Interactive Lesson on Relating Ratios to their Proportionate and Equivalent Forms

This lesson worked really well last week for all levels of classes because it scaffolded the thought process needed to find equivalent ratios. Student could manipulate the shapes and were encouraged to use ratio language to make sense this concept.

 

The video above gives a short preview/explanation of the lesson. Our school has access to the promethean board and ActivInspire so this is a flipchart and PDF student notes file and works best when students can utilize a computer individually in a computer lab setting or laptop cart setting. (If you are someone that may want a low tech version of this lesson, please contact me through TpT by finding this product and describing to me what you would like through the "QUESTION" prompt.) You can find this lesson at my store. This lesson is aligned with CCSS 6RP1 and includes answer keys describing how the lesson should progress.

Introducing the Concept of Rate

This week, I finished up working on helping my students to understand basic ratios through a variety of activities. Yesterday, I introduced the idea of rate by posing a challenge  to my students.

Given two tracks, can anyone beat me in a hopping race???

The students were first asked to examine the two tracks and make predictions about who would win this race. (When making your two tracks it is important that the teacher's track is spaced out to cover twice the distance of the student's track.)

It was a lot of fun to hear the different predictions. My most challenging and most active class (also at the end of the day) was really into it. They noticed right away that the race would not be fair and started throwing out phrases such as "You are trying to cheat us!". This really got them to be engaged!

Once the students had a chance to analyze both tracks, I chose a student at random (I use popscicle sticks with their names on them) to race against. I raced against four different students. The rules were that each person on each track would have to hop the distance alloted them by the post-it notes and every post-it note had to be hit. The first person to make it to their last post-it note would win. (To make it even more competitive, I taunted them a bit and kept writing the score on the board each time I beat one of them. Have fun with it!)

After I raced the four lucky students, we began to discuss the activity further. I had a few prompting questions in my mind prior to starting the discussion. (Since I want the kids to discover the idea of rate on their own, I wanted to make sure I did not give away too much information.) Students were partnered up and asked to journal their thoughts in their math notebooks as we discussed with the whole group.

1. Was the race fair, why or why not?
2. Why was I able to win each race?
3. What do you notice about my track compared to your track?

My students did a nice job (all ability levels) of coming to the conclusion that I was able to hop a larger distance each time I hopped than they were able to. My more advanced math class began using frequency tables to analyze the information and were right on the verge of coming up with their own definition of rate when it was time to leave class, so I will have to continue discussion on Monday. It was hard to not tell them the answer, but very rewarding to see them thinking it through and so actively engaged. I will be completing this lesson Monday and will write more about its conclusion at a later date!

I also came across some really good hands-on lessons (already made up for you) that help students work with and use unit rate at ILLUMINATIONS. I plan to use these next week as I continue introducing the concept of unit rate and its uses.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

The First Week Went Great! We Began the Ratios Unit...

We began the Ratios Unit this past week and I am excited to say that it went well. What a great start to the year, I have nice students that gave me a really good effort on the Ratios Pre-Test and I am currently completing their Student Achievement Growth Cards. (These come from my Betta Math Ratios and Proportions Unit.)

Another useful tool that I found online is a ratios worksheet generator. This can be found at MathAids and also generates the key for various topics. I use it a lot for basic skills when I may not have time to create my own worksheets.

In preparing for next week, I am going to focus on getting students to really be able to understand how to write and simplify ratios through a number of activities. I am using an adapted version of the Math Workshop that I purchased from:

The author of the math workshop I will be using and adapting to middle school classroom has been kind enough to allow me to blog about this. I wanted to make sure I awarded her the proper credit because it has helped me organize my thoughts about encorporating math workshop in my 6th grade classroom.

I believe that this is where the curriculum is taking us and gives you the flexibility to hit numerous learning styles in one class period and promote differentiate learning.

