Monday Monday Monday!

It was another busy and fun week in the world of 5th and 6th grade math! 

Lately in 5th....

I have been surprised and excited by the level of fraction comprehension the 5th graders have already started the year with. We  have been able to move quickly through material because they are showing a great deal of knowledge! I suppose the more I get to know them... I am not so surprised after all. 

 

Mrs. McGowan came into class on Thursday and reminded  the students of the story of Godfairy #1 and how she is used to find equivalent fractions. Equivalent fractions are necessary for students to begin adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Please ask your student about Godfairy #1! 

We will continue our venture through fraction world by exploring fraction number stories, "fraction of" problems and within the  next couple of weeks a unit assessment! 

Lately in 6th...

On Friday we studied for a test that students will take on Monday! We reviewed ways to prepare for a test along with how students might study for tests in their future when  they are not given a day in class to prepare. 

Unit 3 will have us focusing on decimal operations and percents! 

Wednesday through Friday (7th-9th) I will be attending a conference. Ms. Tori will be my sub. She has substituted for me a couple of times throughout the year so the students already know her!

On Thursday Mrs. Martino will be teaching class and students will have an opportunity to do an hour of Coding. Please see Mrs. Martino's blog for more information about this!

Have a wonderful week! Remember don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns, or wonderful moments in regards to your child and math!

Best,

Rachael

Enjoy some pictures of students in math class

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! It's always fun to hear about the different traditions that many families have for the holidays.

Lately in 5th Grade....

We have continued our unit of Fractions. Students have ordered fractions on number lines, estimated sums and differences of fractions using their fraction number sense, and used benchmarks to estimate with fractions. This week we will focus on renaming fractions and mixed numbers, adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, and students will learn a new game.

I can always make copies of any games that we play in class for students to take home. Playing math games is a wonderful way to practice what we are learning in class.


Lately in 6th Grade....

Students have continued to work with ratios. They were given a "giant's" pencil that measured 30 inches and asked to tell me more about the giant. Students used equivalent ratios to figure out how big the giant was. Some students showed a great deal of engagement and creativity by finding out the size of specific body parts on the giant, such as it's hand, eye, mouth, finger, shoe.
Students will learn how to use ratio/rate tables and learn what a rate is. They will also use their graphing skills to graph ratios.

Early next week students will have their Unit 2 assessment. We always spend a class period before a test day studying the material that will be covered on the test. Students use notecards to write down key ideas and concepts that they think they need to study the night before.

Students making "Recycled Creatures" during an  Unplugged day!

At our last Community Meeting 5W shared a Kids President video (you can find on my previous post) about being thankful. Then they shared what they are thankful for with the school.

Community Meeting this Friday

You're all welcome to come watch 5W host community meeting on Friday from 8:30am-9:00am.
We will be sharing this video and also sharing what we are thankful for!

November 14th

Happy Monday Everyone!

5th Grade:
Last week the 5th graders took their unit 2 assessment! Many of them did very well. As a reminder, students are always welcome to retake their test to get a higher grade! Students will be bringing their test home to get signed and make any corrections on problems they did not get correct at some point this week for homework.

Our new unit is all about FRACTIONS!!!! We have started by reading and solving what we call Equal Share problems. Here is an example:

"Sara came home from school to find that her Dad had made 3 sandwiches. She had 3 friends with her. The 4 of them decided to share the sandwiches equally. How much did each friend get?

Below is how some students might solve this problem.



We will continue our unit on fractions and by the end of this unit students will learn how to add and subtract fractions!
















6th Grade:
We have continued to learn how to read, write, and evaluate ratios! Today students learned how to use Tape Diagrams to represent ratios today. We will also learn about equivalent ratios, using tables to solve ratio problems, and we will graph ratios!

Here are some pictures from last week

Getting ready for Unplugged on Thursday!

October 30th

Happy Halloween weekend!

I hope everyone enjoyed a fun filled spooky weekend! I reminded students that unfortunately we are not allowed to have candy in school (for many obvious good reasons) so if they decide to bring theirs to school.. I'll have to confiscate and eat it :)

This coming week in math....

I will be at a NCTM conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. During class students will review concepts they have learned this year and play some math games!
Friday we have 3 way conferences which means one day this week in each class students will be reviewing how to fill out their Personal Learning Plan to prepare for their conference. We will be reviewing these on Monday in math class!

The following week 5th grade will be reviewing for their Unit 2 test and taking their test.
6th grade will learn about ratios!

Play Division Top-It with your student at home! It's a fun game and a great way to practice partial quotients division. All you need is a deck of cards!
*** Please don't teach your student any other ways to divide!

Enjoy a few random pictures from the week.

Unplugged fun!

Enjoy this video from one of the groups during Unplugged last Thursday!
This game is called Camouflage. I hope their laughs start your week off right!




 

October 27th

This week in math.....

5th Grade:

We have continued to practice multiplying large digit numbers using the U.S. traditional method. While using this method we have also talked about efficiency when choosing different algorithms.
We have also reviewed how to divide using partial quotients and what we do with our remainders in real-world situations.

6th Grade:

At the end of last week students learned how to find the Greatest Common Factor and the Least Common Multiple. The learned a couple of different methods one including the grid method. Students have also reviewed how to multiply fractions using a number line to model their answer. We have started to divide fractions using models or diagrams.
**Please do not show your student the algorithm for dividing fractions. They have to understand how dividing fraction works before they can learn the tricks.

Here are some pictures to enjoy!!