I've outlined the unit path, standards, and resource with a rough draft on our class website. I will continue to update the page as the unit rolls out.
As I think about the choreography of this unit, I reminded of the following points:
- Resources abound. The key is to choose materials that are meaningful, productive, and engaging, and to employ those materials in ways that matter.
- Students learn in different ways and at different paces therefore it's important to have multiple independent paths to follow when needed.
- It's important that students understand and embrace the responsibility they have to focus during class, practice on their own time, and choose best tools, strategies, and efforts for successful learning. I need to explicitly teach these mindsets and behaviors.
 |
| National Science Foundation Measurement Resource |
We'll begin with an exercise that bridges the past unit (measurement conversions) with this unit. Students will use calculators to find the measurements in centimeters, meters, and kilometers of the objects in the pictures to the right. They'll also estimate those measurements to the nearest landmark whole numbers and fractions, and they'll make a number line of the objects which includes pictures, numbers, and words.
After that, we'll revisit landmark decimals, fractions, percents and the models that go with them. Then we'll study the place value chart, and write numbers with number names, base-ten numerals, expanded form, and exponential form.
We'll study the relationship of digits in a number and notice how moving up and down the place value chart means that you're increasing the number by X10 with each move to the left and decreasing the number by 1/10 to the left.
I'll incorporate problem solving, model making, and computation throughout the unit. At home and in school students will have multiple platforms to use for practice, learning, and review including Khan Academy, TenMarks, LearnZillion, and many more listed on the website.
The enrichment piece of the project will be the opportunity to make a place value film to share with fourth graders using platforms such as SCRATCH, Wevideo, iMovie, PhotoBooth, KidPix, QuickTime and more.
I'm excited to tackle another math unit at fifth grade. I look forward to using what I've learned from the first two units of the year as we move forward with the CCSS curriculum. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!
