Angles, Triangles, and the Start of Geometry in Middle School Math
You should see students faces when they first walk into the classroom and see this!
The beginning of geometry related units in middle school math is one of my favorite times of the school year! Thanks to some creative (and cheap!) angle ideas, I was able to incorporate some new things in my classroom! First off, this “Angle Doorway” is a fun idea to reinforce a basic understanding of angles! With some leftover fun tape from Office Depot, a little card stock to write the angles, and about ten minutes, I made this fun entryway into the classroom. I can't take credit for the idea, but am happy to share it! It definitely caught the students attention and had them thinking about different angles!
This angle relationships activity is another engaging option that I was able to use with my math intervention groups. After we had learned about different angle relationships (vertical angles, supplementary angles, and complementary angles), I covered our front dry-erase table with table at various angles. I then went through and measure the minimum number of angles they would need to be able to find all of the missing angles without a protractor. This turned out to be a great problem solving challenge and really promoted teamwork and working together. I could also see this working out great as a math center during math workshop.
UPDATE: For more practice with angle relationships, I added a full set of Angle Relationships Task Cards to my TpT store! It currently includes over 70 challenging angle problems and 4 different levels of difficulty! The set includes 96 task cards with four different levels of difficulty, indicated by the number of stars in the bottom right corner. These have been a huge hit with my middle school students of all ages!
With the start of geometry, I am always able to break out my units of Math Task Cards: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Transformations. I have two sets of task cards available for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. A set of Math Task Cards, which are a little more basic problems. Then, for students that finish these quickly, I have them try the Math Enrichment Task Cards. Having these more challenging task cards makes it easy to push my higher students and keep them challenged! Here are a couple shots of the prep and final product of some of these task cards. I always print out six cards for each topic, which is what I need for my math workshop front table group. If I have time I corner round the corners and laminate to help them last! Pictured below are some of my 6th grade task cards.
Geometry has also allowed me to finally get to what is probably my favorite Challenge of the Week problem! I currently have a free set of these available for 6th grade math and 8th grade math!
I'd love to hear what you have all been working on in your classrooms! And how about some geometry humor to get everyone on their way? Who knew that One Direction is now a swear word?
