TEACHA! is growing every day, and we are pleased to showcase one of our newest vendors. Butterfly Classrooms has many resources aimed at teaching Maths in a creative way, fostering deeper understanding. The resources are mainly aimed at High School teachers, especially the FET phase.

Parabolas – Thinking abstractly

2 pages with memo.

Your learners are familiar with the formula of a parabola y=a(x+p)^2+q.

But how much do they really understand about the effect of each of these parameters on the parabola?

This exercise forces them to think about it and in the process deepens their understanding of parabolas.

Around the world in 1000 dresses

This is a fun exchange rate activity that was set up especially for girls, the boys in your class might not appreciate the content so much. It was designed for a class where each learner has access to the internet, in order to look up the exchange rates, however, it can easily be adapted by providing the learners with a list of the necessary exchange rates.

It is important to emphasise that the answers to the questions are not very important (you can just type it into Google and get the answer) the point of the exercise is to show your steps. This is also why I did not include a memo since the answers change from day to day. All you do to get the memo is to type the prices into Google while the learners are doing the activity.

This was created for a South African class, so the South African Rand is the main currency used.

Grade 11 – Financial Maths

On this slide show, you will find some ready to use examples of simple and compound interest, timelines, depreciation and converting nominal to effective interest.

53 Slides

Measurement – changing dimensions

This investigation allows learners to see the effect on volume when you change one, two or all three dimensions. It was designed as a self-study activity (and can also be used as an assessment but there is no investigation in term 3/4) but I have also used it very successfully as the backbone of my lesson.

Learners need to be familiar with the Volume of a prism, pyramid and cylinder.

2D trigonometry

A slightly different worksheet that you can do at the end of the chapter on Trig formulas. Not only does it require learners to know how use the formulas, they also need to understand when you would use the trig formulas. It is low-entry worksheet where each learner determine how much they will get out of the activity.

Calculus

Are you tired of writing out long formulas on the board? This slideshow, consisting of 60 ready-to-use slides are the perfect solution. Working through the slideshow normally take about 10 lessons.

You will find examples on:
Future value annuities
Present value annuities
Calculating the outstanding balance on a loan
Depreciation
Deferred annuities

Analytical Geometry – Circles

This ready-to-use slideshow consists of worked-out examples of circles on the Cartesian Plane. This slideshow covers how to determine the equation of a circle as well as the equation of a tangent to a circle. Each example is illustrated by a diagram.

38 slides

Linear Patterns

Number of slides: 28

Grades: 8 and 9

This slideshow consist of multiple examples of linear number patterns.
Starting by exploring how the pattern change using diagrams to depict the number patterns.
From there we develop a method that we can use to determine the formula for any linear number patterns.

Investigation – Interior angles of a polygons

This is another investigation that was set up for learners to do completely unaided. The concept is not a new one, but here is everything they need in the same place in a well scaffolded activity. I use it as an assessment, but it can also work very well as a class activity.

Investigation – Speed, distance, time

Number of pages: 4 (investigation) + 3 (memo)

Total: 50 marks

Caps required Gr 10’s to do an investigation in term 1.

This investigation on factorising the sum and difference of cubes is a low entry, high exit activity.

The first few questions are fairly easy, while the last few are very difficult. This ensures that all learners can do fairly well, without leaving you with inflated marks.

Tree Diagrams – Dependent and Independent Events

I love teaching probability and tree diagrams are personally my favourite way of solving probability problems, but 2 things always spoil it for me.
The time it takes to make draw tree diagrams and animate them on PowerPoint
The boring context of most probability questions. It’s no wonder that learners ask us why they need to do this, if all the examples consist of spinners and dice. After all how often have you sat down to pick coloured counters from a bag.
If you feel the same about probability, the following slides will make a huge difference.
I always teach dependent events first, but you can mix and match them as you like.

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