In an earlier post I wrote about my 7th grade math interactive notebook pages on triangles. The pages on this post continued our study of polygon properties and angle measurements. To begin, we defined the term and used a T-chart to write properties and draw examples and non-examples of polygons. We also defined regular polygons which we used in the chart on the next two pages. 

As you will notice I don't always stick to the idea of putting information on the right page and student reflection on the left. Sometimes, I just have more to show them than that, and sometimes I have more reflecting and practicing for them to do than will fit on one page.

On the next two pages we made a chart of polygons. There are columns for the number of sides and angles, the polygon name, and sketches of the polygon. Drawing regular polygons would be difficult, so I copied them for us to cut out and glue on the chart. At the end of this post there is information about the book where I got the page I copied.

As I mentioned above, before this lesson we had studied the measurement of the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals. Earlier in the year my 8th grade math class created  "Geome-TREEs" using two pages of their notebooks. Because of spacing for the pages in this class, the 7th graders only used one page, and I made a couple tweaks to improve the quadrilateral tree. We connected the kite to the rhombus and square using the kite tail because both of these figures are also kites. Click on the link to see my original post and description of the "Geome-TREEs."

The students used their knowledge of the measurement of the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals to help determine the measurement of the interior angles of a regular pentagon. I loved to see my students flip back and use pages they created in their notebooks to help them with the new lesson. One of my favorite parts of using these notebooks is watching them actually use the pages as a reference.


Our textbook also introduces tessellations at this point, so I included the definition on this page. It ties the polygon lessons with the notebook entries for transformations.

This is an amazing deal and a cause that is close to my heart. I am an Oklahoman who is on a teaching assignment that takes me far away. It is hard to be away from home when you know there are people in need. I'm thankful my family is safe, but my heart throbs for homes that no longer stand and families that will never be the same again. So thankful for the rescue and relief workers, neighbors, and strangers who are finding ways to reach out and lend a helping hand.

"And every day, with the humidity soaring and the hot sun beating down, you wonder how you'll get rid of the tons and tons of debris piling up everywhere. As Dad says, you just raise your head up and yell, "Help!" That's when the miracle happens. Suddenly, everyone became our neighbor. The National Guard, the Red Cross, volunteers whose own homes had been untouched. Neighbors were coming out of the woodwork, as the saying goes." ~Ivy Ruckman, Night of the Twisters

Thank you all for being generous and loving neighbors!

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Classifying Triangles: When one of my math classes was studying the names of polygons, their properties, and the measurement of their interior angles we made several entries in our interactive notebooks. We made this T-chart to review the classification of triangles by their sides and angles. We folded the triangles over and glued them on the chart. On the outside we wrote the names of each type of triangle and on the inside the students wrote the properties for each type of triangle. 
Download the template for free below!

Writing in Math: To reflect on the classification of triangles and lead into the concept of the measurement of the interior angles of a triangle students were asked to write whether or not a triangle could have two right angles. They also had to draw a representation to show reasoning and proof of their response. 

Triangle Interior Angle Measurement:   In past years I've used a piece of construction paper to model this for the class. I cut a diagonal to make a triangle. I would tear off each angle and put them together on the board or digital projector to demonstrate that the angles, when put together, make a line which is 180 degrees. Since I have been developing interactive notebooks with my classes this year I wanted them to have this activity glued in their notebooks.

I decided to  use 3 different types of triangles to demonstrate that it is true for all of them. I made two of each triangle so they could see the original as well as the triangle with the angles removed and glued together. The activity went really well in class and was a great visual reminder for other angle measurement concepts we studied later in the chapter.

I love teaching transformations.
These are some pages from my 7th grade interactive notebook.

The class took notes on lines of symmetry and reflecting figures over the x- and y-axes. On the left they completed an activity to reflect a design over both axes. (The source for this activity is below.)

For the translations lesson we did one example when a figure is drawn on the coordinate grid and one example for writing the coordinates of the image when only the original coordinates are given. Here is a resource you can use for printing coordinate grids in a variety of sizes.

To sum up the three types of transformations we studied, we outlined three figures on the page then reflected one using tape on one side, translated one, and rotated one. To the right we wrote the definition of each transformation. My 8th graders did a similar transformations page but had other notebook entries for translations and reflections. You can see some of their pages on my Transformations Notebook Pages blog.
On the left page the students completed tessellations using translations and rotations. (See information about this resource below.)