MATH NIGHT Monday 12/3 6:30pm to 8pm

Come to the May Watts Math Night!!
It is still not too late!

When: Monday, December 3rd 6:30-8:00pm (grades 3, 4, and 5)

Where: May Watts

What: Lots of sports and game themed MATH activities. Lots for you to participate in.

Who: May Watts families. Registration as walk-ins at the door is welcome. OR...just bring back the form your child brought home last week.

Why: To experience the fun in math!

Video Lesson and Quiz Ready 11/22

Hi 5V Accel Math Families,

How are you? I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one and that the kids are relaxing and having fun. We all deserve it.

The video lesson titled: "REVIEW of discounts and operational thinking" has been uploaded to Edline. Please tell your child and kindly request from my side that they watch the video prior to class on Monday. If your family is busy and can not, I understand.

Please also remind your child that there is a mini 4 question survey/quiz to take. About half the class has taken the quiz already.  As a reminder, here is how to access the video and the survey/quiz:

After logging onto Edline and going to Mr. Vaid's class:

Video: Right side of screen is the content section: math lessons and resources>Unit 2>Video Lessons>REVIEW of discounts and operational thinking

Survey/Quiz: Right side of screen is the content section: math lessons and resources>Unit 2>Assessment for Learning>Math Operations Check


Thanks so much. We are on the cutting edge here and beginning to make learning more personal and meaningful for our students.

Mr. Vaid

Flipped Instruction Going Well; Will Continue: Update 11/26-11/30

Nearly all students this week participated in flipped instruction! 

Before I detail the week ahead, I wanted to let you know that the flipped instruction model in our math class is going very well. In a few moments I will elaborate on flipped instruction so you have a little more knowledge about it. I'll speak in simple terms and avoid teacher jargon. Anyway, I plan to increase the use of this model because the students are responding well to it.

A few things about flipped instruction:

What it is: 

• The nature of the name implies that what is typically done at home (homework and studying) can be done at school, and what is typically done at school (formal lesson and assessment) can be done at home. 

• Flipped instruction model allows for each student to work at a pace that is more conducive to his/her learning approach, style, and ability. 

• Flipped instruction allows for students to pre-learn or build background on a concept prior to coming to class and either beginning work or having the teacher re-teach the concept. 

• Flipped instruction provides more opportunities for a teacher to assess a student on an ongoing basis, and it allows a student to receive the proper type of instruction for that day's content; this could be re-teaching, enrichment, more one-on-one instruction, and small group instruction. 

• At its heart, when done well, flipped instruction promotes ongoing assessment and personalized instruction for each child, thus giving him/her the best context for learning, reflecting upon learning, and having opportunities for higher level enrichment. 

What is is NOT: 

• Flipped instruction is not "go home, watch a lesson, come to school the next day, and do work." It appears that on a very basic level this is what flipped instruction is, but trust me, being a teacher, there is a whole lot more to it; at its heart: ongoing assessment and personalized instruction. 

• Students learning solely on their own. While flipped instruction has a student watch an online video/tutorial or webcast initially at home, this is really what I like to call level one instruction. The next day in class, I make it a point to visit with each student and do follow up work and re-teaching. Sometimes that re-teaching is extensive (for a child whose assessment the nigh before shows me he/she really doesn't get it, and sometimes that re-teaching is a follow up with questioning. Sometimes the re-teaching really is enriching your child and posing more challenges, aka as enrichment. 

What are we Learning or re-learning this week before Friday's Test? 

• Skills and strategies for computation. 
• Context for computation (balancing our checkbooks)
• Higher level computation (calculating sales tax and discounts) 
• Exponential notation 
• Context for applying operations in word problems (Problem solving work) 
• How to better evaluate our math strengths and weaknesses (reflection) 

Okay, so maybe the test will be the following Monday or Tuesday. I will keep you posted. There is one standard left for us to introduce and that is: 

Standards:

5.NB.T2: Explain patterns in the number of zeroes of the product when multiplying by powers of 10. 

6.EE.1 Write and evaluate numerical expressions involving whole-number exponents. 

Buying a Car and Buying a House. Update: 11/12-11/16

We rely on strategy as opposed to guesswork. 

Greetings 5V Math Families!

Buying a car involves every basic computational component: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Last week, the kids began the purchase process and quickly found that after calculating sales tax and interest, buying a car is not as easy and simple as it appears.

