The One with the Mystery Pictures

Before Spring Break we began studying integers and the coordinate plane.  My students were beyond thrilled to be finished with our unit on fractions.  I have to admit I was pretty excited to be finished as well.  

They immediately fell in love with integers.  Maybe it was because integers aren't fractions.  Or it might have had something to do with the fact they got to play integer war (see previous post) which they are still begging to play again and again.

To help them practice graphing points on a coordinate plane, I gave each student a "mystery" picture.  I had gathered somewhere between 10 and 15 different pictures from different sources because I wanted there to be a variety.  I also wanted to keep the element of surprise.  I hate when that fast working student yells out "It's a ..." and the fun is ruined for everyone else.

Having a variety also allowed me to give easier pictures to students who needed them and more challenging pictures to my more advanced students.

We spent two days working on these pictures as some of them were pretty detailed.  My students absolutely loved it.  They would start guessing as to what their picture was as soon as they graphed the first point.  Some of their guesses made me chuckle.  

I'm proud of how they turned out.  I think my students did a fabulous job.

Some of these are created by my students as extra credit - they designed the pictures and then wrote out the coordinates and directions on how to put it all together.