Desmos has some incredibly innovative activities for pre algebra students. It is my go to website for planning the day before a break, emergency sub plans, and math centers.
The premade resources are completely no-prep. All you have to do is create your account and assign an activity to your class. If you want it to be even easier, just project the class code on the board and have your students log in themselves.
I’ve dug through all of Desmos and picked out my top ten favorite activities for pre algebra that align directly to the curriculum.
Polygraphs on Desmos are basically the math version of Guess Who? Students need to ask each other yes or no questions using math vocabulary to narrow down their options until they get to the last graph.
I have used polygraphs as vocabulary review or in my math center rotations. This activity can last from 15 to 45 minutes depending on the number of rounds you want your students to play.
Students will think critically about whether each relation is a function and how to prove it.
This activity challenges students to create expressions to represent the area of various pools and the surrounding areas.
This activity gets students thinking about expressions and equations in a different way using algebra tiles to represent different groups and types of equations.
This activity is inspired by OpenUp Resources which is one of my favorite (and free!) online resources for math teachers. Your students will experiment with drawing dilations and adjusting them to fit the parameters of each problem. It will also compare and contrast the pre-image and new image for each problem.
In this game, students will use their understanding of slopes, intercepts, and slope-intercept form to safely land each plane on the runway. Their strategy to start may be trial and error, but once your students start to see a pattern, they will quickly get the hang of this activity!
In this transformation activity, students will make observations of the shape movements on a coordinate plane. This is perfect for building vocabulary and introducing transformations such as translate, reflect, and rotate. Your students will answer critical thinking questions and justify their reasoning using evidence from their observations.
This activity gamifies inequalities on a number line stressing the importance of solutions and open/closed circle inequalities. Your students will solve inequalities to help Shira eat as much grass as possible. If there is any grass left over or if she falls into the water, your students will need to reconsider their solution and try again.
This game has students experiment with different functions and ways of writing and describing them. They will use tables, graphs, verbal models, and equations to represent different speeds as functions.
All of the Marbleslides activities for pre algebra, algebra, and algebra 2 are my absolute favorite! They are perfect for the day before a break or sub plans.
This specific Desmos activity gamifies graphing lines through different challenges. Each challenge has four stars that need to be hit by the marbles.
In order to catch the stars, your students will need to adjust the lines on the coordinate plane to make sure the marbles will slide in the right direction. They will need to make observations about slope, y-intercepts, and domains of functions to successfully complete each task.
Final thoughts about Desmos activities for Pre Algebra
The opportunities are endless for using Desmos in your classroom. All of these activities for pre algebra will get your students thinking deeper and keep them engaged to the bell!