Recap of standards addressed last week: 

-Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation. (6.NS.3)

-Fluently divid multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm. (6.NS.2)

-Interpret and compute quotients of fractions and solve word problems. (6.NS.1)


This week's standards focus: 

-Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation. (6.NS.3)

-Fluently divid multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm. (6.NS.2)

-Explain patterns in the numbers of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by owes of 10, and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. use whole-number exponents to denote powers of 10. (5.NBT.2)

Transfer of Knowledge: 

-Continue process of buying a car.

-Calculating sales tax

-Calculating interest

-Determining monthly payment

-Debiting amounts from checkbook

-Crediting checking account

-Debiting and crediting savings account

-Begin purchase inquiry into a home

-Space exploration and distance

Review of Mathematical Practices: 

We try to incorporate each of these practices during the math week. 

Let's go Shopping! Update: 10/29-11/2

Risk taking can pay off...in time. 

I'm sure by now the kids have told you about their careers and their yearly income. Did they tell you about their net salary and how their tax bracket taxed 10-15-25% of portions of their income? We had a great time in math last week and through our authentic context and theme we are able to apply many of the content that the standards for unit 2 call for students to learn. Please refer to the standards sheet I emailed last week.

Last week we:

* Started our careers and found out our annual income.
* Found percentages of whole numbers to calculate our income tax.
* Divided to determine our monthly pay as well as payday amount.
* Went out to eat to practice addition and multiplying by decimals to calculate sales tax.
* Balanced our checkbooks to make debits and practice subtraction.

This week the standards call for more application of content including:

* Addition of numbers with decimals
* Subtraction of numbers with decimals.
* Multiplication of numbers with decimals
* Division
* Understanding place value.
* Estimating

Some activities we will do to apply the content from the standards:

* Grocery shopping
* General shopping
* Calculating sales tax
* Balancing our checkbooks

On Halloween, the 5th grade kids will stay in their homerooms to do a fun estimation activity inspired from our read aloud Because of Mr. Terupt and they will try to determine how many blades of grass our soccer field has!

Taxes, Budgets, and Bills Oh My! Update: 10/22-10/26

Good afternoon 5V Math families. The students are beginning unit 2 (Computation of whole numbers and decimals) this Monday. With that said, we are weaving an ambitious theme as part of the context that will carry the lessons.

"Ambition is the last refuge of the failure"-Oscar Wilde (Ironic Twist?)

When we study the concepts from the common core standards and use our math practices, we will apply the skills in a meaningful context of finance. Each child will be given an occupation and with that a corresponding yearly income. They will be responsible for calculating tax on income, sales tax on imaginary grocery shopping they do, and use their earning to manage a monthly budget that will account for utilities and other purchases.

Within the process I plan to give them some background on how to buy a home and a car. I'm no financial expert, let's get that straight, and I know the tax bracket workings can be complicated, but my goal is for the student to get practice applying the computation skills with relevance to everyday life. We won't (nor can/should we) get into specifics, but I think the kids will enjoy the practice of balancing a checkbook register (or something in that form), learning about down payments, calculating sales tax, and car shopping among others.

Like I said, the skills will be weaved through this context. Assessments will be made on executing the skill itself as well as application of the skill in the age appropriate format. In other words, no one will be penalized if they can't balance their checkbook. But I will look for meaningful ways to assess their ability to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and use exponents. Please refer to the email about the standards and learning outcomes I sent on Friday!

Here is a tentative schedule for this week's skill practice:

Monday: Understanding percents,  multiplying decimals, and subtracting (decimals too)
Tuesday: Understanding percents,  multiplying decimals, subtracting, and  dividing (decimals)
Wednesday: adding, subtracting, dividing (with decimals too)
Thursday: Small groups 
Friday: TBD

Winding Down Unit 1: Update 10/8-10/12

Problem Solved? 

Hi 5V Math Families,

How are you? We are ending Unit 1 this week and our class will take its first test (The Unit 1 test) sometime next week on Tuesday. I am hoping by the end of the week, I can have some resources on the Edline Learning Portal for your students to study. We are going to use this Friday and the following Monday to study together. I am going to teach the students an effective way or two to study for math tests in general.

I will also be attempting to get your email addresses this week. A lot of students are in my homeroom and thus I have their contacts, but some are not so I will make that attempt, or I will simply look up your information on the student services system we have in place. I will be in touch with you soon.

Here is what we are up to this week:

Monday 10/8: No School: Columbus Day 

Tuesday 10/9: We will learn how to collect data by learning to make a visual organizer for the data. We are going to eventually make circle/pie graphs on Wednesday with data we collect about the kinds of cars May Watts' staff drives. 

