Massachusetts Department of Education
Similarity through Transformations
Create the ultimate miniature golf course. The 93-page model curriculum unit from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contains nine lessons on understanding similarity in terms of both Euclidean geometry...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National Debt and Wars
Take a functional approach to the national debt. Learners collect information about the national debt by decade and plot the data. They determine whether an exponential curve is a good fit for the data by comparing the percent changes...
Curated OER
Equivalent Fraction Paper Strips
Young learners compare the relative values of fractions by making physical representations. They fold and label strips of paper that are equal in length to represent "one whole" and the equal parts that fractions represent. Also, they...
Curated OER
Lesson New Museum: Exploring the Building
Explore the possibilities of buildings, public spaces, and architectural design. Learners examine the work of SANAA architects Sejima & Nishizawa through background information, images, and guided class discussion. This instructional...
Curated OER
Measuring Volume/Capacity Using the Metric System
There is more than one way to measure an amount, as learners discover by applying multiple measurement tools in these activities. Centimeter cubes, cylinders, beakers, and measuring cups are used to find the volume of regular and...
Earth Watch Institute
Entering Local Groundhog Data in an Excel Spreadsheet
Here is a cross-curricular ecology and technology lesson; your learners create spreadsheets depicting the location and number of groundhog dens in a local park. They research groundhogs and analyze data about where the groundhog...
Curated OER
Grouping Buttons
Looking for a good lesson on counting and sorting? This lesson is worth a look! In this classification lesson, learners sort buttons by color, shape, shiny verses not shiny, or number of holes.
Curated OER
Incredible Integers!
There are three parts to this lesson on integers. In the first, learners explore positive and negative numbers on an actual painter's tape number line and by playing a "Hot Seat" game. In part two, they view a BrainPop video and work...
Curated OER
Solving Problems Involving Subtraction
Here is an excellent lesson plan on solving subtraction word problems using fractions and mixed numbers. Learners complete three activities that will help them to explore and better-understand the world of mixed numbers. Fraction bars...
Illustrative Mathematics
The Marble Jar
A jar is filled with 1,500 marbles and customers of a bank can enter a contest to guess the correct percentage of blue marbles. How can an employee at the bank estimate the actual percentage without physically counting all 1,500 marbles?...
Illustrative Mathematics
Throwing Baseballs
This is a wonderful exercise for learners to apply their critical thinking skills along with their knowledge of quadratic functions and parabolas. Young mathematicians investigate a real-world scenario about the height a baseball reaches...
Curated OER
Rainbow Number Line
Guide your kindergartners to create memorable, colorful number lines that they will use throughout the school year. Using sentence strip and a black marker or card stock printed in a teachers font, create traceable numbers from 1 to 20...
Illustrative Mathematics
Guess My Number
Make a game out of solving equations. This particular activity works well for pairs of learners. Follow the instructions to have player one pick a number and player two verbally give an equation. Participants need to make sense of a...
Illustrative Mathematics
Traffic Jam
Help your learners understand dividing with fractions by using these methods to solve. Chose from two different number lines or linker cubes. This practices "how many groups?" style division problems which help them comprehend why...
Curated OER
Rounding and Subtracting
Common Core is all about getting your learners to open their minds and think about the why and how. This problem has them thinking about unknown numbers and their relationship with one another when we round and...
Curated OER
College Athletes
When more basketball players are taller than field hockey players at a school, is it safe to say that in general they are always taller? The activity takes data from two college teams and your learners will be able to answer questions...
Curated OER
Reflections and Equilateral Triangles II
Given the lines of symmetry in an equilateral triangle, your learners find where the pre-image vertices are mapped onto the new image. They explore the properties of equilateral triangles, the impact of reflections, and the...
Mathematics Vision Project
Probability
Probability, especially conditional probability, can be a slippery concept for young statisticians. Statements that seem self-evident on the surface often require a daunting amount of calculations to explicate, or turn out to be...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Representing and Combining Transformations
Transform your learners into master geometers with an activity that asks them to first complete an assessment task drawing the result after transformation of a given shape in the coordinate plane. They then use cards to...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Octagon Tile
A connecting-the-dots activity seems too easy for seventh grade but connecting vertices may prove a challenge. Class members first examine a figure created by drawing squares around the inside of an octagon and connecting the...
Willow Tree
Multiplying Polynomials
Make two parts into a whole. Scholars learn to multiply polynomials to create a simplified polynomial expression. Polynomials include monomial, binomials, and trinomials.
Willow Tree
Line Plots
You can't see patterns in a jumble of numbers ... so organize them! Learners take a set of data and use a line plot to organize the numbers. From the line plot, they find minimum, maximum, mean, and make other conclusions about the...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Temple Geometry
Temper your excitement of temple geometry. Using algebraic and geometry concepts to determine various measurements in a circle diagram, scholars determine the shaded area of the diagram.
California Education Partners
T Shirts
Which deal is best? Learners determine which of two companies has the best deal for a particular number of shirts. They begin by creating a table and equations containing each company's pricing structure....