Square Numbers and Square Roots
Lesson plan = 60 min activity
This has been developed for use on Sumdog (www.sumdog.com), a new
website offering high-quality, free mathematics games for students aged
9-13.
Classroom
resources
Objective
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Introduce students to squaring numbers and then practice using Sumdog's online
games. (Assumes children already know multiplication.)
Structure
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60 min lesson
Can be done with the entire class or a group
Resources
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Access to the Sumdog website
Student handout from our website
(http://www.sumdog.com/en/Square_Numbers_and_Square_Roots_Games/attachmen
ts/SquareNumbers_Handout.doc)
Plan
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Preparation (optional):
◦ Sign up for an account on Sumdog and create accounts for your students.
◦ Print out student login information.
Activity (60 min):
◦ Introduce square numbers (10 min)
▪ Introduce squares as a special type of multiplication with its own notation.
▪ Write out some problems to show how this works.
◦ Play Sumdog games (15 min)
▪ Pass out the student handouts. These will explain how to use the website.
▪ Have the students play any game on Sumdog, using the “Square Numbers”
topic (Level 9). Street Racer is a good game to use for this exercise, since it
displays the correct answers if a student answers wrong.
◦ Discussion (10 min)
▪ Stop the students and ask them to discuss what they are finding difficult.
◦ Introduce square roots (10 min)
▪ Explain the idea of a square root as the reverse of a square number.
▪ Show and demonstrate the notation for square roots.
◦ Play Sumdog games (15 min)
▪ Have the students select the “Square Roots” topic and play some more.
Additional Resources
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Get additional resources to help you with this lesson at:
http://www.sumdog.com/en/Classroom_Resources/
Play Sumdog’s free mathematics games at http://www.sumdog.com/
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