Wednesday 10/10: Today we will create circle graphs and visually represent the data we collected about the kinds of cars (colors, American, non-American, Sedan, non-Sedan) cars May Watts' staff drives. Kids will learn how to use the percent circle and construct circle graphs. Kids will also try to interpret the data and ask themselves what conclusions they can draw from it. I will attempt to meet with small groups to reinforce and re-teach previously taught concepts. 

Thursday 10/11: Problem Solving and Small Group Day: The kids will be posed with a challenging math problem to solve. We will study a 5 step strategy when attacking challenging word/story problems. We always study strategies when we problem solve. Students will be asked to show how they solved the problem and why they took the steps they did. I will meet with small groups to reinforce and re-teach a variety of concepts. 

Friday 9/28: Today we will go to the computer lab and I will help the kids learn to better navigate the Edline learning portal. At the same time, we will study a strategy for studying for math tests. Students will create a mock test to anticipate problems and practice concepts. 

Get Ready to Exercise!: Update 9/24-9-28

Maybe we will incorporate a study of football with math this year!

Hi 5V Math Families!

We've been busy counting marbles, making ice tea, standing on one foot, and now we're going to do some exercise. Our class loves to use authentic data to visually represent and then analyze. The kids are improving their scientist capabilities by interpreting data in a more mature fashion.

Here is what we are up to this week:

Monday 9/24: W will finish constructing box and whisker plots for school wide marble data and we will analyze the data by making interpretations. 

Tuesday 9/25: Ice Tea Day: We are going to use problem solving decision making strategies based on studying rate and needs analysis to purchase the amount of supplies at varying costs for the ice tea business. The kids will also establish a price for the drink based on the cost to produce. Eventually, we are going to visually represent the data as per our standards this unit! 

Wednesday 9/26: Line Graphs! We are going to study the relationship between rest time and pulse rate! So, let's see if those heart rates rise with less and less rest between exercise. 

Thursday 9/27: Small Group Day: I have some friends to see. Based on the quizzes, I am going to help our math friends with long division, long multiplication, and mean absolute deviation! The kids made awesome histograms by the way! 

Friday 9/28: Small Group Day 2 and finish Ice Tea Day work from Tuesday! 

Please ask your child about the Edline learning portal. We are going to do online learning through it. There are resources there for your child to use in order to learn and study. I will also post some HW this week on Edline. Kids will also have math discussions this week on Edline. 

Visual Representations and Ice Tea: Update 9/17-9/21

Hey 5V Math Families,

Here is what we are up to in math class this week:

Everyone is so excited to get to math class! 

Monday: We will study what histograms really reveal, how to read data from a histogram and we will learn how to create our own histograms with data we have collected. We have information about how many marbles each May Watts classroom has earned thus far.

Tuesday: We will have a day of small group lessons. I will use information to enrich and/or re-teach lessons and concepts to select children. The students will continue to finish their histograms and learning of why we use histograms.

Wednesday: We will learn how data is viewed and revealed through a box plot. We will begin learning what lower quartile and upper quartile means in a set of data. There is an image resource for the box plot HW on Edline. 

Thursday: We will learn how to construct our own box plots. We will use data collected from the "May Watts Classroom Marble Count" to reveal data in our box plots.

Friday: Ice Tea Day! The students will study rates and determine the most economic price to buy their ice tea supplies at. In addition, the students will set a sales price for the sale of their ice tea, once they calculate the production price for making it.

Data, Statistics, and Plots: Update 9/10-9/14

Last week's math classes were great! The kids studied measures of center, measures of variability, how to represent data on a dot plot and they spent time problem solving.

Alert: Please tell your child not to go forth with the mean absolute deviation homework I assigned.  If they already have that's fine but I am going to give them some slightly different work. 

Here's what's on tap for this week:

Monday: The kids are going to get an introduction to Blackboard. This is an online learning portal in which students will watch video lessons at home or in school. They have usernames and passwords and will be expected to watch lessons at home prior to arriving at school for the day's work. The kids will review finding median with an even numbered data set and they will also review finding mean absolute deviation. I will meet with kids in small groups.

Tuesday: There's no formal math acceleration course today because of CBM testing, BUT that doesn't mean the math will stop. The kids in 5V will study math in the context of the 2012 Election. We'll be looking at our country elects its President by beginning a study of the Electoral Map.

