Mental Math, BEDMAS and Timelines!

We have been busy lately in our class! First we studied some mental math strategies to assist us in performing operations quickly in our heads. Click the link below to see the strategies that we learned.

Mental Math Strategies

Next we learned about the order of operations that we can use to come to a consensus about a "correct" answer when doing multiple operations. Perhaps you remember BEDMAS from school? This is what we learned today! 

First, we looked at a number sentence (9 + 3 x 6 - 4) and tried to come up with as many different answers as possible. We saw that there are lots of different answers we could potentially come up with using this number sentence. However, I told the class that the correct answer is actually 23. Was anyone able to find a way to perform the operation that would give us that answer? Of course! Then I introduced BEDMAS:

Brackets

Exponents (which we do not study in grade 6)

Division

Multiplication   ---> division and multiplication are done in the order they appear in the problem

Addition

Subtraction    ---> addition and subtraction are done in the order they appear in the problem.

Here are some videos that may help to explain this concept in more detail:

TVO Kids Order of Operations

Finally, in Language we have been learning about a new reading skill, analyzing, which means finding facts in the story. I will post another entry about Analyzing, because it is an important skill in itself. 

In order to practice finding facts, however, we read a comic strip that explained a little about the history of electricity, and thenmade a timeline to show our learning. This helped students to demonstrate their understanding of the text and to find the facts within it. The timelines were completed using ReadWriteThink. Here is the link:

Timeline organizer

Timelines!

Today we are going ot be making timelines using this link: Timelines

Click the link and follow the instructions to make a timeline of the history of electricity using the facts we learned from our Power Up magazine! Good luck!

Prime and Composite Numbers

Yesterday and today, in the midst of banging hammers and nails while working on our lanterns, we learned about prime and composite numbers. Before learning about this concept, we needed to review what factors and products are. Here is a link to a presentation that we looked at that helped us to better understand these concepts. This may be helpful to review later for a quiz. Please feel free to download, save, copy and distribute these presentations any time. They are being made to be used. The more people they can help, the better!

Prime and Composite Numbers

On another note, we are almost finished our "How to" brochures. Tomorrow, we will begin building an anchor chart for our next skill, Analyzing, which basically means finding facts in a text. I will post a presentation and anchor chart for this when we build it in class. We will be reading a book about Cheetahs, and a magazine called "Power Up", which is about electricity use. We will be writing a information report at the end of this unit. 

Assessment folders

Assessment folders were sent home today. I will be sending them home about once per month. I use a folder system instead of sending each test, quiz or assignment home so that I can keep better track of the folders, parents can get an overall view of their child's progress and because it provides some feedback to students and parents without being overwhelming. 

To let me know that you have seen your child's folder, please sign or initial each page. The folders are red, and contain a math quizand a test, some EQAO practice questions, and a reading quiz about a story we read in class. If you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress, please feel free to contact me.

Lanterns!

On Monday, October 6, I would like to start making lanterns with students in the class as part of our religion program. In order to make the lanterns, we will need a tin can for each child. Soup cans are perfect, as well as spaghetti tins, canned vegetable tins, etc. Once we are done making our lanterns, we will have a short ceremony to celebrate our theme of being a light to others this year.

If you could possibly send in your child with an empty can, that would be great! Thank you!

Multiples

Yesterday the grade 6's did a problem using multiples, although they didn't really know that at first. Here was the question:

On Thursday morning, the local radio station held a call-in contest. 

• every third caller won a t-shirt
• every seventh caller won a baseball cap

In 50 calls, which callers won a T-shirt? A baseball cap? Both prizes?

Students worked in pairs to try and solve the problem. It was interesting that students used a variety of strategies to come to the same conclusion. Here, a pair of students used multiples to help them find their answer:

Here, you can see that the students found the multiples of 7 and the multiples of 3, and then circled the COMMON multiples. This term, common multiple, is a new one for us, so we discussed that for a little bit. After looking at  a few samples of student work, we discussed the idea of multiples as well. Students should understand that multiples are the same as counting by 3's or 7's, etc. 

Here is another way a pair of students figured out the problem: 

 This is a similar strategy, but the students used a table, which is a little more organized and may help find common multiples a little easier. Both ways work! 

What is important, and that we try to stress, is that there are almost always more than one way to solve a problem. The important thing that we want to see students trying to do is to show all of their thinking, as they have done here. I also encourage them to show their thinking in Numbers, Pictures and Words, if possible. 

Here is another interesting way of finding the solution to this problem. This student wrote all the numbers from 1 -50 in a list, and then placed letters (t- for tshirt, b- for baseball cap) next to the appropriate multiple. I thought this was an excellent, different way to find the solution for the problem. 

We will be continuing to examine multiples today, and then moving on to Prime and Composite numbers, which students generally find fairly easy. 

Comparing and Ordering Numbers

Today we began learning about how to compare and order larger numbers. Before students can really be successful at this skill, they need to have a fairly solid understanding of place value. That is why we teach place value first, before this concept.

The biggest idea that students have to remember about comparing and ordering numbers, and about place value in general, is that as we go further left in a number, the value becomes larger. For example, I would rather have 1 thousand dollars than 9 tens (or 90) dollars. Even though the digit is larger, the value of the 1 is more because it is in the thousands column (it is worth one thousand).

When comparing and ordering numbers, I encourage students to "stack" the numbers on top of each other, paying close attention to keeping the columns lined up. This helps them to clearly see which digit in each column is larger. See the attached presentation for an example. We looked at this presentation in class, and we also did an activity in which students worked in pairs to order the areas of a number of countries from greatest to least. We used place value charts to assist us with the activity. If your child needs to use a place value chart (or the "houses" idea like we did in this post) then that is fine. Students are encouraged to use whatever tools they can to help them understand concepts.

Comparing and Ordering Numbers Grade 6