Gearing up for the final!

Today we chucked all the geometry that's been sitting on our shoulders to get ready for the final. The final will be next Tuesday & Wednesday during class time (and there will be more coming on the final in a day or so).

***This might change to starting the final on Monday. Depends on how tomorrow's review goes.***

To get some perspective, I handed out a copy of the Pre-Algebra curriculum. We then started going unit by unit having conversations about what we did in those units. These conversations and other review work will continue tomorrow. Onward!

HW and Equations

Today we checked our homework (SA & VOL of a cone and a sphere) and then reviewed a variety of equations. No homework tonight other than studying their flashcards of their formulas.

Volume today

We checked over our memorization quizzes today, then took some notes on a one-step equation, and practiced finding the volume of some shapes with flat faces. The kids have three problems (from the board) that they will need to complete for homework -- finding both the surface area and the volume.

Do you really have those formulas memorized?

The kids got to try their hand at seeing just how well they've been doing on memorizing their geometry formulas. Except today was just a trial run and they got to use a sheet/the board that had listed all of the formulas they needed to know and all they had to do was match up the formula with the name. :) I'll be checking those over the weekend.

We also checked the homework from last night (curved shapes volumes) - and those answers are posted below.

HW answers

What a 3D Surface Area day?!

Today we spent our time checking the 2D homework problems and talking through finding the surface area of 3D shapes with curved surfaces (cylinder, cone, and sphere). Tonight's homework includes finding the surface area for 2 of each of those shapes. :)

Curved SA

2D Shapes today

We breezed through all of the 2D shapes today that the kids will need to 1) have the formulas memorized and 2) be able to solve problems with. These included: square, rectangle, trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus, triangle, and circle. At the end of class I gave them a "shape sheet" packet that I'd like them to complete for homework. (It's only 2 questions per shape!)

Shapes!!

HW Cube

The OOMIPPYEO

Ah, the OOMIPPYEO.

Today we've begun our last unit in Pre-Algebra -- the dreaded and infamous geometry unit. :) And in this unit, we study the area, perimeter, surface areas, and volumes of many different shapes.

The OOMIPPYEO stands for "One of the Most Important Pieces of Paper You'll Ever Own" -- and that's because all of the formulas that they'll need to know are on that piece of paper. And they'll need to memorize all 16 of them. (Gasp!!!) Yup, it's that time again. A little memorization never hurt anyone.

Tomorrow will be making of notecards and practicing finding the area and perimeter of some basic shapes.

Honor Code

The Honor System and Chapter 1 Test

We decided to do things a bit differently today with the Chapter 1 test. In years past I've just given the test out and they've had one 45-minute period to complete it. And, usually, kids are rushing to finish. So we talked it over and the kids had half of the period today and all of the period tomorrow to finish their test. We also made it into an open-note/open-book test. And we developed our own "honor code" - to ensure that no one feels tempted to get help from their peers or others. (See the picture above.)

Now, they are not required to work on their test at home, but it might not be a bad idea. As the code states, they must finish their tests by 10:20a tomorrow. Questions? Give me a call!

Test Friday

Today we finished up Chapter 1! Whoohoo! Tomorrow we'll review and Friday will be our test.

Finishing Chapter 1, Jacobs text

Just a quick post to let you know that we are going to finish up Jacobs, Chapter 1 this week! By tomorrow (Wednesday), I've asked the kids to have completed Sets 1 & 2 for Chapter 1. That way we'll be able to review on Thursday, and then take our test on Friday!

(There wasn't any class today because of our block schedule.)

Answers to Saturday, April 4 to Wednesday, April 8

Saturday, April 4
x = -7

Sunday, April 5
2.5 hours

Monday, April 6
22

Tuesday, April 7
8

Wednesday, April 8
-27

The Math Brain Munching Bugs! AHHH!

Hello all! It has been over a week since I posted last. The week before Spring Break, well, you could tell that there wasn't a lot of time to blog about what was going on in Pre-Algebra.

Anyways, I am enjoying my Spring Break immensely and I must not pander any longer -- there is serious work to be done. Your children may have mentioned the MBMB's, and now you must hear about them too. The note your children received prior to Spring Break:

Dear Pre-Algebra Students & Parents—

To keep the Math Brain Munching Bugs away, one problem and one problem only must be done a day.

Think of a doctor’s orders to take a certain amount of medicine at certain times of the day. The Munching Bugs are just as severe.

Children have been known to return from Spring Break with only an empty frame of what their minds used to be!

These problems, done once a day, with their work and steps totally and completely shown and written down should significantly diminish the Munching Bugs’ effect.

Yours in the fight against MBMB ( or MB2 ) – matthew

Just in case (I know that nothing has happened to the MBMB sheet at your house), I have posted the sheets for Pre-Algebra on our Class Docs here.

Look later this evening for answers up until today!

Happy de-bugging! :)

and into Lesson 3

We checked Lesson 2, Set II and then moved into Lesson 3. We started working on Lesson 3, Set I together and I would like them to complete this for homework.

And, as I promised Yael, here are the billiard table rules...

length is even, width is odd - ends up in upper left
length is odd, width is even - ends up in the lower right
length & width odd - ends up in upper right

Moving right along

As can be expected, we checked our homework from last night first (Set I of Lesson 2) and then we moved onto Set II of Lesson 2. (This pretty much how Jacobs goes! Ha! Pretty sequential... pretty predictable...)

Some kids were even ready to move on to the next Lesson, and I told them go for it! This part of Chapter 1 is where classes normally start to split off and get a day or two ahead/behind each other. As long as I know where they're at, we're good!

Tonight's homework (for those who haven't already) is to complete Set II of Lesson 2.

Workday

We checked the first part of Set I (Lesson 2) and then double checked our numbers for our notebooks, and worked to finish Set I -- and this should be completed by tomorrow -- beginning of class. In order words, homework!