Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tuesday May 15, 2012

This week we continue our EOG review as we focus on EOG goal 4 and 5. Goals 4 and 5 focus on probability and basic algebra concepts. This week we will break into 10 stations and students will work on 2 stations per day. Below are the stations

Station 1 - Order of Operations

Station 2 - Properties (commutative, associative, distributive, identity)

Station 3 - Writing Expressions

Station 4 - Inequalities

Station 5 - Probability

Station 6 - Combining like terms

Station 7 - Solving Equations

Station 8 - Evaluating Expressions

Station 9 - Expression EOG word problems

Station 10 - Ratios/ Equivalent fractions (we didnt cover this much in class, so students will practice a few of these type of questions in case they show up on the EOG)


Students all know that I will be checking their red folders at the end of the week to see the work that they got done during our 3 weeks of review stations. They will receive a quiz grade based on their effort / completion of the station work.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Friday May 11, 2012

I apologize for the long break between posts as thing have been crazy busy for the last week around Holly Shelter Middle School. EOGs are fast approaching and everyone is working hard to have their students prepared for success.

This week in math class we continued our review stations. The topic this week was geometry and the coordinate plane. The five stations from this week are as follows

Station 1 - Transformations on the coordinate plane

Students plot points on the coordinate grid then reflect, translate, and rotate the image into each quadrant. There is a set of 11 questions that were to be answered after plotting the points.

Station 2 - EOG word problems

Similar to last week, students saw EOG sample questions. They were to highlight key words/ numbers, draw a picture, graph, or diagram, then solve the word problems. I provided an answer key so they could check their work when finished

Station 3 - Area and Circumference of Circles / Area and Perimeter of irregular shapes

Students were given 2 worksheets to practice finding Area and Circumference of a circle as well as finding the area and perimeter of irregular shapes.

Station 4 - Small group instruction with Mr. Culp

In our small group we used dry erase boards to practice our vocabulary and apply the vocab words to sample problems. I would give the students a vocab word, and they would draw what that word meant on their board. We also spent a lot of time finding missing angles in each type of triangle.

Station 5 - Vocabulary / Formula foldable

We all did station 5 together on Monday when we created a foldable from construction paper. We created 8 "windows" on the foldable and wrote our important formulas and vocabulary words on the foldable. Students were to refer to their foldable while working on their other 4 stations. Important information included
Area of a circle,
circumference of a circle,
Supplementary angles
Complementary angles
Area of a triangle

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tuesday May 1, 2012

This week we begin our 3 week long EOG review stations. This week will focus on EOG goal 1. I have created 4 different stations that students will complete this week. On Friday, students will take a quiz made up of questions that they should have seen at the stations. They will also receive a grade based on their participation this week. I will be checking their folders to see what they completed at each station. Below are the 4 stations they will see this week

Station 1 - Computers

Students have the opportunity to play different fraction, decimal, percent, and scientific notation games. If they answer the question correctly, they get to play a quick game. If they answer incorrectly, they do not play the game.

Station 2 - EOG word problems

I have printed sample word problems from past EOG exams. Students will have markers and highlighters to pick out key terms and numbers from each problem. They can draw a diagram, number line, or table to help solve these problems. They are encouraged to cross out unreasonable answers until they are left with the correct answer. I have provided an answer key that shows the steps to solving each problem so they can check their answers

Station 3 - Number line / Calculator Station

Students are given a number line and 27 different values that must be placed correctly on the number line. Values are given in whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. If each value is placed in the correct location, they will solve the riddle "why do sharks swim in salt water?"

Station 4 - Problem Solving / Re-teach

This station includes a worksheet of sample problems from all of Goal 1. I will be working mainly with this station answering any questions or refreshing students on how to perform these operations. Questions include...

Adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators, adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, finding the percent of a number, scientific notation, prime factorization, finding the GCF, and finding the LCM

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tuesday April 24, 2012

This week we will be finishing up our final week of the cirriculum by looking at probability. Begining next week we will be splitting into small groups where every day students will be at a different station in preparation for the EOG test.

Here is what we are looking at this week

Monday- Experimental Probability: Performing an experiment to find out how likely an event is to occur

Tuesday- Tree Diagrams and Fundamental Counting Principle: Drawing a tree diagram to see all the possible outcomes of an event.

