7B: Number Visuals Exploration

The first assignment for 7A was looking at YouCube's Activity, "Number Visuals," from the 1st Inspirational Week of Math in 2015. The class was given the image below to look at and make as many observations as they could. 

The class found all sorts of patterns and relationships between the shapes. Here are some of their findings:

• All the prime numbers are circles.
• Every 4th figure is a group of squares.
• All multiples of three are triangles
• The first row are building blocks for the rest of the chart.
• Starting at 6; when you go down 2 and left 2, you will arrive at a variant of the number.
• You can see the factor of a composite number in the shapes that make up the number.

The group was challenged on who to describe how to move around the chart without using world like diagonal. 

As an extension, the class was charged with figuring out what the 40th figure would look like. The class shared their different ideas (see one student's work above) and they had to defend one of the choices.  

Students are learning to support their ideas and answers with solid evidence and reasoning. This will be an ongoing work in progress, all year long.

Snapshot: 7B Shooting Percentages

As we start off the school year in 6th and 7th grade, the students jump start their brains with an eight-day run of multiplication math facts practice. As a way to add a little fun to necessary skill practice, we let off some steam by doing target practice with our crumpled up mad minute sheets. We keep track of the number of shots made. There was a healthy level of competition on which class did better on the paper shooting. 

This is LO's analysis of the shooting scores for both 6C and 7B. She was methodical and very clear in her process of showing how to convert the fraction into a decimal by division and then converting the decimal into the percent. It is a wonderful example of how to show your thinking and process.

The students were asked to determine which class "won." They came up with several different ways to to do their data analysis. Please ask your child to tell you all the different ways the data was processed!

Curriculum Night 2016

Thank you to all the parents/guardians who came to Curriculum Night 2016 on Thursday evening. It was a pleasure to meet you and share a little about myself and my philosophy on teaching mathematics. This marks the beginning of our year-long partnership in your child's education. 

For those who could not make it, here are copies of the handout for each class. 

6C Grade Math Curriculum Night Handout
7B Grade Math & Geometry Curriculum Night Handout
8A Grade Algebra 1 Curriculum Night Handout

Snapshot: 6C Off and Running

It was our first day of math class for 6C. We started off tentative and not sure what to expect. We broke the ice with a few sentence finishers. The class responded to the following prompts: 

• Math is important because...
• Math is ...
• Our class should be ___________ everyday.

Below are a sampling of the diverse answers for each prompt! I am excited to get to know this group and I am eager to see where our math adventure takes us this year!

Snapshot: 8A Opening day

We are back! It was the first day of the 2016-2017 school year and my only class was with 8A. We opened the QLab and there was lots of energy and enthusiasm for the newly renovated space.  We opened class with an introduction for the new students to the group. Then we jumped into an activity called 31-derful. We just got a start on the challenge and will continue when we return from our trip to Catalina. Stay tuned for more information on this fun challenge.

New Space!

We are in a new space this year! It is a whirlwind, but we are opening the school year in a newly renovated educational space. Black Pine Circle raised the funds and built a new Science educational space for K-8 use. We are excited for the new Maker Space and wet lab. This opened up the opportunity to renovate the 6th St. building and make all the spaces more functional. 

I am excited to be in a new space with lots of opportunities for collaboration and flexible groupings. Cheers to a new year and all of the possibilities that await us!

Welcome 2016!

Welcome to the blog space for Ms. Seto's middle school math classes at Black Pine Circle School! This is the second year for this blog and we are going to pick up where we left off last year. 

My hope for this space is to share and post glimpses into what is happening in the classroom and to share our mathematical adventures with the world. A long-term goal is that the students will be sharing in their own words what is going on in the classroom, but for now, this will be from my perspective (facilitator/teacher).

For students: this is a portal to access materials and resources for class, a place for class notes and shared documents, and a place to share our reflections with a greater community. 

For parents: this is a window into the math classroom and an opportunity for you to access to what happens in your child's day. It can be a tool to connect and create conversations with your child. 

For others: this is a place to share our learning and to reflect on our mathematical journey. 

It is an ambitious project, but I hope that we can live up to the expectations and make our learning visible.