TL;DR The post that no one wanted; it all goes downhill from here basically.
Context
Start – 11:40 PM
The review process for each website is taking longer than expected (the weather outside is also slightly scary NGL). So here’s a different type of post for today:
I will be going through Printable Paper to find paper templates that I think would be useful in the classroom (either Mathematics or Science), and will give a timestamp for each one that I write about. Here we go:
Printable Paper Template Notes
11:47 PM – Lined Paper College-Ruled on Letter-Sized Paper in Portrait Orientation
An absolute classic paper template. Useful for basic note-taking. Margins leave room for notes (or doodles). Students will most definitely have this type of paper available to them already, so it’s probably not necessary to include this as a template.
11:48 PM – Check Register
I could see this possibly being useful in lessons for Financial Mathematics. I would probably look for more authentic versions if possible (i.e. ones from an actual bank).
Another idea might be to set up fake stalls in the classroom and have students either run them or make purchases around the class. This can give students some experience in recording transactions down.
11:58 PM – Graph Paper with Three Lines per Inch on Letter-Sized Paper
Probably the most necessary paper template for Mathematics and Science. This template allows for (relatively) easy geometric constructions and Cartesian Plane drawings. Graph drawing is also made simple, especially in regards to plotting data points (just make sure to teach students how to decide on appropriate axes scales).
12:00 AM – Dot Paper with Four Dots per Inch on Letter-Sized Paper
Not quite as useful as isometric dot paper, but I suppose you could use this for geometric drawings. Harinder Mahajan suggests ways in which dot paper can be used to explore the following concepts:
- Shapes (Triangles, Quadrilaterals)
- Angles
- Symmetry
- Congruency
- Transformations (Reflections, Translations, Rotations, Dilation)
- Perimeter and Area
12:06 AM – Big Start Big End Comic Page
Hear me out on this one: I think comics are a great medium for students to convey their understanding whilst providing opportunities to express their creativity.
One way you could get students to use the comic template is to instruct them to pose a problem at the start (top left panel), then to show how someone might solve the problem using the remaining panels.
On a side tangent, here’s a link to comic strips featuring mathematics that you could inject into your PowerPoint slides at the start of your lessons. Here’s another one.
12:13 AM – Basketball Score Sheet
Whilst it would be fun to watch a full basketball game during class-time, it might be more practical to fill in the score sheet yourself out of class and bring a copy of the results to your next lesson to analyse with your students. There’s plenty of metrics to look at and compare between players. Check beforehand if your students like basketball though. It might be interesting for them if you (or a student) record the results of a game they played themselves, e.g. during Sport or PE.
12:24 AM – Monthly Budget
This budget template has basically everything you could ask for in terms of possible expenses. What’s also interesting is that it includes separate columns for PLAN, ACTUAL and DIFFERENCE.
What you could do is allocate the class a certain amount of money for a month (let’s say about $6000) and get students to decide where the money should go. The ensuing conversations would help students differentiate between the essential expenses from the optional expenses. It would also be interesting to see how well students estimate the costs for certain expenses, e.g. how much do a month’s worth of groceries cost? Students would need to pull from their experiences or do some research online to get appropriate estimates.
12:37 AM – Trigonometry Paper – 2 Quadrants & 4 Quadrants
These can be used with students when introducing trigonometric graphs for the first time. The radian intervals are marked out, although I’m not sure if they’re to scale. Ideally, you should teach students how to construct the graphs themselves so that they’re properly scaled (and not funky looking shape-wise).
This and other log graph paper, AFAIK, are not typically used in Mathematics. In Chemistry though, you might be able to get use out of this template for concentration graphs.
Even though you would never test students on using log paper, it might be cool to show them anyways and explain how they are used IRL. Here’s an example.
12:45 AM – Polar Graph Paper with 15 Degree Angles and 1-Inch Radials on Letter-Sized Paper
Polar graph paper is generally used for plotting polar coordinates (i.e. distance from the origin and angle counter-clockwise from the positive x-axis). Students will probably not see polar coordinates unless they study Complex Numbers (at least in the NSW Mathematics Syllabus).
12:52 AM – Compass Directions
Honestly, this is not that great considering the numerical bearings are not displayed. You could get students to write on top of this template, then proceed with teaching about bearings. I’m not too sure how useful the graduation marks are either.
