Today in math we transferred our ideas of finding volume with non-standard units (pattern blocks) to unit cubes. Students constructed rectangular prisms from their math journal then used cubes to find the volume of those prisms. Some students were able to get to applying their hands-on models to visual models but not all did, so we will finish the work tomorrow. NO HOMEWORK TONIGHT!
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Today we worked on two targets- finding the volume of a rectangular prism (paperclip box) with non-standard units (pattern blocks) and determining which type of unit was best for finding the volume. Students began by trying to find the area of a rectangle that they had drawn on the back of their homework using patterns blocks in the shapes of squares, triangles, trapezoids, rhombuses, and parallelograms. Students all agreed that when trying to cover their rectangle without gaps or overlaps that the square blocks were best because they most closely matched the shape that they were using and the sides all fit together well. We then worked to try to find the volume of a small box using the same blocks. The groups were only able to get through one shape, so we will continue our work and discussion tomorrow. HOMEWORK TONIGHT: HOME LINK 1-6
Today students continued to work on our scientific method materials from yesterday. The Arbours finished up a word scramble and putting the steps of an experiment in order then started looking at developing a hypothesis and experiment based on a problem and observation scenario. The Newtons had not started the scramble yesterday, so that's all they worked on today.
Today we started our work with the scientific method. We watched a BrainPop video and took notes on the order of the steps. We will continue to look at the steps and begin to connect them to actual experiments as the week and month goes on. Tomorrow we will be finishing up our activity on putting the steps in order and coming up with a hypotheses and possible experiments for given scenarios.
Today we started our first lesson on volume, with the idea of what volume means and identifying objects that have volume. We did an activity where students had to predict which (if either) or two cylinders made from the same size piece of paper had more volume. Most students thought that the volume would be the same since the paper that they were made from was the same size. Upon completion, we noticed that one did have a larger volume and that it was related to the dimensions of the object, not the surface area. HOMEWORK TONIGHT: HOME LINK 1-5
Today we spent the bulk of class taking notes about what we have learned about observations and learning about the two classifications of observations: qualitative and quantitative. We will spend more time in the next few weeks honing the skill of differentiating between the two.
After reviewing the assignment from Tuesday night, I noticed that many students had very simplistic and ineffective explanations of how they solved the area problems. We did a whole group lesson on writing quality explanations and talked at length about needing to have a "why" for every "what" that they did in the problem. For example, if students multiplied the two whole numbers they would need to include that they did this to find the area of the whole units in the rectangle. When adding the two parts together, they would included that it was to find the area of the whole rectangle. We are modeled and discussed why clear and precise explanations are key when giving written answers. Our two (one per homeroom) modeled problems are below. HOMEWORK TONIGHT: WRITE NEW EXPLANATIONS FOR HOME LINK 1-3 IF NOT COMPLETED IN CLASS
Today we reviewed our work from yesterday by discussing why the students in the prompt got two different answers. It lead us to thinking about how a model may represent one part of a problem and the labels might represent something different. In this case, each small square was a 1/2 by 1/2 square but the side dimensions were in feet. Students used this thinking to work on new problems in the math journal, were we looked at different size tiles and being able to answer in both tiles and square feet. (page 10 from the math journal). Students will be continuing to look at patterns in side length and number of tiles per square foot over the next couple of days. HOMEWORK TONIGHT: HOME LINK 1-4
Today we moved into talking about the difference between memories and observations. Students started an activity where they had to first draw the front and back of a penny from memory. After the first round, students were given a penny to observe for one minute then draw what they observed in that time. All students reported that their drawings were more accurate than the first drawings and included more details. We discussed how this is like their observing that their object last week was a candy even though they had not seen it to know this to be true. Tomorrow we will need to finish up the last part where students will be given enough time to draw both sides of the penny while being able to observe the penny as they draw.
We started class by looking at area using different units. Students needed to find the number of square inches (smaller squares) inside a square foot. This required students to use the different strategies that we have practiced so far in math. This activity led us into our classwork today which was to look at a student's work to figure out how he/she got his/her answer and then had to make a stand as to if they agreed or not with the student's strategy. We will use our classmate's answers tomorrow to look at how we communicate in math and explain our thinking. Students will continue to work on area and orders of operations on homework tonight. HOMEWORK TONIGHT: HOME LINK 1-3
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April 2020
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