Math in Action!

We took our whole class math block to a whole new level this week! We played “Agree, Argue, Aspire”, worked in teams and independently, took our fraction knowledge deeper, and capped it all off with multiplication Jeopardy! Our class was focused and engaged all week long, and you have made me so proud!

We studied Karmyn’s work on her practice EOG test. Check out how she tried three different strategies before getting an answer with which she was confident! Karmyn’s work showed us that she can truly persevere when things get tough. Her example gave us a lot to aspire to!

Don’t be afraid to try more than one strategy!

Never be afraid to start all over!

Here we are studying Karmyn’s work and deciding what we agreed with, what we wanted to argue with, and what we could aspire to do in our own work!

photo 2-1

photo 4

photo 3-1

If you’d like to try out multiplication Jeopardy at home click on the picture below. Get your family involved! See if you can beat your siblings and parents! Remember your good sportsmanship. Even though the girls were our big winner our boys acted like true gentlemen!

Number line or Fraction Model

image

image

number line or fraction modelWe have been looking at different methods of representing fractions so that we can picture them in our minds. Two strategies we have tried are, representing fractions on a number line and drawing out fraction models . Both strategies help us visualize the fractions we’re working with and make it very easy to see if two fractions are equivalent.image image image image image

So, which method helps you visualize the fraction better, fractions on a number line or fraction models?

The “Fraction Cake” lesson the students are working on in the photos can be found here!

Fractions- Picture it in your Head!

My small math group worked on some great fraction cards this afternoon. We realized it really helps if you make a mental movie of the fraction and think about the numerator and denominator. For your visual, if the word problem doesn’t give you anything specific to picture, just use your favorite food: Pizza, chocolate bars, pies?Fraction Fun by The Busy Class 4 fraction fun by The Busy Class Fraction fun by The Busy Class 2 Fraction Fun by The Busy Class 3I love getting to hide behind my iPad with the answer key! Thank you to The Busy Class for the wonderful fraction cards from your Fraction Fun Pack!

Exploring Fractions

Fractions

We have been exploring fractions for the past 15 days (wow, that’s half of a month!) I think our favorite fraction activities involve chocolate bars! There’s no better way to explore twelves than with a delicious Hershey bar!

Today, we played a game that asked us to put fractions in order from smallest to biggest. Thinking about those candy bar pieces really helped us out! You can find this fraction game here!

fractions 5 fractions 1 fractions 2 fractions 3fractions 4

 

 

Back to Fiction!

We have enjoyed some amazing nonfiction books this school year (hey, there’s one of our prefixes, “non” means not!) We read The Interactive Biography of Martin Luther King Jr., Different Like Coco, and TheĀ Tree Lady. We’ve also read a plethora of books on all sorts of nonfiction topics, from porcupines to escape artists!

On Monday, we began our new read aloud book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. This is one of my favorite books and it holds a special place in my heart. Every time I read this book to my students, they point out something new and interesting about the characters. You all did a marvelous job of quickly realizing that Edward is a selfish rabbit. We said he has a big ego!

Here is a sneak peek into our new read aloud. What predictions can you make based on the movie? Leave your predictions in a comment!

 

Decomposing a Kilogram

On Monday, we sat down and took a kilogram apart. A kilogram is a unit that is used to measure weight. Often grocery store items are measured in kilograms. We learned that:

1 kg = 1 kilogram!

By decomposing a kilogram we discovered that:

1 kilogram = 1,000 grams or

1 kg = 1 g!

We also determined that 100 grams could go into a kilogram 10 times and 10 grams could go into 100 grams 10 times! Check out these mathematicians at work!

kiogram2 kilogram kilogram3 kilogram4 kilogram5

Thank you EngageNy.Org for the wonderful lesson idea!