For the past two weeks, students have been learning about types of triangles (a focus for Gr 5s and review for Gr 6s) and types of quadrilaterals (a focus for Gr 6s). We've been measuring and drawing angles with a protractor, classifying angles, and sorting shapes into Venn Diagrams by their geometric characteristics. Gr 5s have looked at reflective symmetry in detail, and Gr 6s have learned rotational symmetry as well. Gr 5s have also explored elapsed time, while the Gr 6s have been tinkering with isometric drawings (there are some future architects in the house!).
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This week, students have been using protractors a lot. If your child doesn't already have a protractor, please consider sending one in!
Gr 5s are learning to measure and draw angles to 90 degrees and Gr 6s are learning to measure and draw angles to 180 degrees. We are reviewing right, straight, acute and obtuse angles as well. Both classes have reviewed and explored reflective symmetry (ie, lines of symmetry). The Gr 6s are also tackling rotational symmetry. Up next? -classifying shapes by their properties -types of triangles (classified by length of sides and by angles) -creating polygons given angle and side measurements -quadrilaterals (a focus for Gr 6) We have been practising metric conversions (ex. 3.4m = ___cm) all while spiralling back to our previous work on multiplying decimals by powers of ten (it's the same thing with a twist! Let's practise this skill again!).
Some students have requested extra practise. Here is an EASIER practise sheet and here is a HARDER practice sheet. Answers are provided. I'm impressed with a lot of the problem solving happening in class... By golly, I think they've got it! We've also been practising making our work NEAT as a favour to me (it's so much faster to mark when answers are circled, etc). Take a look at the work below - these are just a few of the MANY great examples I saw. WOW! The Gr 5s are working through some math center rotations to practise their measurement skills - see below! The Gr 6s are moving forward on their measurement skills - it might be a good idea to review the formulas for rectangles, parallelograms and triangles (and which 'height' to use for the parallelograms/triangles). Composite ShapesWe've done a lot of work on composite shapes - finding the total area (add up all the small areas) and total perimeter (Beware! You can NOT add up all the small perimeters - you just need to add the outside measurements). Below are some examples: We're now building a composite shape city... it may look like arts & crafts, but really it's a FUN way to practise a pretty 'dry' skill. So far we have skyscrapers, houses, airplanes, a mosque and some pretty cool mansions. Stay tuned for our final GeoVille (by @JorgensenCorp). See a quick video of our finished product HERE.
This week we have started to learn about 2D Measurement, and how this relates back to the number sense concepts we have learned so far. Just to give you an idea of what we are learning about, here is a section of my long range plans for Gr 6 (Gr 5 plans are similar, but don't include the area of a parallelogram/triangle, and do include elapsed time). You will see how when teaching 2D measurement, I'm going to spiral back to the number sense concepts we've already learned in order to solidify them even deeper. To begin 2D measurement, I needed to determine what students already know about some of the topics we are learning about. Boy were there some misconceptions!! I'm so glad we did this activity. If teachers do all the talking, then we might miss the misconceptions that students have... and the opportunity to clear them up and move forward with a clear understanding of vocabulary terms, past concepts from previous years and any new connections. Next week, the Gr 5s are working on fun centers to solidify the area/perimeter of a rectangle, while the Gr 6s will reinforce the area of a parallelogram and be introduced to the area of a triangle. We continue to do Daily Math or Number Talks to investigate core math concepts. See the two below - these two ten minute activities brought out so many higher math concepts: prime/composite numbers, infinite numbers, rounding applications, place value, even/odd numbers, and more. WOW! Way to go crew! Don't worry - we do traditional practise as well. We are learning to be NEAT in our math and make our answers clear.
