Linear Equations With Playdough-Math 9

Playdough Partner Activity

Be creative with play dough!

• Students are to use playdough to create their own patterns to demonstrate a linear relation. Example:

• Each student designs 3 separate figures to show the pattern of his or her design.
• Then the partners exchange seats and determine their partner’s pattern.
• Collaboratively, they are to represent the relationship in a table of values and determine an equation for each pattern.

• Playdough adds a 3-dimensional element extending students’ practice beyond traditional paper and pencil method.

• This activity was completed on day three during the linear relations chapter as a review and “check for understanding” of the first two lessons of this unit.

• Interesting observation: some students found it more difficult to come up with their own creative pattern from scratch than when provided the first part of a pattern and asked to continue that pattern (as in the textbook). I wonder if I asked the students to repeat this playdough activity another day, would they feel differently once they had this experience under their belt? I may try that…