A Nod to Super Bowl XLV

A football field is a good analogy to use to introduce integers and to visually show adding and subtracting integers. A good teacher friend of mine told me about this activity about ten years ago. It was the pre-technology age, at least for our school, so we created our football field out of green butcher paper and drew in the boundaries, lines, and numbers. The butcher paper was laminated for longevity’s sake. My friend decided to cut out helmets from construction paper. I, on the other hand, went to the local craft store and bought 3-D football helmets used for making homecoming corsages. I then hot glued magnets on the backs of the helmets to use on my chalkboards. Not only did we use the field to introduce the lessons, but we then also used it for a review game. Can you imagine how easy this all would be to create on a SMART Notebook?

So who did you root for during Sunday night’s football game? I wanted the Green Bay Packers to win. Well, I’m not actually a cheesehead. Brett Favre – is there more to say? I was actually against the Steelers. Why? Growing up in Texas in the 70s, the Dallas Cowboys were our hero. I vividly remember those Super Bowl games that Terry Bradshaw and the Steelers barely beat our Cowboys. Roger Staubach and Tom Landry (God rest his soul) are/were two great classy men. I admire them for the virtues they embodied both on and off the field.

I’ve gotten off on a tangent. I’m going to apologize in advance for offending any Packer or Steeler fans. Go, Cowboys!!