Who Did it?

As we continue reviewing for "the Test", I'm constantly looking for new activities and ideas.  I came across "Systems of Linear Equations Activity - Clue Game" a while back, but never got to use it!  I announced to my eighth graders that we would be doing this activity last week, and I have never heard such disappointment than when I told them we were going to have to post-pone the activity until this week.

 

So, we picked it up today, and it was a hit!  They had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it!  They worked so hard and I even had students asking if they could work extra problem sets!  When does that ever happen?

When my last period seventh graders came in, they wanted to know when they would get to play CLUE... I guess I'm writing a set for them :-)

Who says review has to be boring?

Build-A-Burger

Now that I have enjoyed a nice Spring Break, it's time to start reviewing for the TEST.  I loathe this part of the school year.  I've already started reviewing through my bellwork, but now it's time to emphasize the topics that my students missed the most on their benchmark testing.  Tuesday, I'm planning a "whole body" review of how to tell if a function is linear, a direct variation, or an indirect vartiation (a post will follow).

As this is my least favorite part of the year, I'm always looking for ways to make me at least loathe it less.  I stumbled across the directions and downloadable pattern for the Build-a-Burger activity on TpT (the author has lots of other review activities, I'm excited to try).  I printed each burger ingredient on colored paper and laminated it, then I had some helpers cut them out.  I asked our cafeteria to donate small take out boxes, so that there would be something to store the burger pieces in. 

I wrote my questions into a powerpoint and for each question that a team (two students in this case) answered correctly, the team earned a burger ingredient.  I liked the fact that there is something for them to actually touch to signify getting a question correct, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.  Of course there ended up being more than one winner, which was okay with me (they really knew their stuff for this chapter).

I'll be using this activity throughout the next three weeks to let them practice answering questions.  Hopefully this will help them "ketchup" :-)