Geometry – Mathberry Lane

19
Aug
2026

Back to School Math Escape Rooms – Boot Camp

Back‑to‑school season is always full of excitemnt. You have a new schedules, lots of new faces and names to learn, and a whole lot of “Wait… what do they still remember from last year?”

When you teach high school math, the first week is all about getting to know your students, building community, and bringing a little fun back into the classroom.You want students engaged, moving, and reconnecting with math… but you also need a quick read on their foundational skills before diving into new content.

And if we’re being honest, the same old review worksheet just doesn’t set the tone for the kind of classroom we want.

So this year, I created something different. My Back‑to‑School Boot Camp Escape Rooms for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 turn the first week into a hands‑on, puzzle‑filled mission. Students rotate through eight stations packed with ciphers, decoders, cut‑and‑match puzzles, graph tasks, and skill‑based challenges, all wrapped in a fun storyline that makes review feel like an experience instead of an assignment.

They’re print‑and‑go, fun to run, and full of collaboration and movement. You get an instant snapshot of what your students remember without giving a test, and students get to ease back into math in a way that feels engaging instead of intimidating.

If you’re looking for something memorable, engaging, and actually fun for the first week of math class, the Boot Camp Escape Rooms are ready for you.

Here’s to starting the year with energy, confidence, and a whole lot of student engagement.

Algebra 1 Boot Camp Math Escape Room

Algebra 1 Boot Camp — plotting points, vocabulary, order of operations, distributive property, patterns, fractions, simplifying expressions, one‑step equations.

High School Math Back to School Escape Room Algebra 1

Geometry Boot Camp Math Escape Room

Geometry Boot Camp — angle relationships, tangram puzzles, constructing circles, angle pair relationships, vocaublary, a logic puzzle and more.

Algebra 2 Boot Camp Math Escape Room

Algebra 2 Boot Camp — polynomials, functions, slope, quadratics, exponentials, domain & range, graph classification.

Starting the year with activities that feel meaningful, collaborative, and fun sets the tone for everything that comes next. Whether you choose Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2 Boot Camp, each escape room gives your students a chance to reconnect with math, work together, and ease into the year with confidence. I hope these help you kick off your first week feeling organized, energized, and excited for what’s ahead. Cheers!

17
Jul
2024

Mastering Surface Area: Teaching Tips for Math Teachers

categories: Geometry

Teaching surface area can be one of the more challenging topics in geometry, but with the right strategies and tools, it can become an engaging and rewarding experience for both teachers and students. As a seasoned math teacher, I’ve developed several lessons to help students grasp the concept of surface area. In this blog post, I’ll share these strategies and introduce you to a valuable resource that will make your teaching even more effective: the Surface Area Formulas Graphic Organizer.

Why Starting with a Low Floor Warm Up is Important

Engaging students at the start of the lesson is crucial. If you lose their attention in the first few minutes, it can be difficult to get their attention back. One way I have found to engage all students at the start of a lesson is to incorporate an entry level warm up prompt. I really like using “What do you notice?” and “What do you wonder?” as entry level prompts. All level of students can be successful with this task and I am always surprised when they notice or wonder ideas I would never have thought of myself.

One entry level notice and wonder for surface area could be to show different types of nets and to ask students what they notice and wonder. You could then extend the discussion to ask them to think about which net would make a cone, rectangular prism, etc. You could find real life objects to represent these shapes, such as a cereal box for a rectangular prism, a ball for a sphere, a oatmeal container for a cylinder, etc.

Strategies for Teaching Surface Area

Nets: Start the unit with a hands on introduction lesson to help students better understand what surface area is all about. Exploring different nets is a great activity to help students understand surface area for different shapes.
Vocabulary: When introducing formulas for surface area, it is important to review each vocabulary term that is part of the formula. For example, if the surface area of a sphere has “r” for radius in the formula, then make sure that students know the difference between a diameter and a radius.
Review Basic Area formulas: When I taught surface area to my class, I found that some students needed a review of finding the area of basic 2 dimensional shapes. These shapes would be the bases of our 3 dimensional solids.
Real-Life Applications: Connect the topic to real-life situations. Have students calculate the surface area required to wrap a gift, the leather of a baseball, or the fabric of a tent. These practical applications make learning more relevant and interesting.
Practice, Practice, Practice: Provide ample opportunities for practice. Use a variety of problems so students can apply their knowledge in different contexts.

Need a Surface Area Graphic Organizer?

I’ve got you covered! To further support your teaching, I’ve created a Surface Area Formulas Graphic Organizer, a powerful tool designed to help students visually organize and remember the different surface area formulas. This organizer includes formulas for finding the surface area of the following solids:

Sphere
Cylinder
Prism
Pyramid
Cone

By using this graphic organizer, students can easily reference the formulas and understand the relationships between different shapes. It’s an excellent resource for in-class activities, homework assignments, and test preparation. And, I’ve included 2 pages of practice worksheets too. Grab your free copy below!

Interested in checking out my lessons? If so, visit my TPT shop linked here or click on an image below.

I hope these tips and resources help you in your classroom. Happy teaching!

28
Apr
2024

Surface Area of Spheres Investigation with Oranges

categories: Geometry

I love a good hands on activity that helps my students remember the math they are learning. A great activity to remember the surface area of a sphere formula is to investigate the surface area of an orange.

Make sure to use oranges instead of clementines as the clementines are not as spherical as oranges. Students trace the outline of an orange onto a piece of paper, keeping their pencil perpendicular to the paper as best they can. Then have students use a compass to copy the same size circle several more times on their paper. Ask students to make a conjecture about how many circles they believe the orange peel will cover once they have peeled the orange.

Once students have their circles and conjecture, it is time to peel the orange. Students peel the orange and then test out their conjectures by covering each circle, one at a time. Students should find that the orange peel is able to cover 4 circles. Then as a class, make the connection between the radius of a circle and the radius of a sphere, like an orange. Ask students to write a formula for the surface area of their orange.

If you would like to grab a free copy of my Surface Area Investigation Activity, here is the link:

Alternate Ways to Facilitate this Activity:

Each student completes the activity on their own(an orange for each student)
Students work in groups of 3 or 4 students (7-10 oranges)
Teacher has student volunteers go to the front of the room to model the activity for the class (1 orange)