Wednesday- Compound events: What are the chances that one event happens as well as another event (chances of rolling a 1 then a 5)

Thursday- Dependent and Independent probability: Occurance of one event does or does not have an effect on the second event happening

Friday- Permutations and Combinations: An arrangement in which order is or is not important.


Since we are not spending a lot of time on probability, there will likely be a homework assignment nearly every night this week. Assignments are not long nor difficult, but students need to spend the time to get them completed so they get the extra practice they need. As always, please email me with any questions/ concerns you may have. nathan.culp@nhcs.net

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Sample Quiz questions for Friday's quiz

Tomorrows quiz will include questions very similar to the following...


A circle has a radius of 4 cm, find the diameter, circumference, and area


Answers:
radius = 4cm
diameter = 8cm
Circumference = 25.12 cm
Area = 50.24 square cm


A triangle has angles of 90, 30, and "x". What is the value of x?

Answer: 60 degrees (every triangle has a total of 180 degrees)


What angle is supplementary to an angle of 60 degrees?

Answer: 120 degrees (supplementary angles have a sum of 180 degrees)


What angle is complementary to an angle of 30 degrees?

Answer: 60 degrees (supplementary angles have a sum of 90 degrees)


There will be a question that requires finding the perimeter and area of an irregular polygon (we did a worksheet on this in class today)


If students feel comfortable with the homework assignment from today, they will have no problem with the quiz tomorrow. We will take the first 15-20 minutes of class to go over the homework assignment before taking the quiz.

Here are the solutions to todays homework

1.) r = 6cm d = 12cm C = 37.68cm A = 113.04 sq cm

2.) r = 9m d = 19m C = 59.66m A = 254.34 sq cm

3.) 50 degrees (supplementary angles)

4.) 50 degrees (sum of a triangle is 180 degrees)

5.) 60 degrees (sum of a triangle is 180 degrees)

6.) Segment EF (parallel lines)

7.) Segment EA or FD (perpendicular lines)

8.) right triangle or scalene triangle

9.) P = 40 cm A = 60 sq cm

10.) P = 34 m A = 36 sq m

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wednesday April 18, 2012

This week we will continue to focus on geometry.

Monday - Types of angles and lines (no homework)

Tuesday - Triangle properties (homework: page 67 in math workbook)

Wednesday - Perimeter of irregular shapes (homework: page 80 in workbook)

Thursday - Area of irregular shapes (homework: worksheet)

Friday - Quiz on circles, lines, angles, triangles, perimeter or irregular shapes and area of irregular shapes

I will post sample quiz questions before Friday

Also, report cards should have gone home with students on Monday. I will continue to encourage students to stay focused and do their best to improve during the fourth quarter.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thursday April 12, 2012

Today was our final day of our end of quarter 3 benchmark assessment. Based on what I saw while observing students work, it looks like most were selecting a lot of correct answers.

Tomorrow, we will be back to classwork where we will cover how to find the area of a circle. There will be a workbook homework assignment over the weekend.

The formula we will use to find the area of a circle is: pi x radius^2

When students return next week, we will be looking into some geometric concepts (we are not spending a lot of time on these because many are review from 4th and 5th grade).

Monday - parallel lines and angles

Tuesday - triangles

Wednesday - Perimeter of composite shapes

Thursday - Area of composite shapes

Friday - Quiz over circles, angles, and triangles

Monday, April 9, 2012

Monday April 9, 2012

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break! I think it was a much needed rest for students and hopefully they come back ready to finish the year strong!

We are down to our final 3 weeks of instruction before we begin station work to prepare for the EOG exams. In the next 3 weeks, we will focus on properties of circles, types of angles, ratios, and rates of change.

This week we are getting into properties of circles. Today we introduced a few vocabulary terms and practiced a couple of examples of each. Tomorrow we will continue practicing these terms and focus on finding the circumference of different circles. Below are the vocabulary terms from today

Center

Chord

Radius

Diameter

Circumference and formula to find circumference

Pi

Monday, March 19, 2012

Monday March 19. 2012

We are FINALLY through with our fractions unit!

