The Pi!

So late but sooooo worth it! These apple pies came out great and I used graham cracker pie crust. Now I should get the students to use the recipe to find out how much of each ingredient we'd need to make apple pies for 2 classes....

Happy Pi Day!

How could I not make a post for National Pi Day!? Today is 3/14/16!

Channeling my inner nerd, Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (which tends to be a little over 3 times as much or 3.14  to be exact).

All of the math experts have even come out of the woodworks to win free pizza from pizza hut for 3.14 years! http://blog.pizzahut.com/flavor-news/national-pi-day-math-contest-problems-are-here-2/

What am I doing? I promised the kids that I would make a pie and bring it in on Friday (I know, I'm going to be so late), but I suppose it's the thought that counts. The pie in question......Apple? Peanut butter? Strawberry? I am terrible at baking but I'll be sure to post a picture of it.

Update

Sorry it's been a little over a month! The mid winter-recess break was in mid-February and I was away in San Francisco unable to post. Shortly after, I was in a complicated situation and ended up losing someone that I loved. The kids have been questioning why I look so sad lately, but I have to be strong as their teacher, for them and for me. I apologize for the lack of posts!

We have been learning about how to solve a one-step equation. I have not done a great job breaking this down for the kids in my past years of teaching, but this time I made it easier to understand by using NLVM's virtual algebra balance scale. It can be found here: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_201_g_4_t_2.html?open=instructions

And it looks like the following:

Once kids understand the two goals/concepts of isolating the variable and balancing the equation, they can move onto abstractly solving one-step equations where the answer is not so obvious
(i.e. E + 350 = 592 or 5n = 625). So far they have done a good job, especially understanding key terms such as "isolate" and "inverse"

Order of Operations Footloose

The students have needed a lot of practice with the order of operations recently so I've had them move around > get an expression > evaluate an expression > return expression > repeat. Above is a video of a group evaluating an expression together.

Division of Fractions by Fractions

Howdy! The kids have been working on dividing fractions by fractions, as well as word problems! 

Before working on word problems, they created fraction kits using fractions strips for:

1 whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, and 1/12. 

The video above is a student attempting to model the solution to one of these problems.

Math Opinions

I decided to have a few students (like G and K from last year) share their opinion on what math is like for them this year and their attitude towards learning. A few more are coming! Stay tuned!

The Opposite of the Opposite

It's been a while since I've updated but currently my class is working with negative and positive integers/rational numbers.  In order to get my students to understand the concept that two negative signs create a positive sign (i.e. -(-3) = +3), I've decided to crank out the number line/coordinate plane! Unfortunately the coordinate plane I had last year got lost during the transition in moving from upstairs to downstairs, so I have to create a new one.

Below is a video of them ordering themselves from least to greatest after they understood that the opposite of an opposite is the equal to the number itself.

Unlike last year, many students have expressed interest in sharing their opinions on what math is like for them this year compared to last year. Now that there's a bit more time because of the holiday, I'll try to get to it by Wednesday!

Scavenger Hunt Part II

Now that we've been working on ratios and unit rates for a few weeks I decided to have the students participate in another scavenger hunt activity with variety of rate/unit rate problems. I have been extremely busy and have not had the time to post as frequently as I would like to. Teaching (student learning) seems to be a much bigger challenge this year than last for me. Trying to do my best.

Welcome Year Three~

Welcome back! My third year of teaching started on September 9th 2015. I'm certainly not a complete beginner anymore but I feel like I still have plenty of work to do. I have awesome students this year that are excited about being 6th graders, excited to be in a new school with new friends and new teachers. To start the year off I decided to lightly introduce scavenger hunts in my class where students get a chance to work together, move around and solve math problems. Take a look below!

Never Say You Can't!

Meet "Z". He's a student that struggles and feels as though math is "impossible" like plenty of other adolescents. While it took an immensely long time to get the job done, he managed to solve it all on his own, and his reaction is priceless. The following problem:

Mr. E has 7 packs of sugar and 14 packs of tea. He wants to make groups using the same number of sugar and tea packs, with none left over. What is the greatest number of groups he can make?

How many packs of sugar will be in each group?
How many packs of tea will be in each group?