Objective: By the end of the lesson/activity, the students will be able to:• Apply mathematical properties to evaluate its

equivalent expressions.

Materials:• “Equivalent Expressions Tournament” activity

sheet• “8 Player Game Day Bracket” activity sheet

Teacher Preparation:• Copy an activity sheet for every student. • Organize students into groups of 8 or groups of 4.

(Students may choose 2 players in the tournament when in groups of 4.)

Introduction:Introduce the students to March Madness. Allow the students to share what they know about the tourna-ment. Show them brackets from previous tourna-ments, and discuss how the process works.

Directions:1. Have the students follow along as you read the

directions aloud. 2. Randomly assign students to a problem or allow

them to predict and choose the player they think will win.

3. Allow the students to have fun with the activity as you monitor and ask questions throughout.

Question(s):• Which player do you predict will win the tourna-

ment? - How did you decide what player you wanted to represent for the tournament?

Lesson Plan 6th Grade

Expresssions, Equations, and Inequalities

“Equivalent Expressions Tournament”South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Stan-dards for Mathematics:6.EEI.3 Apply mathematical properties (e.g., commutative, associative, distributive) to generate equivalent expressions.

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Season 2

• Who won [name of the round]? • How do you know your opponent completed their

problem correctly? - What can you do to ensure your opponents’ answers are correct?

Extensions:• Require all students to work all problems, making

everyone responsible for the correct answers. • Allow the players with the lowest answer to move on

throughout the bracket instead of the highest values. • Use the blank activity sheet to create your own

problems with any skill and/or concept. • Create bigger brackets to allow an entire class to com-

pete against each other as a review or friendly game.