I will also be blogging more about student portfolios and my students' interactive math notebook. Since textbooks are becoming more of a secondary reference, student notebooks are even more important to their success. Please stop back here frequently because my intention is to blog on a weekly basis and I would love any feedback any other professionals may offer.

To those of you starting back to work...have a great year!

Exploring the Number Line

 

As I research the Common Core Curriculum, I am realizing more and more that a lot of the curriculum revolves around students being able to understand and manipulate a number line. This is especially true when they are working with fractions. As I began to think about some good activities that I might be able to create to help them start the year with an understanding of the number line, I decided the best way to introduce this would be through a few activities. One activity has students use their estimation skills to decide whether a fraction is less than, equal to or greater than 1/2.

 I also like to introduce concepts to students in a fun and interactive way. I created a game called "Eat the Fly" that students will enjoy and it can also be applied to other concepts by merely using different game cards. Once you have th game set up, you will have the game pieces to use later on for other topics. (I like the old saying "work smarter not harder!)

 If this product looks like something you might be able to use in your classroom, please download it from my TpT store HERE. While you are there, please click the "follow me" link to get updates about new products from my store. Thanks for your interest and please visit my blog to see how I am implementing the Common Core Curriculum into my classroom.

Not Quite Ready for Summer to End... but Starting to Gear up for the Next School Year!

Even though it is always a little sad to see the summer come to an end and leave the days of having all day to do things with my girls, the fact is that the summer is coming to an end in the next few weeks. Since it is inevitable, I have decided to try to be positive about this fact and begin thinking about how I want to start out the school year. As of right now, I will be teaching only 6th Grade. This excites me because I love teaching 6th Graders, they are so much fun!

Pine Cone Bees for my classroom decor.

My husband and I have started raising bees and since I have always been fascinated with bugs and other animals, I have decided to make my room into a nature theme this year. I have some ideas and have even made some bees out of pine cones and have plans to sew some butterflies. I plan to get some fake leaves/flowers also to put around my room. (See some of my later blog posts to see the finished decor.) I think I will make a materials basket for each row and will be focusing on really establishing student jobs. I have downloaded Laura Candler's Freebie entitled FREE CLASSROOM ECONOMY PACK that I will be adapting for my own classroom. She has some really great resources and offers a lot of FREEBIES. You can also check back at some posts later on in the school year to see how these ideas pan out.

To establish my norms and also to introduce students to the Common Core Curriculum, I am planning to start out with some ideas that will reinforce the basic skills students will need to be successful. I will be focusing on Multiplication Facts and Long Division first. Surprizingly, 6th Graders still tend to struggle with these topics. I am going to break down the process and help students understand why it is important to know their Multiplication Facts and how to successfully be able to use Long Division. Please preview the lesson I plan to use below. It is also available at my TpT store. If you like this lesson I would appreciate you clicking the "Follow" star as I will be adding products that I feel are concept based and of high quality and you will be notified of new products on a regular basis.

I am currently working on a Unit for The 6th Grade Number System Common Core State Standard and it will be finished soon! Good luck in the new year.

Common Core Student Sample Write-ups

In an effort to help students transistion into the Common Core Curriculum, I have started working with them on how to organize their thoughts and expand upon the answers to various math problems. Here are some examples that were graded on a scale on 1-10. Students were asked to create a math write-up answering the following problem

Using the Math Practice Flipbook to Write about Math Tasks

My students completed their Math Practice Flipbooks yesterday. Here are some images of them creating their flipbooks.





 

They used them today as a resource for writing the reasoning behind the math tasks they will be working on. I created a easy level task for students to begin using this resource and the kids did so well I decided to put this on my blog :o). I will also be putting some examples once I have finished grading them. The Flipbook Template and the math task below can be downloaded at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Math-Practices-Flipbook

The students did a really nice job with this activity and came up with some really great answers. Here are some images of them working on this math task.

The students were able to use their Math Practice Flipbooks to help them write the reasoning behind these math tasks.