Which is your favorite method for solving systems of equations-- graphing, substitution or elimination? Solving by elimination always feels a bit like magic to me, and I love how solving with substitution brings in the transitive property. There's something satisfying about solving a system with graphing and finding the exact coordinate both lines pass through.
In this post are a bunch of activities for teaching solving equations by graphing, substitution and elimination.
First I want to share a few systems of equations emoji posters. The posters are here in my Google Drive. Two of the posters use emoji smiley faces to show solving systems of equations with substitution, and the third poster shows solving systems with elimination.
Drake loves systems of equations, but only picture systems. If you like these types of picture puzzles and are on Pinterest, I've been collecting them on this Pinterest board.
I've made a few
logic picture puzzle digital math escape rooms, including this one above with a winter theme. The activity comes in digital and print forms, the digital being a self-checking Google Form. Students figure out the values of each winter picture then type their 4-letter code to move to the next puzzle.
This systems of equations math pennant activity has students solving systems by graphing. Their completed pennants then become student-made classroom décor. There's another set of pennants for solving systems using elimination and substitution.
We only ever focused on solving systems of linear equations, but I know some curriculums have students solving systems where one of the lines is a quadratic. This systems scavenger hunt has students walking around the room solving systems of linear and quadratic equations while working in some movement. Students can start on any of the scavenger hunt cards. They solve, find their answer at the top of another card in the room, then solve that system and continue until they have visited all cards.
I'm not a huge fan of board games except if they are collaborative games where players team up against the board. It's not that I hate losing, I actually don't like winning. I always feel bad for beating the other person. Weird. This systems of equations game has students working together to solve systems of equations and beat the math monster to the treasure.
The winter holidays just passed as I'm writing this post, though it's still absolutely freezing outside. My daughter has had indoor recess all week. These winter holiday systems ornaments ask students to solve systems of equations by graphing, substitution and elimination. Their decorated ornaments make a festive classroom display.
This systems escape room covers substitution, elimination and graphing in an answer-validated Google Form. Students solve their systems, then type the correct 4-letter code to move to the next puzzle. Each puzzle has 3,024 possible 4-letter code combinations, so the likelihood of students correctly guessing the code is slim. The activity also comes printable in the file.
We used these systems of equations word problem cards in my small group algebra 2 class. All systems can be solved using elimination (some of the systems need to be multiplied through first).
During our systems of equations unit, we'd also use this free systems template in my small group algebra 2 class. Students grabbed a template as they walked into the classroom, then looked to the board for what to do next. Most of the time I'd give them a system of equations to graph and solve, but sometimes I'd give two lines and ask them to find their equations.
These systems of equations references are part of an 8th grade math word wall and cover no solution, infinite solutions and one solution. The equations' tables are proportional and non-proportional, so that vocabulary is also included in this section.
Systems of equations including a linear/quadratic system are included as part of an algebra word wall where substitution and elimination are linked to graphing.
> Browse more systems of equations activities here.
