Doin' Dots - Day 1

I meant to have taken photos while students were working on the Dots Project (proportional reasoning), but it was "busy."  Thus, here is a few photos of some partially completed enlargements. Students will have until the end of classtime Monday to complete and then will answer some reflection questions in their individual MTN's (which will be Monday's homework).

 

 

Proportions - Day 3

Here is a teacher copy of today's practice items and answers. Tomorrow we begin the project "Doin' Dots."

Proportions - Day 2

Here are the answers to the practice items from Wednesday's homework assignment:

Discussion followed regarding some real-world examples (below), which also led to a discussion about the difference between standard miles and nautical miles from the first example. In the second example, we discussed how we could use Pythagorean Theorem to find the hypotenuse. And finally the third example, we discussed how we will be using this while hiking the Whites in a couple of weeks.

Students began the work (#'s 1-6) of the third proportion page in their MTN with partner groups (to be posted tomorrow with answers). These will be finished in class on Wednesday prior to our next project -- "Doin' Dots."  This project will require students to apply their understanding of scaling to enlarge a picture to a mural of a given size. Final product will be posted on Thursday (hopefully).

Proportions - Day 1

First -- here are just a few dazzling samples of students' Tessellation Designs!

 

 

 

Here is a copy of the beginning notes to proportions. Homework: Complete the 5 problems at the bottom of the page. DUE: Tues., 5/26.

Tessellations -- Final Work Day

Photos of students working on final tessellation designs.  A sampling of finished products will be posted on tomorrow's blog. Students did a great job with tenacity and perseverance!

Tessellations - Day 2

After a brief slide presentation of other tessellation ideas, students got to work with their own creations. This lesson was initially explained and demonstrated to students last Thursday, so today was a review. Photos of students finished products will be posted on the blog tomorrow.

Here are 3 examples of "works in progress" at various stages. Finished products are due tomorrow at the END of class time.

HAPPY TESSELLATING

Tessellations

Next Monday and Tuesday, students will complete the last transformation project -- tessellations. These are the notes that I shared with them today and each student will receive their own copy on Monday.

HOMEWORK:  Think about an idea, preferably from nature, that you can create a tessellation beginning on Monday.                      Have a good weekend!

Transformation Project

Fun photos of Vista students working on our team transformation project. Lots of problem solving, cooperation, and work went into this image. Skills Check #10 was also tied into the project.

                                    

Update

No new post today. All information from today was a continuation of yesterday.

See you tomorrow for the Transformation Project!

Rules/More Practice with Transformations

Here are today's notes:

 

We are also preparing for a whole math room transformation project. On Wednesday, each math group will be divided by grade level and into partner groups. Each group will be given an assigned task to complete on the team coordinate grid (our tile floor). Each group will have to plot coordinates and then complete one or two transformations. In the end, we will have a team figure taped to our floor. It has taken me several days to plan for this project and hope for interesting results. I'll post pictures of the students working collaboratively on Wednesday's blog.

HOMEWORK:
Complete the transformations in MTN ("Practice with Transformation Rules").

Reflections

Below are the notes for reflecting over an axis and the beginnings to rotation on a given point.

 

Next Monday, after we finish with rotations and some rules for transformations, the students will be putting their skills to use with creating transformations on a larger scale.

Have a good evening.

Translations

** Any student in need of retaking Skills Check #9 can do so during math class time or another time of the school day if arranged with me ahead of time. My suggestion is to take care of the retake within the next two weeks.

Today we dove into our next segment of math with learning about transformations. We began with translations (moving points in the same direction and distance). See the notes below:

Reflecting over an axis will be tomorrow's lesson.  Students should read over the information tonight.

Welcome Back!

Yesterday was a great day -- Immersion Day! I find that it is always a pleasure to observe students immerse themselves in a topic and learn from their discoveries.

As you may be aware, Smarter Balance testing began today. Though we need to allow time in the morning for the testing, core and exploratory classes are still held -- approximately 35-40 minutes per class period.

Today's class time was spent with reviewing the Skills Check #9 (geometry). Beginning tomorrow we will begin a segment on Transformations and Translations.

Skills and Concepts Check

Students working on their assessments:

Have a restful, safe and fun vacation.

Return ready to complete the rest of the school year to the best of you abilities.

Spring Trip in 47 calendar days (as of 4/24/15)!

Yippee!

Volume Formulas

Here is a photo of the notes that I wanted to accomplish today: 

More time than I had planned was needed to review the strategies and solutions to last night's homework. Very few students had completed the homework, which slows down the pace and the delivery of the next lesson. We were only able to complete the formula for prisms.

Due to tomorrow's schedule (Spirit Day), we will be having regular classes on Friday. It will be just enough time to finish the notes and go over the strategies and solutions from the homework assignment.

 Homework for tonight is to complete item numbers 1,2, and 4:

Area Formulas

Here is a photo of today's notes:

Homework: Choose any 3 to complete. Items #3 and #6 are challenging! Give them a go!

Pythagorean Theorem

Pythagorean Theorem has a wide range of uses: finding the perimeter of a triangle when a missing length exists, find the leg/side or hypotenuse of a triangle, how far away from a wall should the bottom of the latter be placed or how high up the wall will the latter reach with a given latter, etc.

Below is a picture of today's notes in students' MTN's and some discussion examples.

 

Tonight's homework:

Triangle Sum & Exterior Angles

Students had the opportunity for more practice with solving the missing angle using the triangle sum theorem (and practice with solving 2-step equations). Two of the challenge problems relied upon students using the exterior angle in order to solve the unknown angle(s) and more practice with 2-step equations.

Problems and possible solutions

Tomorrow -- We will be investigating how to solve given problems and the real world the uses of Pythagorean Theorem. This page is in students' MTN's and we will begin taking notes in class on Tuesday.