School's Almost Back!!!

It's almost that time again! Back to school... Roughly 12 more days until I get to meet my 4th graders. I'm very happy to be teaching 4th grade math again this year. I'm busy making decorations and supplies for my classroom. Can't wait to start setting up my classroom. I will post the pictures of the progression of my classroom setup sometime next week!

On to other matters. This year, in an attempt to keep my desk organized and clutter free, I've been looking for desk trays/organizers. I found a pretty nice one...  the Seville Mesh Desk Organizer. At Costco this organizer is $16.99, but I'll do you one better! I found this organizer on Amazon for $9.99,  free shipping! This was such a steal, I had to buy 2!

Seville Mesh Desk Organizer

Geometry Unit --- Polygons

Students learned about Polygons this week. We will expand later this week on Quadrilaterals (4 sided polygons). We even watched a cute song about Polygons.

 

 

 



Students learned that a polygon was a shape/figure that has straight sides (line segments), closed sides, 3 or more sides and is 2 dimensional (flat). Students learned about the different types of polygons:

 



Geometry Unit --- Points, Lines, Angles

Points, Lines and Angles
Students started our geometry unit learning about points, lines and angles. Students made foldables in class that were glued into their math journals.

 

 



 Students also learned how to name angles. An angle can be named by using a capitalized letter to represent it or 3 capitalized letters as seen below:

Ordering Fractions

Students learned how to use same denominator and same numerator to compare and order fractions. If a fraction has the same denominators, just look at the numerator. The smaller the numerator, the smaller the fraction. If a fraction has the same numerators, just look at the denominators, the smaller the denominator the bigger the fraction. Students also learned how to find equivalent fractions with common denominators to compare and order fractions more easily. We watched the following video to help better understand how to order fractions:

Equivalent Fractions, Simplifying/Reducing Fractions & Converting Fractions

Equivalent Fractions

Students learned how to generate equivalent fractions. In order to make equivalent fractions you can multiply or divide the numerator and denominator by the same number.

Example:

Another method students learned to determine if fractions were equivalent is the butterfly method. Using the butterfly method, you could cross multiply and if the two products were equal, the fractions are equivalent.



Simplifying or Reducing Fractions

Students learned how to simplify or reduce fractions. When we simplify or reduce a fraction we use division to make the fraction smaller. When reducing fractions, students had to make sure that the numerator and the denominator was divided by a common factor.

Simplest form --- the smallest number a fraction can be reduced to. In order to find the simplest form of a fraction, you have to find the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) then divide both numerator and denominator by the GCF.

Converting Fractions

Students learned 2 methods to convert fractions --- TX method and division.

In order to convert Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions, you would use the TX method. First, multiply the whole number with the denominator. If you have 4 wholes that are split into 4 equal parts (fourths) then you'd have 16 fourths. Then add the numerator... 16 + 3 = 19. You now have 19 fourths. We keep the same denominator so the improper fraction is 19/4.

In order to convert Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers, you would use division. If I had 19/4 and I wanted to change that into a Mixed Number I would divide my numerator (top #) by my denominator (bottom #). 19 divided by 4 equals 4 with a remainder of 3. The 4 is my whole number and the remainder is the numerator of my fractions. We keep the same denominator so my mixed number is 4 and 3/4.

Fractions can be very difficult to master because there are so many aspects to it. Please continue to work with your child at home to ensure that he/she is comprehending the material. Thank you! --- Ms. Cao



Fractions --- Reviewing the Basics

Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Today students learned about fractions. We revisited this topic from last year and discussed the basics of fractions. Students took notes in their math journals.

We also used the smart board to identify fractions.

http://www.thegreatmartinicompany.com/fractions/identifying-fractions.html