October 30, 2013

6th grade:

This week is the last week 6th grade is in charge of collecting for the Putney Food Shelf. The 6th graders have made posters to hang around the school and announced the need at every All School Meeting. The food donations will get delivered on Friday, so get those non-perishable items in.


Math:

The 6th and 7th graders concluded a two-day exploration of the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89... They were given a Romanesco and asked to do a series of quick sketches.

This close observation allowed them to see and describe a spiral growth pattern. They counted the spirals in each direction and looked at some examples found online.

They calculated the ratios of consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence and expressed them as decimals to the thousandth place. The students noticed that the solutions, when plotted, "bounced" back and forth and seem to be "approaching" a number close to 1.618. They tried to imagine continuing to find more of these Fibonacci ratios and if they would "squeeze" down to a single number. They decided they would not be able to.

They were approaching "phi" Φ, the golden ratio. 

• The golden ratio  1.618033988749894848204586834... in mathematics, art, and architecture. (wikipedia)

We ended the class watching a video created by Vi Hart.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0>

                                                 Welcome to Benjamin Barrett, born today!
                                                                October 20, 2013

October 20, 2013

Study Skills update: Some strategies for problem solving:

• Find the question and rephrase it in your own words.
• What unit should the answer be in?
• Use graphs, charts, diagrams or pictures to represent, organize or visualize information.
• Figure out what information you need to solve the problem and disregard the unnecessary “stuff”.
• Change the numbers to more “friendly numbers.
• Make an estimate. Is your answer reasonable?
• Find a similar problem that you have already done.

Oct 21 Math update:

6^th grade:        The students will expand operations with whole numbers to operations with decimal numbers. They will benefit from practicing reading very large and very small numbers. In our study of the decimal system we will delve deeply into how the powers of ten are related to extended multiplication and division and as preparation for work with exponents.

7^th grade:        Students will be working on rates and ratios and their application to real world situations. The will need to be practicing operaitons with rational numbers for this work as well.

8^th grade:        Students will expand their knowledge of proportional reasoning through rates and ratios. They will practice division of fractions and use division properties to solve simple equations.

October 3, 2013

6^th grade Study Skills update:

We are continuing to work on time management skills and as we do your student may need support at home as they figure out how to break down an assignment and prioritize work. A new skill for many will be identifying how long they anticipate an assignment will take. One good strategy is to have the students make a guess of about how long they think a specific nightly assignment will take and then time themselves. This will help them to better plan in the future.

Oct 3- Oct 9 Math update:

6^th grade:      Continue to work with different kinds of graphs and group projects representing data about lakes of North America. One of my favorite lessons actually introduces the idea of taking a limit- a foundational concept for calculus.

7^th grade:      We will work on finishing the chapter on geometry. This may include further lessons on surface area and volume, a review and chapter test. Those who are ready will begin to work on solidifying operations with decimals, fractions and mixed numbers, while others will move on to pre-algebra.

8^th grade:      We will finish this chapter solving equations with the form ax+b=c and ax+b<c. There will be a chapter review and chapter test.