Happy Halloween!

Students completed a quiz over the first investigation of the Variables and Patterns book during today's short class. Hopefully, all did well on it.

Tonight's Homework: None. Have a fun, but safe Halloween!

Starting a Bicycle Touring Company?

Thanks to everyone who wore red today to celebrate the end of Red Ribbon Week--you are all rock stars! Today, we finished investigation 1 and began investigation 2 in the Variables and Patterns book. As a class, we thought about all of the things we would need to provide if we were starting up a bicycle touring company. This discussion will guide us as we move through the different parts of investigation 2.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 2 ( 1 or 2, 3 or 4, and 15). There will be a quiz over Investigation 1 material on Wednesday, October 31st. Start preparing for it now!

Red Ribbon Week Begins; Continuous vs. Discrete Data Discussion Begins

Students received red ribbons to help kick off our celebration of Red Ribbon Week. Being drug free is a choice we make every single day. Our math lesson had us revisiting the jumping jack activity, but with a different twist to it. We collected data from Erika, Emily, Parker and Kobe as they jumped for two minutes. Students recorded the data so they can further analyze it tonight.

Tonight's Homework: Create one well-labeled graph to show the jumping jack data we collected in class today. Do not connect the dots today, as the number of jumping jacks done in each interval is discrete, not continuous, data. Write one summary statement about each of the 4 people who volunteered to be our jumpers.,

Notebook Clean-Out Day

During the short period, students corrected last night's homework, turned it in, cleaned out their notebooks, and still had time to get started on tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 1 ( 4, 5, 26 )

Analyzing Parts of a Line Graph

We took some time today to analyze what the information shown on a line graph really indicates. The steepness of the line can tell us something about what's happening. If the line is flat, it can also tell us something about what's happening in the given situation. There are clues hidden in the graph--you just have to be a detective to find them.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 1 ( 1-3, 13 - 20 )

Jumping Jacks in Math? You Have to be Kidding!

No, it's true! Many students volunteered to do jumping jacks in class as a part of our data gathering experiment. The data gathered will be turned into both a well-labeled data table and a line graph. This is the initial activity in our study of variables and patterns, which we'll be studying for the next several weeks.

Tonight's Homework: Complete all parts of Problems 1.1 and 1.2 in the new "Variables and Patterns" book. Don't forget to label!

Unit Test Over Integers Taken in Class Today

Students took the unit test over integers today. They also turned in their "Accentuate the Negative" books. Our next unit of study will be over variables and patterns, as you might have expected from the title of the new book you received today.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the orange "Daffynition Decoder" worksheet. Enjoy the goofy answers.

Reviewing for the "Accentuate the Negative" Unit Test

Students played a review game to strengthen their order of operations skills. Topics that will be on tomorrow's test include integer operations (add, subtract, multiply, and divide), orders of operations, distributive property, commutative property, and associative property. (Oh, and by the way, great job, yellow table, for winning today's game!)

Tonight's Homework:--Be sure to study for tomorrow's test. Complete all problems on the purple Order of Operations worksheet. Bring your textbook to class on Tuesday.

Picking Up the Pieces From Earlier in the Week

Students were reminded to do the right thing almost all the time so they will avoid troublesome situations. In particular, students were encouraged to go out of their way to be helpful to guest teachers, and not make their lives more difficult by misbehaving. Students learned that there will be a test over the integer unit on Tuesday, October 16th. I encouraged them to start preparing for it now.

Tonight's Homework: All problems on page 75 of your ATN book.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Today, we reviewed properties, operations and applications of integers. Specifically, we reviewed how to use things like silly stories, chip boards and number lines to represent integers and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide with them. We also used integers in real-world problems. To be sure we can do all of these things, we answered a lot of questions using pictures, diagrams, and silly stories as a part of our in class and out of class work.

Tonight's Homework: All problems on pages 78 and 79 of the ATN book.

Distributing Operations

Today, we looked at Problem 4.2. We used the areas of rectangles to help us learn more about the distributive property. We discovered that the pictures of the rectangles helped us to better visualize what is happening when we are needing to distribute in math problems. Students completed problem 4.2 in class, using the brain power of all table mates and classmates to power through the more difficult problems.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 4 (3, 4, 30-32).

Introducing the Distributive Property

Students used orders of operations to solve simple problems that could also be solved by using the distributive property. We developed a definition for the distributive property, and then practiced using it today.

Tonight's Homework: Pages 64 and 65 (all problems). If you are working on a PEMDAS poster, it is due on Monday, October 8th.

Revisiting Orders of Operations One More Time

Students learned that we need to follow directions completely when solving problems that involve orders of operations. To not do so will cause you to get some pretty funny results (like when you put your shoes and socks on!). We're getting better at computing with orders of operations.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 4 (5, 26-28, 33, and 45). Work on your PEMDAS poster.

More on Order of Operations

We reviewed the process for using order of operations today, as many students got confused on the part that requires that you multiply and divide from left to right. Many students were doing all of the multiplication, and then doing the division. Hopefully, this mistake will be corrected from now on. Students wishing to make a PEMDAS poster received paper today. We began an activity by writing out directions for how to put our shoes and socks on.

Tonight's Homework: ACE 4 (1, 2, 8-25, 36-43). If you are creating a PEMDAS poster, be sure to get started on it now!

An Introduction to Order of Operations

Vocabulary related to types of numbers (rational, irrational, integers, whole and counting) was discussed. We also talked about the commutative property, and how it works for addition and multiplication, but not for subtraction and division. This led us to a discussion about orders of operations.

Tonight's Homework: Page 63 (all problems). For extra credit, please make up a new, original sentence for orders of operations (PEMDAS) that you can illustrate. This poster will be due by Monday, October 8th.