Week of December 8-12

This week, 5a invited Mrs. Weisbrot's class to play our carnival games.  We showed off our knowledge of theoretical and experimental probabilities, and, by the end, the players understood that we had to make the games slightly unfair in order to make a profit.  We also took our final unit test.
HW: Skunk questions: you must answer #6.  You must also choose to answer either #4 or #5.

5b had 5-3 and 5-4 come and play our games today.  Afterwards, numerous students stopped me in the hall to tell me how much fun they had!  Your games must have really entertained them!
HW: study for unit test; Skunk questions: you must answer #6.  You must also choose to answer either #4 or #5.

In 4th grade, we shopped at our classmates' stores and figured out the prices of the items for sale.  Some of the equations that go together stumped us until we realized we could isolate and variable on one side of the equation and use substitution to solve the problems (see last week's post for two examples where this method would work).
After that, we learned another method of solving equations using a strategy called "Hands-on Equations." We used a pan balance and manipulatives to figure out the value of our variable.  Click the link below for more practice using pan balances.
http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activity.aspx?id=3531
HW: Finish the problems from the packet (you can use the balance, coins, and dice to help you, or, if you feel comfortable, you can try it without the manipulatives).


The third graders took the unit assessment today.  Then we did a quick tutorial on google drawings and talked about our floor plans we drew for homework.  The main issue was that some rooms were not big enough.  We realized this once we counted out floor tiles.  See the floor plan below for an idea of reasonable room sizes.

HW: adjust room measurements and/or floor plans as needed.  Fill in the Floor Plan Dimension and Cost Worksheet (add more rows on the back or make a copy if needed).  You can also try to create a room or two using google drawing, but this is completely optional.