Last Updated on February 4, 2022 by Editorial Team
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to show a window as an example of a rectangle rather than drawing it on paper? Practical demonstrations and activities always make instructing effortless, with enduring impact. These make concepts like polynomials trouble-free, which was otherwise often tedious.
Having a salient role in the world of mathematics, Polynomials become obligatory to learn. These concepts are educable with activities like Poly-Chart and Treasure Hunt. Let us know more about them for better comprehension. By digger deeper into the topic, we’ll also see how these activities can fit your little learner.
Learning polynomials made easy with engaging activities
Activities and games are always something that students find inviting and engaging. However, we can ensure that these thrilling moments of fun and games can also benefit students to learn and grow academically. Introducing harder-to-digest topics like polynomials in such a manner will help retain students’ attention and maintain their enthusiasm.
Here is how projects and activities can be of use to students:
- Polynomials can be tricky to teach as you can often find students losing interest as you progress through the lesson. Teaching polynomials with the help of classroom activities can help them become better listeners and increase their attention span.
- With math lessons like polynomials, students may hesitate to participate in a class or answer questions put forth actively, and activities can provide them with an opportunity to work on their confidence and be more active in the classroom. Students who are at any level of understanding can build their self-esteem and engage with other students and the topic at hand more effectively.
- Practice is something that students tend to avoid, and one can master polynomials only after constant exposure and practice. Students will be encouraged to work upon their critical thinking skills. They will learn to solve more problems quickly, thus increasing their familiarity with polynomials.
- A passion for Math as a subject will be naturally inculcated in the students as they learn polynomials with the help of these enticing activities. Once they begin to enjoy the process, a desire to practice and become lifelong learners will be instilled in them.
Fun activities for learning about polynomials
1. Matching Poly-Chart
Introduce polynomial identification and operations on polynomials through this activity. The exercise requires you to make a chart with the polynomial degree written on one side and the first words on the right-hand side. This should be followed by the number of terms on the left-hand side and the second word on the other side. Students will be first required to match the numbers on the left with the correct word on the right. They can then be given different polynomials on which they will identify and perform operations.
You can also put up the chart that you make in your classroom for use in the future.
Here is what you would need: A bulletin board, a large piece of cardstock or construction paper, thumbtacks to pin the cards onto the board, small pieces of card, coloured pens, a pencil, a ruler, markers, an eraser, access to a board that you can write questions upon, stickers, postcards or stamps that you can give away to your winners, and any other material that you may require to decorate your board.
Rules: Gather your supplies and create the chart as shown below. You can also ask a group of students from your class to make one for you. You can make it as plain or fancy as you want.
| Degree of Polynomial | First Word |
| 0 | Quadratic |
| 1 | Constant |
| 2 | Quartic |
| 3 | Quintic |
| 4 | Linear |
| 5 | nth degree |
| n>=6 | Cubic |
| Number of Terms | Last Word |
| 1 | Binomial |
| 2 | Polynomial |
| 3 | Monomial |
| n>=4 | Trinomial |
Once you are done preparing the board, pick students to pair the terms or degrees on the left with the correct words on the right.
You can write certain polynomials on the board and ask students to identify and name them. To take things a step further, you can also ask them to perform operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication that you have provided them with. Don’t forget to have fun and reward the students and display your chart in the classroom so you can play anytime you want!
2. Treasure Hunt
Another activity that the children can play together to learn polynomials is the game of Treasure Hunt. Students can go on a scavenger hunt to find problems on polynomials that you may hide anywhere in the classroom. They can do this activity both individually or as a pair. When they solve the problem, they can submit the answers to their respective teachers, who may reward them if they are correct or request them to try again. The children can stay on the hunt until they have found all the questions or until the time runs out.
Here is what you would need: Small pieces of card (preferably coloured in bright colours for easy identification), coloured pens, a pencil, a ruler, markers, an eraser, a pair of scissors, a sheet of paper with the answers, stickers, postcards or stamps that you can give away to your winners, and any other material that you may need.
