April 25, 2016
3rd grade
Students will be working on Unit 10. This unit highlights a return to geometry from the point of view of
transformations or “motions” of geometric figures. It focuses primarily on reflections and the related
topic of symmetry. Unit 10 also introduces formal operations with positive and negative numbers. Unit
10 has three main areas of focus:
 To guide the discovery of basic properties of reflections, involving 2-dimentional figures and the
connection with line symmetry,
 To guide the application of reflections, rotations, and translations, and
 To introduce addition involving negative integers.
To help reinforce the concepts and skills covered in this unit you may want to have your child look for
repeating borders or frieze patterns ( a design made of shapes that are in a line or lined up) on buildings,
rugs, and floors. Your child may want to sketch the friezes or draw original patterns. Use sidewalk chalk
to make a number line with positive and negative numbers. Have your child solve additional and
subtraction problems by walking on the number line. For example: to solve -2 + 6, your child would start
on -2 and walk to the right six number to find the sum. Switch roles. For an inside activity, use paper,
pencil and fingers.
4th grade
Students are starting Level 2 of Hands-On-Equations. In Level 2 students gain familiarity with the white
pawn, called “star” and written as “X,” which is the opposite of the blue pawn, “X.” Using the blue
pawns, white pawns, red number-cubes, and a paper scale drawing, students learn to physically
represent and solve equations such as:
2X + (-X) + 3 = 2(-X) + 15
and
2X – 3(-X) = 20 + x.
The students gain familiarity with positive and negative numbers in an intuititve manner as they work
through this level.
5th grade
Students are continuing work on Unit 8 Rates and Ratios. In the next few lessons students will:
 Explore how to use a ratio to describe size changes,
 Explore the properties of similar polygons,
 Compare ratios by naming them as n-to-1 rations and,
 Explore Golden Rectangles and the Golden Ratio.
Math magazines are due by Friday April 29, 2016