About Me

My photo
Welcome to my math blog! The purpose of this blog is to help you stay informed about our learning and experiences that have taken place during our math class. I have also included links your child (and you) may want to use in order to supplement math learning in 5th grade.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Hands on Equations (Day 6)


Today, our lesson with Hands-on Equations had the:

"Students use concrete models to represent the multiplication of a binomial (two terms) by a positive integer (whole number) constant (a fixed value), such as 2(x+1)." 

Ok, lots of large words....basically, the students multiplied a binomial (x+1) by a positive whole number that is fixed (2) !  By the end of the class not one child was afraid of any of the words anymore!  It was a very good day!

For example,  students were given the equation:

2(x + 3) = x + 8

To set this up on their scale, they needed to put x+3 TWICE on the left side of the scale and x+ 8 on the right:

x + 3 + x + 3 = x + 8

I then told them to take a shortcut by asking them what 3 + 3 was.  We took off the two 3 cubes and replaced it with a six:

x + x + 6 = x + 8

Now, we removed an "x" from each side leaving:

x + 6 = 8

Now we removed 6 from the left, and subtracted 6 from 8 leaving:

x = 2

Finally, we worked the problem knowing that x=2:

2(x + 3) = x + 8
2(2+3) = 2 + 8
2(5) = 2+ 8
10 = 10

To see Hands-On Equations Day 6 in action, please watch the video!

This was our final day with this topic.  We will review throughout the year.  It is time to move on!

No comments:

Post a Comment