CCS Pre-Algebra Class - ccsprealgebraclass

I hope you had a great break, and are ready to get started.  We will be focusing on equations and inequalities over the next couple of weeks, while saving some class time for review.  This will be a long and busy stretch until Spring Break.  So get ready to work!

Oh my!  I just realized how far behind I am in updating this website.  I apologize.  I am currently maintaining multiple sites, and this one slipped through the cracks! 

We have been moving right along in Pre-Algebra this year.  Our current unit is focusing on fractions, and decimals - including algebraic fractions.  We've learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide algebraic fractions.  We've learned how to find the greatest common factors and least common multiples.  We will continue to explore rational numbers next week, then move into ratios, proportions, and percents.

I'm excited about our new blog site.  This learning tool will be our online journal for math conversations.  Through blogs, our students will reflect and explore math concepts on a more personal, deeper level.  My goal is to make them think more about mathematical relationships, and why the methods we use to solve problems actually work.  I'm looking forward to their discoveries and their thoughts on the topics we cover.

I hope everyone had a great spring break!  We are down to our last eight weeks of school, and there is so much yet to do.  Our Pre-Algebra students started a new unit right before track-out, and I am really looking forward to getting back into it!  They have been tasked with designing a new playground for our school!  They will create a scale drawing and a 3D model of their ideas as we learn about geometric figures and relationships  This is an area of need for our school, and I am so glad we could turn it into an authentic learning experience for our children. 

If this project falls in your area of expertise, we would love to have you as our guest speaker.  Are you an engineer or an architect with some experience in creating scale drawings?  Are you a landscaper with some advice on how to make our area look more appealing to the eye?  Do you have access to some resources that we may not have thought about?  Then we want you to come in for a visit!  Please send me an email so we can work out the details.

 

Thanks for all you do to enhance and improve our students’ lives.

We are using what we have learned about ratios to find the probability of certain events.  We can even predict the possibility of future events by analyzing current or past data.  After a few days of practice and review, we will take our chapter 6 assessment.  As a reminder, chapter 6 covered ratios and rates, proportions, scale drawings and models, fractions, decimals and percents, percent proportions, finding percents mentally and estimating, percent equations, percent of change and probability.  Whew!!  We have had a lot to learn!

We are hitting the ground running after our winter break.  Hopefully the snow won't slow us down too much.  This week we are working on Ratios, Rates and Proportions.  The students are reviewing what they are and how to use them to solve real-world problems.  We also learned about scales, scale drawings and scale factors.  This is a busy time!  

I hope everyone is staying warm through this cold spell.  Please note that the middle school dance has been postponed due to school closings.

This week we started our unit on rational numbers.  We reviewed prime factorization, greatest common factors, exponents, and fractions.  Then we learned how all of these concepts apply to   algebra.  Next week we'll look at multiplying and dividing monomials, negative exponents, and scientific notation.  We are staying busy in Pre-Algebra!

The Distributive Property is used so often in Algebra to simplify expressions and solve equations.  It can also be a difficult concept to grasp, especially when working with negative integers.  We will spend more time on this concept next week so we can become more confident in the process.  Homework and center work will also be more individualized.  This will allow the students to practice those skills which they need to work on. 

We finished our chapter on integers and have moved into equations.  This week we will focus on using the Distributive Property to simlify expressions, solve equations and real-world problems.  Most of this information is coming from chapter 3 in your child's textbook.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I'm looking forward to talking with each of you at the parent conferences.

Parents, I am sending homework, chapter quizzes and copies of assessments home in the Friday Folders as we finish with them in school.  It is always a good idea to look over these with your children to make sure they understand their mistakes.  The first quiz and assessment for chapter 1 are in their folders today.  I do not need these back.  They are yours to keep.  Overall, I am pleased with the progress our students are making in Pre-Algebra.  I'm looking forward to a great year of learning!  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. 

khornick@crosscreekcharterschool.com 

Our next big concept is integers!  The students will be working with positive and negative numbers; comparing them, adding them, subtracting them, multiplying them and dividing them.  We will also be weaving them into algebraic expressions.