Decimals - Yikes!

We have spent quite a bit of time working on developing our understanding of fractions. Our unit, What's That Portion has focused on using percents and fractions, learning the concept of "percent" and that percent means "out of a hundred", learning some benchmark percents and their fractional equivalent, comparing and ordering fractions and percents, adding and subtracting fractions.

One site that offers practice in working with fractions is Eight Interactive Fraction Bar Games.

Students have now moved on to the next unit, Decimals on Grids and Number Lines. Some students are discovering that place value of decimal numbers can be a bit tricky and involve some careful thinking to understand properly. We have been working on understanding and comparing decimals and locating decimals on a number line as well as identifying decimals on tenths, hundredths, and thousandths grids.

One website that we have used in practicing decimals is Decimal Squares Interactive Games. Decimal Darts is a special favorite for learning the nuances between decimals of varying values. Students have asked for the link to this site, so here it is! I will also place it on the sidebar for ease of access.

Explorer Research Completed

Students worked hard to complete all the elements of the social studies research assignment. We enjoyed listening to the presentations of our classmates and learning all about "their" explorer.

Students dressed as their chosen explorer and using the document camera and the SmartBoard, they shared their maps, their time lines, navigational tools, and artifacts representing their voyages.

It was interesting to hear the presentations in chronological order of discoveries and to see how different European countries focused on different aspects of exploration and conquest. Some countries focused more on conquest, some focused on a search for the Northwest Passage, and some developed trade with the native people.

Our next focus in social studies will be to learn about the origins of slavery in the New World.

Nearly Done!

This image is a drawing of the only ship of Magellan to finish circumnavigating the globe. Magellan is one of the many explorers we have been researching for the last few weeks. We will soon create "Treasure Chests" in which we will place all the work each student has completed. We will begin giving presentations at the end of this week so that our classmates can learn some of the interesting facts about the men we have been studying.

All students have finished making maps of their explorer's routes, timelines of important events in the explorer's life have been completed, artifacts representing each explorer have been created, and we are putting the final touches on our written essays.

In the process of this research project students have kept track of the specific reference resources used, learned how to take notes from their reading, written "hooks" for their essays, developed thesis statements about the importance of "their" explorers, and learned how to use the thesis statement to help organize their essay. Later this week we will use an online program to create "Works Cited" pages to accompany the essays.

Students have worked very hard on this extended project. It's been impressive to see them share research information and help each other with technical questions related to using Google Docs and their netbook computers. We are now looking forward to hearing the oral presentations and seeing our classmates dressed up as their particular explorer.

Explorers - Where Did They Go?

We've finished reading Routes of Exploration to the New World, Chapter Five in our Social Studies Alive textbook. In this chapter we read about eight different European explorers, their motives, routes, and discoveries. The explorers we learned about in the text were Columbus, Cabot, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Cartier, Coronado, Hudson, and de La Salle.

Our next task is to broaden our knowledge of one particular explorer from the European Age of Exploration and Discovery. Students chose from a list of several different European explorers including, in addition to those mentioned above, de Vaca, Champlain, de Soto, da Gama, and Magellan.

Each student will be compiling notes about "their" explorer before they: create a map showing the routes of discovery, create a timeline of the explorer's life, write a five paragraph essay focusing on their explorer's importance, create or find artifacts that represent the explorer, and finally dress in the style of their explorer to present their research to the class.

2D Geometry - Awesome

Our unit on two dimensional geometry is nearly complete. We have been learning a lot about polygons and their properties with special emphasis on triangles and quadrilaterals.

This unit has been full of vocabulary that can be hard to keep straight such as the difference between "parallel" and "perpendicular" lines, or between "congruent" and "similar" shapes.

We've learned about the many different types of triangles and their properties. Fifth graders did an interesting activity in which they constructed a large triangle marking each angle before cutting out the triangle. Then students carefully ripped off each angle of the triangle and reassembled the angles along a straight line to discover that the sum of the angles of any triangle - not matter what size or shape

- is always 180 degrees.

We completed a similar exercise to discover that the sum of all the angles of a quadrilateral - no matter what size or shape - is always 360 degrees. Students also learned about the many different types of quadrilaterals and their properties.

Our next math unit will be Name That Portion in which students will become familiar with percents and their meaning as well as learning their fraction equivalents. From there students will continue to work with the concept of fractional amounts and how to combine fractions with unlike denominators.

December Math Activities

I want to share a wonderful math resource, Nrich Maths which we have been using in class this month. This website is located in the United Kingdom and is loaded with math related activities.

The five maths content stages correspond to UK Key Stages, but for international users the following gives an indication of the ages by which the mathematics involved in the problem will usually have been met as follows: Stage One uses mathematics you would normally meet before the age of 8 and Stage Two uses mathematics you would normally meet before the age of 11.

In December we have been working on a number of geometry related math activities such as making Mobius Strips, three dimensional cube puzzles, and triangular balls. These activities have been both educational and entertaining.

Divisibility Rules!

In math class we have been studying rules of divisibility. Understanding some of the rules of divisibility make math a little easier. Yes, we can astound others by simply looking at a number for a moment and telling whether or not it is divisible by 2 or 3, 5, 9, or 10. But, we can use these rules when we need to factor numbers, figure out prime numbers, or simplify fractions.

These "rules" help us determine whether or not certain numbers are factors of a target number. We have wondered how people came up with these rules, and interestingly enough, some numbers have more than one rule of divisibility that will work. There are tests to determine divisibility for 4, 7, 8, 11, etc. but some of them are quite complicated. In the fifth grade, we are learning the rules for 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 15.

Here are some links to help you practice the rules of divisibility. First, a video from Khan Academy to review the rules for recognizing divisibility. Then, visit this site, Math Is Fun!, to study the different "tests". Next, some websites to practice what you've learned. IXL Divisibility Rules and Vectorkids Divisibility Rules.

Can you figure out why these rules work? It's not magical, it's mathematics! Practice, learn, and have fun!