Tallest Towers

Thank you everyone who donated supplies.  :-)

1st period Girls tower was 22 inches tall.

1st period also had another 22 inch tower, until it was
accidentally bumped into.  Here it is in the
building phase.

4th period Boys tower got to be 17 inches tall.

5th period tower got to be 28 inches tall.

7th period Boys got their tower to be 30.5 inches once they put that
plate on top.  The tower collapsed before we could get a picture
of the tower at it's tallest, but here it is in the building phase.

Algebra here we come!

Variables have entered our math the last couple of weeks.  Yep, math is now numbers and operational signs AND letters :-)

These boys show how they counted the number of tiles in this picture frame, without actually counting each tile.  This was our introduction to writing expressions like: 4(10) - 4 and 10+10+8+8.

Here we are finding out how many tiles would be in a square picture frame of ANY size.  We used a variable to represent the changing side length of the picture frame:  4(x) - 4 and x+x+x-2+x-2.

It has been awhile since I updated ya' all...

Kat explains her understanding of Croakie's routine

Joe, aka Croakie, shows his understanding of Croakie's moves

We wrapped up chapter 3 this week.  Chapter 3 had us "jumping" all over the place as we worked with the number line and Croakie the frog who likes to jump left (negative) and right (positive) in various combinations.  Some of our more energetic students slipped on the frog hat and jumped to it to give us a real live view of jumping along the number line.  Yes, we do have lots of fun in math class :-)  and we learn some too while we're at it.

Fractions and Decimals and Percents Oh My!

This week we started chapter 3 which is all about the relationship between fractions, decimals and percents. Students made visuals to represent values such as 11%, 0.11, and 11/100 so they could see that these are truly all worth the same amount.

We worked more with "Giant Ones" to help make equivalent (equal) fractions.  We also learned a new strategy for calculating percents, it is called the "Percent Ruler."

If you are curious about these "Giant Ones" and "Percent Rulers" check out the videos that I posted on the "Honors Math 6" class tab.  They are helpful for students who have been absent, or those students who benefit from seeing something a couple of times.

Have a great weekend!

Some upcoming things...

Hi wonderful parents (and anyone else who reads this),

This week we looked at how the area of a rectangle could change, but the perimeter could stay the same. We also looked at how we could keep the perimeter of a rectangle the same, but change its area.  We ended the week learning a strategy called generic rectangles for multiplying multi-digit numbers. It is a strategy the reinforces area as well as helping students learn how to decompose numbers to multiply them faster.

Here are some upcoming events this week that affect our class time together:
Monday is an early release day, students with a 7th period get out at 1:10.
Tuesday is our chapter 2 test
Wednesday and Thursday are academic conferences so school is shortened.  Students with a 7th period get out at 12:30, or they can stay for lunch and get out at 1:00.
Friday is a regular day, thank goodness :-)

See uprep.net for the complete conference day schedule.

Week 5, Areas

This week found us exploring what area is and starting in on a perimeter exploration.

First, to really solidify the concept that area is covering the surface of something in square units of a specified size, we covered our desks in square inches to see how many square inches cover our desktops.  We found that 1,152 square inches would cover our desktops.  

 We then saw that this could be calculated more quickly by measuring the length and the width of our desktop in inches and multiplying those two numbers together. Some students also calculated the area of their desktop in square feet and found that they have 8 square feet of working space.

On Friday we began exploring perimeter.  At this time most students are realizing that area is measured in square units like: square centimeters, square inches, square meters, square miles, square feet.... (the size of the unit used depends on how big or small the object is) and that perimeter is not measured in square units, but rather just: centimeters, inches, meters, miles, feet....  This concept will be further explored in week 6 as we dive into exploring perimeter.

Week 4, done

This week was a short week, but we accomplished a lot!  The students took their first test and began Chapter 2.  We started chapter 2 by looking at the differences between dot plots, histograms, bar graphs, Venn Diagrams...  We made our own histograms after conducting an experiment about just how long we each felt 60 seconds was.  For some reason I consistently think that 60 seconds have passed when just 40 seconds have gone by, that must be why I am the punctual one in my family :-).  Ask your student how long they felt 60 seconds was, it might enlighten you on why or why not they are on time.  Ha ha.

Making our class histogram about how long we felt 60 seconds was.  A finished one is on the left.

Week 3, Can you believe it?!?

Can you believe it? We have been in school for 3 weeks already!  All these wonderful 6th graders are settling into the routine of our class.  They are doing great with the organized binder and they continue to practice working together in their groups.
This week we worked with rectangular arrays and with factors.  We used pennies to build all the arrays we could that used 36 pennies, then we saw that the dimensions of those arrays corresponded to factor pairs on a Multiplication Table (1*36,  36*1,  2*18,  18*2,  3*12,  12*3,  4*9,  9*4,  6*6). We discovered that all perfect squares have an odd number of factor pairs.  We also learned about prime and composite numbers and that the number 1 is neither prime or composite, it is a UNIT!  I sang a song about "One is the Loneliest Number" (I am an okay singer, but certainly not a professional).

Roxie and Kaitlyn work on making arrays with pennies.

Our classroom groups are working together well to share ideas.

We will have our first chapter test on Thursday September 10th.  I am confident that these 6th graders will do their best on this upcoming test.  

In other news, I will be absent on Friday Sept 11.  Our class will continue with the lessons in my absence.

Week 2, the week of Understanding

Understanding how others see patterns.  We made posters.

This was the week of understanding. Understanding how others view patterns.
Understanding what happens when Rowena and Polly make trail mix (we were all surprised that they equally shared the mix). And understanding how best to arrange pennies so they are easy to count.
Your students are learning how to work better within their teams: sharing ideas, listening to one another, asking clarification questions.  It was a great week.  Some quotes I heard this week: "That was the best math class ever!"  "Class is over? Woah, that went by fast."

I really have the best job ever!  

Understanding a logic problem, using beans.  We mimicked what Polly and Rowena did to see what was really going on when Polly shared a scoop of peanuts with Rowena and then Rowena gave back a scoop that had raisins and peanuts.

Penny arrangement 

First week of U-Prep

I love your students!  Thank you parents for the honor of teaching your children.  What a terrific first week, so many smiles and acts of kindness and many happy words used when speaking about math.  YAY!  My heart is full.

This week we got to know one another and how our class will run.  We went over a lot of procedural stuff for which your students showed amazing listening skills.  Thank you students! We started one of the lessons in our textbook, a toothpick and tile challenge, designed to help students remember the difference between area and perimeter.  We also told some stories to help us remember the difference, ask your student about setting up a perimeter to keep our area safe :-)

Before you navigate elsewhere, click the "Math 6 Honors" tab and check out the tutorial videos I posted regarding the Organized Binder and how to access the class eBook.  I have also posted the agenda for next week.

See you Monday Students,

Mrs. Bird

Signing up for Enrichment classes

Link to sign up for Enrichment:

http://goo.gl/forms/dv5fG76RPv

Welcome Back!

Here are the supplies you will need for 6th grade math and science class this school year.

6th Grade Math & Science Supply List 2014-2015
_____ One – 1 ½ inch (EXACTLY) Three Ring Binder 
***Do not purchase a larger binder - please keep it simple!!!
_____ Binder Paper, college rule
_____ Graph paper
_____ Basic colored pencil set
_____ Basic colored marker set
_____ 4 different colored highlighters 
_____ Scissors 
_____Rubber ruler
_____ Glue Stick
_____ Page Protectors and/or Reinforcement Labels (for torn binder pages)
_____2 dry erase markers (any colors except yellow)
_____Standard Calculator with square root button √