So... what exactly IS Grade 6 math about?

In a meeting this evening I became acutely aware that I had never written to let parents know about what topics are in Grade 6 Math at Whatcom Middle School. I apologize for this oversight. And I hope to fill you in (at least partly) in this blog post. How the class is organized and how students move between activities and subjects are topics that I will describe in a post on another day.

The Curriculum

As I shared in a previous post [link] our district uses the Connected Mathematics Project's curriculum for middle schools. But our state standards for Grade 6 [link] don't match the publisher's arrangement of these books (teachers say that a curriculum is aligned to the state standards when the topics match). So our district has rearranged some of the books to try and hit as many of the state standards for Grade 6 as possible. 

Bellingham's Alignment

In Grade 6, our district uses these books to teach toward the state standards:

• Bits and Pieces I (we're here now)
  Move among fractions, decimals, and percents; compare and order rational numbers; equivalence.
• Bits and Pieces II
  Understanding and skill with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions.
• Bits and Pieces III
  Understanding and skill with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of decimals, solving percent problems.
• Comparing and Scaling
  Rates and ratios; making comparisons; proportional reasoning; solving proportions.
• Covering and Surrounding
  Area and perimeter relationships, including minima and maxima; area and perimeter of polygons and circles, including formulas.
• Filling and Wrapping
  Spatial visualization, volume and surface area of various solids, volume and surface area relationship.
• Variables and Patterns
  Variables; representations of relationships, including tables, graphs, words, and symbols.

Students who have extra time by finishing a book early will get to work on:

• Samples and Populations
  Use samples to reason about populations and make predictions, compare samples and sample distributions, relationships among attributes in data sets.

So most of Grade 6 Math falls into two BIG categories: Proportional Reasoning (fractions and ratios); and Describing #D Solids (surface area and volume).

Chaperones still needed for my AM group!

We have our first field trip coming up next Monday and Tuesday and my morning group (the group going on Monday that brought home yellow letters and permission forms) still needs two or three more parent volunteers. If you will be available all day next Monday and would like to join us out on the Snow Goose, please send me a message [link].

Chaperones need to fill out a volunteer packet (I'll send it home with your child) and get to come along on the field trip for free (remember to bring a lunch for yourself, too).

Thanks for thinking about volunteering!

Field Trip Next Week!

Hi EdVenture Team families!

Next Monday and Tuesday my classes are going on a field trip on the Snow Goose to explore the ecology of Bellingham Bay. Information letters and permission forms were sent home today with your children.

IMPORTANT: The permission forms (both sides completed) and the $11.00 for participation are due this Friday 9/30/2011. If $11.00 is a hardship, please contact me. We want all kids to attend and have some scholarships available.

My morning class will be going on Monday 10/03 and my afternoon class will be going on Tuesday 10/04. The students who are not on the field trip that day will be with one teacher all day long.

If your copy of the letter or the permission form are missing, you can download copies here:

• Snow Goose Letter [link]
• Snow Goose Permission Form [link]

A student of mine pointed me to this website where you can preview the trip:

What is Connected Mathematics?

The Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) has built a curriculum around problem solving. Students are lead through strategically designed questions so that they can see a particular relationship amongst numbers, identify strategies, or put a name to a concept they have identified in their experimentation.

The creators of the curriculum have built a parent website to provide you with information about the program. Just click on the picture below and it will take you to that parent site. There are subpages to the parent site. TO see those, find the PARENTS menu item on the left of the screen and mouseover it... submenus will appear.

Mr. Mac's Math/Science Update 9/15/2011

Math
Well, we've gotten through the first "road map" for investigation 1 in the math book "Bits and Pieces I". This week we'll have kids using flash feedbacks to see if they are ready to go on to the next investigation.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 9/16) my students taking 7th grade math will head up to the library to return their Grade 6 "Bits and Pieces" books and to pick up their Grade 7 "Accentuating the Negative" books.

Science
We started talking about the first part of the science unit "Populations and Ecosystems." You can find a course summary here: [link]. We will be brushing up on these concepts and food webs in preparation for our upcoming field trip on the Snow Goose. More information about that field trip to follow.

First post!

I know, isn't this exciting? Not much here yet, but more will come soon.

Right now in math we are all learning to use "road maps" in order to adjust the text book to better match our own speeds. The book we are using is "Bits and Pieces I" of the Connected Mathematics Program. This book extends grade five understandings of fractions and decimals into percents.

This week the kids should have brought home a fraction ruler. It essentially is a fraction kit kept in one piece and used for measuring fractional parts. It's a handy tool that can also be cut apart and used as a traditional fraction kit.

Fraction Kit [link]