It has been a crazy winter this year and with all the craziness came a few extra days off of school. Sure it was wonderful not to have to set an alarm clock on a Monday OR Tuesday but being home bound for an additional two days was starting to make me crazy in the head! After it warmed up a few degrees(like 20 or so) I ventured out into the single digit temps to get some fresh air. It was being outside and seeing the shadows that were being casted by the houses, fences, garages, myself and everything else, it came to me. A math problem would be born. At that time, we had been studying the Pythagorean Theorem in class and this was the perfect opportunity so bring a problem to life. I trucked it out to the ally and dug wood poles out of the garbage can. These wood poles were previously a decorative detail in our stairway which resembled jail bars to me. They looked much better stuck in the snow!
So once they were in, I grabbed the tape measure, measured and ran inside to write the measurements down. I ended up measure two lengths in inches and the other in feet because it was easier to remember. This added a little extra thinking to the problem which ended up being a good thing. As you can see below, this is what students walked in and saw on the board the next day.
I added a little extra drama to the introduction which students seemed to appreciate. The biggest question they had was, "Is that your garage?" To which I replied...."Of course not! Do you think I would actually take a picture of my own backyard and show everyone?" They believed me but really, would I actually go through the trouble of doing this in someone else's backyard? Silly kids, just another reason why I love middle schoolers...
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