Day 26: Multiplying Decimals

6th Grade Math Standards: Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

The Learning Objective: Add decimals to find a sum; subtract decimals to find a difference; multiply decimals to find a product

Quote of the Day: “General William Westmoreland was once reviewing a platoon of paratroopers in Vietnam. As he went down the line, he asked them a question. ‘How do you like jumping, son?’ ‘Love it, sir!’ was the first answer. ‘How do you like jumping?’ he asked the next. ‘The greatest experience in my life, sir!’ exclaimed the paratrooper. ‘How do you like jumping?’ he asked the third. ‘I hate it, sir,’ he replied. ‘Then why do you do it?’ ‘Because I want to be around guys who love to jump.’” – Harvey MacKay

Question from Yesterday (as always from a student): How many meters are in a foot?

Assessment: The students used 2 foot by 2 foot marker boards in groups of four and had to find the sum or difference of four different word problems. Once the solution was found they added all four of their solutions and came up with a bigger sum. That's the number I checked. If it was wrong, they kept trying. And it's amazing how quickly they forget...

I also had students do a my favorite no at the start of the multiplying notes part of class. Students that had no difficulty were given an alternative assignment (the basketball player stats from yesterday) in lieu of doing the notes.

During the notes, I had students try problems on their own.

Agenda:

1. Estimation 180 - Bubble Wrap 
2. Adding and subtracting decimals homework review
3. Markerboards assessment. 
4. My favorite no (start of second class). 0.3 x 0.71
5. Notes on multiplying decimals
6. Starting the homework from the textbook on page 205

Glass-Half Full: The marker boards assessment is amazing. It gets the students working together. It gets the students talking about math. It gives me the chance to see that they understand the math. I just need to find the opportunity to implement them more often.

Regrets: In the last class of the day I had a student tell the class that it would not make sense for the product to be over 1 since neither factor was over 1. It was unfortunate that it took the last class to jump to this conclusion. I wonder if there's a way to get all students to consider this because it provides a why to the "slide the decimal over as many times as there are digits after the decimal" rule. It will certainly be something I go over tomorrow. The one student who recognized this was delighted when I yelled onions in excitement.

Link of the Day: Andrew Stadel doing shooting basketballs at 101 questions. This could lead to equations, variable expressions, ratios, etc.