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Ms. Lounsbury, Math, 6th

Posts

Week of December 2nd

Dear Family,
Many families enjoy exploring their own towns and cities instead of going far 
away on vacation. Some of those activities may include visiting a movie 
theater, a local museum, or community theater. Making sure you have enough 
money to take the outing is important.
Before you head out to watch your favorite movie on the Big Screen, you can 
use an expression to estimate the cost. For example, if one ticket costs you 
$7, you can use the expression, 7x, where x is the number of tickets you will 
need, to determine the amount of money you will need to take to the theater.
You and your student can discuss how to calculate the amount of money that 
will be needed to enjoy the following local family activity. For example, you 
might ask your student:
 “A family is going to visit the local art museum. The cost for children 
is $5.50. The cost for adults is $8. What is the expression used to 
determine how much money it costs for a child to visit the museum? 
What is the expression used to determine how much money it costs 
for an adult to visit the museum?” Your student may answer, “The 
expressions will be 5.5x, where x is the number of children attending, 
and 8y, where y is the number of adults attending.”
 “A family has 3 children and 2 adults visiting the museum. How much 
money will the family spend on each type of ticket?” Your student may 
answer "The cost for the children is 5.5 × 3, which is $16.50. The cost 
for the adults is 8 × 2, which is $16.”
You and your student can then talk about how to find the total cost of visiting 
the art museum. This process can be used to find the cost of visiting a 
number of other family activities. Have your student practice finding the 
cost of visiting other local attractions. Which attraction costs the least? 
Which attraction costs the most?
Enjoy exploring your city as a family

Week of November 11th

Dear Family,
I hope you had a great 4-day weekend! 

We often shop for groceries, clothing, school supplies, or even a car. When 
we are spending our money, we always try to get the best deal. This is where 
the use of percents can be valuable.
How often have we waited for a sale before making a purchase? Don’t we get 
excited when we receive a coupon discounting the price of something we want 
to buy? It is important to compare the prices when looking at two different 
brands of something. Which item gives us more for our money (a better 
value)?
Spend some time with your student looking at the sale prices or coupon 
discounts for things you want to buy, and talk about how they affect the 
price and the value of your purchases. For example, you and your student 
might talk about the following:
 This pair of shoes is regularly priced $45. It is on sale for 15% off 
the regular price. How much will we save if we buy the shoes while 
they are on sale?
 We have two different coupons to buy that box of cereal. One coupon 
is for $0.50 off the regular price. The other coupon is for 30% off 
the regular price. The regular price of the cereal is $3.99. Which 
coupon should we use to save the most money?
The next time you go shopping, ask your student how he or she can help you 
determine the best way to save money on the purchase and how much you will 
save. Have your student keep track of the total amount you save on the 
shopping trip.
Enjoy your savings

Week of October 28th

Hello,
 
This week in Math we are focusing on ratios. We will be learning how ratios, fractions, and rates are connected. We will also be learning how a tape diagram is used to solve for ratio word problems.  Here is a video explaining some of these concepts. https://youtu.be/suRIY3ULrQo?feature=shared 
 
Mrs. Lounsbury 

Week of October 21st

Dear Family,
Sports and games provide an opportunity to relax and have fun with our 
families and friends. The nature of competition gives us an opportunity to 
explore mathematics at the same time.
When we are competing, we are often thinking about how we are doing. Are we 
hitting the ball as well as we did last year? Are we running faster now than at 
the beginning of the season? Are we currently winning, or is our opponent 
winning? Even if we are only watching a game, many of us tend to obsess over 
our favorite player’s and team’s performances.
Spend some time with your student talking about your family’s favorite sport 
or game. What kinds of “stats” are kept about the players and events? How 
does that help you understand the game? For example, you and your student 
might talk about the following:
 How are batting averages figured out in baseball and softball? What 
does this tell you about the next time your favorite player is at bat?
 What does the ratio of red pieces to black pieces tell you about how a 
game of checkers is going? Who’s winning?
 How fast can you run a 100-meter sprint? Do you think you could run 
the same speed in the 200-meter or the 400-meter?
Next time your team is playing their big rival, ask your student how he or she 
could predict who will win. Do you think it matters more what each team’s 
average score is, or what the win-loss ratio is for the two teams? What kind 
of information could help you decide which team is better?
Enjoy the game!

