Megan's Math PLP Blog

What are Algebra Tiles and how do you use them? Standards. CA & NY 6.EE.2 - Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers. Mathematical practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; 4. Model with mathematics; 5. Use appropriate tools strategically; 6. Attend to precision. In our readings for last week, I came across something I had not heard of before: algebra blocks (aka algebra tiles). I wanted to know what these manipulatives were and how to use them. I found this virtual manipulative on the NCTM website: Algebra Tiles At first glance, it was not apparent to me how these were meant to be used, but I played around with them for a while and I think I can explain the basics. The board shown in this version of algebra tiles has a vertical line down the center which represents the equal sign. Everything to the left of the equal sign in your equation should be represented on the left side of the board and everything to the right on the ...

Ratio Rumble https://mathsnacks.com/ratio-rumble.html Ratio Rumble is a battle-style game where players choose a character and try to beat an opponent by creating potions made from bottles of colored liquid. Students must select the appropriate number of bottles in the right colors in the right order to make the correct potion which will inflict damage on the opponent. Standards : CA & NY 6.RP.1 Mathematical Practices : 6 – attend to precision and 7 – look for and make use of structure The first few levels could be appropriate for students as young as 3 rd grade, but after level 10 it would really only be appropriate for 5 th grade and older because it requires some knowledge of proportion, equivalence, and fractions. Challenges : ·          Maintaining the equivalence of the ratios. ·          Use the “countdown bottles” before they explode and cause damage to your character. ·  ...

Dividing Fractions Part II CA/NY.5.NF.7  This week my daughter asked for help with the following math problem: Melanie had 3 pounds of dried fruit. She packed the dried fruit into bags of ⅜ pound each. How many bags of dried fruit did she pack? Having been taught math by procedure, my first thought was 'OK, well, this is a division problem, you just divide 3 by ⅜. So that's the same as multiplying 3 by 8/3.' But my second thought was 'wait a minute. That's not teaching her anything, that's just telling her what to do to get the answer.' I knew I had to approach this in a more constructivist way. So first I drew a picture. And then I added an equation. And then we talked about how to turn the whole number "3" into something that would be easier to work with. So now we had something that looked a lot more familiar to her.   She knew that the denominator should stay the same (many thanks to her 4th grade teacher), so from there it was easy for her to ...