Monday, September 23, 2013

Think Through Math

Think Through Math is an adaptive, online learning program that is currently being funded by the Texas state legislature as part of the Texas SUCCESS (Students Using Curriculum Content to Ensure Sustained Success) program.  The legislature has funded the program for the 2013-2014 school year for grades 3-8.  

Students will practice as a whole class during computer lab and will be able to use at home. Students have username and password--- look in the agenda and ask them. They will also bring home a letter explaining how parents can log on. It will also have the student log in and password. 








Friday, September 20, 2013

Word Problems

I'll post words problems that I come across during teaching and post them for students to use.

Multiplication Word Problems

Rate Problems

On the Garcia’s trip to New York they averaged 28 miles per gallon of gasoline. Their car has 17 gallons of gas. How many miles can they travel before having to fill up on gasoline?


If Karen reads 117 words per minute, then how many words can she read in one hour?


If Royer read 146 words per minute, then how many words can he read in thirty six minutes?


If Alandra’s heart beats 84 times per minute, then how many times does it beat in 45 minutes? In one hour? In one full day of 24 hours?


John has car payment of $336 dollars per month. It will take him 72 months to pay off his car. How much does his cost?


Christina and her husband bought a house last year. They had to pay $2348 month for 30 years. How much did their house cost? Hint: This is a two step problem.


If Maria reads 23 pages a day for her book club and there are 247 words per page, then how many words does she read each day? If she finishes the book in 26 days, then how many words are in the book?



Area problems

Room 6 is 27 feet wide and 31 feet long. What is the area of the room in square feet?



The fourth grade building is 62 feet wide and 127 feet long. What is the area of the room in square feet?


Multiplicatitve Compare Problems

An average teacher in Los Angeles makes about $5,629 dollars a month. A professional basketball player makes 16 times as much money per month. How much money does a professional basketball player make in one month? In one year?

Fall month....
1) There were 5 haunted houses on a street. Each house had 7 ghosts inside. How many ghosts altogether?Three kids and two adults are going to the movies.

2) 4 spider webs were hanging in the attic. Each web had 11 spiders, how many spiders were there altogether?

3) Walmart ordered some pumpkins for Halloween. They arrived in 5 trucks. Each truck had 10 pumpkins inside. How many pumpkins did Walmart order?

4) 2 witches were cooking toads in 8 cauldrons. Each cauldron had 6 toads inside. How many toads did the witches have to buy from the pet shop?

5) 6 ghosts did a spooky scream every hour. How many screams were there after 4 hours?

6) In an old scary house there were 9 old cupboards. When they were opened there were 5 blood sucking bats in each cupboard! How many horrible bats were there?

7) On Halloween night 13 vampires flew into the village. If each vampire bit 3 people, how many people were bitten altogether that night?

8) There were 7 spooky (and smelly) swamps. In each swamp lived 8 ugly swamp monsters. How many monsters in the swamp?

November...

Kel is training for
the annual Turkey Eating Contest. He practices by eating 7 pounds of turkey per hour. He has been training for 26 hours. How many pounds of turkey has Kel eaten?


Ellen was in charge of buying ears of corn for a Thanksgiving project at school. Each student needed 17 ears of corn. There are 28 students in Ellen’s class. How many ears of corn did she need to buy?

September 23rd week Sneak Peek of Math lessons...

We'll be multiplying using 2 by 1 digits (Decomposing Numbers) with partial products and 2 by 2 digits.
Here's a video of The Lattice that shows another way to multiply 2 by 2 digits .

Samples of additional word problems that we'll be reviewing on...

Marlin Elementary has 17 
classrooms of students. Each 
classroom has 1 teacher and 22 
students. How many students attend 
Marlin Elementary?

Randy wants to have a water 
balloon fight at his birthday party on 
Saturday. There are 56 friends 
coming to his birthday party. If he 
wants each person to be able to 
throw 8 water balloons, which of the 
following is the best estimate for the 
number of water balloons Randy 
needs to buy?

At Cindy’s birthday party, her 
friends were allowed to pick three 
things to go into their party bag. 
They could pick one sticker, one color
of notepad, and one writing utensil. 
How many different combinations of 
3 things could her friends pick?


Other types of word problems:
 The following is a table that a 4th
grade class was using to understand
relationships between numbers.
Input    Output
7            21
12          26
18          32
31          45
Using the table above, what is the
relationship between the input and
the output?
A) Multiply by 3
B) Divide by 3
C) Add 14
D) Subtract 14

Anna wrote the following number
sentence on her paper.
4 x ___ = 48
She did not know how to find the
missing number. Which of the
following number sentences could
help Anna find the missing number?
F) 48 4 = ____
G) 4 + 48 = ____
H) 4 x 48 = ____
J) 48 – 4 = ____

More student work from their Interactive Notebook


Extreme Science--

Study of The Seasons.
Created Marshmallow Seasons --- Thank you Parents for an exciting lesson!

