Middle School Thanksgiving Math Activities

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to relax and eat delicious food with loved ones. Around here, it's the first time during the school year that we get multiple days off, so we're extra thankful for the extra downtime. In this post, I want to share with you some fun Thanksgiving-themed math activities that will keep students motivated while practicing their skills, perfect for both classroom and home learning leading up to the Thanksgiving break. 

Thanksgiving puzzles digital math escape room

First up is a new Thanksgiving puzzles digital math escape room, where students solve for the values of Thanksgiving pictures. The digital version is no-prep in Google Forms, and is answer-validated so that it collects student work for you. The activity also comes in PDF printable form.

Students solve for each picture, then type their 4-letter code to move to the next puzzle. They can only move to the next puzzle if their code is correct. I added a graphic organizer to the activity to help students keep track of each picture's value as they find it.

Simplifying algebraic expressions pumpkin pennants

Next is a set of pumpkin pennants for simplifying algebraic expressions. Students simplify their expression, then color and hang their pumpkins as classroom décor. The completed pumpkin pennants make a cozy classroom or hallway display. 

Fall solving proportions pennants

Students solve proportions on these fall-themed proportions pennants, then color to decorate your classroom. Each pennant has a leaf and border to color to let students get a little creative leading up to Thanksgiving. 

Domain and Range of Graphs Thanksgiving Math Pennants

Lastly is a set of domain and range Thanksgiving math pennants. Each pennant is in the shape of a cornucopia and has either a continuous or discrete graph, along with spaces for domain, range, and whether the graph is a function or not. Students identify the characteristics of their graphs, then color their cornucopias to add their own creativity.

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More posts:

Math Word Walls

Digital Math Escape Rooms

Holiday Math Activities

Free math resource library

Fun Fall Math Pennants - Engaging Math Activities for Halloween and Thanksgiving Classroom Decoration

In this post are a bunch of fun fall math activities perfect for Halloween and Thanksgiving! Each math pennant activity allows students to create festive classroom décor while reinforcing their math skills. Transform your classroom with these fun, interactive projects that celebrate the season! 

High School Consumer Math Budget Project

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a budget project where students mix and match a career, apartment, car and habit to see if their spending falls within given budget guidelines. Will students stay within budget with their choices?

Students pick a career (6 choices), a car (4 choices), a home (4 choices) and a habit (6 choices), and calculate their net monthly income using the 70% approximation. 

Why use 70% to estimate net income? This is an approximation of net income from gross income that we learn in consumer math when all deductions are not known. It's a helpful estimation when deciding to accept a job offer, if car payments will fall within transportation budget, or if an apartment is affordable. It's also a nice workaround to estimate net monthly income for those 2 vs. 3 paycheck months when paid biweekly, or those 4 vs 5 paycheck months when paid weekly.

After choosing their 4 cards, students walk through their 7-page answer packets calculating costs and analyzing budgets. Will they be in budget in each category or over?

There are 576 possible career/home/car/habit combinations! I included 2 sample answer keys-- one for a budget-friendly lifestyle and one for the most expensive lifestyle. Which will your students choose?

I made this project for high school students who are taking a consumer math class. It has also been added to the consumer math curriculum into the budget folder. A few teachers have mentioned having looked it over and that they felt it would also work for middle school students. The math is all based on percentages, so if your students have already learned how to calculate percentages, the project should work for them, even if they are not yet in high school.

Budget Project

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Recent Math Vocabulary Word Wall Feedback

While replying to feedback on TPT recently, I was struck by a few math word wall reviews and wanted to share them with you: 

“This package was FANTASTIC! My only regret is that I don't have more wall space! My walls have become a resource for my students. And we know that students' visual memories of these important math concepts each time they look up and view them! The resources were very clear - great font. Absolutely love this resource!” 

– Michelle A, Grades 6-9 {MIDDLE SCHOOL and ALGEBRA} Math Word Wall Bundle 

“This is such a great resource! My students loved being able to reference things using this awesome word wall! Highly recommend!” 

– Cajun Kinder Queen, 5th Grade Math Word Wall 

“This is so beautifully created. It makes the math learning wall more clear. Thank you.” 

– Vivian T, Grades 2-5 Math Word Wall Bundle 

“Great visuals which really helped students remember and understand vocabulary.” 

– Hillary H, 7th Grade Math Word Wall 

“Absolutely fantastic - clear, and readable text that students readily refer to!” 

– Carolyn P, Grades 2-5 Math Word Wall Bundle 

“My students and I love this resource. It stays up year round with my other anchor charts for the students to reference. This is highly recommended if you teach a financial literacy class.” 

– Patty P, Financial Literacy Word Wall

"What a clean presentation to hang up in a classroom. I absolutely love this resource, it is just what I was looking for in my middle school math room." 

