The First Twelve Days of School

Author

Texas Instruments

Alignment

Standards Alignment

Textbook Alignment

Subject Area

Math: Algebra I: Sequences and Series

Math: Algebra II: Quadratics

Math: Middle Grades Math: Algebraic Thinking

Math: PreAlgebra: Nonlinear Functions

Level

6-8

Activity Time

60 Minutes

TI Calculator

TI-30 X IIS™ / TI-30Xa

Other Materials

This is Activity 1 from the EXPLORATIONS Book:
Investigating Mathematics with Calculators in the Middle Grades: Activities for the TI-30Xa SE and TI-34

Resource Types

Lessons

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The First Twelve Days of School

Activity Overview

Students learn to organize data, look for patterns, and solve problems. They will count the number of "coins" in a variation of The Twelve Days of Christmas song. They will also generalize the patterns through symbolic expressions.

Before the Activity

See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity

Print the transparency sheet and pages 4 - 5 from the attached Student PDF file for your class

During the Activity

Distribute the page to the class.

Follow the activity procedures:

Act out the first three days of the poem

Count the coins received each day

Organize the data by listing in a table the day, number of coins received on the day, and the total number of coins

Predict the number of coins received on other days

Complete the table with data for 12 days

Use an algebraic expression to generalize the pattern

Extend the pattern and find the number of coins received after a set number of days

Observe that the sum of the first n whole numbers is n (n + 1)/2

After the Activity

Students complete the activity sheet and answer questions.

Review student results

As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging

Re-teach concepts as necessary

Download Files

Download All Files (ZIP)

Before the Activity Files

Teacher Notes1 PDF Teacher Notes2 PDF Teacher Notes3 PDF Student Activity PDF

Author

Texas Instruments

Alignment

Standards Alignment

Textbook Alignment

Subject Area

Math: Algebra I: Sequences and Series

Math: Algebra II: Quadratics

Math: Middle Grades Math: Algebraic Thinking

Math: PreAlgebra: Nonlinear Functions

Level

6-8

Activity Time

60 Minutes

TI Calculator

TI-30 X IIS™ / TI-30Xa

Other Materials

This is Activity 1 from the EXPLORATIONS Book:
Investigating Mathematics with Calculators in the Middle Grades: Activities for the TI-30Xa SE and TI-34

Resource Types

Lessons

Report an Issue

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The First Twelve Days of School

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