Types of Triangles Comics

"Types of Triangles" by Mariah

"Triangles" by Chesnee

"Triangles" by Lexi

"3 Types of Triangles" by Isaac

"The Three Types of Triangles" by Anna

"Type of Triangles" by Bailey

"Triangles" by Austin2 and Logan

Ornamental Polygons

In math, we wrote used the properties of polygons to write polygon riddles and one day after school, McKenzie and Jaden came up with the idea to make them into ornaments for a holiday tree on our classroom door. Since it was their idea, they designed and created the trees, the snow,  the sign, and the name on the sign ("Ornamental Polygons"). When it was time to actually hang the ornaments, Mariah and Bailey came up with the idea to use yarn and actually hang them on the tree, so they took over hanging all the ornaments. Mariah also had the idea for the stars on top of the trees, so she made those as well.

For the ornaments, we wrote the riddles inside and the shape of the ornament is supposed to be the answer to the riddle. Some of the polygons some of us chose were really difficult to draw--especially the polygons with multiple pairs of parallel sides!

Festive Winter Surveys

In December, we created and conducted festive winter surveys as a mini math project for collecting and analyzing data since we were getting pretty excited about upcoming holiday events. First, we brainstormed possible survey topics with our partner. Then we chose a topic and came up with three possible choices for conducting the survey among our class. After we conducting the survey (which was quite a bit more complicated that we realized!), we used the results to create a bar graph and pie chart from chartmaker.mathwarehouse.com as visual representations of our findings. 

If you look carefully on the pie chart, you will notice we also began to learn a little bit about converting fractions to decimals and percents (but not securely, as that was not the main focus of the project). 

Order of Operations: the FUN way to learn!

While we normally do math workshop, today we began learning about the order of operations several different ways as a whole class.

First, we used the Whole Brain Teaching techniques "Teach-Okay" and gestures to learn and teach each other. 

Then, since it was such a beautiful morning, we went outside and played Order of Operations Hopscotch, an idea I (Mrs.Allen) got from here.  

Later, we applied what we learned by playing Order of Operations Bingo.  

Converting Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions (and vice versa) with Jared and Grant

Common Fractions/Decimals/Percents "Hidden" Pictures

For the past couple weeks, one of the math task options during math workshop has been to create a picture and "hide" common equivalent fractions, decimals, and percents throughout the picture. 

Check out these amazing examples:

by Brooke

by Raven

by Emily

by Landon

                                                               

Math Comics

Multiplying Fractions with Brooke and Emma

Cross-Multiplying with Fractions by Landon and Emily

Our First Experience with "Teach-Ok"

From the middle of September.....

Lately I (Mrs.Allen) have been doing a lot of reading on Whole Brain Teaching, so I decided to take the plunge and begin testing it out with our class. Our attention signal, "Class-Yes," is working out well, so this week we tried something new: "Teach-Ok." Since we had been learning about prime and composite numbers, I decided to have us learn the technique by reviewing what prime and composite numbers are with a simple sort-of chant mixed with a few of gestures. After we got that down, I introduced square numbers with a sort-of chant mixed in with a few gestures as well.  (All three that are featured in the video I made up entirely based on what I felt would make the most sense to our class; they're definitely not "incredible," but I think they work for us!)

Anyway, as you will see in this video, we are still in the very beginning stages of getting this totally down, but I think it's a pretty good start! Hope you enjoy! (Side note: normally, our room is configured into teams, but for this technique we had to rearrange our desks into pairs.)

Prime Factorization Trees

Here are some "Fancy Factor Trees" some of us made as part of our math stations during the last part of September. Notice how the examples below have the prime factorization for the numbers and some even have the exponential notation as well.