Teaching Algebra with Manipulatives

Chapter 1 Teaching Notes and Overview
Algebra Activity
Recording Sheet
The Distributive Property
(p. 33 of this booklet)
Use With the activity on page 28 in Lesson 1-5
of the Student Edition.
Objective Use a geometric model of the
Distributive Property to simplify expressions.
Materials
product mat (p. 17)
algebra tiles (pp. 10–11)
Product mats have been provided for the
practice exercises. You may wish to have
students work in pairs as they complete the
activity.
Students may discover that when drawing
models for each product they need not trace
algebra tiles as long as the units they use to
represent 1 and x are consistent.
Answers
See Teacher Wraparound Edition p. 28.
Algebra Activity
Make a Model
(p. 34 of this booklet)
Use with Lesson 1-7 as a follow-up activity.
Objective Use a model to make a conjecture
about the volume of rectangular prisms.
Materials
centimeter grid paper (p. 2)
scissors
tape
Students work in pairs to discover the
relationship between the volume of a
rectangular prism and the corner cut out of the
rectangle to form the prism. They make
conjectures and look for counterexamples to
disprove their conjectures.
Answers
1. 16 cm 10 cm 3 cm
2. 480 cm 3
3. 8 cm 14 cm 4 cm 448 cm 3
4. 6 cm 12 cm 5 cm 360 cm 3
5.
Volume
Square
480 9
448 16
360 25
6. Sample answer: The greater a square you
cut from the corner the less the volume.
Counter example: a square of 1 cm 3 yields a
smaller volume than a square of 4 cm 3 .
© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 28 Teaching Algebra with Manipulatives