Mrs. Holloway's students were busy last week as they worked to complete their semester Christmas projects.
PreAlgebra: This project was divided into two sections; the Christmas Scene and the Lost Santa. The Christmas Scene had to include several Geometry aspects; such as line segments, regular polygons, and obtuse angles. For the Lost Santa portion, they decorated a coordinate plane that helped Lost Santa make it to the North Pole using 10 different transformations, including translations, reflections, and/or rotations.
Algebra 1: These students created a Christmas tree that included a variety of concepts they've learned about this semester. The ornaments represented their four quick graph methods; HOY, VUX, slope intercept form, and standard form. For the snowflakes, they created 4 one-variable equations and showed how to solve each. The garland stretching across the trees was used to show examples of expressions from first semester and also showed how to simplify each. The students finished their trees by hanging their lights; each representing a subset of the real number system, including the definition and three examples of that subset.
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Algebra 2: There were 4 parts to the Algebra 2 Christmas project. First, they created a Christmas tree and wrote the linear equations that formed the tree. Then, they designed a slope for sledding, including two valleys and one hill. These valleys/hills were parabolic in shape, so students wrote the quadratic equations for those pieces. Part 3 had the students creating story problems that required a system of equations for solving. Students chose 2 of the 5 solving processes that they've learned to then solve their system. To finish out the project, the students created a Christmas table. Using expressions, they found the area of their table, and using long division, they found the missing sides of their placemats. Then, they decorated their tables and described who would be at their table, what they'd be eating, what activities/traditions they'd participate in after the meal, and what they were thankful for.
It has been a fun week of seeing the students use their creativity incorporated with things they've learned this semester. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from Mrs. Holloway and her Algebra students!