Teaching Algebra with Pizzaz!

Today, I challenged myself to create a resource or two that would help some of my struggling students to grasp the concept of Algebra, once and for all. This is what I came up with!

1. "I Have, Who Has" with a new spin.
The traditional game is played where you give students cards with an 'I have" term or concept, and then they have to ask who has what they have written on their card. I hope you understood that piece of gibberish I just wrote as I struggle to find the words to better explain myself! Anyhoooo, my idea was to create the question cards to maintain the tradition, but then I added some answer cards - with a math problem to solve! The students will be grouped and given at least 4 cards - 2 of each. A team captain would begin by stating what they have, for example, 10. They would then ask the class who has, let's say, 4. But, in order for them to know what they have, they must solve the question cards before them. They can either get some time in the beginning to solve, and then play a timed game, or it can go however the creative teacher would prefer!

2. Algebra Answer Quest!
As an alternative, I used the same game cards in a different way. Here, I decided to solve the problems and add the answers to the top right-hand corner of different cards. The student begins to solve one problem, then hunt for the answer on the other cards. When they find it, they solve that card, and go in search of the answer in the pile again! This one works well in math centres, as individual work or in very small groups!

These resources can be created easily using PowerPoint! Have fun creating!