This quote makes me laugh. I’ve never bought 64 watermelons and wondered how much it cost if I gave the farmer $200 and had $7 left. In fact, I don’t like watermelons, so I would never even buy one. (What in the world would I do with 64 of them???)
As I search for ways to engage students in secondary math and to make the concepts meaningful, I continue to add ideas to their interactive notebooks. The students like them, they use them, and they interest them. However, every time I use a search engine to find a foldable for a secondary concept it sends me to a E-Commerce website and they want $3-5 for the idea.
This blog is about giving you access to the Secondary Interactive Notebook Ideas and the foldables incredible teachers share with everyone—absolutely free!
I keep my Interactive Notebook with me at the Teacher Time Station. This is the station where I teach the most difficult concepts to no more than ¼ of my class at a time. If you’re just beginning to use Interactive Notebooks, here are pictures of the items I keep in interactive notebook tool bag. I also keep a box of these supplies at the Teacher Time table for my students to use.
A pencil bag holds all your Interactive Notebook supplies.
A variety of fine-line markers, a few gel pens, and a couple of thicker markers help your students see the components more easily.
Colored pencils are a must. These twistable ones are the bomb!
No INB supply bag is complete without scissors (I like to have pinking shear, too), a glue stick, liquid glue (because some items just won’t hold using a glue stick), and a really good polymer eraser.
A supply of colorful paper in pastels and brights will “catch” your students’ attention
I am a teacher’s teacher and work with all levels K-12. This means my Teacher Time Station Interactive Notebook is at a variety of levels. One student recently commented that I had order of operations on one page and the next page I was finding the greatest common factor in really long polynomials. He told me, “That’s a pretty big jump!” When I used algebra tiles to help him understand polynomials and then showed him the foldable, he got it. Not such a big jump from PEMDAS to factoring polynomials if you have the right tools to help you understand!
Here are some recent additions to my Interactive Notebook and the links to them.
Exponent Rule Poof Book
http://mathequalslove.blogspot.com/2013/10/ms-hagans-book-of-exponent-rules.html
If you’ve never made a Poof Book, this video is short, sweet, and simple to follow.
http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks/poofbook.htm
Solving Equations Foldable
https://instillnessthedancing.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/solving-equation-foldable.pdf
Slope Foldable
http://ispeakmath.org/2012/03/07/all-about-slope-foldable/
Factoring the GCF of a Polynomial Notes Page
https://app.box.com/s/s4wzrfun2x6cx15umf00mdar7zkswdbi/1/4814662213/39086233709/1
Treasure Chest of Middle School Foldables
http://www.aldenschools.org/webpages/hstotz/resources.cfm
Vocabulary of Expressions Foldables
http://a-sea-of-math.blogspot.com/2013/07/variable-facotrs-terms-oh-my.html
Algebra Expressions Foldable
http://equationfreak.blogspot.com/2014/08/algebraic-expression-foldable.html
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rxphkk54m00qwz/Algebraic%20Expression%20foldable.pdf
Algebraic Expressions Practice
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7xjlimvexyl9qc
/Writing%20algebraic%20expressions%20practice.pdf
Notes on Quadratics
http://www.jamestanton.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/pamphlet-on-quadratics_july2010.pdf
Solving Equations/EOC Review
https://app.box.com/s/mqixo92a8p4tdomrj2hr
Solving Equations Flipbook Foldable
http://fromamathclass.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-isns-part-2-foldables-i-hope-to.html
How to Make a Flipbook Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-2onu8GUjI
Thank you to the following bloggers and teachers who are sharing such incredible ideas:
Sarah Hagan: Math Equals Love; Beth Ferguson: In Stillness the Dancing; Vicki Blackwell: Making Books; Chris: A Sea of Math; Jan Lichtenberger: Equation Freak; James Tanton: Quadratic Pamphlet.
One of my students wore this shirt to Algebra class. Thanks to the teachers featured in this blog and the teachers who will take their ideas and use them, students may really want to find x!