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Volume City

Fifth graders created a "Volume City" by creating rectangular prisms out of paper nets. . 

Symmetrical Patchwork

Fourth graders created quilt pieces that had lines of symmetry. 

Pattern Block Angles

Marilyn Burn's blog about teaching angles using a hands on approach really intrigued me that I decided to give it a try with the fourth graders. Students used hinged mirrors to figure out the measurement of pattern block angles. 

Polygons in Jackson Height Sort

Fourth Grade Mathematicians walked around Jackson Heights searching for Polygons. They drew six Polygons on white cards and sorted the Polygon Cards into appropriate categories based on attributes. 

The Four Triangle Problem

Using Four Triangles, young mathematicians explored the attributes of Polygons. Students assembled, sorted, and named the Polygons created. 


THE RULES:

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​MAKING POLYGONS


​SORTING AND DEFINING

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Geometry in Our Neighborhood

Students walked around their neighborhood photographing Polygons, specifically various types of Quadrilaterals. Polygons were classified and posted creatively to demonstrate understanding of hierarchy. 

The Big Pad

How many 3x3 Post-its does it take to cover The 11x11 Big Pad Post- It? Students explored Area with Unit Fractions  through this Graham Fletcher 3- Act Task.

Building Structures

To begin our unit on Volume, students made 3D Structures. They created expressions to determine how many cubes make up the figure. 

Fraction Story Sort

We are finishing up our fraction unit in the fifth grade. This year the curriculum extends their knowledge of addition and subtraction of fractions, as well as exploring and practicing strategies for both multiplication and division of fractions. In about two months we covered a lot of ground, building understanding both conceptually and abstractly. 
 
Today, we did a sort where students had to determine the proper equation and model that would work with a particular story problem. Problems would include all operations. In partnerships, students worked through seven problems using appropriate strategies and mathematical reasoning. 

Extension:

 To make things a bit more challenging, they were on the quest to write 7 story problems that would be appropriate for each equation. They added models, and solved each appropriately. At the end of class, they had the opportunity to share their work. They Read a problem they created to the rest of the class for the class to determine what would be an appropriate equation for solving their problem. 

Cuisenaire Trains

From Mindset Mathematics-Students use Cuisenaire rods to explore the patterns that emerge when dividing a fraction into equal- size pieces.
 

Creating Cards

From Mindset Mathematics- Fifth graders begin to explore fraction division by making cards and cutting paper. Students were given 6 sheets of paper that can be used to make a card with 1/3 of a piece of paper. Students explored how many cards they could make with the paper. We discussed how they approached the problem, if their answer made sense, as well as what equation we can use to label what we have done. As an extension we explored how many cards we can make if we changed the fraction of a piece of paper we used to make the card. Students determined equations that made sense and we discovered patterns. They left wondering about other situations where we may divide a whole number by a fraction. 

Happy Pi Day

We had some fun with Circumference on Pi Day. Students left school learning why we call March 14th "Pi Day."  After watching Sir Cumference and The Dragon of Pi, we  explored Pi by measuring various circles around the room with string the size of the circle's diameter; confirming that the circumference is in fact three strings and one-seventh. The favorite activity of the day were soundscapes we created for the number Pi.  We gave 3.14 sound. Here is what we came up with...

Fractions as Division 

Using Post-its to resemble Pop-tarts, students shared them with friends noticing patterns that displayed fractions as division. 

100th Day of School Celebration


​Fifth graders celebrated the 100th day of school dressed as 100 year old men and women.
Projects turned in included games, books, and posters with at least twenty expressions equalling the value of 100. Some interpreted 100 in various ways including a 100 piece puzzle, 100 pom poms on a poster, and random facts about 100 to add to their booklet. 

Hat Size and Fractional Line Plots​

Fifth graders dive into creating and reading fractional line plots. To build more background knowledge, we measured our hat sizes, converted our measurements to Lid's Hat Sizes and learned to read the Data we collected. 
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THE DREAM BUBBLE

Our Elementary Students were asked: " What kind of World do you want to live in? We have come a long way since the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. But there is still a long way to go. Students thought of ways we could make our world a better place, and created images of their own dreams for the world. Through this art installation, look closely at the stained glass windows; peer out on the dream of our youngest TRCS students. 
Songs in video written by 5th grade students during Social Studies Class. 
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Fifth Grade Writing...
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THREE PEARS- THREE ACT TASK (Graham Fletcher)

As fourth graders students work a lot with equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, and adding/ subtracting fractions with like denominators. As a formative assessment for the Addition and Subtraction Module in fifth grade, we followed 3-Act Task protocol to solve "How much do the three pears weigh?" 


Act One...
Estimates...
Act Two...
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Act Three...

EXPRESSIONS

Fifth graders explore expressions through drawings, words, and numbers. Later finding the values of various expressions. As an enrichment, students worked Jo Boaler's 1492 Problem. Students must only use the digits 1-4-9-2  as well as different mathematical operations, and their knowledge of the Order of Operations to find the values of the numbers 1-100. Operation Target was a fun game during this unit, too!

MAPPING A WAY TO DECIMAL UNDERSTANDING

Using Cusinaire Rods and metric measurement students  worked collaboratively to make sense of meters, decimeters, and centimeters. They made metric measuring tapes and measured items in the classroom noticing patterns between meter, decimeter, and centimeter measurements. 

THE UNIT YOU

From Mindset Mathematics- Fifth graders explored the relationship between powers of 10 from 1/1000 to 1,000 by creating visual references beginning with student's height as a unit. Students presented their findings using objects and drawings. They continued with representing powers of 10 using small everyday objects and comparing the space take up by 10, 100, 1000 as well as 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000.  See more here.
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CAREER INTERVIEWS

The first fifth grade project of the 2018-2019 school year were Career Interviews. The students had the task of finding a family member or friend that has a job and was willing to be interviewed. The goal was to find out how they use math to do their job. They needed to investigate the kind of math concepts that they use daily. Interviews can be in the form of a magazine article, podcast, or video. We aligned these math concepts with the fifth grade curriculum we will be unpacking this year. 
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BOARD GAMES

"You have summer homework!" I hear the students screaming in unison "NO!" Honestly, I don't think they minded this activity! Some of these games are worthy of being sold at the local Target. 
Over the summer, students created a math game that reinforced topics that they learned in fourth grade. Games included topics such as multiplication, division, polygon identification, decimal fractions, and much more. We spent the first couple of days of school playing these games. Some have been added to weekly centers. 

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