This week we will move on to our next unit: Integers and the Coordinate Plane

Students will be able to identify both positive and negative integers on a number line, compare and order positive and negative integers, plot points in the appropriate quadrant on the coordinate plane, perform translations, rotations, and reflections on the coordinate plane

This unit will continue for 2 weeks until the end of the 9 weeks.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Week of March 12, 2012

Students will be preparing for a 2 part Unit Quiz this Thursday and Friday covering the entire Fractions Unit. Thursday will be short answer questions (solving fraction problems while showing their work) and Friday will be a multiple choice section. The multiple choice questions will range from basic fraction calculations to EOG style word problems. Below is a look at how we will prepare for the quiz

Monday - Begin review stations - Students may work with a partner to work on six stations. (1) Adding/ Subtracting fractions, (2) Multiplying / Dividing fractions, (3) Simplifying fractions, (4) Converting fractions to decimals and percents, (5) Word problems, and (6) solving fraction equations.

Tuesday - Continue review stations

Wednesday - Jeopardy style review game

Thursday - Short answer quiz

Friday - Multiple Choice quiz

This week will be our last week in our fractions unit.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday March 9, 2012

Students did an excellent job this week solving 1 and 2 step equation with fractions. It was a tough week as I asked a lot of them by solving problems in class for 4 days straight. I assured them that Friday would be a more relaxing activity before we get back to work next week.

Today students will be completing a "color by number" worksheet that I have prepared for them. They will also have a list of questions to answer based on how they colored their worksheet. Below is the assignment they will see in class.


Color by number

Write each color as a fraction, decimal, and percent

Fraction Decimal Percent
Color 1
Color 2
Color 3
Color 4

For example, if there were 80 total shapes to color and 20 of them were colored blue, they would write 20/80 as their fraction, .25 as a decimal, and 25% as percent.

Next week will be 3 days of review from our entire fractions unit before a quiz/ test on thursday and friday. More details next week!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tuesday March 6, 2012

This week will be focused on solving 1 step algebra equations with fractions. This should be mainly review as we have already solved one step equations with whole numbers and decimals. Below are some examples of 1 step equations

Whole numbers - x + 14 = 26
subtract 14 from both sides to get x = 12

g - 7 = 12
add 7 to both sides to get g = 19

Fractions - m + 1/2 = 5/8
subtract 1/2 from both sides to get m = 1/8

k - 3/4 = 1/8
add 3/4 to both sides to get k = 7/8

Here is what the week looks like

Monday - Solving 1 step equations with addition and subtraction of fractions
Tuesday - Solving 1 step word problems with addition and subtraction of fractions
Wednesday - Solving 1 step equations with multiplication and division of fractions
Thursday - Solving 1 step word problems with multiplication and division of fractions
Friday - TBA

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Thursdays Quiz

The quiz thursday will consist of 4 matching questions, 4 fraction operation questions (adding like denominator, subtracting unlike denominator, multiplying, dividing), and 2 word problems. One word problem will require turning fractions and percents into decimals and finding the largest value. The second word problem will require adding 3 fractions with unlike denominators.

Each question will require students to be able to turn a mixed number into an improper fraction, perform the operation, then turn the improper fraction back into a mixed number and simplify. Students will receive partial credit if answers are not converted back to mixed numbers or not simplified.

Also, it is important that students show their work. I left lots of empty space on each question for showing their work. If more work is necessary, it should be turned along with the quiz. No work, no credit.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Monday Feb 27, 2012

Here is what the week ahead looks like in class. There will be 2 homework assignments at some point this week. One will be from the workbook, the other will be completing word problems that we are doing in class. Some students may have completed the word problems in class so they will not have it to do at home. There will be a quiz on Thursday that will cover adding/ subtracting fractions, multiplying/ dividing fractions, converting fractions to percents, and a word problem or 2.

Monday - Practice converting fractions to decimals - dice activity

Tuesday - Fraction word problems

Wednesday - Jeopardy review

Thursday - Quiz

Friday - Quiz review

Friday, February 24, 2012

Friday Feb 24, 2012

Yesterday in class we looked at changing a fraction into a decimal, then changing that decimal to a percent. Students took notes on the steps necessary to do these conversions, then we practiced a couple of eog type examples. Students should be writing these examples in their notes or on the back of their outline. At the end of class, I gave a survey to each class to gather some data for todays assignment.

Today, students will be given a copy of the survey results and figure out what percent of the class chose each answer. I will allow them to work in pairs unless behavior becomes a problem.

