Tuesday, December 15th

Sixth Grade

Lesson 56 - Adding and Subtracting Fractions. First, you find the common denominator, add or subtract the fractions, and then reduce, if necessary. This is due on Thursday. I will be with the 7th graders on a field trip tomorrow.

Seventh Grade

Spelling - Unit 17. The entire unit is due on Friday. Be sure you are studying and working on the unit!

Vocabulary - Unit 8 cards are due tomorrow, the unit is due on Thursday, and there will be a test on Friday.

Grammar - Chapter 1, Exercise A. pg. 21. Follow instructions.

Literature - We finished reading A Christmas Carol today. The assignment is: Thinking About the Selection #1-9, Analyzing Literature #1-2, and Critical Thinking and Reading #1-2.

Math - There is a test over Chapter 4 on Thursday. Remember to study the following:

• adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals including with negative signs.
• determining whether a number is rational or not rational
• change a fraction to a decimal and determine whether it is terminating or repeating
• compare and order decimal numbers, including negative numbers
  
• change standards numbers into scientific notation and vice versa
• multiply and divide scientific notation
• convert metric units of measure - kilometers, meters, centimeters, and millimeters

Eighth Grade

Lesson 5-9. Dividing by monomials. #8-34 evens.

First, divide the coefficients. Here, that is 16 and 4.
Then, divide the variables by subtracting the exponents.


The answer would be:



On the back page, you are dividing a polynomial by a monomial.

First, write each term over the monomial. For example:

Write the two terms in the polynomial over the monomial. Then, follow the same steps as above for each term. Since the variable "a" in the first term has the same exponent of 2, they cancel out.

Wednesday, December 9th

Sixth Grade

Lesson 53. Remember the rule for dividing fractions: Change the division sign to multiplication and flip the second fraction.

Seventh Grade

Spelling - Vocabulary Connections pages in unit 16.

Literature - We read a chapter of Treasure Island and the rest of Act I of A Christmas Carol. For homework, answer the following questions about A Christmas Carol.

• Thinking About the Selection #1-8
• Analyzing Literature #1-3
• Understanding Language #1-4

Grammar - We finished grading the punctuation packet and discussed the grammar test on Friday. The students took notes over what topics will be on the test. Be sure you are going over all the rules for commas, quotations, and apostrophes!

Math - Converting Metric Measure - Worksheet A

To do these, remember to use your notes to find the correct multiplier. Here is an example:

The first step is to write 3.75 cm over 1. Since you don't convert straight from cm to km, use a multiplier that will change cm to m and the another one to change m to km. Then, you choose the correct way to write the multiplier. Since 1m = 100 cm, write it with 1 m on top and 100 cm on bottom. You will always know which one to put on bottom by looking at what you are starting with. Since you are starting with cm, you need to cancel the cm out, so the 100 cm needs to be on the bottom. Next, choose the correct way to write the conversion for m to km. Since we want to cancel out the m and be left with just km, you need to put 1,000 m on bottom and 1 km on top. Then, cross off the measurements that cancel. Since the 100 and 1,000 are on the bottom, you are dividing 3.75 by 100 and then by 1,000. To do this, just move the decimal to the LEFT 5 places. (5 zeroes in 100 and 1,000 so 5 places)

Here is another example:

First, write the 0.75 m over 1. Then, determine the multipliers you need. m to cm and then cm to mm. Write the m to cm with 100 cm on top and 1 m on bottom so you can cross off the meters. Then, write the cm to mm with 10 mm on top and 1 cm on bottom so you can cross off the cm. You are left with only mm as your measure. This time, you will be multiplying by 100 and 10. Since 100 and 10 have 3 zeroes combined, you will move the decimal to the RIGHT 3 places.

Eighth Grade

Adding and Subtracting Polynomials worksheet. This is a continuation of yesterday's assignment. See yesterday's blog for details!

See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Swickey

Tuesday, December 8th

Sixth Grade

We did not have class today because we had mass at 12:10. See you tomorrow!

Seventh Grade

Spelling - 1st two pages.

Grammar - We graded part of the punctuation packet. There will be a test on Friday over commas, quotations, underlining, end marks, and apostrophes.

Literature - Today, we read from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. We will be finishing Treasure Island, but I wanted us to read the Dickens story before Christmas!

Math - We did not have math class today. Mass was at 12:10 and as our class was serving and reading at the mass, much of the class ate lunch early. We will pick up with math tomorrow!

Eighth Grade

Lessons 5-4 and 5-5. #2-24 evens on both lessons. 5-4 is adding polynomials and 5-5 is subtracting polynomials.

Here is an example of adding. Remember, you can just drop the parentheses and combine like terms, or write the second polynomial underneath the first, lining up the like terms and keeping any sign that is in front of each term with it.





On 5-5, you are subtracting polynomials. The trick with these is to make sure that you distribute the minus sign to all the terms in the parenthesis after the minus sign. Then, you will add the polynomials like above. Here is an example:


Notice the blue arrows at the top. They are pointing from the minus sign to each term in the second parenthesis. You can rewrite the problem up and down as shown. Notice that the terms in the bottom parenthesis now have opposite signs. Then, you will combine the terms. Also, notice that there is not an "x" term in the second parenthesis, so I moved the +8 to be under the +6. The most important thing is to line up LIKE TERMS. Do not try to add terms that do not have the exact same variable (or variables) with the exact same exponents.

The class worked very hard today and I appreciate it! Let's keep that effort up.

See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Swickey

Wednesday, December 2nd

Sixth Grade

Lesson 50 (!) - We are cruising along in 6th grade math. I'm very pleased at the progress! Today, the lesson is about rounding in decimal numbers. Remember, to round any number, you underline the place value you are supposed to round to, then look at the number on the right. If that number is 5 or greater, the underlined number goes up one. If it is 4 or less, the underlined number stays the same. If this is all taking place after a decimal point, all numbers to the right of the underlined number go away.

Seventh Grade

Spelling - Be sure to finish Unit 15 by Friday!

Vocabulary - Test over Unit 7 tomorrow. Be sure you are studying. (I noticed a LOT of vocabulary books were left at school...hmmm)

Literature - Read the rest of chapter 23 of Treasure Island and read chapter 24.

Math - Scientific Notation with very small numbers.

To change a standard number that is very small (such as 0.000034) into scientific notation, follow these steps:

1. Place the decimal point after the first non-zero number from the left so that your new number is 1 or greater but less than 10.

In the example above, you would have 3.4

2. Write x 10 after this number. (You will ALWAYS have x 10 in scientific notation)

Now you have 3.4 x 10

3. You need an exponent with the 10. To determine this, count how many decimal places you moved your number to the right. Write that as a negative number as your exponent. In the above example, the decimal moves over 5 places to the right - that would be -5.

So, the final answer would be 3.4 x 10 to the -5th power. (Write the -5 as an exponent above the 10. I can't type that in my blogging program.)

To change a very small number that is already in scientific notation into a standard number, you are going to do the opposite.

1. Move the decimal point to the left however many places indicated by the exponent of 10.

2. That's it!

So, if the number is 3.42 x 10 to the negative 7th power, you would move the decimal 7 places to the left. Moving it past the 3 would be the first place, so you would then have to move it 6 more places over. You would have to add 6 zeroes before putting the decimal point. The answer would be 0.000000342

The assignment is the 20 problems that were written on the mimio board.

Eighth Grade

Practice with multi-step equations - 15 problems. There are examples in past blog posts. Please scroll back or click through the archives. Remember, there will be a quiz tomorrow over these kinds of problems!

See you tomorrow!
Mrs. Swickey