Math Challenge #2 "How many pennies?"

How many pennies? from John Flaten on Vimeo.

We will have until Wednesday, Nov. 7th, then the answer will be revealed. All guesses can come to my comments, or the inbox in my room on my desk. Again, anyone who sees this will be in the challenge and if I know you personally I'll get you a small prize. Enjoy and good luck.

Decimals Test Tomorrow and new Challenge problem

We played decimal jeopardy today, here's the exact game we played if you want to try it out:

Decimal Jeopardy

Here's a last minute review sheet if you need/want it:

Chapter 3 Review Sheet

The Chapter 3 Test is Wednesday, Oct. 31st.  

Homework, Tests, and other stuff

Homework: We are completing our work in class each day.  There are occasions, maybe once a week they will have an assignment to finish at home.  We are doing a sheet of problems a day to make sure we understand the concept(s).  The sheet has three levels for each student.  A, B, and C.  A is the easiest, B in the standard level that the textbook is at, and C is a little more challenging.  Practice B sheets for each lesson are found at my.hrw.com

I usually give one to two of each type of problem, the online practice has up to thirty problems.  

MathCounts
MathCounts is an after school club for 6th - 8th graders here at Menomonie Middle School.  It's a competitive math club, that works with complex problem solving in a competitive format.  Practices are every Thursday after school until 4:00, beginning next week on November 1st.  For more information read this:
MathCounts

Chapter 3 Math Assessment
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31ST.  Scary right?  The test is all about computing decimals.  
Chapter 4 is moving into fractions.  A great way to show your children how to do these is make some food that involves measuring.  Ask questions, like, "what if we wanted to make more than one batch?"  

INTERACTIVE PRACTICE TEST HERE:  http://my.hrw.com/math12cc/nsmedia/practice_tests/g6/msm1_pt_dec.html

WKCE
MMS will be going into a WKCE testing schedule very soon.  6th graders will be testing November 12th through the 15th.  Please try to avoid absences those days if at all possible.

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Conferences will be held at MMS on November 8th and November 13th.  Look for more information from your child's CARES teacher very soon.

More Decimals and challenge postponed

First, I will have the next challenge ready for Monday, so please check back for that.  I have to get the coins and can't make it to the bank until this weekend to get the "supplies."

Side question, what's different if you flip a penny from before 1982 and one after 1982?  Listen carefully when you flip them to get the answer.

After being in class this week we are able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals.  

More to come later, also check out the upper right to see a new link to rush hour from math fun night.  

Decimals and new Challenge Wednesday

Over the past two class periods we have been adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals.  Here's the short version.  When you do any of these it is just the same as regular +, -, and x, but there are some basic decimal rules.

1. When adding or subtracting you always, ALWAYS, have to line up the decimals.  (Like a button down shirt, I stole that from Mr. Nelson)

2. When multiplying, we DO NOT line them up, but count them and then move it over in the answer.  Example:

23.4 x 3.2                        First, math books write it this way to save space, we want to do it vertically.

     23.4
  x   3.2                            That's better :) 
      468
 + 7020                           Multiply like normal ignoring the decimals.
    7488                           Life is good!  We have the answer with only the decimals left to deal with.
                                       We count how many numbers are after the decimals in the problem, top = 1,
                                       bottom number = 1, so two total.  Starting from the right, count two over and
                                       place the decimal.

     74.88                         That's it!

Huge congrats to Jazzmyn for solving the Challenge Problem #1.  Awesome Job!  A new video and problem are coming for Wednesday this week.  Enjoy! 

Here's the rundown of our Chapter, we're already at 3-4
3A UNDERSTANDING DECIMALS

• 3-1  Representing, Comparing & Ordering Decimals
• 3-2  Estimating Decimals
• 3-3  Adding and Subtraction Decimals

3B MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING DECIMALS

• 3-4  Multiplying Decimals
• 3-5  Dividing Decimals by Whole Numbers
• 3-6  Dividing by Decimals
• 3-7  Interpreting the Quotient
• 3-8  Solving Decimal Equations

Estimating Decimals and Family Fun math night

Getting ready to really understand and use decimals!  

Clustering: rounding numbers to the same value
     Example: 147, 153, and 158 can be clustered at 150, so 150 + 150 +150 = 450. 

Front End Estimation: use only the first number of the decimal number
     Example: 38.2 + 14.7, just take the first numbers and add them together 38 + 14 = at least 52. 

Rounding Rules: When the number next to the value you're rounding to is 5 or more, it increases by one.  When it is 4 or less the value stays the same. 
     Example: 56 would round to 60, but 52 would stay at 50. 

We are going to be working on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals over the next week of class. 

BIG NEWS! 
Family Math night will be happening on Wednesday, Oct. 24th, from 6:00 - 7:30.  It is an open house format and is intended for you to come meet the math teachers, play some math and logic games, and just have some family fun.  Please consider adding this into your busy schedules. 

