WKCE testing and fractions to decimals

Greetings, let me recap the past two days.  We completed a short quiz on factors, prime factorization (trees), and also GCF.  The quiz was out of nine points and is posted in the gradebook.  If your son/daughter did not master a section we are still practicing them daily and hope to master the skill by test time.  I expect the test to be next Tuesday, so we don't have to carry over through Thanksgiving break. 

With the WKCE's we will be doing reading again on Tuesday and then Math has tests on Wednesday and Thursday.  I will try to post some vocab and areas that are common struggles for students. 

Here's the plan for the week:
Tuesday: Equivalent Fractions
Wednesday: Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions
Thursday: Comparing and Ordering Fractions
Friday: An activity to review our skills

Next week:
Monday: Review for Test
Tuesday: Fractions Test
Wednesday: Early release day, math activity or group work. 
Thursday and Friday: NO SCHOOL.

Don't forget conferences Tuesday evening if you haven't already attended.  :) 

Challenge and Conferences

Here's the answer, the winner of the contest for the closest guess is Allison H.  She guessed 425 and the answer was, well watch the video to find out.  :)

The interesting thing about the guesses is that almost no one guessed a number that didn't end in 0 or 5. I hope they just thought I was using only exact rolls and went from there.  However, I did not, I filled it up.  Many, many guesses of 400.

Awesome job, they explained to me in class today that the reason they chose 400 ranged from estimating, figuring out the ratio, measuring, and even setting up a formula where "x" was the variable for space left in the jar.

My goal was to get them to think and explain math in their own terms without a book problem, but with  a video example.  I think it worked!  :)

Conferences are tonight and also Tuesday, hope to see you there!

Math Challenge Answer

Penny Challenge Total from John Flaten on Vimeo.

Fractions are coming, the fractions are coming!

With term one in the books and forty-five days of school behind us we are turning our attention to fractions for chapter four of the Holt Mathematics curriculum.  (That's 1/4 of the school year for the people who already love fractions!) 

Today we completed a pre-test to see which parts we need to spend less time on and which areas we need to concentrate on more on the upcoming unit. 

As always, the building blocks of success are mastery of math facts.  I will be getting everyone a login and instructions for an online math facts way to master them, or refresh. 

NOTE: CONFERENCES ARE THIS THURSDAY AND NEXT TUESDAY

Also, Tuesday is the last day to turn in guesses for the "How many pennies" challenge.  The reveal will be on Wednesday in class and online. 

Experiment

From today's Love and Logic's facebook post:

Experiment:
 

Take a statement you might make to try to get a kid to think and see if you can turn it into a question.
 

Example: Instead of "That's not going to work." use "How do you think that's going to work?"
 

Questions create more thinking.

Term 1 assessment, WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

Today we are doing a short twenty-five question assessment to see what we've learned so far this year.  On Monday we are going to look at the item analysis to see how people get the answers they do and if there are any ideas on how to improve on the frequently missed problems.

We start fractions next chapter and I am looking forward to conferences coming up on Thursday and the following Tuesday.  If you have questions for me, please email or call.

Enjoy the hour longer weekend!

Chapter 3 Test and End of Term 1

Greetings and good morning!  Today is a busy day in class.  We are doing the following:

1.  Giving back yesterday's tests on decimals.  If someone was absent or did not finish, they will finish today.  I am reteaching all sections as we go through them and I am showing the students common errors that I saw.

2.  This year in math we have a writing prompt grade and today's topic is "Explain how you solve a long division problem."  We're looking to improve their ability to clearly say what they are doing and showing evidence that they really understand not just how, but why.  This is also a skill needed on the WKCE tests that are coming up Nov. 12-15th.

I demonstrated a simple addition problem 2 + 3 = 5

"To find the answer to the addition problem I looked at the addends two and three to equal five.  If I needed to check the answer I could do the inverse operation of subtraction."

This is much better than what I normally see: "I just got the answer."

3. We are taking a short assessment of all Term 1 material on Friday.  It will be Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

4. Also, at conferences I am going to give all students their login information for xtramath.org

5. The end of the term is Monday, November 5th.