Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Week of April 10

The fifth graders have been working on several multiplication strategies after completing their decimal unit.  After vacation we will expand our multiplication knowledge to include standard algorithms.  (The approach that is most familiar to most of us.) 

One of the approaches students have been learning about this week is using what they know about number relationships.  For instance they know how to find 1/4 of a number by cutting it in half and in half a second time.  Then knowing that 1/4 is equivalent to 0.25 they can use that information to solve problems like:

1/4 x 48  = 12        0.25 x 48 = 12          25 x 48 = 1200 because 25 is 100 times bigger than 0.25 and
 
students know about moving the decimal to the right to make the number 10 times larger or 100 times larger etc.  They are really catching on and seeing how to use information from one one problem to solve another.


Students had a successful ropes course experience even though the weather was challenging.  It was hard to believe the warm weather we had before our day at the course and then the weather we had for past couple of days.  Regardless, we had a great time and students all pushed themselves.

I will include several pictures here that show their accomplishments.