Below are the steps we used to convert from fractions to decimals and decimals to percents

Fraction to decimal
-Convert mixed numbers or whole numbers to improper fractions and simplify if possible
-Divide numerator by denominator


Decimal to Percent %
Move decimal 2 places to the right
Add % symbol on the end


Percent to decimal
Move decimal 2 places to the left
Drop % symbol

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Progress Reports

Also, a reminder that progress reports will be going out tomorrow. Beginning this quarter, missing assignments go in the gradebook at zeros instead of 39. This makes it even more important that students are getting all assignments turned in.

The progress report will include 4 grades
-In class fractions dice activity
-Fractions quiz Feb 2
-Page 40 in workbook - multiplying mixed numbers
-Adding and subtracting fractions in class (coloring in fractions on graph paper)

If your child is missing any of these assignments, you will see a "2" as their grade. These assignments can still be turned in for late credit. I have extra copies of each assignment that can be taken home, but students need to ask me after class for the assignments

Tuesday Feb 21, 2012

Today we will continue to practice adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. The quiz on Thursday went better for some than others, but overall I feel that we still need more practice before moving on. Fraction operations are a huge concept in 6th grade, so we are going to take the extra time to get it right.

Today students will be working in stations. They will be able to use the others in their group for help, but they will each be turning in their own answer sheet and work. The 4 stations will be as follows...

Adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators
Adding and subtracting fractions with unline denominators
Multiplying fractions
Dividing fractions

Each student will work on 3 stations today. Tomorrow they will complete the 4th station. This should give students plenty of time to complete each station. We will grade our answers tomorrow. After completing the stations work, I have prepared a survey for each class that will give us data to use for the next lesson: converting fractions to decimals and percents

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Quiz questions

Here are 4 questions that will appear on the quiz Thursday


1 2/3 x 2 2/5
Answer: 4

4/7 ÷ 2/3
Answer: 6/7

5/12 + 5/12
Answer: 5/6

3/5 + 2/15
Answer: 11/15


Quiz will include multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers. All questions will come from examples on my blog or homework/ classwork from the last 2 weeks. Remember, all answers must be given as a simplified (always!) mixed number (when possible)

Wednesday Feb 15, 2012

Today we will continue practicing adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. We will review last nights homework (finding the least common multiple of a set of numbers), then use our skills we learned yesterday for some in class practice.

There will be a quiz tomorrow covering multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting fractions. The addition and subtraction problems will come from the problems we practice in class today. The multiplication and division will come from homework or classwork from last week. I will post some sample questions later today

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Tuesday Feb 14, 2012

This week we will shift our focus from multiplication and division to addition and subtraction of fractions.

Yesterday we began with adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators. I like to compare adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators to combining like terms. I used the following example in class

If I have 5 apples and add 3 apples, how many apples to I have?

Answer: 8 apples

We can look at fractions with like denominators the same way

If I have 5/10 (five tenths) and I add 3/10 (3 tenths), how many tenths do I have?

Answer: 8/10 (eight tenths)- this can then be simplified to 4/5

I added the numerators, but I do not change the denominators when adding or subtracting fractions with like denominators. Just like when I added 5 apples and 3 apples, the apples did not change, I just have more of them

We did an activity in class where students used graph paper to represent parts of a whole by drawing and shading a given number of boxes to. The parts of the whole that they shaded represents a fraction that was added or subtracted from another fraction.


Today (Tuesday), we will begin adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. In this case, we must first find a common denominator and rewrite the original fractions as equivalent fractions with common denominators. Once they are rewritten as equivalent fractions with a common denominator, we can add or subtract the numerators and the denominators stay the same. Below are the steps that we are using in class

1.) Convert any mixed numbers to improper fractions

2.) Find a common denominator (LCM of denominators)

3.) Rewrite original fractions as equivalent fractions with a common denominator (multiply top by same # as bottom)

4.) Add or subtract numerators, denominators stay the same

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Thursday Feb 9, 2012

Yesterday we got back into the classroom after being out 2 days for ClassScapes testing. Students were given another outline as we practiced multiplying mixed numbers with fractions, whole numbers, and another mixed number. This was mostly review as this did not require learning any new skills, but instead putting some of the previous skills together. Below are the steps we used when multiplying mixed numbers

1.) Convert any mixed numbers into improper fractions
2.) Convert any whole numbers into fractions (put the # over 1)
3.) Simplify if possible
4.) Multiply numerators / multiply denominators
5.) Convert answer to a mixed number (if possible) and simplify

The homework assignment from last night was workbook page 40



Today we will have our lesson on dividing fractions. Dividing fractions is nothing more than multiplying by the reciprocal.