Moby Max

Be sure to visit MobyMax. It's an integrated curriculum and teaching system with progress monitoring, goal setting, fluency practice, and motivation tools for Math and Science. Student's username and password is their first name. Search school name---Nottingham. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Multiplication

The fourth grade math curriculum introduces many new concepts very quickly! We  are working on 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication this week. We will begin division in 2 weeks! Please keep working on multiplication facts at home.
-Mrs. Chu


Ways I Can Help My Child Learn Their Facts

·        Keep a set of flashcards in the car. Have your child practice them on the way to school, to the grocery store, or on the way home.
·        Quiz your child in the car or at home. Just 15 minutes a night will help!
·        Use free online math fact games!
·        Once your child knows one set of facts, ask them “What number times 2 equals 8?”  This will help them when we start division.
·        Another way you can quiz them is to ask, “What is the product of 4x5?” This will help build your child’s math vocabulary.
·        Create a memory game. Using index cards write the multiplication fact on one card and the answer on another card.

·        Play “Multiplication War” –You will need 1 deck of cards (take out the face cards). Each person flips over 2 cards and multiplies them. Whoever has the higher product (answer) wins those 2 cards.


********************************************************************************************Our class started working on multiplication concepts this week. In the coming weeks we will be starting division concepts. It is imperative that your child be able to recall their multiplication facts 0-12 to be successful in math this year.
I highly recommend using multiplication and division flashcards or using online math fact websites. Flashcards can be purchased at Dollar Tree, Walmart, or Target.
My class webpage has many links for students to use at home.  You can help your child learn them by asking them in the car, “What’s 2 x 7?” 
Starting this Friday, your child will be having weekly multiplication facts test. We will start with 0 and 1 this Friday. Next week they will have a test on the 2s. By December multiplication facts 0-12 are expected to be memorized.
If you would like a set of multiplication flashcards, please let me know and I will copy a set for you.
Thank you so much for your continued support!
Mrs. Chu
Websites:

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Scientific Method Song

Great song to remember the process.
Scientific Song

Class work sample

Up Coming Parent Conference Sign Up Sheet

Parents! Conference for the fall is coming up in October. Please be sure to sign up for your slot at Open House night on September 18th.


Fall Parent Conferences
Monday, October 21, 2013
Time
Child’s Name
Parent’s Name
9:05 am


9:20 am


3:15 pm


3:30pm





Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Time
Child’s Name
Parent’s Name
3:05pm


3:20 pm


3:35 pm



Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Time
Child’s Name
Parent’s Name
9:05 am

9:20 am


3:10 pm


3:25 pm


3:40 pm


3:55 pm


4:10 pm



Thursday, October 24, 2013
*Half-Day for Students
Time
Child’s Name
Parent’s Name
1:00 pm


1:20 pm


1:40 pm


2:00pm


2:20pm

2:40pm

3:00pm


3:20 pm



Friday, October 25, 2013
*Half Day for students

Time
Child’s Name
Parent’s Name
9:05 am


9:20 am


1:00 pm


1:20 pm




Next Week...review of characteristics of the SUN and Rounding

We'll view Brainpop on the SUN to review patterns and its role as a major energy source.

Rounding to thousands--Numbers from 4 digits. We'll use cloze sentences to help students focus on what number value makes it round up or down.


Sample of student interactive note on rounding--

Flipchart to review rounding---We used roller coaster to help us round!

Here's a sneak peek of what's ahead in math.

Video on Rounding

Here are a few examples of rounding numbers to the nearest hundred:
image6.png
When rounding numbers to the nearest thousand, underline the thousands digit and the digit to its immediate right. Round the number by focusing only on the two underlined digits and, when you’re done, change all digits to the right of these to 0s:
image7.png
Even when rounding to the nearest million, the same rules apply:
image8.png



Subtractions

We've been focusing on decomposing numbers from word problems using subtraction: take away, comparative, and missing part.




*********************************************************************************

SUM DOG is an interactive game that students can sign up to review the concepts we learned at school about subtraction.

Math Facts
Students can also go to XtraMath to practice math facts. Students should know their pins from station works and computer lab times. The classroom code is CV5N5C55.  If they forgot the pin, just email me and I'll send it to you.

Remember, fluency demands more of students than memorizing numbers, it rests in a well-built mathematical foundation of three parts:
1. Understanding the meanings of operations and their relationships to each other.
2. Knowledge of a large repertoire of number relationship, including addition and multiplication "facts."
3. Thorough understanding of the base-ten number system.