Dear Parents,
I hope your students enjoyed the half day last Friday. This
week, we have a full week of school on our normal schedule, but next week we do
have Monday off for President’s Day, so mark your calendars!
This week in science, we will be having a quiz on the
stratosphere and the troposphere. We will review states of matter and then start
studying the water cycle. I am particularly excited for our discussion of
condensation because we have an experiment on his topic that should provoke
lots of interesting discussion. Of course, I can’t say too much here so that
students don’t find out ahead of time, but it should be fun!
In math we will continue our study of mixed and improper
fractions. We do have a math test on Tuesday for which the topic is proper
fractions and mixed numbers. The information contained on the test should largely
be a review of information learned in second and third grade, so students who
study for the test should be confident of earning a good grade. I am still including
a short study guide below. Please note that we will be using mainly vertical
fractions on the test. I have use
horizontal fractions here because vertical fractions don’t work well on the
blog’s interface.
Definition of fractions: A fraction is a number written with
a numerator and a denominator.
Numerator: The top part of a fraction
Denominator: The bottom part of a fraction
Proper Fraction: A fraction in which the numerator is less
than the denominator
Improper Fraction: A
fraction in which the numerator is greater than or equal to the denominator
Whole number: One of ordinary numbers we have been using to
count, add, subtract, etc. since kindergarten
Mixed Numbers: Quantities which are compose of a whole
number and a fraction such as 5 1/3 or 2 3/5. The whole number is called the
whole part, and the fraction is called the fraction part.
Students should be able to read fractions correctly, and
they should be able to correctly identify numerators and denominators. NOTE:
Some students assume the numerator must always be smaller than the denominator
because most of their previous experience has been with fractions less than
one. Thus, when presented with fractions like 8/5 they will say the
numerator is 5, the denominator is 8, and they will read it as “five-eighths.”
These answers are, of course, incorrect.
Fractions equal to 1: Students should recognize that
improper fractions in which the numerators and denominators are equal are the
same as the whole number one. Such fractions are, therefore, equal to each other,
and students should also recognize this fact. Students should be able to pick
fractions equal to one from a list and give examples when asked.
Comparing fractions with numerators of 1: Students should understand
that the greater the denominator, the more pieces a fraction has, but the
smaller each piece is. Thus, 1/3 > 1/5
> 1/6 > 1/7 > 1/19 > 1/257. A
good example is sharing a cake. You want to share a cake with the smallest
number of people as possible because the less people you share with, the bigger
your piece is!
Fraction Models: Students should be able
to draw models of proper fractions, fractions equal to one, horizontal fractions,
and mixed numbers. Fractions models should have equal pieces. The whole shapes
sued to model mixed numbers should be equal to each other. When modeling
fractions equal to one, students may NOT merely draw a single shape and shade
it. They need to divide it into the correct number of parts and shade all the
parts.
Students should be able to correctly read
and identify numerators and denominators of horizontal fractions.
There will be at least one column multiplication problem and
one long division on the test.
These are all the notes I have for you this week. Please send
me a message through your Jupiter Ed account with any questions, comments, or
concerns you may have.
Sincerely,
Miss Wycklendt
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