Another side tangent: it would be interesting to try out giving students actual compasses, and positioning them around the playground and measuring bearings to each other. It would require some careful measuring, but I think it could be a fun activity.
1:02 AM – Distance Grid
This template seems pretty cool. Basically, you write down a list of locations vertically and horizontally, and use the grid to note down the distance between them. This would be particularly useful in topics like Networks.
You could also use the template to record wins and losses between students, and tally up the end results to see who comes out on top as the overall winner (e.g. in a competition of predicting Heads vs Tails).
1:10 AM – Number Line – Vertical
This template provides 5 number lines going from 10 to -10. Personally, I would have preferred them to be in landscape mode, but the vertical-ness could be useful for simulating thermometer readings. I would probably cut these into five pieces.
One game you could play with students is to get them to guess the number you’re thinking of. You’d need to provide them increasingly difficult hints, like this number and -8 give an average of -2, or the distance between this number and 4 is the same as the distance between -2 and -6.
1:19 AM – Isometric Dot Paper – Fine
Similarly to the dot paper template, this template lends itself towards geometric constructions. In particular, isometric dots allow for 3D solid drawings. The dots can then be counted for measuring distance.
Give students a chance to make drawings in class using the isometric dot paper. They could be tasked with drawing isometric projections of objects, like boxes or cameras, or buildings to a particular scale.
1:26 AM – Raffle Tickets
Not too many uses in either Mathematics or Science. You could use these as a prop or gimmick when discussing the cost of carnival ride tickets or admission fees to attractions. The template also doesn’t seem easy to cut out.
1:29 AM – Axis Graph Paper 0.5 Inch
A simple Cartesian Plane template, with no numbers on the axes. I would take the axes labels as merely suggestions, and allow students to flip the paper either vertically or horizontally depending on the type of graph being drawn.
1:32 AM – Calendar – Yearly
Started to scrape the bottom of the barrel here.
I don’t think this template would be the most practical for classroom use. I just wanted to use this as an opportunity to encourage you to bring in physical calendars into the classroom for students to play around with. They could be used to provoke discussion about different kinds of calendars (including the Lunar Calendar). You could also use the calendars to teach about time intervals, such as weeks, fortnights, months, and so on.
1:38 AM – BONUS: Printable Games
The Battleship Game probably has the most tangible usefulness in terms of Mathematics, specifically coordinate geometry. See here for a version with instructions.
There’s also some origami designs you could get students to create during class. Robert Lang demonstrates how mathematics can be used to create complex origami designs. Here’s another article you may be interested in by Thomas Hull regarding the mathematics of paper folding and its real-world applications.
Additional Stuff (1:55 AM)
I couldn’t find it on the website, but another paper template worth considering are the nets of 3D solids, such as cubes and triangular pyramids. These are always fun to bring out in class and get students to create the solids and decorate them with coloured pencils or markers. You can then hang the finished products up in the classroom as decorations.
Another template worth considering is one of an analogue clock. Ideally, you should find one that comes with minute and hour hands that are attachable and movable. Alternatively, you could just take the clock down from the classroom wall, play around with changing the clock time and getting students to read off the time using proper terminology.
Addition and multiplication grids are common on the back of Mathematics workbooks, so I didn’t bother to include them here (they don’t seem to be available on the Printable Paper website either).
Circle templates could be useful for simple pie chart constructions, although it might be better to just teach students how to use compass-and-straight-edge. Similarly, rectangle templates could be used for creating divided bar charts, but they can also be created using a ruler.
Personally, I think the most interesting templates were the highly specific ones, such as the Basketball Score Sheet and the Monthly Budget. Before using these, I would advise you to consider whether it’s important that students are able to construct these tables or sheets on their own rather than relying on a template. If so, give them opportunities to construct their own version of the sheet, rather than relying on the templates.
Conclusion (2:10 AM)
To be honest, I don’t think anything useful was achieved here. If I come up with new ideas for how to use the different templates above, I’ll make sure to write an update about it. Other than that, I hope that you’ll start making use of some of the paper templates available on Printable Paper.
In a future post, I will (attempt) to discuss some possible uses of common objects around the household as examples for Mathematics or Science problems (think magazines, receipts or recipes). I’ll also (probably) get back to doing resource reviews from the EDSE3063 Unit of Works later today.
End – 2:25 AM
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