Algebra for ALL

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Grade 1 – Guess the Rule; Magic Bag

Grade 2 – “What’s My Attribute Rule?”

Grade 3 – “What’s My Rule?” Function Machine

Grade 4 – Credits/Debits

Grade 5 – Top It: Positive/Negative Numbers

Grade 6 – “What’s My Rule?” Formulas

Grade 7 – Solution Search

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Slide 15

Now ask yourself …

Did you have fun…

Did you learn more about…

attributes

patterns

positive and negative numbers

equations

inequalities

Did you learn some algebra???

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Slide 16

If you can answer “Yes” then you can say

I learned some algebra and it was painless!

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Slide 17

Let’s give our students the same opportunity.

Life isn’t all fun and games, and neither is the learning of algebra.

But fun and games can and should be an important part of how we teach algebra at every grade level.

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Resource

Teacher’s Guide to Games

Grades K-6

from

Everyday Mathematics

Wright Group

The McGraw-Hill Companies

(wrightgroup.com)

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Slide 19

What’s My Rule? Fishing

Object: To identify a sorting rule

Directions

The teacher “fishes” for a few students using some obvious attribute. The teacher fishes out a few people wearing brown, for example, without explaining what he is fishing for.

The teacher asks “What sort of a fish am I going to catch next?” or “What’s my rule?”

Students guess until someone says “Students wearing brown.”

The teacher asks “Who are the students NOT in my net?”

Students identify those students.

Repeat steps 1-5 using other obvious attributes

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Slide 20

Magic Bag

Object: To Identify the Rule

Directions:

The teacher tells the class that they are going to play a guessing game using a magic bag. The teacher puts 1 stick in the bag, says a magic word, and takes 2 sticks out of the bag. Next, the teacher puts 2 sticks in the bag and pulls out 3 sticks.

The teacher repeats the activity several times by always taking out 1 more stick than is put into the bag. The class describes a rule for the magic bag’s action (add 1, 1 more, next number…).

Teacher (or student volunteer) repeats the activity for other rules. The rest of the class guesses the rule.

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Slide 21

What’s My Attribute Rule?