LIONS and TIGERS and BEARS,

OH MY!!!

We could toss in the Vikings and Patriots, but I digress :)

My kids have been working on one of my favorite things all year: Cartesian Cartoons. When I student taught, back when we had rocks to write in the dirt, instead of laptops and projectors, my supervising teacher had this great book of pictures students could draw from a set of cartesian coordinates. The kids had a blast, it was great graphing practice, and best of all, cool stuff to hang on the classroom walls, which doesn't happen an awful lot in math class.

When I started teaching math, I bought the book she had, along with a couple others I found. I had my high school cadet make copies and laminate them to use. It has become a perennial favorite assignment.

6th graders should become proficient at coordinate graphs, but unfortunately, each year I find students in general struggle with the process. These graphs provide a fun way, a quick way, to brush up on those skills.

I load my Easiteach program with a coordinate grid, choose a dozen or so random points, combining all possibilities, all 4 quadrants, as well as points on both the x and y axis. We practice on the whiteboard (oh wouldn't a Smartboard be amazing....) and then, I turn them loose on their graphs.

Soon, lions and tigers and bears, along with Indian heads (our mascot), mice, mountains, and other assorted pictures adorn my bulletin boards and wall.

Somewhere down through the years, my original books have been loaned to another teacher and not returned. I am thinking I deserve a new set!!