Wednesday: We will begin our first Ice Tea Day. These Ice Tea Days are meant to apply the standards we are learning through an imaginary ice tea business. The kids will create an ice tea recipe, study how many ingredients they'd have to purchase and at what rates. They'll collect information/data about their purchasing, creation, and other ice tea businesses and plot the data. The kids will study rates, data collection, analysis, representation, and visualization through out the process.

Thursday: The kids will study histograms and differentiate them between bar graphs. They'll eventually represent authentic data from the ice tea data on histograms.

Friday: The kids will study steam and leaf plots and understand how to plot data on the steam and leaf plots. 

Welcome to the 5V Math BLOG: Update 9/5-9/7

Watch very carefully...keep watching...

Greetings 5V Math Family Students. My name is Mr. Vaid and I will be your child's math teacher this year. Math begins at 9:30am and ends at 10:30am each day, M-F of the school week. At our curriculum night, next Thursday, 9/13 (more times forthcoming) you will learn more about the Common Core Math Curriculum our School district and many other school districts across the nation are putting into place this year.

Anyway, here is a brief update on what we'll be studying this week:

Wednesday 9/5: We will learn what statistical questions are and we will differentiate between them and other types of questions. Students will also write statistical questions and interpret them.

Thursday 9/6: The students will learn how to create what's called a dot plot and they will also see the benefits of creating dot plots. In addition, we will study measures of center including mean, median, and mode, and we will study outliers. 

Friday 9/7: We will wrap up the week by studying measures of variability including range and mean absolute deviation.

For the following week, we will continue to practice problem solving strategies such as guess and check, work backwards, and draw a table. We'll study these with specific problems. In addition, we will begin our thematic ice tea project.

Math Update 4/16-4/20

HEY 5V Math Families! Here is what we're up to in math this week: 

Regular Math: The kids are going to study coefficients in algebra, how to balance equations, how to write algebraic expressions, and finally calculate for rate while making line graphs to represent data. We will incorporate a real life math activity on Friday with either rates, fuel economy again, or unit percents and shopping math. We have been working on a pizza party problem solving activity. Ask your child about it! Maybe you should take a stab at it. :)

Accel Math: The kids are going to study more proportions, ratios, and rates, but with more mental strategies and practical application. We'll try to apply what we are doing to sports, driving, and/or food. Speaking of food, we have been studying the pizza part problem solving problem. Go ahead...ask your child for the work and see if you can solve it!

Real Life Math: Each day we are applying what we study to math in daily contexts and our world-whether that's in examples or full scale activities, we are emphasizing this type of thinking more and more each day!

Math Update Week of 4/2-4/6

Welcome back 5V Math Families. I hope your spring break was nice.

Here's what we'll be up to this week in 5V Math:

Regular Math:

We are finishing up unit 8 which is review unit on fractions. We'll pick up right where we left off and study briefly review strategies for multiplying fractions and deep concepts like why products are decreased when multiplying by fractions and what it means to multiply by fractions. There will be a test next Monday or Tuesday on the concepts.

Accel Math:

We kick off unit 8 with studying proportions and rates. The first two days of this will allow students to determine who the most efficient and productive running back in the NFL was this season. They'll have to use rate and proportion strategies to solve this. We have some real neat calorie and meal math studies this week as well.

Real Life Math:

Both groups of regular and accel math will be finishing the 2012 5V Math Race Tournament. We have runners competing in the final 4 this week.

In addition, both groups are going to be outside using a strategy to determine how many blades of grass our soccer field in the back has. Yes, it's possible! Teams will develop strategies to solve this.

Finally, students in regular and accel math will study more fuel economy this week and learn how to determine fuel costs per gallon and how to calculate the price of fuel based on the fuel gauge. The kids in accel have covered some of this already but we have plenty more for them!

Math: Week of 2/27-3/2

Hey 5V Math Families! Here's what we're up to this week in math:

FLIPPED LESSONS!

What does that mean? In education, a flipped lesson is a lesson that students study and learn at home or prior to class, and then in class the kids do their work related to the lesson, with the help of the teacher. The goal is for the teacher to be able to give the proper assistance to the kids who need it and proper enrichment to those who need it as well. The kids know how to watch video lessons on Blackboard. All lessons will be posted by 6pm on the day they need to watch.

When should students watch their lessons?

Regular Math:

Monday night: Watch lessons 9-1, 9-2, and 9-3 (graphing coordinates on coordinate planes) in preparation for Tuesday's work

Tuesday night: Watch lesson 9-4 (area of regular polygons) in preparation for Wednesday's work.

