Tag Archives: rectangle model

“Working Together” Problem

By Fawn | Published: June 7, 2013

[The title of this post in the old blog was actually “if there’s cold beer in the fridge.” It’s dumb, but I did end the post with “Forgive me for being such a delinquent, but my last day of school is not until June 21. I’m losing it.” So I have an excuse for everything.] Heya, back-to-back […]

Posted in Algebra, Problem Solving | Also tagged , , , | 1 Response

Fraction Division via Rectangles

By Fawn | Published: May 21, 2013

I appreciate Christopher Danielson’s post on common numerator fraction division because it’s important to examine how various algorithms work and how we can help our students become more flexible with their thinking. It’s not surprising that I teach fraction division using rectangles, and I really believe the kids seem to grasp it better because it’s visual. I’ll start with this problem: 3/4 […]

Posted in Course 1 (6th Grade Math) | Also tagged , , | 43 Responses

More Rectangles and One Good Read

By Fawn | Published: December 26, 2012

I just started reading this book on Ramanujan, and I highly recommend it. Curmudgeon just posted this Painter’s Puzzle yesterday on Christmas Day — what a nice gift for us! A painting contractor knows that 12 painters could paint all of the school classrooms in 18 days. They begin painting. After 6 days of work, though, 4 people were added […]

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Area of a Circle

By Fawn | Published: June 7, 2012

After finding the formula for the circumference of a circle, my 6th graders were ready to work on finding the area of a circle. I asked them to draw a circle on notebook paper, any size, but not too small. Then I gave each a centimeter cube to trace one face onto their paper to remind them how much the area of one […]

Posted in Course 1 (6th Grade Math), Geometry | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Responses