Fall is my favorite time of year. Football has started up again, Temperatures are cooler, leaves start to fall, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks! Fall also tends to be my inspiration of my bulletin board in the hallway outside of my room. Last year coordinate graphs fell at the beginning of the year so decided to create a lesson on graphing leaves to use for a fall themed bulletin board.
Here is a quick recap of the lesson:
- Trace a leaf in the middle of the coordinate plane. (I choose middle so they had positive and negative coordinates)
- Plot points along the outline of the leaf.
- Find a good "start" point at the top of the leaf and start recording 20 coordinates following the tracing of the leaf.
They finished the assignment as homework and the following day they got to exchange their list of coordinates with another student. Students then tested out the other student's coordinates on a new coordinate plane and connected the points to create a new outline of the leaf. Once finished, Students colored the leaves and we displayed them on the bulletin board!
The final product...
I can't say that everyone's leaves were a success. BUT I was able to quickly assess who needed more help and practice on finding coordinates or plotting coordinates after seeing the final products.
If you choose to use this in your classroom I would love to see how it turned out!!
Happy Fall everyone!
I like this idea...we also teach a Tables, Graphs, and Equations Unit at the beginning of the year. 7th grade students can always use help with graphing coordinate points. I like the idea of having them practice and then using their work as Art for a bulletin board.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind, I may use this idea.
I just began following your blog and look forward to see other ideas/suggestions you have.