For example

10 ÷ 2 is the same as 10 x ½

15 ÷ 3 is the same as 15 x 1/3

¼ ÷ ½ is the same as ¼ x 2/1


Our steps for dividing fractions are simply "switch and flip"

This means switch the division sign to a multiplication sign, then flip the fraction we are dividing by (the divisor)

Homework tonight is workbook page 41


Tomorrow we will be doing a team activity to practice all of the fraction operations we have learned so far.

Next week we will begin by adding and subtracting like fractions, then move to adding and subtracting unlike fractions

Monday, February 6, 2012

Monday Feb 6, 2012

Monday and Tuesday this week students will get a break from the classroom and will be in the computer lab taking their ClassScape mid year assessment. Questions will be EOG style, and will cover material that students have already seen, as well as some material that we have not yet covered.

Last Friday, students recieved their graded quizzes. Overall the scores were good, but there were still way too many "silly" mistakes due to not taking their time or checking answers. I still have a few students that seem to be making up their own way to multiply, simplify, and convert fractions.

I am not one to give much extra credit, but I did give students a chance to EARN some extra points on Friday. After reviewing each question on the quiz, I presented students with 8 questions that were VERY similar to what were on the quiz. There was a possible 10 points to be earned from these questions. I also awarded 1 point each for each of the 3 outlines that students filled out over the last couple of weeks. I reminded students all week that I would be checking to see that they were bringing their materials to class. I was impressed with the number of students that had all 3 outlines completed and organized in their binders.

On Wednesday, we will be back to the classroom to continue our unit on fractions.
Wednesday and Thursday we will begin multiplying mixed numbers, as well as dividing fractions. We will be using the same skills that we learned last week, so I expect students to pick up on multiplying mixed numbers and dividing fractions quickly.

As always, feel free to email me with any questions or concerns that you or your child may have.
nathan.culp@nhcs.net

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Wednesday Feb. 1, 2012

Yesterday went really well as the response that I got from each class was "wow, this is really easy." Multiplying fractions is simply multiplying across the numerator, and multiplying across the denominator. I created an outline that students filled out during our notes, examples, and practice.

Today, students were split into 6 "stations." Each station focused on a different skill that we have learned over the last week. The quiz tomorrow will be made up of questions from the stations. Below are the questions students saw in class today.

Station 1 – Simplifying fractions by finding the GCF
Pick 4 problems
Find the Greatest Common Factor of each fraction, then simplify

1.) 4/12 GCF = Simplified =

2.) 5/35 GCF = Simplified =

3.) 8/24 GCF = Simplified =

4.) 3/15 GCF = Simplified =

5.) 6/12 GCF = Simplified =

6.) 2/13 GCF = Simplified =

7.) 10/60 GCF = Simplified =

8.) 6/20 GCF = Simplified =



Station 2 – Simplifying fractions by prime factorization
Pick 4 problems
Simplify each fraction by finding the prime factorization of the numerator and denominator, cancel out any possible pairs, then write in simplified form

1.) 27/35
In prime factorization = Simplified =

2.) 16/18
In prime factorization = Simplified =

3.) 20/30
In prime factorization = Simplified =

4.) 64/ 120
In prime factorization = Simplified =

5.) 100/ 150
In prime factorization = Simplified =

6.) 42/56
In prime factorization = Simplified =

7.) 9/24
In prime factorization = Simplified =

8.) 10/36
In prime factorization = Simplified =


Station 3 – Converting improper fractions to mixed numbers
Pick 6 problems
Convert to an improper fraction, then simplify if necessary
1.) 24/9 =

2.) 21/10 =

3.) 15/5 =

4.) 34/6 =

5.) 53/10 =

6.) 8/3 =

7.) 90/25 =

8.) 34/50 =




Station 4 – Converting mixed numbers to improper fractions
Pick 6 problems
1.) 4 2/3 =

