Lesson Plan: Simplifying Expressions: Combining Like Terms Mathematics • 6th Grade
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to simplify polynomial expressions by adding and subtracting like terms.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- understand that like terms have the same variables and the same exponents on each of the variables,
- understand that like terms can be combined using addition and subtraction to reduce the number of terms in a polynomial,
- simplify polynomial expressions by adding and subtracting like terms,
- solve geometric problems that involve the simplification of like terms.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- expressing word problems as polynomial expressions,
- identifying monomials, binomials, and trinomials.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- polynomial equations,
- polynomial expressions with more than 3 variables,
- simplifying polynomial expressions using multiplication or division,
- simplifying polynomials by factoring,
- simplifying expressions using laws of exponents,
- simplifying rational expressions.