Think Through Math

Great new resource!  Especially as we approach STAAR.  This program will assess your student's mastery of various math skills.  Once the assessment is complete, it will create lessons and practice to ensure mastery.  To make it exciting the students earn points to purchase prizes.

Visit: http://lms.thinkthroughmath.com/students/sign_in

To login-  User ID: (lunch#)arl
              Password: (lunch#)tx

Be the Teacher - New type of Homework

Starting today on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be sending a new type of homework home.  The students will be given and example of a word problem that has been solved INCORRECTLY.  The students will need to A) solve it correctly, B) identify the error the original students made, and C) write a letter to the teacher explaining what the original student did incorrectly and how they could fix the error.

This new type of homework will get the students to think more critically about a word problems.  If they can identify errors in other's work, they will find it in their own work as well. 

Tomorrow, I will post a picture of a completed assignment so you can see how well it works.

Enjoy! 

If you would like to get a copy of tonight's homework click here: HW: 1/29/13

Decimal Assessment Tuesday 1/29/13

We will be assessing our understanding of decimal place value, comparing and ordering, adding and subtracting, and rounding! 

Here is the link to the website we practiced in class today.  This has many resources that covers all of these topics. Decimal Review Site

Adding, Subtracting, and Rounding Decimals

To conclude our unit on decimals, we discussed how to add, subtract, and round them.  The biggest things to remember are:
1) Always line up the numbers by their place value and the decimal.
2) Use place holders "0's" to fill in where needed.  (Always at to the end, NEVER move a number away or closer to the decimal to add a zero!)

When we started discussing adding and subtracting decimals, I found this power point and changed it to match the needs of our classroom. Adding and Subtracting Decimals

Once we practiced with our elbow partners we then divided the class into two groups and played Decimal Jeopardy.  This can be found here: Decimal Jeopardy

Hanging Out in Decimal Order

Comparing and Ordering Decimals

After our adventure in singing the Beverly Hillbilly song we moved on to comparing and ordering decimals.  This lesson was introduced by using this power point I found online, and changed a little to meet our class needs.  Compare and Order Decimals powerpoint 

After reviewing the power point and practicing on our white boards, I then gave each student a tiny t-shirt (t-shirt) and had them draw a number out of basket.  They then wrote their number on the middle of the t-shirt, colored it, and cut it out.  At their table groups the students compared and ordered them based on the instructions I gave.  Finally, the entire class ordered their t-shirts at the back of the classroom.  As you can imagine it got more difficult as the day went on.  By 4th and 5th period, they were trying to order their numbers (that went through the thousandths place) in with over 70 shirts.

Here is our finished product: 

Close up to show the differentiation:

Homework 1-24-13

Comparing and Ordering Decimals

If you are looking for tonight's homework look below.

If you are in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd period, here you go! Comparing and Ordering Decimals worksheet

If you are in 4th or 5th period, here you go! Comparing and Ordering Decimals worksheet

Keep and eye out for our Laundry Line of decimals coming soon!

Tuesday night -1/22/13 Homework

Homework is available here if you misplaced it or need a copy due to being absent:01/22/13 homework

DON'T FORGET!!!

  

Perimeter of a square = S+S+S+S 

Perimeter of a rectangle = (L)x2 + (W)x2

Area = L x W

Decimal Place Value and the Beverly Hillbillies

Today's lesson started by Mrs. Osten testing out her ability to compete on America's Got Talent.  I sang to the class.  I think overwhelmingly, they would all agree...I DO NOT have talent.  They did enjoy the song and they were all able to infer who/what the song was about.  Here is the tune and the words.


The Tune is to "The Hillbillies" theme song.  You can hear it here:
http://www.ajsmidi.com/allsongs_1/bevrlyh.html

Let me tell you a story bout a little bitty dot.
He got so bored that he thought he would rot.
So he put on his sneakers and his tiny head band,
And he ran, and he ran through number land.

He found a number that was lost and afraid. 
He bounced along the line till his day was made. 
He hopped left and right to the number’s delight. 
He hopped and he hopped till he was out of sight.

When he hops to the right he makes the number feel small. 
When he goes to the left it feels big and tall.
He’s a tiny little dot but has power in his hand...
as he runs and he runs through number land.


Can you guess who/what the song is about? You got it - DECIMAL!