2.) 5 1/5 =

3.) 6 5/7 =

4.) 2 4/5 =

5.) 10 2/3 =

6.) 3 1/2 =

7.) 5 3/8 =

8.) 9 1/5 =





Station 5 – Multiplying fractions
Pick 4 problems
Write your answer as a proper fraction or mixed number
1.) 5 x 2/3 =

2.) 7 x 5/8 =

3.) 2 x 7/10 =

4.) 1/3 x 2/5 =

5.) 1/8 x 5/9 =

6.) 4/5 x 1/8 =

7.) 4 x 5/9 =

8.) 1/6 x 5/8 =




Station 6 – Word problems
Pick 3 Problems
HINT: “of” means Multiply

1.) When John asked Brent how much pizza he wanted for lunch, he responded by saying “1/2 of 1/2 of a pizza”. As a fraction, how much pizza did he want for lunch?

2.) There are 280 students in the sixth grade. 1/8th of them picked reading as their favorite subject. How many of them picked reading as their favorite subject?

3.) John broke a candy bar into 4 equal pieces. He ate 1/2 of one of those pieces. How much of the total candy bar did he eat? (Answer will be a fraction)

4.) Ryan told his teacher that he completed 1/3 of the 96 questions on his test. How many did he complete?

5.) When Ben asked Jarrod how many tacos he could eat, he replied with “nine halves”. How could he show this number as a mixed number?

6.) There are 50 states on the United States of America. As a fraction, 4/25 of the states begin with the letter “M”. How many states begin with M?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Monday January 30, 2012

First of all, it was GREAT seeing so many students being recognized for A honor roll and A/B honor roll. Overall, there was an improvement in grades from the first quarter to the second quarter.

Last week, we began our unit on fractions. We started with simplifying fractions by finding the greatest common factor. We also practiced converting a mixed number into an improper fraction and an improper fraction into a mixed number.

Today, we went back to simplifying fractions by using prime factorization.

Students have been given outlines of the notes that they are filling in during class as we go through our new vocabulary and skills. Every student should keep the outlines in their binder and use them to help them through their homework and to study for quizzes and the test.

Tomorrow, we will begin multiplying fractions. We are starting with multiplication because prime factorization of fractions should make multiplying much easier. Again, students will have an outline to follow along during class and keep examples for their notes.

Wednesday we will work in stations to review the fraction concepts we have covered so far. There will be a station for simplifying fractions by finding the GCF, simplifying fractions through prime factorization, converting mixed numbers into improper fractions, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers, and multiplying fractions.

Thursday will be a quiz covering the above skills

On Friday, there will be a review for the ClassScapes test they will take next week (Monday and Tuesday). After the ClassScapes testing, we will resume our unit on fractions.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

School Supplies

I know Mr. Eudy included a note in his email about needing school supplies. I told students today that I will trade cat cash for packages of pencils. It is important that students have pencils in math class and I hate to see grades suffer becuase students do not have the supplies they need. Thank you!

Tuesday January 24, 2011

Today begins the 3rd nine weeks! This is a great opportunity for students to "buckle down" (as Dr. Pinto likes to put it) and finish strong for the year. Overall, scores in my class were UP since first quarter. This means that many students are learning from their mistakes and getting a feel for what it takes to be successful in 6th grade math.

Today, students will receive their graded Unit 5 tests. Overall scores were lower than I expected, especially since 1/4th of the points were review questions. We will be going over the test today in class and hopefully students realize where they made their mistakes. I am going to refresh them on test taking skills as well, as some students did not manage their time very efficiently. Also, being a multiple choice test, it was possible to eliminate 2 or even 3 answers without even doing any calculations. I think there was a lot of guessing and not much checking to see that their answer makes sense.

Also today, I will again remind students that if they are not getting homework turned in, they will be staying inside during recess to finish their incompleted work. Hopefully this motivates them to get it turned in on time and their grades will continue to improve.

Tomorrow, students will take the pre test for unit 6 - Fractions

We will being our Fractions unit on Thursday. There will be a short homework assignment for tonight as a review before we get started with fractions. They may have some time in class to begin.

Homework - Workbook Page 26, even numbered problems 2-20

Friday, January 20, 2012

Friday Jan 20, 2012

I have graded the Unit 5 tests and decided that we will use the 25 minute class periods today to make corrections for partial credit. The overall low grade average was a suprise to me given the amount of time we spent on reviewing for this test. Students were given a study guide last week, we reviewed in class, and I told them exactly how many of each type of question would be on the test. There were some students that did very well, and it was obvious that they used their time to prepare for the test.

