7 Reasons why Foldables for Math are a Must

Foldables are three-dimensional graphic organizers that help students take and organize their notes. Included in the foldable for math class are lots of practice problems, helpful steps and important vocabulary.

Here are the reasons why I use Foldables in my sixth grade math classroom.

#1 – Math Organization is Key

Helping students keep their math work organized will help them to better understand the problem as well as how they got to their answer. It also makes it easier for themselves or others to check their work. Since foldables for math have problems printed on them ahead of time students can easily follow along in class or work independently.

#2 – Personalization

My students love to add little graphics throughout the notes or color in the words. By adding highlights to certain parts, they color code their notes to help them better remember the material. These personalizations let the students take pride in their notes and take ownership of their notes.

#3 – Graphs and Math Tools

Especially in math it is difficult to teach certain concepts when the students do not have it in front of them. They need to be able graph on coordinate planes and create a table. Using foldables with math, they have the blank graph right in front of them, it makes it so much easier to keep moving through the lesson.

In addition, when teaching geometry, the students need the shapes to write on and manipulate so that they can solve problems with them. They can highlight parts of the shape that they are working with or color them in as needed.

#4 – Time-Saver

With foldables for math, the students each fold the paper 1 or 2 times and can do an optional few cuts to set up their foldable. The foldable setup should take less than a minute but will end up saving lots of time if they were just using a plain notebook. The lesson can move more smoothly because less time is spent waiting for the students to write down the problems.

#5 – All Learning Types

Moveable pieces make it appealing to the students especially kinestic learners that need to learn with their hands and movement. Through the use of the tabs and doors students are moving the pieces of paper as they complete problems and take notes.

In addition by providing the problems to the students ahead of time, it helps struggling students make sure they are starting out with the correct problem. It also allows more advanced students to move quickly through the problems independently.

#6 – Better than Boring Worksheets

It is just something about a quick couple of folds that turn a piece of paper into an interactive learning tool. Students make their foldable their own through doodles, color and notes.

#7 – Great for Studying

The foldables make it easy for students to quiz themselves before an assessment by holding the flaps down and trying to recall what is underneath. In addition, there are lots of problems organized in their notebook which are great examples to study for upcoming assessments.

Foldables for math are easy to create with these free templates. There are seven different types of foldables that are all easy to implement in the classroom.

Even easier, I have a whole year’s worth of 6th grade math foldables all set to go. You can check them out here if you are interested.