Baby Name Revealed using Coordinate Graph Hidden Messages!

The best part about reading others' blogs are the cool finds, especially when they relate to your specific grade level and standards.  Fifth grade Common Core math requires students to master coordinate graphing within the first quadrant.  I always move to all four quadrants with students who are ready, though.  So anyway, I was reading posts from Teaching in Room 6 and am totally PSYCHED with what I found!!!


Basically, worksheetworks.com can create your own coordinate grids with words instead of pictures.  So... the kids can do the math, read the message, and you can even create hidden messages on multiple grids that students have to put together once they complete their portion of the message.

This could not have come at a better time!  Hubby and I have decided on a name for our baby boy and students have already been asking what we have decided.  I didn't quite know how to tell them.  If you read my post on how I told my students I was pregnant, you know I like to tell the news in an academic way.

So basically, I went to worksheetworks.com and chose my coordinate grid options: 40 x 40 grid, lines, & one quadrant.

I wanted every student to have a portion of the message to solve, so 26 students = 26 phrases.  The website suggests using three to seven words per graph.  I typed up all my phrases/clues onto Word first and then separated them into 26 sections.

Then I cut and paste the phrases into the website and voila!  It comes with a key as well so I know which graph is for which phrases.  This is perfect because if I have absences, I'll know which clues (the name of the baby) to hold off on just to drag it out a bit more.  I can also choose easier ones for my lower kids to plot.  I plan to make an easy one as a sample to do as a whole group.  Here is a sample of one grid: baby name clue #6

(NOTE: Due to phrases I used, some grids came out like this one with only even numbers listed on the axis.  It confused some kids that they had to plot on a space, not on an actual line.)

So here's how the rest of it turned out:

Here is Max's foot at 29 weeks!  

I have already typed up sections of the Preamble onto different grids so that when students study the Constitution, that will be ready to go to do in pairs.  I want students to break down the meaning of the preamble after graphing each section of it like a jigsaw puzzle.  I will be on maternity leave by then, but my long-term can do it!  This would be a great bulletin board display.  The possibilities are endless!