Rules: Cut your card into smaller pieces, followed by writing your questions on them. Hide them in class where the students can’t find them when they are away. Ensure that they are well hidden and pay attention to not hiding them in places that may be dangerous or lead to the students crowding.
Once the students come in, inform them about the treasure hunt and ask them to start looking for the pieces of cards with the questions. You can ask them to solve the questions as a pair or individually but warn them to exercise caution while searching for the clues. Once they have solved the questions, verify them with your answers and reward them accordingly.
3. “Story” nomial
This activity is simple and can help students understand the practical use of polynomials in daily life situations. Write the names of different word problems based on real-life scenarios and creative circumstances on sheets of paper and ask students to pick one of them and solve them. Help bring out their creative side and blur the lines between art and mathematics by drawing these scenarios and writing stories to represent the problem at hand. This game can be enjoyed by students of all ages and levels of understanding.
Here is what you would need: Pieces of paper with your word problems written upon it, a pencil, a ruler, an eraser, coloured pens and markers, a sheet of paper with all the solutions written, paper for students to draw or write, writing supplies (for the students), stickers, postcards, and stamps to give away to the students, drawing supplies (crayons, colour pencils, paints, and brushes, etc.) and any other supplies you may need.
Rules: Brainstorm creative situations and scenarios that you can make into word problems. Write these down on a piece of paper and distribute them in a class by asking students to take turns and pick one each. Ask students to represent these situations in terms of polynomials and then solve the problem.
Once they are done coming up with the solutions, ask them to represent the given situations in their word problems as drawings or to write a story around it. Once they submit their projects, reward them with postcards, stamps, and stickers.
4. Polynomial Dice
To make this activity more interesting, you can also introduce it in class in the form of a board game. The students can be requested to roll two dice with different terms written on them and roll another dice a given number of times to perform different operations if required. Make sure that you have made a list of solutions to all possible combinations of the terms on the dice.
Here is what you would need: Any square or rectangle-shaped objects that you can stick pieces of paper with terms written upon it on, sheets of paper or cardstock, glue, a pair of scissors, a sheet of paper with the solutions written, and other stationery supplies.
Rules: Stick pieces of cards with the terms written on it on one dice and the ones with operation symbols written on another. Find possible solutions to the problems that may come and write them down on a sheet of paper. Ask the students to roll the two dice with terms written on them and name the type of polynomial they come up with. If they have terms that can be operated upon, roll the third dice with the symbols marked and present an answer. You can go around the class and engage multiple students to play this game randomly or group them into teams and ask them to perform this activity several times and produce a result.
5. Polynomials: The White Elephant Game
Maintain a budget and ask students to bring one question, which should be based on polynomials, and one gift that they can put in the bag of gifts. Ensure that the questions are of a similar type and that they have a consistent difficulty level. This game can teach students to be competitive and quick-witted while also learning the topic at hand in an exciting way.
Here is what you would need: A huge bag or box to keep the gifts in, paper or cardstock (Ensure that the students write their questions on similar pieces of card), writing supplies, and other stationery supplies.
Rules: Inform the students in advance to pick out a gift (with a proper budget that is affordable to all the students in the class) and to prepare a question and maintain secrecy. On the given day, ask them to sit in a circle with the bag of gifts in the center and pick a random question from the box. If the student can answer the question, they can win the associated gift from the bag, and if they cannot, then they must wait till their turn comes again. The next student must either challenge to answer the previous question that couldn’t be answered and win the gift or pick a new question. If they get the question right, then they can collect their gift, and the remaining students can continue to play until they exchange and go through all the gifts and questions, respectively.
Summing up,
The activities mentioned above and games that we took a look at are fun, unique, and gripping. They can prove to be a great tool for learning a topic that learners may find a bit tricky. Choosing the right polynomial activity for students will make their learning interesting. These games can especially be better if you are in two minds and are bewildered as to how to introduce this topic and then get students to practice them. Start from today and see your child mastering Polynomials with each passing day. If you have any better activity, share it with us in the comments below!
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,