Unit 3

In unit 3, students will learn to use a protractor to measure angles.  Here is a link to an on-line protractor so students can practice at home.  In class, we ask the kids to estimate the size of their angle prior to measuring so they will know if their answer makes sense.  At first, they may only be able to say that an angle is greater than or less than 90 degrees.  As they gain experience measuring various size angles, their ability to estimate should improve. 

on-line protractor

Decimals

A large part of Unit 2 math requires students to demonstrate an understanding of decimals.  All of our new classroom computers are not up and running yet, so here's a link to a site our students can use at home. 

Practice decimals

We will continue to teach these skills in class.  In addition, we will continue to work on a conceptual understanding of what decimals are and how they can be shown and used.

If you find additional sites you like, pass them along to us and we will share them with everyone in a future post.

Addition & Subtraction of Whole Numbers and Decimals

Prerequisite skills for Unit 2:  Addition and subtraction of 3 and 4-digit whole numbers, with renaming

For students at the beginning of 5th grade, it is important that they refresh these skills if they need to.  I know they've done this level of addition and subtraction in previous grades, but summer slide is very real.  Face it.  Who sits down and does math problems every day during summer vacation? 

If you haven't already, take a look at http://www.khanacademy.org/.  It is chock full of mini lessons in every area of math that you can think of. 

If you don't have time right now to browse this extensive site, the following links will take you directly where you need to go.

Click here for a review of addition using larger numbers w/renaming (also called borrowing.)

Click here for a review of subtraction using larger numbers w/renaming.

Click here for a lesson in addition of decimals.

Click here for a lesson in subtraction of decimals.

We will work on these skills in class, by themselves and within the context of word problems. 



Notes to students: 

• Remember to write neatly.  Please don't make an error because you can't read your own numbers. 
• Line your columns of numbers up properly.  If this is tricky for you, do your math problems on a piece of lined paper turned sideways.  Put one number in each vertical column, like we've done in class.

Skills Practice

Here are links to a couple of sites that will help students practice their basic skills.  Proficiency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division is a prerequisite for everything we teach in 5th grade math.

There are lots of great sites out there.  These are just a couple that we explored during our 2-week technology  session this past summer. 

http://honorpoint.com/

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

For students who are proficient in the 4 basic operations, academicskillbuilders has some decimal games as well.  This site will help students review what they learned in grades 3 and 4 so they will be ready to further their understanding of decimals at a 5th grade level. 

How to Calculate Change

Welcome to Math in the Red Pod. 

It is important that students are able to mentally calculate change back from $1.00, $5.00 and $10.00.  Watch a quick video of Mrs. Schart's lesson showing the kids how to use the letters p,n,d,q to represent the coins penny, nickel, dime and quarter, so they can think on paper.  If your child is not proficient in this skill, this is something they can work on at home. 

To help your child at home, ask how much change they would receive from $1.00 if they bought a candy bar for 69 cents.

Move on to ask how much change they would get back from $5.00 if they spent $3.52 on items at the school store.

Then try asking how much change they would receive from $10.00 if they spent $6.80 on a new book.

Some students will be able to let go of the jotting of letters and do it all in their heads, and some won't.  Either way is fine.

Thank you to Miss Terri who took this video.  Special thanks to Mrs. Pullano's homeroom students who participated in this lesson. 

I'm interested in your feedback.  If you found this helpful - or not -  please let me know by leaving a comment below. 

Glen Greenwood

Victor Colomb

Beth Schart