Homework and Announcements
2/24/2020
Happy Monday! This is my last week as your teacher prior to my maternity leave. I can honestly say that while I am going to enjoy this time with my kids, I will truly miss teaching each and every one of you. It's even hard for me to look at the upcoming units and see the really cool math that you get to explore without me. All of you have made this a great school year!
That said, I am also excited to be leaving you in such good hands. We are extremely lucky to have Mrs. Loftis taking my place while I'm gone. Not only is she an experienced math teacher, but she is kind and patient and I have no doubt you will have a great end to the school year. Being my last week, here are some things you should know. First, I will be finalizing trimester 2 grades before I leave, so this Thursday will be the final day for any retakes or missing work to be submitted. Please make sure you have a plan. Second, this will likely be the last post you see on this website and I will be archiving the Remind classes. If you need to contact Mrs. Loftis, her email address is [email protected]. Here is my review of the upcoming week: Math 6 We are going to be doing another mini-unit, this time reviewing decimal operations. Instead of starting a new unit with only a couple weeks to go, I opted to fill in the space with a few topics that tend to get skipped by the end of the year. This also will allow Mrs. Loftis to pick up next week with a brand-new unit. The unit she will begin with you is a rendition of our Variables and Patterns book which dives into everything you need to know about expressions and equations in 6th grade. This week we will reviewing decimal operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing) and I will be incorporating a few project-based assignments. Your only homework is MathXL. Math 7 This week, we are taking the time to go back to percentages. Many of you did fantastic on the unit test, but there were also a great number of students who needed more time to comprehend the material. We will be spending the next few days doing some additional activities and problems in order to explore percentages further and then take a retake on Thursday . NOT ALL OF YOU WILL TAKE THE RETAKE. As I mentioned, many of you already earned a great score on the original test, so you will not be required to retake. I will have another activity prepared for you. Your only homework is MathXL. Homework and Announcements
2/18/2020
Happy Tuesday! I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. We are coming up on the end of the trimester, so please take the time to check your grades. The last day for retakes and late work in my class will be Thursday, February 27. Math 6 This week, we are continuing our mini Geometry unit. We spent the majority of last week working on a Geometry project - designing a candy carton - and now we will be wrapping up that project by putting some formality to the ideas we explored. The major concepts in the candy carton project were surface area and volume. Your only homework this week will be MathXL. Math Topics Covered Imagine painting all of the sides of a box. The amount of surface to be covered with paint is the surface area of the box. Your student will focus on finding the surface areas of different three-dimensional objects such as the prisms and pyramids. One way to find the surface area of a three-dimensional object is to draw its net, which shows all the faces of the object as a two-dimensional drawing. A net can be cut out and folded to make the object. To find the surface area of the object, we can find the area of each face (as shown on the net) and add them. The areas of the six rectangular faces shown add up to 76 square units because , so the surface area of this box is 76 square units. Math 7 This week, we are officially wrapping up our percentages unit. I scheduled two review days - Tuesday and Wednesday - with the test scheduled for Thursday. You do not have MathXL this week. Instead, you will be expected to work on the review pages at home if they are not completed in class. Homework and Announcements
2/10/2020
Happy Monday! This week all classes will be taking a benchmark on Thursday. The benchmark exams that we take in middle school are only intended to inform my instruction, so don't stress out for this test. The test is not graded and will not be used for placement. However, please be sure to do your best as the test provides great feedback on how we are doing as a class. Read below to see what your week looks like in math:
Math 6 This week, the sixth graders are taking a little break from the normal routine to complete a mini-Geometry unit. They will be working with partners to design and build candy cartons. No part of this project will come home for homework and should be completed entirely in class. Your only math homework is MathXL. Math 6 Topics Covered The candy carton unit will cover the following Math 6 Geometry topics: finding the areas of triangles and rectangles, nets, calculating surface area of 3D solids, and finding the volume of prisms. Math 7 This week, the seventh graders will be wrapping up the percentages unit. We only have a few more lessons left and will probably take the unit test next Thursday after spending a couple days reviewing. Your only math homework is MathXL. Math 7 Topics Covered Your student is learning to describe increases and decreases as a percentage of the starting amount. For example, two different school clubs can gain the same number of students, but have different percent increases. The cooking club had 50 students. Then they gained 6 students. This is a 12% increase because 6 out of 50 is 12% (6/50). They now have 56 students, which is 112% of the starting amount. The computer club had 8 students. Then they gained 6 students. This is a 75% increase, because 6 out of 8 is 75% (6/8). They now have 14 students, which is 175% of the starting amount. Here is a task to try with your student: The photography club had 20 students. Then the number of students increased by 35%. How many students are in the photography club now? Homework and Announcements
2/3/2020
Math 6
This week, the sixth graders will be finishing up their unit on fraction operations with a test on Wednesday. I am not assigning a MathXL assignment to facilitate a more meaningful review for the students. Tonight and tomorrow night, students will take home a review activity. Please do not spend too much time on this activity (20 minutes and then put it away). The whole idea is that they should be reviewing in class and then revisiting for just a little bit at home. These assignments will not be graded for completion, but for effort. This should also be your window into how much they accomplished during their class time. Were they productive with the 50 minutes given? Math 6 Topics Covered This unit was pull from Let's Be Rational. The test will cover all of the investigations and many review problems will come from this text. Math 7 This week, the seventh graders will move on to the second section of our percentages unit. We have officially made the transition from fractions and decimals onto percents. We will end the week with a partner quiz on Friday. Your only math homework is MathXL. Math 7 Topics Covered Your student is learning to describe increases and decreases as a percentage of the starting amount. For example, two different school clubs can gain the same number of students, but have different percent increases. The cooking club had 50 students. Then they gained 6 students. This is a 12% increase because 6 out of 50 is 12% (6/50). They now have 56 students, which is 112% of the starting amount. The computer club had 8 students. Then they gained 6 students. This is a 75% increase, because 6 out of 8 is 75% (6/8). They now have 14 students, which is 175% of the starting amount. Here is a task to try with your student: The photography club had 20 students. Then the number of students increased by 35%. How many students are in the photography club now? |