7th Math in MN: Week 2 - Days 4-6

Week 2:
Day 4: White Board Game & Multiple Intelligences Presentation & Assignment
Day 5: Noah's Ark Problem (sub plans)
Day 6: Start Interactive Notebooks & Work time for Multiple Intelligences Assignment

We are still not to the Illustrative Math curriculum that I am so excited to dig into.  I believe that will happen on Thursday (Day 7).  So this week we started off like we do every week with a game I call "White Board Game."  This is something I got from a White Bear Lake math teacher many years ago.  It is pretty simple and gets junior high students working on math competition (MathCounts) problems in a relaxed group environment.  I wrote a blog about this game a while ago.  (HERE)

After that, we finished up my Prezi presentation (sales pitch) on why they would be successful in math.  The third and last day is all about multiple intelligences.  We talked through the 8 main intelligences and then they took a quick self-assessment.

With the 7th graders, I use this shorter one from Edutopia. 
With the 8th graders, I use this slightly longer one.

We talk about how to use the students' strengths to their advantages when studying.

I then have the students create slideshows showcasing their strengths to present to the class.  There is one little trick I use that totally changes the game.  I ask them to only put their names at the end.  So each day starting Week 3, I will present 1 student's presentation each day.  Then after the presentation, the other students try to guess whose it was.  It is pretty fun and the students enjoy it every year.  Here is a sample of a student's slideshow (name withheld), down below.

The students will also start their Interactive Notebooks on Wednesday (Day6) and then get the rest of class to work on their slideshows.  Then we will finally jump into the Illustrative Math curriculum on Thursday (hopefully).

I almost forgot, Day 5 was a weird one.  My daughter got sick on the way to school.  I had about 20 minutes to come up with sub plans.  So every class of mine did the Noah's Ark math problem today.  It seemed to go reasonably well from the notes the sub left.