So yes, we've been working on multiplying bigger numbers in some "new" kinds of ways. Students have learned the box method, the lattice method, the partial products method and the standard algorithm (ie, the 'good old way'). Why would we do this? Learning different methods can help us perform mental math with larger numbers, help us judge the reasonableness of an answer and help us understand what we're actually doing when we multiply. Once students try them all, they can choose to continue with whatever method they are most comfortable with. Ask your child which one they like the best! We've also done some 'Bansho' questions, a highly successful Japanese teaching technique where you ask an open-ended question and students explore how many correct answers they can get. Then, as experts, they present their thinking to the class. This helps develop communication skills for math and lets the class learn lots of strategies for problem solving. OUR POWERS OF TEN INQUIRYGrade 5s explored how whole number powers of ten affect the decimal, while Grade 6s reviewed this and learned how decimal powers of ten affect the decimal. Here are some photos of them discovering some generalized rules:
We've been hard at work learning a lot about decimals! Place value, adding/subtracting, comparing, ordering and rounding. The class is filled with decimal experts now! We've also done some math centers this week, which lets me pull smaller groups of students for Guided Math. I can't tell you how much this helps me guide students in their learning! Take a look at the photos below for some insight into what your child has been doing in math lately. Feel free to ask your child about the photos - they can do the explaining! The 'concept' behind regrouping and borrowing explained using money manipulatives... we've also done this with base ten blocks. And guess what? Growth mindset is WORKING! Look at the message a student wrote with blocks after completing a math center... YOU CAN DO IT!!! #LoveThis #MyHeartIsFull
Often we do "Daily Math" in class, where I put a problem solving question up on the board and students get 5-10 minutes to work through it in their Daily Math Books. Students know that I do NOT look at these books, and that it doesn't "count for marks" - so it's risk free. Students are free to tackle the problem any way they choose, and they understand that the goal is to gain new math strategies, learn from their peers (when we take it up and model our answers) and most of all... to struggle. One of our goals as educators is to develop resilience in our students... which is tough! None of us want to struggle with something difficult. It just doesn't feel good. That being said, the reality is that our students WILL encounter math problems that are hard, and that they don't immediately know how to solve. If they are more used to struggling through something, they might just change their mentality from "I can't" to "I can do this with more time and effort." We are continuing to learn about whole and decimal numbers (place value, comparing and ordering, rounding decimals). Students are doing well and practising their new skills in many different contexts. If you are interesting in a good rounding trick, watch this video.
How do we make graphing interesting? Current? Applicable to our older, junior students? Well, right now our country is gearing up for a federal election... which is a GREAT source of applicable data! This week students analyzed the data surrounding voter turnout in all of our federal elections. Did you know that one of our highest voter turnouts ever was our very first election in 1867? Interestingly, our lowest voter turnout was in 2008 (only 59%). We graphed the data (Grade 6s had to actually figure out the % of voter turnout, whereas most Grade 5s were given the %s) and then we began to analyse it. We talked about "trends" and discovered that in general, voter turnout in Canada is on the decline. What can we do to get those who can vote to actually vote? Well, something our creative Grade 5 and 6 students can do is to design posters encouraging YOU to cast your ballot! This was a fun media literacy project, covering ideas such as: -creating clear/catchy titles -using applicable photos -citing data trends -some students decided to send "subliminal messages" via their posters (ie, Even though the poster just encourages everyone to vote in general, using the colour blue might send the message to vote Conservative. The image of trees and nature might make voters think of the Green Party. A red background might sway others to think of the Liberals, while an orange image might make voters think of the NDP). We're going to put up a few of the posters around Kanata (Sobeys, Starbucks, bus stops, etc) to encourage people to vote! This was also a lesson in media safety (no names or no information to locate us). Take a look at a few of the designs - I think we have some graphic designers on our hands... The posters below have a *bit* of a hidden message....
Plus, it's not very fun... or is it? Well, this week we had a BLAST calculating mean, median, mode and range using playing cards. Watch this and this! Check out our activities below to learn about how we determine the "middle" in different data scenarios. Also, re-watch this video with your child if you are interested in learning when median and mode might actually be more useful than using the mean (which we usually use). We also made posters that are up around the classroom to remind us of the differences between each one.
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Mrs JorgensenI'm a math nerd and think math jokes are funny. Not all of them though - just sum. Archives
March 2020
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