– Sharon L., 6th Grade Math Word Wall

"This is the best thing since sliced bread! I am on such a non-existing budget this year. This allowed me to make a magnificent Word Wall for my Algebra I students efficiently and effectively. It printed very easily and students can easily refer back to it as needed. It has all the topics of conversation we have had/are having/and will have throughout the semester. I love the various options to print in color or black and white and I LOVE the virtual Word Wall feature. This allowed me to post it to my Google Classroom for my students to refer back to if they are either not here or just prefer computer learning. I like being able to offer them both options. I also have the Financial Literacy Word Wall and love it just as much." 

– Brittney A., Algebra Word Wall

You can find math word walls for 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, algebra, geometry and algebra 2 on TPT here:

BROWSE MATH WORD WALLS

Each comes in printable color, printable black & white, interactive digital in Google Slides and includes Spanish vocabulary.

Fun Activities for Teaching Order of Operations

Order of operations is one of those math topics that tests student understanding year after year in school. And it even makes a regular appearance on social media! We've all seen versions of that viral PEMDAS problem going around that makes us all lose our minds:

Editable Back to School Desk Plate Math Activity

Get to know your new students through numbers with this back to school name plate math activity. 

Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers, and enter their numbers on the front of their desk plate. The questions are editable, so you can change them to best fit your students. 

There are 2 slits in the bottom of the name plate to cut and slide together, allowing the name plate to stand on its own. 

Once everyone's desk plates are complete, students can look around the room at their classmates' numbers and see what they have in common!

Golden Spiral Back to School Math Pennant Activity

If you'd like your back to school activity to double as classroom décor, this Golden Spiral Math Pennant activity comes with "get to know you" questions. Students color their pennants based on their answers to the questions. 

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More back to school posts:

Back to School Math Bulletin Board Ideas

Math Classroom Decoration Ideas

Math Word Walls

Printable Math Bulletin Board Borders

I made a new set of printable math bulletin board borders that print onto 8.5 x 11 inch paper and come in a variety of styles. 

Back to School Math Bulletin Board Ideas

So you have a big, blank bulletin board in your math classroom that has seen better days. Maybe the cork is falling off, or maybe it was an old chalkboard that needs a new life. Let's jump right in with a super simple idea for starting fresh and creating a colorful background for your bulletin board-- dollar store tablecloths. The tablecloths I found were 54-inches by 108-inches, so one will cover an entire 4-foot x 8-foot bulletin board. 

I trimmed a black tablecloth to 4-feet x 4-feet by measuring and cutting the tablecloth while folded hotdog, then trimming off the width to 4 feet. Because the tablecloth is so thin, it won't fall down if you secure it with staples or even clear tape.

The background of this "How to be a math person" math bulletin board is made from a black dollar store tablecloth. The bulletin board reads: 

How to be a 

MATH PERSON

1: Do math

2: Be a person

Here is a closeup of the math borders I used around my bulletin board. They come in a few different styles within the file. 

One idea for using your classroom bulletin board space is to hang student work. Even my juniors and seniors liked seeing their work displayed. We called this space "The Fridge" and hung work in a completely haphazard way with super strong magnets. You can download the printable letters in a few different formats here. 

I have seen other teachers choose to display student work in a more orderly way on hanging clipboards or in page protectors attached to the bulletin board.

Most of my classroom bulletin board space was used to display our math word wall. During lessons if a student got stuck, I could quickly point to a reference on our word wall to get them over the hurdle.

Mr. DeVore's math word wall

This allowed me to keep the rest of my class focused while addressing the student's question.

Ms. Heaton's math word wall

Students also used our word wall during independent and group work. I also didn't cover our word wall when we had class assessments, but they do need to be covered during state tests. A dollar store tablecloth would work well for this. You can find all of the word walls in these photos here.

Posters and anchor charts are great for large bulletin boards because they fill up the space quickly and can be swapped out easily. This "Welcome, Math Person! poster prints on 4 pages that tape together after a little trimming. It reminds students that we are all math people as they enter your classroom for the first time.

When I ran out of bulletin board space, I started hanging things on our classroom walls. They were cinder block, and the only thing I found to work was blue Loctite mounting putty. If you have walls that you are not allowed to mark and that are not cinder block, one tip is to use painter's tape and hot glue. The painter's tape goes on the wall (sticky side flat on the wall), then the hot glue goes between the painter's tape and what you're hanging. 

My friend Carrie sent me this great photo of her classroom wall space covered in her students' back to school math pennants. 

The pennants have different glyph questions like "name", "birthday", and "favorite color". The finished pennants made a colorful student-created bulletin board display.

Math is so closely tied to our self-esteem, and no matter how hard we study there are going to be hard days. A math bulletin board can be used to display motivational messages to students. There are so many great posters and other printables out there. This "Why I Can Do Math" bulletin board reminds students that they are strong and capable.

Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers in this back to school standing name plate math activity. The questions are editable so that you can change them to best fit your students.

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