During the months of November and December, fifth graders concluded their study of fraction multiplication and division. They also studied ratios and practiced finding unit rates. They learned to convert, compare, and order fractions, decimals, and percents. We lost quite a few days of instruction due to early release days and holidays but we are still following our pacing guide closely. Students are making excellent progress, and the benchmark scores reflect their hard work and mastery of the curriculum.
The pace of this accelerated math class continues to be extremely rapid, and we have covered a tremendous amount of content these past several weeks. Students have recently worked with properties of addition and multiplication and explored the distributive property in depth. They have seen for themselves how these properties can help them simplify expressions. They have also reviewed computation of decimals and worked with various models and algorithms to multiply and divide fractions.
We will have another multiplication speed test this Friday, October 28th. Students have discovered what an advantage they have during all these calculations if they have quick and accurate recall of their basic facts. If your child is still working to master these, please be sure to encourage frequent short bouts of practice. The students in the 5/6 compacted math class have hit the ground running by studying exponents, perfect squares, square roots, powers of ten, scientific notation, and order of operations all within the first three weeks of school! The pace of this class is very, very fast! However, students usually enjoy the new and interesting content so much that they are willing to work hard to master these skills and concepts. Please be sure your child is completing homework and practicing multiplication skills.
I must offer you my sincerest apologies! When the snow came in January and February and we missed many school days, I also missed updating this blog. Once I got out of my routine, I neglected to update this site in March and April as well. I am very sorry if you've been checking for updates and seeing no new posts. Rather than try to go back in time to tell you what we've been studying, I will just begin with April. Again, I apologize for the lack of communication.
During April, fifth graders finished the unit involving surface area and volume of rectangular prisms. They also completed a unit on probability, which included finding the probability of independent and dependent events. This week, we have started studying measurement using both the U.S. Customary and Metric Systems. |
Mrs. GregoryMrs. Gregory has been a teacher for 25 years. She lives in Montpelier with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. Archives
December 2016
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