Coordinate Graphing

Practicing any skill can become boring. Sometimes, you need to mix it up a little; vary the routine for a little burst of motivation. Instead of using a "just practice problems" book, this one has an added incentive for completing each page. While the title makes the book sound like just a graphing book, its 56 activity sheets actually practice a wide variety of math skills. Besides obviously familiarizing your child with a coordinate grid, graphing, and negative numbers, this book has engaging exercises to review: basic operations with integers, basic operations with variables, prime numbers, factors, GCF, operations with fractions, percents, ratio and proportion, mean, mode, reading graphs, rounding, absolute value, money, sequences, logic, geometry, probability, and word problems. There are about 10 problems per sheet (labeled A-J). The inducement for solving the problems on each worksheet is discovering the picture formed when solutions are graphed. After students solve a page, they place the answers in blanks to form sets of coordinate points. Answers are used multiple times and placed in blanks corresponding to the letter of the answer. Points are plotted on a coordinate graph and lines drawn connecting points in sets (an END OF LINE marks the end of each set). When all the lines are drawn, a picture is formed. I have seen books like this for younger students, but this one is unique in that it is for middle school grades with resulting pictures correspondingly more complex (helicopter, airplane, eagle, windmill, etc.). Pages are all reproducible as are the two formats of blank graphing paper with axes. Book may be used as a consumable if you cut off the answers on the bottom of each page. Reduced graphs showing completed drawings are at the end of the book. Use these worksheets to practice or reinforce specific skills or use them once a week as review. If your child enjoys a bit of creativity with her math practice, she'll relish creating pictures using math skills (and a pencil!).