🦇Every correctly dilated point brings a bat, a jack-o'-lantern or a haunted house a little closer to view. Students apply the rule (x, y) → (kx, ky) with whole numbers, fractions and decimals, and the picture itself tells them whether they got it right.
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Dilation Detectives is a Halloween math activity for 8th grade geometry that gives students focused practice with dilations on the coordinate plane. The listing places it in 6th through 9th grade, so it also works as enrichment for advanced younger students or review for older ones.
Students dilate figures by multiplying each coordinate by the scale factor, then plot the image points. When the work is correct, part of a mystery picture appears. Three pictures, a bat, a jack-o'-lantern and a haunted house, keep the practice self-checking and give students a clear reason to be careful.
Each picture comes in two levels. Level 1 sticks to whole-number coordinates and the scale factors 2, 3, 1/2 and 1/3. Level 2 brings in fraction and decimal coordinates with scale factors such as 2/3, 1.25 and 2.5. Together they include 48 problems covering both enlargements and reductions.
Guided notes introduce the coordinate rule, explain what a scale factor does and walk through worked examples before students try their own. A Scale Factor Sort, Find the Scale Factor practice and Similarity True or False build understanding, and the Similar or Not? pages connect dilations to similar figures and sequences of transformations, matching the 8.G.A.3 and 8.G.A.4 alignment stated on the listing.
Four exit tickets, a 3-lesson plan, teacher notes, answer keys and finished picture guides make the 28 pages easy to run in math centers, review days, homework or sub plans in October.
📖 Teaching guide · 13 min readHow to Teach Dilations on the Coordinate Plane in 8th Grade: Scale Factors, Similar Figures and a 3-Lesson PlanRead the guide →The mystery picture gives instant feedback, so students notice a wrong coordinate right away instead of after grading. Two levels let the same class work on one picture at different difficulty, and the similarity pages tie the skill to the bigger idea of similar figures.
It is designed for 8th grade geometry, and the listing covers 6th through 9th grade for enrichment or review.
The listing states alignment to 8.G.A.3 and 8.G.A.4, which cover dilations on the coordinate plane and similar figures.
Each of the 3 mystery pictures has 2 levels: whole-number coordinates with simpler scale factors, or fraction and decimal coordinates with scale factors like 2/3, 1.25 and 4.
Yes. Correctly dilated figures reveal part of the Halloween mystery picture, and finished picture answer guides plus answer keys are included.
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