Factoring GCF Foldable

This semester has not gone as I had planned but things are finally changing. And that's a good thing, a very good thing! Next week I will introduce factoring to my Math 1 students. This is the first time they will have seen this skill and we will start by factoring out the greatest common factor (GCF).

This weekend as I was planning, I decided I wanted to create a fun foldable for students that had them find the GCF of a polynomial and factor out the GCF. I remembered the foldable that I had used in previous years from Dividing by Zero, another Mrs. Williams that teaches math, for exponent rules. I decided that this would be the perfect style of foldable and that my students would either love or hate me for it.

I started by creating the foldable with scratch paper, so that when I went to create the actual foldable, it would be easier to see what went where. I was so excited that I tweeted about it. :)

Making a prototype of a foldable for finding and factoring the GCF of a polynomial. #ProductiveSaturdayMorning #MTBoS #ITeachMath #WeAreWatauga pic.twitter.com/Vags59vRID

— Jennifer Williams (@jlwilliams314) March 10, 2018

Once I had the basic idea made I created the foldable using Publisher. I'm quite pleased with how well it turned out.

Here are the links where you can download these files:

Here's a pdf version and an editable Publisher version.

How to Print: 

Print Page 1 by itself and one sided. 

Print page 2-3 together, printing on both sides of the paper and flip sheets on the short side.  (This creates the extra portion that you will weave in and out. There are two copies on this page.)

Putting it Together:

The other Mrs. Williams, Divide by Zero, gives better directions and with more pictures. 

Take Page 1 - Fold it in half and then fold each half to the center. It will look like an accordion. 

Then you will need to cut along the dotted lines. To do this, fold the paper in half and cut from the center fold to the outside fold. 

Take Page 2, you only need 1/2 of it.  Of the half, cut it into two strips. 

Take the portion of Page 2 with the polynomials and weave it above & below the polynomials printed on the left side of Page 1. 

Then repeat with the portion of Page 2 that has GCF listed - weave it above and below on the right side of Page 2. It will look like a checkerboard.   If you turn the entire foldable over, it will be blank. 

The super awesome part about this foldable is that it has a secret, hidden portion. If you begin to fold the foldable up towards the center, you will see that it will start to open up. You can gently pull it apart and it will reveal the secret portion of the foldable. Which for this one, has where students will factor the polynomial. 

I hope my students will enjoy this foldable as much as I do. If not, at least I fun creating it. :)