Summer Learning

I wanted to share with you an online learning opportunity in math this summer.  Tenmarks offers a free program that you can sign up for and it will provide you with an assessment to better meet your student's needs.  Although I know it can be challenging to keep up with learning over the summer, it is important to prevent any loss of learning.  I also encourage you to continue working on multiplication facts if your student is still learning them.  It is crucial that they know them as they enter 6th grade.  Ixl is another online program that you can use although I am less familiar with this program.

I also want to thank you for your support this past year.  I had an amazing experience my first year at Crossett Brook and I appreciate the opportunity to work with your children this past year.  I wish you and your family a wonderful summer.

Thanks,
Ms. Anderman

SBAC Testing this week

This week all Wizards students will be taking the Smarter Balanced Assessments.  Due to our testing schedule, students will have math on Thursday and Friday this week and will not have any math homework. 

May Update

We recently wrapped up our work with decimals with both addition and subtraction.  This week we began How Many People?  How many Teams?.  This unit is our second this year that focuses on multiplication and division.  Students will be learning how to create equivalent expressions in multiplication and division.  We will continue to work on finding efficient strategies for multiplying and dividing large numbers.  Please check out the family letter for more details.

Decimals on Grids and Number Lines

We wrapped up our geometry unit on Wednesday and have now begun our study called Decimals on Grids and Number Lines.  You can read an overview of this unit in the parent letter.  Over the next month, students will be developing an understanding of the relationships among fractions and decimals by building on what they learned during our recent study of fractions.  We begin this unit with practice reading, writing, and interpreting decimal fractions to the thousandths.  You can reinforce this work at home by making real life connections.  We see decimals everyday when talking about money, measuring rain/snowfall amounts, reading car odometers, or looking at race results or batting averages for example.  Encourage your child to read these decimals while using the words tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.  We will quickly move into ordering decimals as we use our understanding of place value to determine the magnitude of fractions.  You can read more about the unit of the link to the parent letter above.

Math Update

We have just finished an in-depth unit on fractions.  The unit began with comparing fractions and then moved to operations with fractions and mixed numbers.  The main focus of multiplication and division with fractions was using models to develop conceptual understanding.  Many of us remember that we were taught the traditional algorithm for multiplication and division with fractions.  Research shows that when students learn procedures without conceptual understanding they often forget the procedures.  In addition, students who simply learn mathematical procedures often cannot problem solve when presented with a new situation.  If the procedure doesn't fit, they don't know what to do.  Models are an excellent tool for developing conceptual understanding and provide students a resource to use when they encounter an unfamiliar problem.  As a content area in 5th grade, the area of fractions is a main focal point over the course of the year, and creates the underpinning for many topics in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

This past Tuesday, we began a unit on two dimensional geometry. Students will be identifying attributes of quadrilaterals and triangles.  In addition, they will be using known angle sizes to determine the size of other angles.  This will be a short unit and should be finished in the next 10 days.

You may have noticed that over the past couple of weeks students have been bringing home a weekly computation worksheet.  It is crucial for students to continue to practice past concepts they have learned.  Every other week students will be assigned computation work.  They will be expected to complete half by Wednesday and the other half by Friday.  In addition, by Friday, I will expect that they check their answers.  Answers will be posted in my room.  The following week students will submit corrected responses.  Student who have few corrections will have an extension assignment based on some of the problems in the computation sheet. 

I look forward to seeing you all at next week's conferences.  If you have not signed up, there are still more spaces available.  You can call the office or email a Wizard's teacher to help you sign up. 

Thanks for your continued support!

Operations with Fractions and Upcoming Absence

We are well into our work in operations with fractions.  We have spent our time since the holidays adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers.  The big conceptual understanding is that students need to be working with "same size pieces".  For example, a student is adding 1/2 + 1/4.  They need to be able to write an equivalent expression using common denominators or "same size pieces" to figure out that the answer is 3/4.  Students must be able to rename 1/2 as 2/4.  We extended this understanding to adding fractions with multiples in the denominator such as 3/4 + 5/8.    Most students have now moved to using common multiples to solve problems where the denominators are not multiples of one another such as 7/8 + 5/6.  We also have worked with subtraction.  Students are using two strategies.  You might notice on homework that some students add up and others take away while still looking for common denominators.  In the problem 1 1/4 - 1/2 some students may think of it as "what number added to 1/2 is equal to 1 1/4?".  Other students will use the more traditional thinking of "taking away" 1/2 from 1 1/4.  Last week we began multiplication of fractions by a whole number.  More about multiplication and division later.  You will continue to see homework asking students to practice what they have learned with fractions.  You can help your student by asking them to prove their thinking to you.

I also wanted to inform you of my absence this week.  Last January when I was in another job situation, my family planned a trip this week.  I will be out the next 4 1/2 days.  I am fortunate that our class will have the same substitute teacher as they had for Mrs. Houston since Alex returns Monday.  I was able to meet with my substitute on Friday to review my plans.  In addition, Kathryn Delay, our math interventionist, will be assisting in teaching Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Thursday, students will be reviewing their work with adding and subtracting fractions.  Friday will be the unit assessment.  I will not be reachable by email during this week.  There will be homework both Monday and Wednesday.

Fractions

We are well into our big unit on fractions.  Your student will be studying fractions for the next month at least.  We have begun our unit looking at different strategies for comparing fractions.  Your student should be able to compare a fraction to the benchmarks 0, 1/2, and 1 as a way of ordering fractions in a set.  For example, we ask which fraction is greater, 5/6 or 4/5?  In this problem, your student should recognize that both fractions are a unit from 1 whole.  5/6 is 1/6 from 1 and 4/5 is 1/5 from 1.  Using that information, students can use a model or equations to PROVE that since 1/6 is a shorter distance to 1 that 5/6 is the greater fraction.  Another example would be to look at 5/8 and 7/12.  Students should recognize that both fractions are a unit over 1/2.  Next they would determine that 5/8 is 1/8 over and 7/12 is 1/12 over.  Again, students would use a model or equations to PROVE which fraction is greater.  Look in your student's binder to see some of the work they have been accomplishing despite holidays and snow days!

Because we are at the beginning of the unit, students have had fewer homework assignments since they are not ready to practice this work independently at home.  When this is the case, I will try to assign more review assignments for practice of concepts students have learned this year.