More info here: Math Night Information

Early Release and Math Retakes

Greetings, today is early release day and students are trying to log onto their family access (grade book) page.  If you access it, please sit down with your child and show them the grades if you are not already doing so.

We are moving into decimals and how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide them.  Check out Chapter 3 resources and the book chapter at my.hrw.com

Retakes for the Chapter 2 Intro to Algebra test will be on Friday and I will do a 15-20 minute reteaching session on Thursday with any student(s) who scored a 1 or are interested in refreshing their skills on beginning algebra.

Math Challenge Update

Lots of people are just dividing by two, but it is an exponent problem. 

In round 1 I call two people, so Round 1 = 2
In round 2 those 2 people each call 2 people, so Round 2 = 4
In round 3 those 4 people each call 2 people, so Round 3 = 8

and so on.  We need to get to about 307,000,000, how many rounds will it take? 

Math Challenge and Chapter 2 Test results

Tests will be back tomorrow and were graded today, they will be in the grade book tonight and your child should know how they did, so feel free to ask them or check the grade book tomorrow.  Any student(s) who score a 1 will have a meeting with me and more practice opportunities before the retake.

Math Challenge Hint: This is an exponent problem, so use that to help you solve it.  :)

Math Challenge question: How many people are in the US, according to 2010 we will go with: 307,212,123

Math Challenge Update

It has been brought to my attention that the question was not clear enough. I'm looking to see how many rounds of calls it would take to reach everyone in the United States. In the video the first round would be me calling the two little people. Then they each call two other people. It would continue until all people have been called. So far Lauren answered 157,277,500 calls. Based on how many rounds of calls would have to be made it would be too high. However, if Lauren explains her work and convinces me that she made a plan, worked it out, and found that result, but it's not technically the right answer. How many rounds of calls will it take to reach all USA people if each person calls two people each round?

Math Challenge #1 Oct.11, 2012 from John Flaten on Vimeo.

TEST Tomorrow and exciting video challenge

Test for Chapter two is tomorrow.  To see interactive practice tests and more visit the my.hrw.com math website.

Interactive practice test

Chapter 2      Introduction to Algebra
            Lesson 1 - Variables and Expressions
            Lesson 2 - Translating Between Words and Math
            Lesson 3 - Translating Between Tables and Expressions
            Lesson 4 - Equations and Their Solutions
            Lesson 5 - Addition Equations
            Lesson 6 - Subtraction Equations
            Lesson 7 - Multiplication Equations
            Lesson 8 - Division Equations

TEASER: There will be a video tomorrow, if all goes well, that has the first challenge problem of the year.  Feel free to have parents work with children, children with children, and so on.  I will tell all details in the video tomorrow.

Addition and Subtraction Equations

Friday and today, Monday, we worked on addition and subtraction equations.  Here are two examples:

y + 24 = 30

There are three steps, first copy down the problem.  Done.  Next do the inverse operation of the problem on the side with the variable (letter)

y + 24 = 30
   - 24 = -24

You'll notice that the + 24 and the - 24 will cancel out, or equal zero, leaving us with just y on that side, so we now have:

y = 30 - 24, which is y = 6. 

The same is done with subtraction, but the inverse operation will now by addition.  Example:

101 = b - 48

Inverse operation would be to isolate the variable (letter) so it is by itself, so apply + 48 to both sides:

101 = b -48
+48 = b + 48

On the right we are left with just b, since - 48 and + 48 = zero

101 + 48 = b, solve for b.  101 + 48 is 149, thus 149 = b, or b = 149, either way. 

The test is on Thursday and we are going to continue the same types of problems with multiplication and division, doing the inverse operations of each to solve for the variable (letter). 

Enjoy and check back this weekend for an open ended family problem solving opportunity.  More details to come. 

Mr. Flaten

Balancing Expressions Section 2-4

Greetings,
 Today we finished up balancing equations.

The Chapter 2 Test will be on Thursday, October 11th, and no school on Friday, October 12th.

Interactive practice test

Environmental Site

Today we did not have math at school because we were at the environmental site.  My station was cutting firewood.  I resisted figuring out angles of the blades and also the trees, but did manage to plant the seed that we should remake that Taylor Swift song to:

We never, ever, ever multiply bases and exponents. 

Now we just need to write the rest of the lyrics and make the video :) Problem something rhymes with order of operations.  Good stuff!

Back to math tomorrow and students get quizzes back to bring home.  We will continue to balance equations. 

Things like 38 + y = 100, find the value of y

Math Fact Practice

Math Fact Practice (not flash cards!) click to enter the site.  Enjoy! 

If you need to brush up on facts or just want to practice, this is cooler than flash cards and it tells you the results at the end.  I chose dynamic, all facts, for 2 minutes.  I'm sure you can beat me if you try.  :)


I answered 29 problems, skipped 1, in two minutes.