Students will receive their graded test, and can fix the questions they missed for half credit. Today is the last day of the quarter, so this will be their final grade on their report card. Any missing work must have been turned in by today to receive credit

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Updated Test info

Tomorrows test will consist of 18 multiple choice questions covering the following topics......

There will be 7 questions that are review from previous lessons. They will cover scientific notation, multiplying decimals, dividing decimals, and finding the percent of a number. There questions are relatively simple compared to what they may have seen today.

The last eleven questions will cover listing factors, lcm, gcf prime factorization (draw a factor tree!), and prime and composite numbers. All questions are multiple choice, so students will see the answer in front of them. I will remind students to use their vocabulary to eliminate bad choices in order to pick the best answer

******Here are a few examples from what they will see on the test*****

What is another way to write 6 to the 5th power (in standard form)

answer: 6x6x6x6x6x6


Write 5,730,000 in scientific notation

answer: 5.73 x 10^6


What is 25% of 120?

answer: 30


If a piece of candy costs $0.79, how much would 6 pieces of candy cost?

answer:$4.74



What is the GCF of 12 and 36

answer: 12


What is the LCM of 10 and 8

answer: 40


What is the prime factorization of 40?

answer: 2^3 x 5


What are the first 10 prime numbers?

answer: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29

Wednesday January 18, 2012

Yesterday our schedule was slightly different due to language arts testing all afternoon. My core 1 and core 2 classes used the class period to review for the test tomorrow, while core 3 and 4 completed their language arts tests.

Today, all 4 classes will be playing a review "Jeopardy" game. Catagories for todays questions include vocabulary, LCM/ GCF, old stuff (there will be a couple of questions on the test from previous units), prime factorization, and divisibility rules.

The top 3 teams will earn cat cash for their efforts. I will be posting sample test questions later today for students to study this evening.

The test tomorrow will be the last grade of the 2nd nine weeks, and a good test score has the potential to raise a quarter grade as much as 4 percentage points, so some students will really benefit by putting in some study time.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday January 13, 2012

I apologize for falling behind on my blog posts. This week has been busy and I am just now getting a chance to update on what we have been working on in class.

Students will be taking their Unit 5 test next Thursday. The test will cover everything we have worked on over the last 2 weeks. Below is the study guide that I prepared for students. Test questions will be very similar to the questions on the study guide.

Today in class, students will be working on their study guide, as well as answering a few questions to prepare for next week's student lead conferences. Questions will give students an opportunity to reflect on the 2nd 9 weeks and write about what they did well and where they could use improvement. More information on student lead conferences will go home with students soon. I will post information on my blog as well.

Vocabulary Unit 5 Study Guide
Factor:
Divisible:
Prime:
Composite:
Prime Factorization:
GCF:
LCM:
Divisibility Rules
Tell if each number is divisible by…2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10
1.) 112 2.) 305 3.) 46 4.) 53

Factoring
List the factor pairs of the following, and label prime or composite
5.) 64 6.) 110 7.) 47 8.) 96

Prime Factorization
Draw a factor tree for the following numbers and write in prime factorization (exponential form)
9.) 220 10.) 500


Greatest Common Factor
Find the GCF of the following numbers
11.) 12, 36, 66 12.) 43, 50, 100 13.) 300 and 450

Least Common Multiple
Find the LCM for the following numbers
14.) 3, 10, 15 15.) 2, 7, 12 16.) 8, 25 17.) 3, 4, 9
Unit 5 Study Guide
Word Problems

18.) If a composite number has the first four prime numbers as factors, what is the smallest number it could be?


19.) What prime numbers are factors of both 84 and 112?


20.) What is the least common multiple of 3, 9, and 12?


21.) A green light flashes every 5 seconds. A red light flashes every 7 seconds. How long will it take before they both flash at the same time?


22.) What are the prime factors of 32?


23.) Which number is the same as 5^6?
a. 30 b. 17,834 c. 11 d. 15,625


24.) Explain why 17 is a prime number


25.) A number less than 100 is divisible by both 10 and 12. Name 2 other factors of this number

Friday, January 6, 2012

sample questions for quiz on monday

Below is a sample of what the quiz will look like on Monday

There will be three questions that ask if a given number is divisible by 2,3,4,5,6,9,10

For example...

