6th & 8th Grade Math
with Ms. Watkins
September 19, 2014 Volume 3
Office Hours
Every Tuesday from 3:15-4:00 I have what I refer to as office hours. This is a time when students may come in and begin their homework, work on the script or a reassessment video, or just receive additional help. This week we had several students in for the office hours and many finished all their math homework during that time. If your child wants to attend it is open for all. Below are some expectations for all who come. The purpose of sharing these are to make it clear that this time is for understanding math.
Expectations:
- Work on math material first.
- Keep voices down so that everyone can focus on their own material.
- If a student wants or needs a snack please make sure it is nut free.
6th Grade News
This week in math we started by looking at order of operation and the distributive property. Students used PEMDAS to simplify expressions and were able to use the distributive property to make multiplication problems easier to answer. We spent both Monday and Tuesday on these topics. Wednesday we reviewed for the chapter 1 test. Students worked on the study guide and were able to check their answers and when they finished. Once this was done, they chose between practicing decimal multiplication/division or order of operation. Thursday was the Chapter 1 test and on Friday students were able to finish problems they didn't get to on Thursday. Next week we will be looking back at integers to make sure that we understand them. Students will be starting a project in class which will be due on Thursday next week.
Reassessments
If students want to be reassessed on any standard they can make an educreations video. We will be going over exactly what that means and how to make the video in 6th grade next week.
8th Grade News
We began the week with more review for the first test of unit 1, and on Tuesday students took the test. On Wednesday students received the assignment sheet for the rest of unit 1. This will cover exponents and square roots. Our focus in class on Wednesday was to learn about exponent rules and simplify exponential expressions with negative numbers, and zeros as the exponents. Thursday continued the discussion of simplifying exponents with a focus on simplifying expressions multiplied and in the form of scientific notation. Our week concluded with the discussion and practice with exponents but had a greater focus on combining numbers with exponents and raising exponents to a power.
Quiz 8.1-8.4 is scheduled for Tuesday, September 23
Email Addresses
It is my goal to send this newsletter to everyones email address. If you did not receive this newsletter in your email, please let me know and send your preferred email address. Have a wonderful weekend!