Remember my birthday a few weeks ago? I had grand plans. I was going to plan mathematically-themed birthday party games. I don't ever really remember having a birthday party when growing up. Sure, there were the family parties when I was a toddler. And, my parents always did something to celebrate my birthday. But, I never got to invite my friends over for cake and games and party favors. I guess part of me was wanting to recreate this experience that I feel like I missed out on.
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| Birthday Cake |
Thanks to my students, we did end up having cake, but I failed to follow through on the party games. Instead, we just went ahead with the planned lessons. Yes, I made my students do math on my birthday. Yes, I love them that much.
My Algebra 2 students were studying radical functions at the time, though. And, I'm really starting to wish I had taken five or so minutes out of class to play a game of "Pin the Index on the Radical." It would have been like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Except, we would have had a giant radical sign on the board, complete with a radicand that corresponded to my age or the day of my birthday or something equally cool.
A student would be blind-folded, spun around x times, handed an index (maybe on an INDEX card!), and instructed to pin the index on the radical. Yes, the variable is intentional. I have no clue how many times you are supposed to spin someone around.
Points would be awarded based on the proximity of the index to its correct place on the radical symbol.
Or, what if the radicand was decided after the person was blind folded? An appropriate index was placed in their hand. And, after they pinned the index on the radical, they had to simplify the radical as much as possible as quickly as possible?
Hmmm... Maybe next year...