Accel Math:

Monday night: Watch lesson 7-1 (General probability) in preparation for Tuesday's work.

Tuesday night: Watch lesson 7-2 (Generating random #'s in probability) for Wednesday's work.

Thursday we will do some ISAT math writing and strategy practice.

Concepts:

Regular: We're studying graphing coordinate pairs on a coordinate plane, as well as transforming images, and general math box strategies.

Accel: We're studying probability. Our new unit is about different kinds of probability understandings.

Math: Week of 2/22-2/24

Hey 5V Math Families!

We have a shortened week of school and math. Here is what the math kids will be up to in regular math and accelerated math:

Regular Math:

Unit 7 has come to a close. The kids have learned quite a bit through strategy work and math box lessons. The students are finishing up the unit by studying more strategies on how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers. They have one strategy lesson on Wednesday, followed by a video lesson review. They'll make their mock tests on Thursday and study with the video lesson. On Friday they will take the Unit 7 Test. After unit 7, the kids will make a jump to unit 9 where they will study plotting coordinate pairs on a grid, measuring volume, perimeter, and surface area.

Accel Math: Unit 6 comes to a close. It's been a great unit. The students have learned quite a bit and although some of the concepts have posed a challenge, they are learning and growing as math students. On Wednesday they will take the unit 6 test and work on a math extended response for homework. They will begin unit 7 on Thursday. Unit 7 is called "Probability and Discrete Mathematics. Their will be work with probability, tree diagrams, strategies for multiple choice tests, determining whether or not games of chance are fair games, using simulation results to estimate the chance of each possible outcome.

Math: Week of 2/6-2/10

Hi 5V Math Families!

Here is what the math kids are up to this week:

Regular math:

• We are in unit 7 and will study ambiguous number sentences, how to solve a problem with parentheses, following the order of operations, and a variety of math skills in small group. Students will review concepts they may be struggling with. We'll also write math essays. I'm also going to try to introduce the concept of fuel economy to the kids in regular math on Friday!
• Please remember to consider if you will take the accelerated math program placement test in the spring!
• There is no math test this week.

Accel math:

• We are in unit 6 and are studying concepts in number theory and analysis. It sounds real formal doesn't it? Well, we're studying how to read and write number sentences, open sentences, and pre-algebra concepts with pan balances. We're also studying concepts from our math boxes. We're also writing math essays.
• On Thursday or Friday, I will try to meet with the accel students and analyze their decisions on what they think is the most fuel efficient car is from what we've studied.
• There is no math test this week

Math (Week of 1/23-1/27)

Here is what the math children will be up this week:
(All activities and days are subject to change)

Regular Math:

• Monday involves some collaborative game play from our math curriculum. I will see kids in small groups to go over concepts.
• Tuesday will be fun as the kids game plan and prep for their Wednesday math test. They are pros at self assessing and studying at this point. They'll make their anticipatory mock tests as well.
• Wednesday is the chapter 6 test. They'll be tested on fraction concepts including computation and comparision as well as interpreting graphs.
• Thursday the kids in regular math will take the unit 9 pre-test. Yes we skip units 7 and 8 for the time being and jump to unit 9.
• Friday-Friday is our small group lesson day. I may start the first unit 9 lesson with the kids. I may have time to pull them their real life math lesson Friday or next Monday regarding fuel economy and gas mileage.

Accel Math

• Monday is a small group Monday. I found the unit 4 tests! I'll be seeing a lot of kids in small groups to review concepts that they were not so secure with on the unit 4 tests.
• Tuesday the kids will work on lesson 6-1 reciprocals from their journals and they will also have a real life math lesson from me involving gas mileage.
• Wednesday the math kids will continue some work from their curriculum including work on lesson 6-2 fraction division and they will take a stab at figuring out how many miles they can drive on one tank of gas for their own car and work out some other real life concepts based on this.
• Thursday the kids will work on lesson 6-3-positive and negative concepts and computation of numbers.
• Friday is small group Friday with EDM games and study time.
  

Welcome to the 5V Math Blog

Hello 5V Math Parents!

How are you? Welcome to the 5V Math Blog. It's about time I set this up. I've been meaning to since October. Please check this blog weekly or if I email you and let you know that there is a blog update.

The purpose of this blog is to keep your more informed on the happenings of our 5V Math Class.

Thanks,

Mr. Vaid