36
2 yes
3 yes
4 yes
5 no
6 yes
9 yes
10 no

There will be 3 questions asking to write all of the factors of a given number.

Example

108

1 x 108
2 x 54
3 x 36
4 x 27
6 x 18
9 x 12


Finally, there will be three questions asking for a factor tree and prime factorization in exponential form.

Example

32 =2 to the fourth power
100 = 5 squared x 2 squared
66 = 11 x 2 x 3


Remember to check your answer by first making sure that all of your circled numbers are prime. Second, find the product of your prime factors and it should equal the original number.

I apologize for not having pictures of factor trees. I am making this post from my phone at the airport. Students should have 5-6 examples of factor trees from class to refer to.

Again, I will be gone Monday but I have left very clear instructions for my substitute. Students will have the entire class period to work on their quiz. I will be grading and returning quizzes by Wednesday next week. Have a great weekend!

Friday January 6, 2011

Today we introduced prime authorization by drawing a factor tree. Also I checked for a completion of last nights homework. There were many students who did not complete the homework. It can still be turned in next week for a late grade.

To perform prime factorization, we talked about five steps

1. Start with number we are factoring
2. Draw 2 branches down from the number
3. Choose 2 factors whose product is equal to the number
4. Continue to split numbers until prime numbers are reached. Circle each prime number.
5. When there are only prime (circled) numbers left, stop drawing branches.

Your answer is the product of all of the circled (prime) numbers. Be sure to write in exponential form!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Thursday January 5, 2012

Today we will first review the divisibility rules homework from last night. Students seemed to pick up on the divisibility rules quickly so I don't anticipate many problems with the homework. Today we will move on to determining if a number is prime or composite. Depending on how we do with prime and composite, we may introduce factoring today as well.

There has been a slight change in schedule, as we will now be taking our quiz on Monday instead of Friday.
Instead, on Friday we will be starting/ continuing factoring. I will be out of town on Monday, so students will have the entire class period on Monday for their quiz with the substitute. The quiz will cover the following

- Knowing the divisibility rules for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10
- Be able to tell if a given number is divisible by the above numbers
- Determine if a number is a prime or composite number
- Factor a given number

I will post examples of quiz questions by tomorrow

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wednesday January 4, 2012

Yesterday students took a pre-assessment for our upcoming unit. There were 14 questions, and most students scored between 0-3 correct. There is some new vocabulary that students have not yet seen, so I expect scores to improve once students understand these new terms.

Today, we will begin this unit by looking at the divisibility rules. I have prepared an outline for each student to fill out as we look at the new vocabulary and divisibility rules. Students should  keep this outline to help them with their homework and to study for the upcoming quiz and test. The first quiz will be this Friday, and will cover divisibility rules and prime and composite numbers. It will be fairly simple and look a lot like the homework from this week.  Below is the outline that students will receive

Divisibility Rules

A number is divisible by….
Divisible
Not divisible
2 if the last digit is even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8).


3 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3


4 if the last two digits form a number divisible by 4


5 if the last digit is 0 or 5


6 if the number is divisible by both 2 and 3


9 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 9


10 if the last digit is 0




Factor -

Divisibility -

Prime numbers 1 -50 (highlighted)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tuesday January 3, 2012

WELCOME BACK!! I hope everyone enjoyed their break!

There are less than 3 weeks in the 2nd quarter! I will be reminding students that time is running out and they need to put in the effort over the next few weeks if they would like to see their grades improve. I have several  students in every class that are much more capable than what they have shown so far this year, so hopefully they all work hard for the next few weeks to improve their grades.


We will be spending the next 3 weeks looking at factors, prime and composite numbers, prime factorization, greatest common factor, and least common multiple. These concepts will lead into the next unit which will be fractions. It is important that students understand the concepts in this unit before we move to fractions. Here is what this week is looking like

Tuesday - Review decimal and percents quiz then pretest on upcoming unit

Wednesday - Divisibility rules day 1

Thursday - Divisibility rules day 2

Friday - Prime and composite numbers, quiz over divisibility rules

Next week we will get into prime factorization and greatest common factor.