Week of September 23rd

Hello,
 
Students will be taking their Unit two Math tests on multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals. Here is a helpful video to review multiplying and dividing.
 
https://youtu.be/Htt09rY9I_A?feature=shared

No Perfume or Cologne or Spray

Hello, 
 
We have had a recent uptake in students bringing sprayable smelling items like perfume, cologne, and other body spray items. This includes anything with a strong smell like hand sanitizer and lotion. Please keep these items at home. It is very hard to tell if the smells are allergen safe. The collections of spray are also starting to cause many students to have headaches. Please talk to your student about keeping these items home and not at school.   
 
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this nor policy for my room. 
 
Mrs. Lounsbury 

Week of September 3rd

Dear Family,
Many of us have a number of recipes 
that we enjoy preparing. Perhaps 
they are old family recipes or simply 
someone's favorite meal. Some recipes 
we can prepare without much effort: 
a quarter cup of butter, a quarter cup 
of flour, and two cups of milk for a 
white sauce.
However, when we have guests over for 
dinner, we find these familiar recipes 
have to be adjusted. Maybe we have to make three times as many servings. 
Now we need three quarter cups of butter, three quarter cups of flour, and 
so on.
Sometimes we want to make a smaller portion, such as when part of the family 
is away. Now we find ourselves using half a quarter cup of butter, half a 
quarter cup of flour, and so on.
You and your student can discuss strategies for preparing a meal when you 
have to change the recipe. For example, you might ask your student:
 “We have to use two quarter cups of sugar. Should we use the 1/4 cup 
measure twice, or use the 1/2 cup measure?” Your student may answer, 
“The amount will be the same either way.”
 “The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of milk, but we only want a half batch. 
What measuring cup should we use?” Your student may answer, “Use the 
1/3 cup measure, but only once.”
 “Grandma's brownie muffin recipe makes enough for three dozen 
muffins, but we only want one dozen. What should we do?” Your student 
may answer, “We can divide the recipe measures by three.”
Sometimes you have to make a judgment call. How do you cut the recipe in half, 
if it calls for three eggs? Talk with your student about different strategies 
for changing a recipe like this.
Enjoy your cooking time together
 
Mrs. Lounsbury 

Week of August 19th

Hello!
 
I hope your weekend was well! This week, students will be learning about prime factorization of numbers. They will also be learning about finding the GCF (Greatest Common Factor) and LCM (Least Common Multiple). Here is a video discussing the method we will use for Prime Factorization. 
 
 
Mrs. Lounsbury 

Week of August 12th

Dear Family,
When you shop at the grocery store, and you place your items on the checkout 
stand, you usually don’t ask, “Does it matter if the price of milk is added before 
the price of bread?” This is because you know that the order you add the items 
doesn’t matter—but you may not realize you are using one of the mathematical 
properties of addition!
You and your student can have fun relating the day-to-day mathematics you use to 
other number properties. For example, you can ask your student:
 “Does it matter if the cashier adds three cans of peas one at a time or 
multiplies the price of one can by three?” Your student may answer, “The total 
is the same either way.”
 “If you take three apples from the display and put two back, is that the same 
as taking two apples from the display and putting three back? How does that 
make subtraction different?” Your student may answer, “Order does matter 
with subtraction. You can’t put back more than you took originally!”
 “Does it matter if you multiply the price of an item you buy by the quantity or 
if you multiply the quantity by the price?” Your student may answer, “The 
total price is the same either way. Order doesn’t matter when you multiply.”
 “Does order matter with division? If you divide the price of a pack of pudding 
cups by the number of pudding cups will you get the same answer if you divide 
the number of pudding cups by the price?” Your student may answer, “No, the 
answers are different, so order does matter with division.”
Your student will be studying concepts like these in math class. See if you and your 
student can find other examples of mathematical properties or formulas in your 
day-to-day life.
Happy Shopping
 
Mrs. Lounsbury