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.