School Fun

We aren't moving past the days of my planning brand new lessons as fast as I would like, but we're getting there. One and a half more units...

We spent three weeks learning all about fractions and have recently moved into rational numbers. I'm always impressed with how well my 6th graders come to me knowing fractions. Fractions were such a foreign concept to my students in Durham. That wasn't because they couldn't do them, they just didn't like to persevere through a problem so if they saw a fraction, they automatically assumed they couldn't do it.

The elementary teachers here do a great job of instilling a great fractional foundation that it makes my job much easier!

We started out comparing fractions visually. Who doesn't love a day where you play with play-doh?

I gave each pair a pack of play-doh and had them split it in half then make their halves into equal size circles. Then, I gave them two fractions to make and then they had to decide which was bigger. We talked a lot about if it was cake which piece they would rather have.

Then, I gave them sets of fractions that already had inequality symbols filled in. They had to sort them into two categories, true and false, and glue them in their notebooks.

We also played Fraction War. Same concept as I Declare War, but they made fractions with their cards and whoever had the highest fraction won the cards.

We learned how to place fractions on a number line by making a 120" number line in the hall.

Then we did another card sort when we started learning about negative numbers. They had to put the yellow numbers in first and then added in the pink numbers, which had decimals on them. I was worried about the concept of decimals, especially negative decimals, but they did great with them!

 Math is always more fun when you can "play"!

I got lamps for my classroom and love them! The florescent lights were too bright to see the board well, but my room is too dark without the lights on. So, lamps it is and the kids love them! It makes the room feel so relaxing too.