Pythagorean Theorem Foldable

This past school year, after teaching the Pythagorean Theorem for what seemed like the 18 millionth time, I decided to create a foldable to help streamline the information my students needed to know.  I decided to go with a 4-tab foldable.  This was also my first attempt at creating a double-sided foldable, with information already printed inside the tabs.  I was very happy with how it turned out!

The first tab contains a place for students to write that a and b are the legs and that c is the hypotenuse, which is always the longest side.  There is also a picture of a right triangle with a, b, and c labeled.  This is where I have the kids write the equation.

The second tab is where the kids write down how to find a hypotenuse and complete an example.  The third tab is where they write down how to find a leg, along with an example.  For both of these I use a sort of chant...I go around chanting and chanting until they can chant back to me.  For finding the hypotenuse it's: "Square them, add them, take the square root!"  For finding the leg, it's the same except instead of add it's subtract.  Through the years I've found that making it a chant really helps the kids remember the steps.

The last tab is where they write down the converse of the theorem and some common Pythagorean triples.  Here's what the foldable looks like in an actual notebook:




Next year, I won't use red paper.  It's a little dark, especially if your students write in pencil.

If you like it, you can get the foldable in my TpT store.  On my to-do list is to create corresponding problems for students to glue into the next page for practice.

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