Math with Mr. Casciano
Cluster 3 Math with Mr. Casciano - December
Hello Cluster 3 Families,
We just recently finished up our unit on measuring circles. In this unit students practiced not only finding circumference and area of circles, but also of complex shapes involving different fraction sized circles. This end of unit assessment was put in as a grade for Trimester 2.
The unit we have just begun is connecting back to proportional relationships from unit 2 while also introducing the connection to percentages. Students will apply what they have learned about proportional relationships to solve problems involving fractional quantities and percent change.
Below is a breakdown of the current unit we are in.
Section 1: Percentages as Proportional Relationships (Lessons 1–7)
Students use tape diagrams, tables, and double number lines to represent proportional relationships involving fractional quantities and percentages. Students also practice writing and using equations of proportional relationships involving percent change. This prepares students to explore exponential functions involving percent change in high school.
Lesson 1 builds on what students learned in Grade 6 about visualizing and calculating the percentage of a number as they analyze colorful mosaics and build their own.
Lesson 2 builds off of what students learned about constants of proportionality in Unit 2 to compare relationships that involve fractional quantities in the context of recipes.
Lesson 3 continues this thread as students use constants of proportionality as tools to determine unknown values in proportional relationships, some of which involve fractional quantities. This is a strategy that students may use throughout the unit.
Lesson 4 combines three concepts: 1) percentages from Lesson 1, 2) determining unknown values using tables from Lesson 3, and 3) tape diagrams from Grade 6. Students visualize what it means to increase or decrease by a percentage, and use that visual to help them calculate unknown values. They see both tape diagrams and tables used to represent percent increase and percent decrease, and they use these representations to solve problems.
Lesson 5 asks students to represent situations involving percent increase or decrease using equations and to make connections between different ways to write that equation.
Lesson 6 explores the same relationships with a different tool: the double number line. Students practice calculating the original amount, the new amount, or the percent change given the other two quantities.
Lesson 7 continues to develop students’ fluency in calculating the original value, the new value, or the percent change given the other two quantities. This is the first lesson in which students experience multistep percent problems, which will set them up for success when they make sense of tax and tip in Lesson 8.
Section 2: Applying Percentages (Lessons 8–12)
Students interpret and solve problems about real-world situations involving proportional relationships and percent change.
Lesson 8 begins by asking students to apply what they've learned in the first section of the unit to solve multistep percent problems in a common context: sales tax and tip.
Lesson 9 is the first of two lessons examining minimum wage. Students use their sense of fairness to decide whether or not existing systems for paying restaurant servers are fair. They then design their own pay system.
Lesson 10 continues to examine minimum wage as students analyze how costs have increased over time compared to wages and think critically about what it means for college and minimum wage to increase by dramatically different percentages over time.
Lesson 11 looks at a different aspect of applying percentages: percent error. Students consider why percent error is useful and practice deciding whether or not a measurement is within an acceptable percent error.
Lesson 12 is an opportunity for students to generate and answer their own questions using real-world data involving percent increase or decrease.
Social Studies with Mr. Kirkaldy
Learning Targets:
Identify and explain the origins and essential beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism
Organize information from sources to make connections between documents and construct meaning about the development and role of belief systems in ancient South Asia
Argue or explain conclusions about the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism on ancient South Asian society, using valid reasoning and evidence to compare and contrast, explain cause and effect, and show modern relevance.
In Social Studies, we are finishing up learning about Hinduism, the main religion found in South Asia and will be moving on to Buddhism this week and next. One of our essential questions is "How do our beliefs influence how we live?" and these lessons on religion will help us answer that question.
ELA with Ms. Fitanides
English classes have been reading The Outsiders and we plan to finish the book and have an assessment before winter break. Your child should be reading every night and completing ONE quote and analysis per chapter. Time in class is used to discuss key moments that students notice in their reading, and to start the next chapter, which kids will finish at home. The focus of the novel study is on character change and growth (including perspectives), sign posts and how these both help us to understand the author's messages developed throughout the novel.
Standards:
- I can cite evidence to support analysis of what a text says explicitly and through inferencing
- I can determine themes and analyze the develop of these themes throughout a text
- I can understand how elements of a story interact and influence each other
- I can consider points of view of different characters in a text.
SCIENCE with Ms. Smith
We are now in term 2 and have begun to learn about chemistry. Students segued from biology to chemistry by focusing on the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Students did well unpacking these two important scientific processes and have already had their first quiz for this term. This week we are looking at physical and chemical properties and using that information to determine practical uses for various materials. Next, we will dive into pure substances and begin to examine elements and atoms.
Chemistry Learning Targets:
1) Recognize that there are more than 100 elements that combine in a multitude of ways to produce compounds that make up all of the living and nonliving things that we encounter.
2) Differentiate between an atom (the smallest unit of an element that maintains the characteristics of that element) and a molecule (the smallest unit of a compound that maintains the characteristics of that compound).
3) Give basic examples of elements and compounds.
4) Differentiate between mixtures and pure substances.
5) Recognize that a substance (element or compound) has a melting point and a boiling point, both of which are independent of the amount of the sample.
6) Differentiate between physical changes and chemical changes.
