Sorry it has been so long since I have been on. Wedding plans and my son being sick has been very hectic.
This week, we are finishing up our unit on fractions, decimals, and percents. We will be having an end of unit test on Friday. The kids got a chance on Tuesday with the sub to do a few pages of review. If they didn't have problems with any of the sections, then they will do fine on the test.
We still have two new concepts to learn today and tomorrow. We are going to begin with estimating percents today. This topic is a little tricky, but I will explain. If the question is asking ABOUT how much is 78% of 309, the kids would round that to 80% of 300. There are a couple of ways that they can then calculate this. They can multiply .8 * 300 and they would get 240, or they could look at 300 and think, what is 10% of 300. They would get 30, then multiply it by 8 to get 240. They also could set it up like a ratio and do 80/100 = x/300. They know that they have to multiply 100 * 3 to get to 300, so they would do the same to the top and do 80 * 3 and get 240.
Tomorrow, we will be learning how to find the exact percent. This will be a review on how to multiply decimals. I try to remind them that when they see the word of in a word problem, it means to multiply. So if the question asks for 76% of 352, they would multiply 352 times .76 and get 267.52. This is how you would find an exact answer.
We are going to be beginning our debate in social studies today. The kids are going to meet with their teams and formulate how they are going to go about defending their choices so that they are well prepared for tomorrow's debate. On Friday in social studies when they finish their math test, they can begin working on their culminating essay for the DBQ. It is a persuasive essay on Rome or Athens, which had the better system.
Since I was out on Tuesday, I am going to give them time next week to work on their essays as well. If they want to work on it over the weekend they can.
I hope this gets us all caught up.
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