Coordinate Graphing in all 4 Quadrants

We have spent this school year graphing in Quadrant 1 only.  I wanted to have a little fun and give the kids a challenge, so I introduced them to the other three quadrants.

Coordinate graphing is based on plotting points using two coordinates (ie.  3,6).  The first coordinate tells where to move along the x-axis, and the second coordinate tells where to move along the y-axis.  Up to this point my students have only worked with positive coordinates.  This means they have only worked in Quadrant 1 (+,+).  We began by taking notes and working with a small picture to practice our new knowledge.

The four quadrants are as follows:

• Quadrant 1 (+, +) or right and up
• Quadrant 2 (-, +) or left and up
• Quadrant 3 (-, -) or left and down
• Quadrant 4 (+, -) or right and down

To see how this was explained, please watch:  Four Quadrant Coordinate Graphing.

Once we had completed the note taking, I had the kids work on a lesson I found on Teachers Pay Teachers called:  Surface Area, Volume and Ordered Pairs....Oh My!  We only worked with the ordered pair portion of the lesson today.  Basically, the students are creating nets for 3-D figures (cubes and prisms) using ordered pairs and a four quadrant grid.  Each child created two of the nets.  They will be working with these nets on Monday to complete the lesson by finding the volume and surface area of their figures.