We've been incredibly busy the last few days in 7th grade math! Over the past couple days, we've finished our unit on adding and subtracting integers and decimals and practiced in multiple ways in class. We finished off with a rousing game of Grudge Ball on Friday (a definite favorite). Today the students will take their first Show What You Know over adding and subtracting integers and decimals. Then we'll begin adding and subtracting fractions.
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We started off yesterday and today with a 24 problem. The numbers they had to use to get to 24 were: Level 1: 22, 9, 20, 13 Level 2: 8, 7, 24, 8 Level 3: 16, 9, 18, 8 We have been doing a lot of exploring with integers and looking at them in real life situations. Today, we tried to generalize rues for adding and subtracting integers. The students then put these rules in their notes. We are creating rules such as these to help extend the ideas of how to add positive and negative numbers to all rational numbers...including fractions and decimals.
Today we did a card sorting activity in which the students were given sets of cards that included cities, their temperatures, and arrow cards that indicated the change in temperature between the cities. In each case, there is a missing temperature or a missing change in temperature. Based on the 2 given pieces of information, their goal is to determine the missing numbers and show how they came to that answer. Most groups did not finish the activity, so we will continue it tomorrow. Not all groups finished organizing their flow charts, but here are a few that completed in class. Tomorrow, the students will have the opportunity to join groups to share their reasoning and thinking on how they completed the activity. We began today with an integer dot talk and a quick discussion over rational numbers. They had watched a video yesterday after finishing a pre assessment, so we talked about what they remembered. Next, we played some games that involved integers. Different students played different games depending on their current understanding of adding and subtracting integers. Some students played the Balloon Race game we played last week, but today we played it with a "Mathematicians Eye." They wrote down the equations that were created through out their games and looked for patterns or what they noticed about how the answers were found. They completed the Analyzing the Balloon Game worksheet in their notebooks. Others played the game Connect 3. In this game, students use their understanding of how to add and subtract integers to attempt to manipulate numbers rolled on a dice to get 3 in a row. In 7th grade math for today and tomorrow we started off with an activity called 24 which we will continue to do on the block days. 24 is very similar to the Four 4's activity. They are given 4 numbers and they may add, subtract, multiply and divide them to get 24. During this activity we focus strongly on creating one equation that can be solved to equal 24 as opposed to breaking it up in to steps. This activity is a great way for students to be able to problem solve as well as practice order of operations and writing equations. Today's 24 problems were: Level 1: 1, 12, 4, 5 Level 2: 12, 3, 9, 3 Level 3: 1, 4, 24, 12 We are starting our unit on Operations with rational numbers. In order to better understand how to manipulate all forms of numbers (fractions, integers, etc...) we had a discussion about the 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and what we were actually doing with numbers in each of these cases. This will allow the students a more conceptual understanding of operations with integers and fractions. Finally, I showed the students where their homework can be found. We typically use an online program called Tenmarks for homework. Students go to Tenmarks.com and log in. They were given their log in information and practiced logging in during class today. Homework will be assigned on the first day of the week and due on the last day of the week. It is for practice only and will not be scored in the grade book. However, parents can access their student's account. Please contact me if you would like information on how to do so.
Today we started with another integer dot talk. Then I gave the groups time to finish their visualizing integers worksheet. After they were done, they got to play a game called "Balloon Race." Here is the website where I found the game with a video on how to play: Up, Down, Flying Around The students had a lot of fun playing the game, while solidifying the conceptual idea of how to add and subtract integers. Today we started off with a different kind of number talk called a "dot talk." A dot talk is where I quickly reveal a set of dots and the students have to determine how many there are without having time to actually count them all. Since we're getting in to integers, I decided to use positive and negative dots and asked them to determine what number is being represented. They really liked this kind of number talk since it was at a level that everyone could participate. :) Then, I gave the students time to finish their pre assessments they started on the block day. Afterwards, they worked on the visualizing integers worksheet. We're going to discuss these more tomorrow.
Today and tomorrow are our first block days of the year. We started with a quick number talk and the students started a yearly pre assessment.
The last 30 minutes of class, I had the students work together in groups on a Visualizing Integers in real life activity. They were given scenarios that can be expressed using operations with integers and they were asked to draw a representation of it. From the representation, they were to write a number sentence. This real life visualization helps solidify the rules of integer operations. We started today and will finish on Thursday. |
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June 2016
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