The Last Post of 2008!

Today, as I suspected, it was incredibly hard to stay focused. The last day of math class for 2008!

Yesterday and today we continued to examine the differences between all of the operations with fractions and mixed numbers.  It's a bit tricky to keep all those different steps straight in your head.

As a heads up, we'll come back from break, pick up where we left off with fractions and soon thereafter it will be test time. If the spirit so moves you, you can totally practice some fraction work over the break! Check out: http://www.cfsnc.org/units/MS/math/summer/

See you in 2009!

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All the operations...

Do it yourself...

Where the heck is that sheet Matthew promised us?

Well... I had this handy-dandy printer/scanner/copier thing... and it worked for about 5 minutes and then... I don't know--it got tired and stopped working.  So one thing got scanned and here I am back at the drawing board!  Anybody know where I can get a cheapo scanner???

Anyways, today we... you guessed it!  Multiplied and divided fractions!  Some more!  The kiddos tackled four particularly harder ones today and some will be wrapping those up tonight for homework... or making corrections on ones missed.

Tomorrow we're going to have a conversation about all that we know about fractions.  Some are getting all of the steps mixed up between the operations. :)

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Answers to HW

Dividing Fractions with Mixed Numbers

More practice today with dividing fractions... plus some homework which I'm trying to scan as I type!!  There were eight problems, multiplying and dividing mixed all up.

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Dividing Mixed Fractions!

As you'll see below, after our warm up today we checked our homework, and learned our last skill--dividing mixed fractions.

And the BIG BIG BIG news is that I finally got a scanner hooked up and ready to go and now there is a copy of the worksheet the kids started today (they actually only did one problem). :)

No weekend homework!

Check out the worksheet from today!

I finally got a scanner that works!  Here's the sheet the kids worked on today... just the first problem, though.

http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/file/view/dividing_mixed_fractions.pdf

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Dividing mixed numbers

Practicing Dividing Fractions!

We finally got to practice some dividing fractions today!  The kiddos worked the period on a sheet that had a front and a back... and they'll want to finish what they didn't finish tonight for homework.

HW

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Where are we at?

Today after our warm up we had a check-in day.  You'll see a picture of the white board below... everyone was asked to plot themselves on a listing of the fraction skills we've been working on, on a scale of "Totally Got it" to "Don't Got it."  It was very interesting!

We then got to experiment a touch with dividing fractions--enough to get the rules and see two examples.  We're nearing close to the end of our fractions unit!

Checking in

Dividing Fractions Steps

Dividing Fractions ex 2

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A Multiplication Filled Day

First things first, we worked on our warm up.  It took us quite awhile... there were two problems, one on adding and the other on subtracting.  If you get a chance, plop down with your first year and have them do some practice with you... just to see how they're doing.  They should be conversant in adding, subtracting and multiplying mixed numbers.  (We're headed towards dividing by the end of the week.)

Anyways, we checked our homework... including the balloon homework! Our checking, surprise! took most of the period.  But, I felt it necessary.

No homework this evening!

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Work from today

Balloon Homework!

How could I have forgotten?!

You may (or may not!) have heard about or seen a balloon containing your child's homework in it!  It's a fun way to make homework not just about pulling out the notebook and showing your work... they had to spend all day protecting their balloon and keeping it from popping.  I didn't hear any loud booms and no one reported anything suspicious, so I'm assuming they all made it safely to 3:15 (when they could be popped)!

So, their homework was to complete the six problems on the board, and the three problems in the balloon.

Night!

Oh where, oh where has Matthew been?

You may (or may not!) have been wondering about my whereabouts considering my lack of posting on the blog. :)

Last week was an incredibly full week--just beside myself busy. You all know how that feels!

And to add to the mayhem, I was away at the North Carolina Educational Technology Conference in Greensboro on Wednesday and Thursday. I cannot express to you what an amazing conference this is... you'll have to check out their website and read some of the session descriptions. This trimester I am actually considered as part of the "admin" staff in the middle school--and my focus is technology. I am blessed with the gift of time in the afternoons to learn about and offer workshops for other middle school staff members on technology. This conference was a way for me to keep my thumb on the pulse of what's happening. The newest buzz in the educational technology world? GoogleDocs. :) You should check it out if you've got some time.

Anyways, last week your children worked heavily on multiplying fractions... in every which way you could imagine!  They even tackled some new kinds of problems with Lisa Ray, parent of a CFS students, while I was at the conference. Lisa helped introduce the kids to having to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions when they need to multiplied.  Exciting stuff!

This week will see a move to dividing fractions... as soon as we're a bit more comfortable with multiplying.  Maybe a quiz before break?  Not sure... we'll have to see...

Whew! Enjoy and have a lovely evening!

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Balloon HW

1-6

1-6 with answers

HW

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The New Secret!!