This is the third post in a series I created called “Spicing up the Secondary Classroom.” The focus of this post is a task card activity I created called “Triples.”  I am a huge fan of task cards because they are so versatile and really help divide up the material for the students.  They don’t realize how much math they are doing when you take it off a worksheet.  With task cards,  you can turn them into a walk-about activity, put QR codes on them, make centers/stations out of them, use for grouping students, and so much more. I got to thinking if there was another self-check method beyond QR codes where students could have some motivator and know if they were right or wrong.  I realized if I could make it so that a certain number of cards had the same answer, then they would know if they were on the right track.  I decided to make a stack of cards where there are groups of three with the same answer, and named the activity “Triples.”  I love this activity, and so do my kids! And bonus- it’s not too bad to put together!

I recently made a version with simplifying expressions with 30 cards in the deck.  Here’s a sample “triple”:

You’ll notice that all three have the same answer: 3x – 11.  This really helps students because they can group the common answers.  If a card doesn’t have a match, they know to check it for errors.  This works AWESOME as a collaborative activity.  You can cut the cards out ahead of time, or have the kids do it.  They are scrambled so they kids won’t know what goes with what.  I let my kids write directly on the cards and then staple their “triples” together, place them in a bag, and label it with all group members names.

Here are some links to Triples Activities that I have in my TpT store:

Simplifying Expressions Triples Activity
Order of Operations Triples Activity
The Slope Formula Triples Activity
Laws of Exponents Triples Activity
Systems of Equations Triples Activity
Polynomial Operations Triples Activity

If you are looking for a new activity to use in your classroom, I highly recommend this one.  Give it a try and if you have specific topics in mind, send me an email!

~Gina~
All Things Algebra