Students sort term pairs as like or unlike, simplify 16 expressions with negatives, decimals and squared terms, and find a perimeter.
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A colour-coded example opens the worksheet, turning 7m + 3n − 2m + n − 5 + 8 into 5m + 4n + 3, with a note that n on its own means 1n. Students then decide which of eight pairs are like terms and simplify 16 expressions. Later ones mix x with x², and in several a whole family of terms cancels. Two extras close the set: explaining Rina's mistake of adding 3x, 3x² and 4 to get 10x², and writing a garden bed's perimeter as a simplified expression.
Watch problems 6 and 15, where a family of terms cancels: 12r − 12r and 6g² + 2g² − 8g² both make zero. Students often leave 0r or 0g² in the answer; the key gives −6s + 3t and −g + 4.
In problem 2, 6x − 8x is −2x, and many students write 2x by taking the smaller number from the larger. Have them circle each term together with the sign in front of it before grouping.
Problems 1 and 8 hide a coefficient of 1: 4a − a is 3a, not 4, and −h − 4h is −5h. Point back to the note under the rule, n means 1n.
Ways to adjust the 16 simplify problems and the two extras.
Each one is checked against the official document. Where the resource covers only part of a standard, the note says so.
Students collect like terms to simplify expressions, including ones with squared terms, fix a worked mistake, and write a simplified perimeter. The other ways of keeping expressions equal (brackets, common factors, multiplying binomials) are not practised here.
Students read notation such as n meaning 1n, ab being the same as ba, and x and x squared being different terms, and use it to decide which pairs are like terms. Fractions written as division and brackets are not covered.
No. Every expression is already written out without parentheses, so students only group and combine terms.
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