Quiz over Factoring, Prime Factorization, LCM and GCF

Students took a quiz in class today that covered factoring, prime factorization, GCF and LCM.

Tonight's Homework: None! Enjoy the long weekend.

LCM and GCF Review

Students were given most of the class period to sharpen their skills on determining the LCM and GCF of different pairs of numbers. Some review problems on finding the prime factorization of numbers was also included.

Tonight's Homework: Finish both sides of the pink worksheet you started in class today.

Reviewing LCM, GCF and Factoring

We spent most of the period working together to answer some questions related to how a person might use the GCF or LCM in a real-life situation. Students completed most of the problems assigned on the handouts, and were instructed on which problems to complete for homework.

Tonight's Homework: Complete Lesson 4.4 if you did not do it last night. Finish the Road Trip problems, the LCM/GCF table, and two of the six problems on the tan worksheet.

Determining the Least Common Multiple of Pairs of Numbers

Our last lesson of this unit centers on finding the lowest number that two (or more) numbers go into evenly. This is called the LCM, or least common multiple, of the numbers. I like to think of it as the lowest common multiple. Be sure to look over Lesson 4.4 before starting on your homework problems if you missed class today.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.4 ( 3 - 23 and 25 )

Factor Review

Wow! Five absentees in one day--I hope you are all okay. Today, we took some time to review what we've learned this week. We focussed on factoring, prime factorization, factoring monomials, and finding the greatest common factor of pairs of numbers.

Tonight's Homework: None. Enjoy your weekend!

Simplifying Fractions

Factoring numbers and finding factor pairs of a given number can be helpful when trying to simplify a fraction. We can also simplify fractions by looking for a common factor. The number of times you need to simplify a given fraction depends on whether you can quickly figure out the greatest common factor of the pairs of numbers. Be sure to read lesson 4.3 to see how to simplify fractions that include monomials.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.3 ( 13 - 63 odd, 64 and 65 )

Finding the Greatest Common Factor

Now that we now how to factor a number, we can look at pairs of numbers and determine whether they share any common factors. For those pairs that share common factors, we can look at the list and see what the largest shared factor is, and this is called the greatest common factor (GCF). Sometimes the two numbers only share one factor (1). When this is the case, we say the numbers are relatively prime.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.2 ( 8 - 30, 36 - 39, and 44 - 45 )

Factors, Factoring and Prime Factorization

Students received their tests and weekly grade print outs today. All were encouraged to get their grade slips signed and turned in on Wednesday for extra credit.

Today we reviewed how to list the factors of a number. Some have many factors, while others have just two. Those with two factors (1 and the number) are called prime. Those with many factors are called composite. Next, we practiced factoring numbers, using both factor trees and upside down division. Last, we listed the prime factors of a number, both using exponents and not using them.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.1 ( 2 - 9, 12 - 50 even, not 26 )

Test over Powers, Exponents and Scientific Notation

Students took the test over powers, exponents and scientific notation. Most finished with enough time to check their work for accuracy.

Tonight's Homework: None, as long as you have turned in everything this week. Enjoy the long weekend.

An Exponential Review

We finished our review of exponents by playing Jeopardy!® with the Smart Board. Students seem to be well prepared for tomorrow's test.

Tonight's Homework: Study for tomorrow's test over scientific notation and exponents. The sections in the book are 4.6, 4.7 and 4.8

Exponents and Scientific Notation

We practiced computing with exponents in several different ways . Multiplying powers seems to be easier than dividing for most students, so we focussed on dividing.

Tonight's Homework: Do the front side only of Practice WS 4.8 C

Computing with Exponents Review

Today we reviewed how to multiply and divide with exponents, as the test over this information will be given in class on Friday. Students had over 20 minutes to begin tonight's homework, and many finished at least half of the problems.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of the 4.6 C/4.7 C worksheet.

Exponent Experts At the Board

Today, we played At the Board, and reviewed how to write numbers in scientific and exponential forms. Students got progressively better at being able to come up with the correct answers, even though the problems got harder as we played longer.

Tonight's Homework: None, as long as you turned in everything assigned this week.

Scientific Notation

Numbers written using scientific notation have two distinct parts that are multiplied together:

First part--a number from 1 to 10, but not including 10 (1 ≤ n < 10 )
Second part--a power of 10

We practiced a writing a lot of numbers, both very small and very big, using scientific notation.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.8 ( 11 - 31, 32 - 38 even, 47 )

Negative and Zero Exponents

Today we continued our study of exponents and looked at what happens when the exponents of powers are 0 or negative.

Two important rules were discovered: Anything to the zero power will be 1, and anything to a negative power can be thought of as the reciprocal raised to the positive power. (See page 200 and 201 for further explanation of these rules.)

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 4.7 ( 3 - 33, and 46 - 47 )

Welcome Back!

Students received weekly grade slips today. Please take care of any missing work as soon as possible, as it will definitely help your grade.

We talked about powers, bases, and exponents today. Most importantly, we learned shortcuts on how to multiply and divide powers with common bases. Be sure to read the lesson in the book prior to starting tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Get your grade slip signed. Do Lesson 4.6 ( 3 - 43 )