Review Unit: Area and Perimeter

Although area and perimeter are covered in the geometry unit in 7th grade, I figured a review of area and perimeter of squares would be helpful. Many times perimeter and area of squares is talked about in the equations unit which is before geometry. I used a template with examples that I found here.
This was a short and simple lesson so I assigned students two IXL lessons and allowed them to start working once we were done with the notes.

 

 

The "I Can" statement for this lesson is:

I can use and define area and perimeter.

 

 

The IXL Lessons are:

X.17: Perimeter

X.18: Area of Rectangles and Parallelograms 

Review Unit: Graphing

I decided to do my graphing review in two parts, first focusing on the order pairs and then focusing on the actual coordinate plane. I found really cool foldables on my favorite blog, Math=Love. I took 3 days on this lesson, two days on graphing ordered pairs and one day on the coordinate plane. These foldables are a little more elaborate, so just prepare yourself with a few extra copies.

 

There were different "I Can" statements for the two pages, they are:

I can graph ordered pairs.

I can label parts of the coordinate plane.

 

There are three IXL Lessons, one for each day:

P.1: Coordinate Plane Review

P.3: Follow Directions on a Coordinate Plane

P2: Quadrants and Axes

Review Unit: Place Value

After fractions I like to work on place value because many of the students have forgotten the vocabulary. I work on place value to get the students ready for the 7th grade lessons about percents and converting between fractions and decimals. If they know the vocabulary ahead of time it makes teaching those lessons much easier. The awesome foldables on the second page of my INB were found here. I spent two days on this lesson, the second day I focused a lot on rounding to certain place values. After we reviewed the notes, I put them in pairs to do a Rounding Decimals Matching  activity. It made them really thinks about the different place values and forced them to get a little organized.

 

The "I Can" statement with this activity is:

I can write numbers in word, picture, standard and expanded form.

 

The IXL Lessons with this activity are:

D.1: Decimal Numbers Review

D.4: Round Decimals 

Review Unit: Fraction Operations

This is my longest (and most dreaded) review lesson for my 7th graders, fractions. When my students get to 7th grade they are supposed to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions easily...about 3 actually can. It is nearly impossible to teach operations with rational numbers, proportion and scale drawings without revisiting fractions. After my first year of teaching, I learned that it would be far easier and less time consuming to take time out at the beginning of the year to cover fractions then to have to reteach fractions each time they showed up in a lesson. I work on fractions again in the first Unit with we work with Operations with Rational Numbers, so it is super helpful for them to have this to look back at. I found this great fraction review packet that summarizes everything so easily. I also wanted to have a visual of the fractions that is similar to the magnet strips I have on my white board. I found a blank fraction template for them to color and write the fraction on each piece. I spent a day on each section of the booklet: equivalent fractions, reducing, adding and subtracting, multiplying,  and dividing (5 days in total). There was an IXL lesson for each section so I used that as their practice problems/homework each day.

The "I Can" statement for this activity is:
I can use fractions to solve problems in the real world.

The IXL Lessons for each day were:
F.1: Equivalent Fractions
F.2: Simplifying Fractions
F.4: Least Common Denominator
F.7: Convert between Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions
G.16: Add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions and mixed numbers: word problems

Review Unit: Order of Operations

I wanted to cover Order of Operations with my students to make combining like terms easier when we got to that lesson. I used this template (from my favorite blogger) to help them organize PEMDAS. I really like this template because it allows the students to see that with multiplication and division, and addition and subtraction, you move left to right through the problem. Since this was a pretty quick note page, I had them try these problems on their white boards as a class.

 

 

The "I Can" statement for this activity is:

I can solve a problem using order of operations.

 

There isn't a really good IXL lesson for Order of Operations so I chose to focus on Exponents since that always seems to be the biggest struggle for 7th graders doing Order of Operations.

