Sixth Grade
Last week, there were several students having trouble with factor trees. Today, I showed them a more visual way to do the trees - with squares of different colored construction paper. One color is for composite numbers and another color is for prime numbers. The starting number is another color too, although it is also composite. Everyone liked the color square factor trees.
The homework is to do the 10 numbers I wrote on the board using the squares. Once you have the tree done with the squares for each number, write down the factor tree on paper and write out the prime factorization.
Seventh Grade
Math - Today, the class worked on "Item Analysis". I passed out a paper where I had worked out 10 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. I intentionally made a mistake on 8 of them. The purpose is for the students to find the errors, explain in a sentence what the error is for each problem, and rework the problem correctly.
Geography - I finally told everyone the purpose of the pictures today! The class made passports that they will get stamped after passing a Country Quiz for the countries in each unit. I will update the blog with deadlines for the quizzes, because the students will do them when they are ready. Since our current unit is on the United States and Canada, there will only be 3 country quizzes this unit. The deadline to have them both done is the end of the nine weeks. Each quiz will consist of the same 10 questions. The students wrote them down today, so they know what facts to look up.
We then read Chapter 5, Section 1. The homework for today is the handout over the section.
Eighth Grade
Pre-Algebra: Today we worked through a lesson about Skin Weight. It sounded a bit gross, but was still interesting. A person's skin weighs about 1/16th the total body weight. I gave them a table with various weights and skin weights and the class used the info to finish the table and complete a graph using the information. Most everyone finished the table in class, but will need more time to graph the information. Tomorrow, we will talk about whale weight!
Algebra I: Today, the class worked on Item Analysis. I gave them 10 equations worked out. They had to analyze my work to see where I made mistakes and write in a sentence what the mistake was. Then, they had to rework the equation correctly. There are 2 correct equations!
See you tomorrow,
Mrs. Swickey
