6-8 Math

Mrs. Melvin’s 6-8 Grade Math

I have several goals for our math students, in general.  They are:

  1. Students understand that math expressions and equations is a communication tool like writing words and sentences is a tool to communication with.
  2. Students gain an understanding of the reasoning behind the calculations, equations, formulas that we use.
  3. Students see a valued use of mathematics in their every day life and know how to apply it.
  4. Students expand their knowledge and skills by problem solving and reasoning strategies.

 

More specifically,

Grade 6: 

Our current studies has been finding common factors and common multiples between two or more numbers.

We are then applying this knowledge to learn about the meaning of fractions, finding equivalent fractions, and how fractions and decimals are connected…meaning that decimals are actually a form of a fraction. Students should also be able to order fractions, or a combination of fractions and decimals from least to greatest, or from greatest to least. A short introduction into negative numbers will be presented. Students are having a test on these concepts on Friday, November 18th. After the Thanksgiving break, we will begin to work on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.

Grade 7:

Students have been learning to find the surface area of squares and rectangles, as well as prisms in the form of block structures. Students also have been introduced to finding area of a triangle. This was followed up with the volume of prisms. We are beginning to investigate finding the volume of cylinders. Students will have a chapter test on Tuesday, November 22 on these concepts. Students will also investigate the use of nets, or outlines of 3 dimensional figures and how they fold to form things like cylinders or prisms. After the Thanksgiving break, we will be investigating the use of exponents with whole numbers, fractions and decimals.

Grade 8:

Our current chapter in mathematics is about two important parts of algebra: quadratic relationships and inverse relationships.

We have begun our study by analyzing and graphing equations in the form y = ax “squared”. We have learned how this relates to finding the area of a circle. Students have also learned thant the graph of any quadratic relationship is a symmetric, u-shaped curve called a parabola. Quadratic relationships can be more complicated and relate to the motion of objects that are thrown or shot into the air. For example, if you want to estimate how high a ball is after some time as passed, you can use a quadratic equation and values for the equation can be graphed.

We will also look at inverse relationships, in which the product of two quantities is always the same. For example, you may have only $20 to pay a baby sitter so the number of hours you can afford to have the sitter depends on the pay per hour he or she charges. Students will be tested on these concepts on Tuesday, November 22. After Thanksgiving break, we will begin to explore exponents and how to use them to refer to extremely large or extremely small numbers.