Last year when I taught algebra vocabulary I hated my lesson. To make matters worse, many of my kids still don’t know all of the terms. This year, I decided to spice it up! I wanted to make them active participants in the lesson by using our new dry-erase index card necklaces, a small graphic organizer, and of course COLOR!

Their homework assignment was to make colorful flashcards of their vocabulary words for a game tomorrow! I made a flyswatter vocabulary game for tomorrow that I will share in my next post (after I use/proof it in class). I want them to see how relevant their homework is in class the next day! We also made a pocket to hold their flash cards by taping a yellow index card into their notebooks on the vocabulary page.

I had each table group write a vocabulary word of the day on their necklaces. For instance, table 1 all had the word “variable” written on their necklaces. The words were variable, coefficient, constant, term, and algebraic expression. I than passed out a small graphic organizer with a large algebraic expression at the top and the same five words typed below. I then hi lighted a part of the algebraic equation and had them think about and discuss with their table groups which vocabulary word that part may be. After educated guesses, I called out the answer and told “Variables to please stand up, please stand up, please stand up!” They had fun guessing and jumping up. After we defined the new vocabulary word, I had them color in the correct part of the algebraic expression. We did this for all five of the vocabulary words.

It was a very fun day and I loved how much the kids got into their name tags this time! I think making them “mystery vocabulary words” really helped!