just creeps up on you? Also, because it was the last unit of the year, I had no creativity left to make my own lessons so I used awesome lessons that were created by others. Thanks to all of you who shared this great lessons.

      I have to show a video clip for all my units. This Phineas and Ferb clip is fun.

Click here to go to the video: Phineas and Ferb volume cartoon.

  Phineas and Ferb

   

     This is the foldable that I used for volume from Lisa Davenport at teacherspayteachers.
                                              

 

      Love, love, love this lesson from Robert Kaplinsky. The kids really liked it and had fun trying to get as close as they could to the number of gumballs in the machine. I will do this again for sure next year.

Click here for Robert Kaplinsy's gumball machine  lesson.

     

      I haven't used this lesson but it looks good. It is on my list for next year.

Click here for Dan Meyer, you pour i choose 3 act.

                                                 Click here for Dan Meyer popcorn picker.
   
     I have actually done this lesson, Popcorn anyone ,  from illuminations. The kids have lots of fun with it and of course they get to eat the popcorn they use. The lesson has the students make rectangular prisms from notebook paper but I had them make cylinders because prisms are not 8th grade standards. The kids take a piece of paper, make a cylinder by rolling it with the longer side on the bottom, making a short cylinder. Then they take a second piece of paper and roll it with the shorter side on the bottom, making a taller cylinder. It always amazes me they don't realize that the volume will be the same. It is lots of fun but a little messy.

     OK, my students who are my most reluctant students love Andrew Stadel's trasketball. They all want to be the ones to make the baskets with the paper. The class gets wild and crazy and fun is had by all.

                                             Click here for Andrew Stadel-Trashketball


I love this lessons from NCTM the Ice Cream Puddle  It combines spheres, cones and cylinders. Perfect! Everything I need to go over all in one lesson.

           

                                                                                                                                   Click HERE to see activity sheet and lessons from NCTM.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. 
                                                                             Til next time,
                                                                                    Jan

Housing Blueprints - Day 2

     Today was the last day to connect with students before I have to post grades for third quarter so I was not able to start my blueprint exploration with the kids today. I was able to post some of the blueprints around the room and my students were very interested in what we will be doing with them. I also placed a couple outside my room on the bulletin board for the other students to look at. As you can see there is so much that can be applied to math. We could say everything in these blueprints applies to math!

This blueprint screams slope to me. I hope the kids see that as well.

This blueprint has so many area and volume components to it. Love it!

This one is a little hard to see but it is stairways and doorways.

            It will be fun to see what the students create for their problems. I have a feeling it is going to be one of those busy, exhausting, but great days. 

I'll post again tomorrow. 

Jan

Housing Blueprints

     I am fortunate enough to have blueprints of all the phases of building a house. (My husband's occupation.) I had these laminated and I post them around the room. The day that the kids walk in they are so excited and just want to spend a day looking at everything that is on them. There is measurement, scale, proportion, slope, area, volume, and the list goes on. I have 15 different blueprints in total and I just don't have the time to drag them home and make problems over all of the various units. This is the last week before spring break so I have decided to use the blueprints as students exploration lessons for my Pre Algebra students.
     The students will be in groups of 4 and given a sheet to create 2  math problems related to the blueprints. I will have rulers, protractors and dry erase markers available at each station. We will have a short discussion of all the possible topics for their questions.  The students will be able to make questions that are based on their abilities and I will steer them to the levels I think are appropriate for them. I may even assign different topics per group. One group may measure the perimeter of the driveways where others will have to create a problem to find how much asphalt will be needed to construct the driveway. Some may find the slope of the roofs and others may find how many shingles will be needed to cover the roof. I am excited about this because the kids will create the questions for me and then I will have a bank of questions to use for future lessons. YES!!!
     Check back tomorrow and I will post some pictures of the blueprints and my classroom. I will post some of the problems the kids create in next weeks post. I am excited and I know they are going to love this lesson. I wish I could make a copy of the blueprints but they are so big. If there are builders in your area maybe they will donate old blueprints to your school. Let me know, I would love to see how you apply these in your classes.

                                                     Til next time,
                                                          Jan