Now, we defined a decimal number and how it is said. The decimal's name is "And". We went on to say that if you called the decimal by "Point" or "Dot" you were calling him a bad word. (Hopefully this will make the correct name stick!)

Next, we went on to identify how a decimal is identified within a place value chart. I explained to the students that math is always based on patterns. Using the foldable shown at the beginning of this post, I showed the students how the decimal is like the "opposite" of the "O" in the ones place, then how the TENTHS place is the opposite of the tens place and so on with the rest of decimal place values through the HUNDREDTHS or THOUSANDTHS.

Finally, we practice reading and writing various examples of decimal numbers. While reading and writing the numbers we discussed that we read the whole number (the numbers to the left of the decimal, just as we did in the past). Then we said, "and", when we saw the decimal. And finally, read the entire number that was to the right of the decimal followed by the name of the place value the last digit fell in.

You know there was so much more to our discussion of decimals and numbers today. but here is a great start to get your brain jump started.

I hope this post will help you!


Love,
Mrs. Osten    

We "Mustache" You to Solve our Word Problems

Ok, so every month we show our higher level thinking skills by taking a recently mastered concept and writing our own word problems.  This month, you guessed it, we wrote about perimeter and area.  I have to say how impressed I was with the students.  They came up with some remarkable multi-step, working backwards, two answer word problems.

Here is what the final product looked like.

If you would like the mustache templates look here: mustaches

NO HOMEWORK 1/15/13

NO MATH HOMEWORK - Due to Curriculum Assessment Testing tomorrow!

Types of Triangles

I promised my 2nd period class I would post the video I used as a "hook" to get the students interested in my lesson for the day.  Here it is.  Enjoy!

Once we watched this video, we spent two days talking about triangles classified by their sides and by their angles. 

Transformations and Tessellations

This post is about a week after we completed the assignment, but I promised I would post it.  Right before the winter break, we discussed transformations, the way a shape can move.  This was exciting because we increased the rigor of our math vocabulary from flip, slide, and turn to translation, rotation, and reflection. 

Once I was sure the students understood how the shapes moved, I introduced tessellations. 

We created our "tracers" out of index cards, chose what transformation we wanted to show and the creative, higher level thinking began!  

Here are some of our finished products.

I you would like the instructions on how to make a template or tracer for the different types of transformations, please email me.

Enjoy!

Put-In Cups, Perimeter/Area, and SORE thumbs!

Wow, what an awesome day!  After spending the week on learning about perimeter and area.  We ended our lessons by completing a project that was fun, helped the PTA, and tied it all together perfectly!

We started the planning of the "put-in cups" by working in teams to determine how to create a shape when given the perimeter and area of an irregular polygon (letters).  We used the custom design "fence" looking template for the students to plan on, and I used the put-in-cups alphabet to modify letters and know how it should look exactly. (The templates are downloadable on this site: https://www.putincups.com/shop/help.html

Now, the hard part was figuring out how 5 classes would complete  a project that built upon one another.  I divided the letters "BUTLER BRONCOS" among the classes.  The first class had to finish at least the outline in order for the next class to start.

If you want to know what letters your child did here is the breakdown:
1st period - BU
2nd period - TL
3rd period - ER - B
4th period - RON
5th period - COS

I am absolutely impressed with the Butler students. They did an amazing job planning, discussing, and working together to plan and implement this project. 

Perimeter and Area Introduction

This catchy tune was a hit in introducing Area and reviewing Perimeter.  The kids were singing it all day.  I am so excited for our wrap up project involving the fence off of Rocky Canyon Dr. and "cups".  Keep an eye out for pictures and more information!

Xtramath.com Homework

ALL STUDENTS ARE NOW IN THE MULTIPLICATION/DIVISION MODULE!!

FYI - Don't forget to log in to xtramath.com 4 different days a week.  You must complete an entire session to get credit. 

I love this site because parents can go in and see how their child is progressing along in mastering basic math facts.

Homework grade for the week.  Mondays - Sundays:
4 logins = 100
3 logins = 75
2 logins = 50
1 login = 25
zero logins = 0

Remember time is given before school, during school, and after school if access is not available at home.

January Family Fun/Extra Credit Math Calendar

Welcome to my new blog!  I am super excited to share my enthusiasm for math with other teachers.  Let's start with my monthly math family fun/extra credit calendars.  Enjoy. 

Of course this is formatted for my classroom specifically, but feel free to edit and adapt as your own.