Daily Updates - Grade 9 Math

Wednesday, September 9

Get To Know Each Other & The Course

Our first day!!
We spent time today going through expectations, the course outline, introductions to one another, and a fun ice breaker game.
A great start to the year, you've all done well, the students were keen, prepared, and great participants in learning.

Thursday, September 10

Let's see What we Know!

Students had an opportunity to revisit previously learned mathematical concepts in group and collaborative settings. 

We started class with the "Make it 10" activity - which reminds students how to add integers together.

We moved into "Tell me - The Square" and "Tell me - The Square Root" activities. I was very impressed with how quickly students picked up their squares and square roots as the activity progressed. The ability to quickly "Make 10" and recall Squares/Square Roots is essential for this year, as well as in Grade 10.

To finish the day, we revisited the idea of Factors, and students worked as (Socially Distanced!!) pairs to see how many Numbers they could determine factors for in an allotted period of time. Every student was FANTASTIC in both their thinking and work ethic. 

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In some classes, we also quickly talked about the difference between rational and irrational numbers, to set ourselves up for learning goals tomorrow.

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PARENT CHECK-IN: Want to quiz your kid today? Ask them to either:

1) Show you, or tell you in words, what a FACTOR is.

2) Show or tell you how you can determine which numbers are Prime Number.

3) Say (whole) numbers between 1-10 and ask them to, using mental math, tell you what the square of that number is.

Friday, September 11

Starting our First Unit

Today we got into our first unit.

The unit is RATIONAL NUMBERS.

Our first goal is to be able to ORDER AND COMPARE RATIONAL NUMBERS.

We began the class by reviewing terms and concepts learned in prior years. Students had a very strong recall of prior learning!!! Great job! 

We also learned about the difference between Rational and Irrational Numbers. And started to look at our first chapter, ordering rational numbers. Students worked on converting decimals and fractions to the same form, so they could order them: a) on a number line; b) in ascending order; c) in descending order.

Monday will be spent reviewing and practicing this concept - students were strong with involvement today.

(NOTE: If your child is in 9-3, I did not see that class today, and they can look forward to learning this on Monday.)

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PARENT CHECK-IN:

1) Give your child a fraction and ask them to show you how to convert it to a decimal

2) Ask your child if they can give you definitions or specific examples of what classifies a number as being either an IRRATIONAL NUMBER or RATIONAL NUMBER.

Monday, September 14

Practice What we Learned

Today we spent the class practicing - socially distanced with a partner, and then on our own - how to compare and order rational numbers.

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The key skills we are building include understanding positive and negative numbers in comparison to one another, as well as using either decimal-fraction or fraction-decimal conversions in order to compare numbers.

Tuesday, September 15

Finding a Rational Number between two other Rational Numbers

Today we learned how to find a fractional value in between two decimal values, and how to find a decimal value between two fractional values.

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This involves a lot of practice of the skill of converting to a fraction from a decimal, or to a decimal from a fraction. This was a more challenging concept for many to begin, but we were looking stronger in our understanding by the end of class.

Wednesday, September 16

All Classes Caught up to Date

Each class has math 5 days out of the 6 day cycle. So by today, all classes have now completed the Finding a Rational Number between two other Rational Numbers lesson.

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See Tuesday's explanation for more details on the lessons. Students were engaged again today, have been great groups to start the year!

Thursday, September 17

Chapter Review

On Tuesday and Wednesday, all students completed a mRLC Check-In to check in on their understanding of the core concept taught in this chapter, ordering and comparing rational numbers. More than 90% of the students got this question correct, which showed we were ready to move into the review portion of the chapter. Students who answered incorrectly checked in with me yesterday and again today to help build on their understanding of the core concepts. I am very happy with the positive learning mindset of all students in these Grade 9 classes - you parents are doing good work!

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Today we practiced with partners on a wipe board, and then completed a review / practice quiz on our own. I was very happy with the confidence in understanding shown by the students.

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Tomorrow we will have our first quiz, on Chapter 2.1, which will include terms, ordering and comparing fractions and decimals, and finding either a decimal value between two fractions, or a fractional value between two decimals.

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Friday, September 18

Chapter 2.1 Quiz -

All Classes

Today we spent the beginning of class reviewing a few concepts learned to-date prior to completing a quiz.

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Have a great weekend! We'll start into Chapters 2.2 and 2.3 - Operations involving Rational Numbers as Decimals; and Operations involving Rational Numbers as Fractions; next week.

Monday, September 21

Quiz Check-In & Begin Chapter 2.2

We began the class by checking over our quiz results from Friday. Students did FANTASTIC overall! Almost all students scored 80% or better.

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After going over the quiz, we did started into Chapter 2.2, Operations with Rational Numbers in Decimal Form. We began the class by going over the approaches to solving addition/subtraction/multiplication/division questions involving integers. We then moved into estimating and then calculating addition and subtraction questions with decimal numbers. Some students initially struggled with the concept of rounding to the nearest whole number, but seemed to gain more confidence in the concept as class progressed.

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We will revisit these concepts tomorrow, while completing our first full lesson of the chapter.

Tuesday, September 22

Operations with Decimals - Lesson

Today we learned through a lesson on operations with decimal numbers - including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of positive and negative numbers.

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This chapter, the provincial expectation, and our class goal, is that students demonstrate an understanding of how to: a) estimate answers using mental math and then; b) use a calculator or pencil & paper to calculate the answer (we always check our final answer compared to our mental math to ensure it seems logical / makes sense).

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Students who are looking for some enrichment were encouraged to use pencil and paper to calculate answers, and then a calculator to check their work.