 

The IXL lesson for this activity is:

I.1: Understanding Exponents

Review Unit: Properties of Addition and Multiplication

Since 7th grade curriculum focuses a lot on expressions and equations, I thought it would be helpful to review the properties of addition and multiplication. Many of the students know these "rules", but have trouble explaining them when answering questions. Our county wants math teachers to focus on students ability to justify their math and not just give answers. Knowing these properties would allow them to better explain their work. The foldable is here on my TPT page if you need it.

 

 

The "I Can" statement for this activity is:

I can name and use mathematical properties.

 

 

The IXL Lesson for this activity is:

S1: Properties of Addition and Multiplication

Review Unit: Divisibility Rules

With my students being 2 or more grade levels below where they should be, many of my students are not strong with their multiplication tables. This makes division difficult, which makes dealing with fractions almost impossible. I decided the best way I could help them was not by giving them a multiplication table, but to review the divisibility rules they were taught years ago. This would help them when finding the GCF to reduce fractions. The template for this foldable is on my TPT site or you can make one yourself. It's a 4x4 table with the divisibility rules written on the outside boxes.

 

 

The "I Can" statement for this lesson is:

I can use divisibility rules to solve problems.

 

The IXL Lesson for this activity is:

A.4: Divisibility Rules



Review Unit: Key Terms

Going along with the CUBES word problem strategy, I decided to work on key terms with my 7th graders. You would be surprised how many of them don't know that "of" means multiply. A big lesson in 7th grade is writing algebraic equations from words and this activity will help them when we get to that unit.

You can find the template on my TPT page or just make one yourself (it's a pretty simple foldable).

 

 

The "I Can" statement for this lesson is:

I can identify math vocabulary in the real world. 

 

The IXL Lesson Aligned with this lesson is:

R.1: Write Variable Expressions

Review Unit: Cubes Strategy

I decided to start my INB the same way I usually start the school year, with review. There are certain things that 7th graders just never remember....like fractions. I figured the INB would make a great place to do a review that they can refer back to all year long.

Here is my TOC for the Review Unit.

 

 

The first lesson after the "Me by the Numbers" activity is the CUBES Strategy. My county has urged the math teachers to use this strategy for word problems. The CUBES Strategy is nothing new, they just gave a fun acronym to something we've been doing forever. After making the CUBES page, I gave them these word problems to CUBE (not solve). They were able to compare what they thought was important to what other students may think was important.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "I Can" Statement for this activity is:

I can use the CUBE strategy to better understand a word problem.

 

The IXL Lesson for this activity is:

M.1: Add, Subtract, Multiply and Divide Money Amounts: Word Problems

Me by the Numbers

The beginning of the year is always so crazy and in my county they do "suspended curriculum" for the first week. You have a few minutes with your students, but most of the day we go over procedures, like fire drills, and other housekeeping items.

To get the kids going in their INB I started with a "Me by the Numbers" activity that my students always seem to enjoy. I found a template for this activity here, I've tried to do it without a template before and it takes up way more time then you would think.

The "I Can" statement for this lesson was:
I can use number in the real world.

The IXL Lesson I assigned with this was:
A.1: Prime or Composite

This lesson should be fairly easy and is really just assigned to start getting them used to IXL assignments.

Pretty basic, but it is the very beginning of the year. I use this as a getting to know each other activity and allow students to share as many of their number facts as they would like.

The Basics

I start every unit in my INB with this awesome Table of Contents template courtesy of Sarah Carter and her Math=Love blog. (found here) This woman is the reason I am starting an interactive notebook and has made the process so easy! Her things are a few grade levels above my 7th graders, but everything is so adaptable to any grade. I've also used her Interactive Notebook Planning Page for every unit, it really keeps you organized aware of what lessons will need multiple pages.


Each lesson in my INB is aligned with a "I Can" Statement and IXL Lessons that correspond with the concept being taught. My county pushes us to use IXL and I have come to love it. I assign IXL lessons as homework instead of sending home a worksheet that will more than likely not make it back. All of the IXL lessons are from the 7th grade Math list.