January 29, 2015

Finding LCD/LCM -- Method 2

Homework completion via IXL was much better from last night. We shared a few glitches, offered possible solutions, and I explained some alterations for another homework assignment for the future with IXL. (No homework tonight, except make-up for anyone who did not complete IXL last night.)

Then we shared some observations and strategies for how to tackle difficult problems.

Students took notes on a second method to try with determining the LCM or LCD:

Have a great weekend and stay safe.

January 28, 2015

Continuing with LCM/LCD

On Monday, Tsuga received the following notes, but Betula did not. Today Tsuga reviewed these notes, while Betula copied and practiced with the notes.
In both classes we discussed the advantage of IXL. The most important, when a student makes an error on IXL, there is a "teaching" page that automatically pops-up to explain the correct answer and why the student's submitted answer is incorrect. It is important to read this page before continuing to the next item. It helps with the learning of the skill.

A student asked a good question about the IXL assignment: "What do you do when there are 3 denominators instead of 2?"

Here is the response to that question via an example:

Tonight's Homework:  IXL  Level: I  Skill: F.4  Goal: 85% or higher

January 26, 2015

One-step Wrap-up AND LCM

Here is the key to Thursday in-class assignment. As a whole we reviewed the writing of an equation, the steps to solving the equation, labeling the answer, and the steps to checking work. At this time, we're taking a bit of a break from this concept and return in a few weeks.




Our next focus for the upcoming weeks will be LCM (lowest common multiple), LCD (lowest common denominator), divisibility, and adding/subtracting fractions.

TSUGA Notes:
What are the multiples of 3 and 4?
3:  3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, . . .
4:  4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, . . .

What are the common multiples of 3 and 4?
  12, 24, . . .

What is the least or lowest common multiple of 3 and 4?
  12

BETULA Notes:
What are the multiples of 2 and 5?
2:  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, . . .
5:  5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, . . .

What are the common multiples of 2 and 5?
  10, 20, 30, 40, . . .

What is the least or lowest common multiple of 2 and 5?
  10

HOMEWORK:     IXL;   Level: I;    Skill: F.4

January 22, 2015

Where Are We At?

After answering questions, students completed these three problems independently. This is not an assessment, but a chance for me to check as to what each student can solve without help. Students will receive a process grade on powerschool.


MORE PRACTICE WITH SOLVING EQUATIONS

1. Mrs. Souza kept 16 of the cookies that Nathan baked. That was 2/3 of all of them! How many did Nathan keep?
Equation:

Answer:
Check:

2. If 9/10 of the weight of a package is 21.6 pounds, find the weight of the package.
Equation:

Answer:
Check:

3. Izzy gave Bailey $8.91 with which to pay the bill at the restaurant. This covered 5/6 of the cost. How much was the total bill?
Equation:

Answer:
Check:


IF YOU WERE ABSENT -- please see me first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks!

January 21, 2015

Answers to Thursday HW

Here are the answers to the word problems assigned last Thursday, 1/15:


The plans for tomorrow include a bit more practice with one-step equations, examining "friendly fractions" over "messy decimals," and a review of adding/subtracting fractions.

January 20, 2015

Test 5 Update

At this writing, Test 5 will be postponed until next week.  For the remainder of this week, our focus will be spent on solving one-step equations and working with fractions.

January 16, 2015

Table of Contents

Here's a photo of the items we have added to our MTN's over the past two weeks. Make sure these are also entered into your TOC. Have a good long weekend.

January 15, 2015

Solving Multiplication/Division Equations

Answers to last night's homework.

Review/practice -- in class.

Today's Notes

Homework page 1, due 1/20

Homework page 2, due 1/20

January 14, 2015

Solving One-Step +/- Equations

Notes for today involved practicing with solving one-step equations using addition and subtraction. Homework is solving 3 word problems which require students to apply writing expressions and solving the equation.  I am requiring students to check their work (insert their solution for the variable) and must always LABEL the solution for a word problem.

Homework for tonight (along with read over notes for 1/7, 1/8, 1/12, 1/13, and 1/14): 



1. Joe ran 17 miles less than Alison last week. Joe ran 11 miles. How many miles did Alison run?
    Expression:

Answer:


2. Last week Ted ran 30 miles more than Julio. Ted ran 41 miles. How many miles did Julio run?
   Expression:

Answer:


3. Mark paid $8.54 for a pizza. He now has $17.75. How much money did he have before buying the pizza?
   Expression:

Answer:
 



January 13, 2015

Writing Expressions

After a review of last night's homework assignment, we practiced the skills of PEMDAS and critical reading to write number expressions (not inequalities). Some practice items included:
a plus 7 (a + 7)
x decreased by 4 (x - 4)
5 less than s (s - 5)
The product of 8 and c (8c)

Then students, with partners, played a "Bingo" game with given word expressions and matched them with the correct number expressions. Here is a sample of some examples that students worked on:


The product of 5 and t                                                                       

The product of 8, m,and n

The product of 3 and the quantity of  p plus q                                    

Twice the sum of  x and y

The product of m and 3 less than m                                      

x  divided by 5

Homework for tonight: read over notes 1/7, 1/8, 1/12, and 1/13.

January 12, 2015

Practice with Polynomials

Two loose ends were tied up today: 1. returned US History Population Chart and Questions (90.2% of the students finished this homework assignment - ask your child about this) and 2. returned Test 4 Retake.  All grades have been updated on Powerschool.

Then we continued with notes from Thursday and moved into Examples of Simplifying Polynomials. See the photos below.
 

Homework for tonight is simplify these 5 examples:


January 8, 2015

More Polynomials

First, we reviewed and tried more examples to test our written expressions from yesterday (Calendar Trick).

Then, we moved into notes of polynomials and using the new knowledge from yesterday to define the terms to polynomials. Student notes should look "something like" mine. Examples will vary from class to class because different students offered different examples. (The blanks to my notes refer to the parts we have not yet finished.)

January 7, 2015

Calendar Trick

We are beginning a new calendar year.  This activity is a way to review distributive property and working with fractions, and to introduce polynomials (an expression that consists of a coefficient and variable, and involves operations - add,subtract,multiply,divide). There is more to the definition, but we are working with just one piece at this time.

Students were shown a calendar and a volunteer was asked to secretly pick three numbers and then give me the sum. I then gave them the three numbers that the student had chosen. Then we went through a series of steps as to how to figure it out and how to write an expression.

 


Betula Notes from class.
Tsuga Notes from class.


January 5, 2015

Immersion Day

As you are aware, our entire core time was spent with immersing ourselves in a self-guided learning experience. Teachers modeled the behavior by immersing our time into our own topic of study. My time was spent with reading the book, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Here is a link to Charles Duhigg's website for resources, if you are curious.  The Power of Habit
(The "Resources and Teaching Guides" page is interesting.)