Update

Greetings!

This week in Math students were introduced to multiplying fractions by both whole numbers and fractions. Students created area models and shaded the length and width horizontally and vertically to show a co-shaded region that represented the product. Everything ties together when students apply the skill of dividing out common factors to simplify the factors and multiply right to lowest terms. In a warm-up check-up students had to multiply 75/99 by 20/125 by 33/80 to get an answer of 1/20. Students could utilize the commutative property to rearrange the denominators to create corridors of fractions like 75/125 which are divisible by 25, 33/99 which are divisible by 33, and 20/80 which is divisible by 20. As a class we solved some word problems using modeling of bar diagrams to discover how many candies were sold before a holiday 5/8 of 400, on the holiday 1/5 of what was left, and how many were left over to be claimed as losses in a business.

This week in Science students read and responded in writing with 2-3 main takeaways from printed articles on sciencedaily.com. The articles are written for adults. The purpose is to challenge each reader to open their eyes to new vocabulary and discover what scientists/astronomers are wondering/discovering in the present moment. Articles included a look into the sun's future, a new brain chip, the first crayon, how neanderthals discovered glue, a million billion suns, etc. All 7 articles had catchy titles designed to hook you in with curiosity. I shared with each class the importance of using technology as an educational tool to learn new things whether it be in science, history, and anything else for that nature. It is a far better use of time than going on social media to read about what other people are doing. I asked what are as students doing to use your time properly?

We are onto Rocks and Minerals! Believe it or not, it is a fun unit!

Thanks,

Chris