Unit One: Number Theory
In this unit, we will study rectangular arrays to look at multiplication, including a review of factor and product. We'll play Factor Captor to review divisibility, and then we'll look at divisibility rules. Then we'll study prime and composite numbers, including square numbers and square roots, then move on to prime factorizations.
Key Standards:
- Number Sense 1.4: Determine the prime factors of all numbers through 50 and write the numbers as the product of their prime factors by using exponents to show multiples of a factor.
- Number Sense 2.2: Demonstrate proficiency with division, including division with positive decimals and long division with multidigit divisors.
The Unit One test is scheduled for Friday, September 25, 2009.
Welcome to Fifth Grade Everyday Mathematics
This year, you will extend the skills and ideas you have learned, and you will also study other ideas in mathematics - many of which your older brothers and sisters, or even your parents, may not have learned until high school. The authors of Everyday Mathematics believe that today's fifth graders can learn more and do more than fifth graders in the past.
Here are some of the things you will be asked to do in Fifth Grade Everyday Mathematics:
- Practice and extend your knowledge of numbers and their properties, as well as your ability to use measurements and estimation.
- Review and extend your skills in doing arithmetic, using a calculator, and thinking about problems and their solutions. You will work with and learn the notations for fractions, decimals, percents, large whole numbers, exponents, and negative numbers.
- Continue your work with algebra, using variables in place of numbers to represent and analyze situations.
- Refine your understanding of geometry. You will define and classify geometric figures more completely than before. You will construct figures and transformations. You will find the perimeter and area of 2-dimensional shapes, and the volume and surface area of 3-dimensional figures.
- You will study the history, people, and environment of the United States through numerical data. You will learn to interpret many kinds of maps, graphs, and tables and use them to solve problems.
You will use data that comes from questionnaires and experiments to explore probability and statistics.
We want you to become better at using mathematics so you may better understand your world. We hope that you enjoy the activities in Fifth Grade Everyday Mathematics and that they will help you appreciate the beauty and usefulness of mathematics in your daily activities.
Enrichment/Challenge Work
I am using some of the enrichment activities from our new math curriculum, Everyday Mathematics. I am presenting these to all students, but am expecting that all GATE-identified students attempt to do some or all of these assignments. This is part of how I am differentiating the curriculum. Your child may not excel in mathematics even though he or she is GATE-identified, while other students may be high-achieving in this area and actually enjoy these challenges. So, I present these enrichment activities to all students. I want everyone in my class to have the opportunity to excel and show me what they can do.
Students may not be doing well with these assignments. That's okay. They are doing them on their own without my help. If they do well, great. If they do okay, great. If they do poorly, great. There is more value in the process than the result. And because these are enrichment activities, they can only improve grades; they cannot lower or hurt the progress that students are making.
If you are interested in the Math League competition this year, you might want to check out their Mathematics Help Reference. The topics under Mathematics Help Reference cover a number of math concepts, including ones you may have not learned, but which might be included in the Math League competition.
Online Test Prep: Texas
