- They have played an improper fraction dice game in pairs
- They have been representing different fractions with pattern blocks
- They have tried online activities that provide visual examples of fractions
- They have created their own fraction word problems using real-life examples
We will complete our unit on fractions this week. The students have been working hard on a variety of activities to solidify and deepen their understanding of this important topic: Our next math unit will build on the foundation we have created by studying fractions. We will be learning about ratio and percent, which are found in Chapter 6 of the textbook. I love teaching this unit because we can explore so many real-life connections. Students will learn how to calculate tax, tip, sale prices, test scores, and so much more. We will investigate ratios in the animal kingdom, and use a knowledge of equivalent ratios to solve word problems. We will even create some art to represent different ratios!
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Our new science unit is quite electrifying! Students are learning about the structure of atoms and how the movement of electrons leads to static and current electricity. So far the students have come up with many thoughtful questions, connections, and ideas as we explore static electricity. There will be a brief quiz about the structure of atoms and the rules of static electricity next Tuesday, January 20th. This information is found in section 4.1 and 4.2 of the science textbook.
If your son or daughter is talking about electricity at home, here is a short video clip they can watch. It's got some serious sparks! I hope you all had a relaxing winter break with your families. I was so excited to see the students yesterday and to hear about all of their adventures over the past two weeks! I wanted to share a couple of pictures from the final day of school before the break. The students had the opportunity to explore structures and surface tension by building 3-D cubes and then dipping them into a special soap solution. They were amazed to see different kinds of bubbles and shapes that formed inside of their cubes throughout the experiment. _______________________________________________________________________________________ As for math, we have already jumped into our new unit covering fractions. Yesterday we reviewed how to reduce fractions to lowest terms/simplest form. Today we started to explore improper fractions by using a common everyday example: eggs! Students used standard one-dozen egg cartons to determine the fractions for 3, 6, or 8 eggs, and then we tried something new. What if you had 14 eggs? 19 eggs? Or 30 eggs? Through hands-on exploration and by drawing sketches, students started to understand new ways to write fractions that have a value greater than one. Over the next two weeks we will practice converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice-versa. We will also continue to practice reducing all of our answers to simplest form. Finally we will solve real life problems using fractions and play some games to reinforce these skills. This material is found in Chapter 7 of the math textbook. There will be a test about this topic sometime during the week of January 19th-23rd.
As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to a successful second term working with your children! It's hard to believe that the final week of school before the winter break is already here! We have so many exciting events happening at school this week: music in the halls, the Hanukkah concert, a Yachad assembly, and some fun math and science activities too! Of course, there will be no math or science homework given over the winter break. However, some grade six students are still keen to practice their times tables. Last week, the students in 6B and 6A found some great websites that allow them to practice these skills in a fun way. Many students were working really hard to increase their score or try more challenging problems. It was wonderful to see their motivation! Here are three websites that could help your child practice their times tables for 5-10 minutes any time they have access to the internet. This website is the simplest. Students have one minute to solve as many basic facts as they can. I encourage students to try again to beat their previous score! This website has a lot of options. Students can choose to practice multiplication, division, addition or subtraction. They can choose how difficult the questions will be and how much time they have to complete them. It's very customizable! Math Magician is great for targeted practice of a certain fact family. You can choose to work on your 8 times tables for one activity, then try the 6's, or even have a mix. ![]() I hope you and your family have a wonderful and restful winter break and I look forward to seeing all the students back at school for an exciting 2015! Exciting things have been happening in grade six over the past several days. In science, students are hard at work creating dichotomous key classification systems to categorize 16 imaginary aliens. This is a fun application of classification skills that we have been learning about in our unit on biodiversity. Students have to work extremely carefully to split up the aliens, always using two different options each time. Different groups have decided to divide the aliens in unique ways, and it is interesting to see their creative ideas! ![]() In math, we are continuing our graphing unit. Last Friday, the students collected their own data to graph by performing an experiment. Working as a team, they had to try to get as many pennies as possible into a small container. The catch? They had to carry the pennies between their knees! It was a fun way to collect data that could be displayed in a line graph. One final note. Although we have been working on these activities in December, the marks for the dichotomous keys and the math graphing activities will be part of term two report cards.
It's hard to believe that December is already here! With the winter break fast approaching, we are going to squeeze in one more fun math unit over the next couple of weeks. We will be studying graphing, which is covered in Chapter 4 of the math textbook.
On Thursday, students learned how to read and plot ordered pairs on a co-ordinate grid. By accurately plotting around 30 co-ordinates in the correct order, they were able to make beautiful and unique pictures! This week we will investigate line graphs and bar graphs and when we should use each type to present data. We will collect data through questionnaires, databases on the internet, and by performing an experiment. We will ensure that we include all the accurate features of line graphs, such as titles, labels, and an appropriate scale. Finally, we will interpret line graphs to gather information and make inferences. If you notice any graphs in the newspaper, on the internet, or on TV, they could be a great starting point for a discussion of data collection with your son or daughter! I really enjoyed meeting and talking about goals with you and your children last week! I think it was a very productive and useful endeavour, and I look forward to checking in as the goals are achieved throughout the year. Today the students are handing in their animal adaptation projects. They worked extremely hard in class and at home to research an animal and then decide what adaptations might develop if that animal moved to a completely new biome. Here are a few examples of the worked they produced: I wanted to let you know that we will be having the last math test of Term 1 next week on Friday, November 28th. The test will cover information about several different topics all covered in Chapter 3 of the math textbook.
As with previous tests, there will be some time in class next week to work on the Chapter 3 review from the textbook. I also gave out an extra practice worksheet to interested students on Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to seeing most of you on Thursday and Friday!
Last week, we continued our study of animal adaptations by completing a hands-on, inquiry-based lab aptly titled "Picky Eaters." The students explored how different tools such as clothespins and tongs (which represented birds' beaks) could pick up different food items representing a wild bird's diet (the gummy worm was standing in for the real deal). By the end of the session, they realized that certain beaks are adapted to be able to eat specific types of food, and this helps birds survive by reducing competition for food between species.
This week students are starting a short research project. They have chosen an animal and will research the adaptations it has in its current biome. Then they get to use their imaginations and move the animal to a completely new environment. Using details from animals that currently live in the new biome, they will describe what adaptations might develop in their animal after the move. I can't wait to see all of their wonderful ideas! I also wanted to let you know that the students will have a brief science quiz (the same length as the last one) next Wednesday, November 19. It will be about information in Chapter 2 of the science textbook. The students should be able to recall information about the 11 biomes, and they should also know key vocabulary words about adaptations. I look forward to meeting with you and your child at the goal-setting conferences next week! ![]() Grade 6 students are already diving into a new math unit about number relationships. On Friday, we started to learn about factors, and today we found multiples of numbers using a hundreds chart as a helpful tool (see an example on the right). Throughout this unit, students will learn how to create factor rainbows and trees, how to identify prime and composite numbers, what integers are, and how to solve complex equations using the order of operations. We will also apply many of these new skills to word problems and real life scenarios. If you want to practice with your son or daughter at home, accompanying information can be found in Chapter 3 of the textbook. As well, here are a couple of fun websites with factor and multiple activities: http://www.mathplayground.com/factortrees.html http://www.quia.com/cb/8436.html The colourful factor rainbows we made on Friday are helping to keep our classroom bright and cheerful!
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AuthorMs. Ballard is the grade six math and science teacher at VTT. Archives
June 2015
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