Basketball for Astronauts?

Students used their problem solving skills to create a scale drawing of a basketball court that would be suitable for the toy astronaut they were given. All math used to convert real dimensions of a basketball court must be shown, and the drawing must be neatly drawn and labeled.

Tonight's Homework: Finish working on the scale model of your basketball court for the mini astronaut.

Area of Triangles and Trapezoids

Using pictures of geoboards, students drew a series of different shapes and sizes of triangles and trapezoids. They calculated the area of each figure drawn, and looked for a pattern that could be stated in an equation so one could determine the area of any triangle or trapezoid, if certain dimensions were known.

Tonight's Homework: Finish the green worksheets you started in class today. If you attended the WEB training today, be sure to pick these up on Thursday, and get them done as soon as possible. You are behind! (Thanks to Katie and Danette, who did check in with me after the training.)

Mixed Measurements

Weekly grade slips were distributed today, even though today is Tuesday. The theme for the week is solar energy. Students were asked to carefully measure 20 different objects, using both inches and centimeters. These measurements were recorded in a data table. The information will be used later in the week to help us better understand the notion of slope and where it shows up on the graph and the data table.

Tonight's Homework: Graph your measurement data as precisely and accurately as you can. If you are missing assignments, please plan to get those done and turned in as soon as you can. All late and missing work is due by Wednesday, June 5th. Don't delay, do it today!!!

Solving Problems Through Pattern Finding

After putting a few more pieces of the penny together, we worked on a variety of problems that dealt with discovering patterns today. Students used calculators to solve problems, learned how to use an abacus to represent different types of numbers, and then looked for patterns in groups of numbers. All in all, we worked hard and were successful!

Tonight's Homework: Nothing new. If you have missing assignments, it might be a great time to work on them over the long weekend and bring them in on Tuesday. Enjoy the holiday!

Rectangular Patterns

After putting most of the pieces of our enlarged penny together, we looked at a variety of rectangles to see if there was a pattern between the length and the width of the rectangle. Students sorted the rectangles into piles of similar type, and then recorded length and width data in a table.

Tonight's Homework: Make a line graph of your rectangle data, using different colors for each of your groups of rectangles. Is your penny piece turned in? If not, please finish it.

District Track Meet Wipes Out Our Class

Students who attended class today were given a work day to complete their projects. Some worked on the penny enlargement grid, while others worked on the Transform Your Name or Word puzzles. Most students were able to complete at least one thing, which reduced the amount of homework they had.

Tonight's Homework: Be ready to submit your part of the enlarged penny to me on Thursday.

Enlarging A Penny Takes A Group Effort

Students chose which part of a penny's "tail" they wanted to enlarge, and then picked up supplies (plastic grid, grid paper, magnifying lens, tape) to help them complete the task. Most of the class period was spent working on the enlargement. Students were encouraged to be precise, since their piece would be aligned with several others to create a large version of a penny.

Tonight's Homework: Work on the enlargement of your portion of the penny, and be ready to turn it in on Thursday.

Sub District Track Meet = Work Day in Math

Students who attended class today spent the day working on their "Transform Your Name" project. Some finished solving the puzzle page that was created by another student in the class, while others worked on rotating and dilating pieces for the new assignment.

Tonight's Homework: Continue working on the next parts of the "Transform Your Name" project.

Magic Squares and Algebraic Thinking

Students used their problem solving skills to solve magic square problems and algebraic sentences using fractions. Some students used class time to work on the next step of the "Transform Your Name" project.

Tonight's Homework: Finish the worksheet on fractions and magic squares. If you wish, you can start on the next step of your project by creating a new word that you will break into parts that will either be enlarged, reduced, or rotated.

Dalai Lama Field Trip Cuts Class Size in Half

Because half of our class was gone on a field trip today, we turned our class period into a work session. Students worked on the dilation and rotation worksheets or late assignments. Some students even started on part of next week's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Do something nice for your mother!

Work Day for Transforming Your Name Project

Today's class period was turned into a work day for students to work on one of two assignments: a. Transform Your Name project--students used class time to get clarification, work on, or finish the assignment that was made yesterday. b. Probability and Proportional Thinking worksheet--this was handed out in class today, and will be due on Thursday. Thank you to all for your hard work and respect during class time, as our guests were able to complete a large chunk of their work during our class time today. You rock!

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of the worksheet you started in class today. Work on your "Transform Your Name" project. Remember, it will be due by Friday, unless you are planning to be gone on Friday.

Transform Your Name!

To allow students a chance to creatively practice skills related to translating and reflecting objects, we started working on a project called "Transform Your Name". We reviewed the criteria and the scoring rubric for this project. Students had about 30 minutes of class time to working on the project.

Tonight's Homework: Continue working on the project you started in class today. It will be due on Friday, May 10th. If you are planning to miss class because of the field trip to see the Dalai Lama on Friday, plan on having it ready to turn in on Thursday, May 9th.

An Introduction to Transformations

Students were introduced to two of the major transformations today. The first one we looked at was related to reflections. Students found it relatively easy to reflect things across horizontal and vertical lines. Reflecting across a diagonal line proved to be a bit more challenging to some students, but by the end of the period, most students felt proficient in getting objects reflected across lines, regardless of its orientation. The second transformation we looked at was the translation. Once students understood that the top number refers to how the object is moved on the x-axis (side to side), and the bottom number tells how the object is moved along the y-axis (up or down), they were able to perform the slides with relative ease. To review, translations "slide" things and reflections "flip" things over a line.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the two worksheets you received in class today. One is on reflecting objects and the other is on translating objects. Both will create words if done correctly.

Notebook Clean Out and Shortened Classes = Not Much to Do!

Students corrected yesterday's homework and then turned it in. Because classes were shortened, we spent the rest of the period removing work from our notebooks. We kept anything that related to shrinking, enlarging and the shadow work we've been doing. Anything related to surface area and volume was removed from notebooks and either taken home or recycled. Papers that were complete but not graded were turned in.

Tonight's Homework: None. Enjoy the weekend, but don't get sunburned!

More on Ratios and Proportions

We converted our projected height data, recorded in cm, to feet by determining that 30.5 cm is equal to 1 foot. This led us to a conversation about how to set up ratios to help solve problems. We looked at a variety of problems that used rates and created ratios to help solve the problems.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of the white worksheet that we started in class today. Be sure to show your work.

It's May Day!

Today, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to go outside again and measure the length of shadows of really tall things, like trees, utility poles and flag poles. Using information from yesterday, we talked about ways to determine the actual height of the objects without actually measuring them. We discovered that there is a way to do this, using ratios and proportions. Students began these computations in class, and then were asked to complete them at home. Be sure to graph your data.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the chart you started in class today, and find the projected height of each of the objects using ratios like we did in class today. All of your work related to this activity will be turned in on Thursday.