Parallel & Perpendicular Art

When I noticed that quite a few of my students were confused by the terms "parallel" and "perpendicular," I decided it was time for an end-of-year art activity. I visited my Math - Art Pinterest page and discovered a sweet little project at Math Activities*. Students worked on this during free moments at home and at school.

*You'll notice that we purposely did the lesson a bit different than originally described.

I love the way this turned out. And, yes...they now can tell me what parallel and perpendicular are! ;)

Fraction Arrays: What Do You Notice?

Students made a series of arrays demonstrating fraction multiplication. As a group, they studied the arrays and put them in sequential order by area. This activity alone provided incredible growth opportunity as students discovered mistakes (hey...why is that array bigger than the one next to it but the product is smaller?) and had to occasionally reformulate so that the pattern made sense.

In a subsequent discussion, we shared more observations and looked for additional patterns. We considered similarities and differences in:

• fraction x fraction multiplication
• fraction x whole number multiplication
• whole number x whole number multiplication

Afterwards, students wrote reflections. I posted a sample with our display. I'm so impressed by their insights and understandings. (Click on individual photos for magnification to read student comments.)

Lesson Credit: Bridges in Mathematics, Second Edition, grade 5

Left side.

Middle

Right

Number Frames App is Here (Free!)

The Math Learning Center just released another free math app: Number Frames. It's currently available on iTunes and will soon be released in an online version. Can't wait to use this one! Enjoy. :)

TPT Sale May 6-7 - extended!

Update: the sale has been extended to the 8th on TPT. Enjoy!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, the sale begins on Tuesday with all of my products offered at reduced prices. Add the TPT promo code for even deeper discounts. Here are a few suggestions for end-of-the-year fun:

Design a Cube City - Students use isometric dot paper to draw 3-D buildings and design their own cube cities.

Poetry & 3-D Art for Every Season - write diamante poems--reviewing nouns, verbs, and adjectives--and create 3-D art displays to brighten any season or holiday.

Skittle Fractions, Estimation & Graphing

Vacation Workstation

Descriptive Poetry & Tissue Painting