Math Updates and Announcements

A few important announcements:

The math web site has been updated.
http://www.cce5thgrade.com/math.cfm?subpage=913261


Fifth Grade's own Mr. Ruark was announced as one of the 15 finalists for the Duval County Teacher of the Year. Way to go Mr. R.!


Please bring all permission slips and payment for our upcoming trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. The due date was 01-21-10, but we can still take permission slips and money for a few days more. Thanks.

The PTA's Corporate Contributions Contest continues for grades 4 and 5. If you have any of the following, box tops, Campbell's Soup labels, empty ink cartridges, and/or cell phones please consider sending them in to be collected by homeroom teachers. The class that collects the most wins a fab prize!

PTA Family Night is Tuesday night. Dinner will be served from 6-7:00 P.M.. First and Third grades will have activities planned from 7-8:00 P.M..

On Friday the 29th of January, report cards go home. Please sign the parent signature portion and return that portion with the original envelope as quickly as possible.

Campus Clean UP takes place on Saturday the 30th from 9-11:00 A.M.. We would love your help :}


Week of January 25, 2010
Monday: Homework Sheet #19 will go home. We will continue our work on EDC (Every Day Counts-Calendar Math). We will continue with our new Math Investigation Unit Between Never and Always.
When you flip a coin, it should, in theory, land on heads every other flip or 50% of the time, but does that happen when we try it? Sometimes? Never? Always?
What if we flipped it 50 times? What should we expect?
Stay tuned!

Tuesday: We will continue our work on EDC (Every Day Counts-Calendar Math). We will continue our third investigation, Between Never and Always.

Wednesday: We will continue our work on EDC (Every Day Counts-Calendar Math), and we will continue our third investigation, Between Never and Always.
Thursday: We will continue our work on EDC (Every Day Counts-Calendar Math), and we will continue our investigation, Between Never and Always (BNAA).

Friday: We will continue our work on EDC (Every Day Counts-Calendar Math), and continue our investigation, Between Never and Always (BNAA).
We are also going to start looking at geometry a bit more by studying circles, finding the area of triangles[1/2 (b X h) ] , and finding the area of trapezoids [ 1/2 h (b1 +b2) ]. Sounds hard, but it's really easy-cheesy! This should be fun!

I was very productive on our planning day and look forward to our time together. I hope everyone has a great week.
Mrs. Rabe

How Do You Read That Decimal?

The picture above tells a thousand stories! Well, actually it might tell a tenth of a story or a hundredth of a story or a thousandth of a story depending on where the decimal point is and what digits follow the decimal point!

Every time that TV reporters read decimals, especially weather forecasters, because they always say things like the barometric pressure is "29 POINT 92 inches", and these guys are scientists? I hate to think that scientists are not concerned with things like place value. 29.92 should be read as twenty-nine AND ninety-two hundredths. Maybe students do understand that 29 point 92 is almost 30, but maybe they don't. Anyway, reading decimal values using correct place value is a good place to start.

SO,

.7 is seven tenths.

.70 is seventy hundreds

.700 is seven hundred thousandths

Simple, say the number like a whole number, and then say the SMALLEST place value. (and thousandths are waaaayyyyy smaller than tenths-don't believe me? ---try cutting your pizza into 1,000 equal pieces versus ten equal pieces:-} )

However, we are not limited to looking at decimal numbers and only reading them as decimals. Huh? Well, .7, .70, .700 are all also 70%, and they can all be written as fractions as well.So, which way should we read a decimal?

In short, in whatever way makes the most sense for the problem. The work above shows three ways to read each decimal, percent or fraction. If I was trying to enter 1/8 on a cheap calculator, I probably would have to use .125. If I wanted to describe the same quantity to a person, I would probably say 12 1/2%, as I have learned that most folks have a pretty good "percent schema".

If I was trying to add 1/8 to a simple fraction like 1/4, I'd leave both as fractions (1/8 + 2/8 = 3/8 woohooo).So, for a fifth grader what is important to know?.5 or .50 or .500...is the decimal way to say 1/2So, .675 = 67 1/2 hundredths or 67 1/2 % or 67.5 %.33333333 is the decimal way to say 1/3.66666666 is the decimal way to say 2/31 whole = 100% 2 wholes = 200% .....So, 3 1/2 = 350% or 3.5

Be flexible, and remember that the word POINT is dead and buried!

Thank you Mr. Ruark!! Once again you amaze us!!

Upcoming Events

Take a look below to see information regarding upcoming school events.

I hope that every family had an excellent holiday season. I am ready to get back to serious learning, and I hope all students are ready too.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the holiday gifts, cards and foods that were lavished upon me before the break. I truly am blessed to have such kind students and parents.

A couple of special notices need to go out to parents and students regarding two of our 5th grade team members. Mrs. Shannon underwent successful back surgery shortly before the winter break, and she is progressing very well, but she is quite sore as one would expect. She plans to return to school on Monday the 4th. Please resist the urge to give her a hug or a pat on the back :-}

On a more dire note, Mr. Montisano was involved in a VERY bad car collision while traveling over the holidays. He spent several days in the hospital and is healing well. His fiance was injured more seriously, and she continues to mend at her parents house in the mid-west. Mr. Montisano will not be back until Thursday the 7th. Please join me in wishing him a safe return as he drives home.

Please keep these awesome folks in your thoughts, and please rest assured that your children will receive a great education even if a teacher is out. We have fabulous substitute teachers.

A few important announcements:

Please be sure to return all field trip permission forms to the upcoming trip to the Marine Science Education Center.
There is no cost. So, all we need is your signature:-}



Wednesday the 6th is an early release day. Dismissal will begin at 2:00 P.M..


We are going to begin a very complete examination of decimals. We will learn to incorporate decimals as another way to express values that are not whole numbers.

The MOST critical thing to remember about decimals is the place value that each decimal number represents.
For example:
0.5 = five tenths or 5/10 or 50%
0.05 = five hundredths or 5/100 or 5%
0.005 = five thousandths or 5/1000 or 1/2%

Decimals are really easy to read. Read the decimal number like it was a whole number, and then say the smallest place value (the place value farthest to the right of the decimal).
0.633= six hundred thirty-three thousandths or 633/1000 2.47 = two and forty-seven hundredths or 2 47/100 or 247%

Many students will learn to add zeroes to the right hand side of decimal numbers in order to make them easier to add, subtract, and compare.


Thanks for all you do for our students,
Mrs. Rabe