Fractio, Uncia, and the History of Fractions

Today in class we spent some time in math working on gathering journals. A gathering journal is a journal made with paper folded so that it makes a book with little pockets on each page. Students worked on completing little study notecards on topics including: anatomy of a fraction, fraction equalities, improper and proper fractions, simplifying fractions, adding fractions, and converting fractions to decimals. Some students may be completing their journal pages tonight for homework. Make sure that they have a completed explanation on one side of the card and an example on the other side.

I told the students that tonight I would be updating the blog with some interesting information on the history of fractions. Did you know that the mathematical concepts and representations we use today draw from work done by the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Babylonians, Indians, and Arabs? Follow this link to read a very interesting summary of the mathematical work that led up to modern fraction concepts and representation methods. Take special note of the ways that people represented different types of quantities. Tomorrow in class we will briefly go over the article and students who have read the information on the website will be able to help with some explanations and problem solving.

Several literature circle groups will soon be finishing their books. They will work on final projects for a few days and then will pick new books. If you are interested in reading a book along with your child and possibly coming in to sit with their group once a week, keep your eyes open for a volunteer handout this week. Reading groups most often meet on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the morning from around 10:05 to 10:30.

In Social Studies today we began a current events study on the Economic Crisis in the United States. Students began working with some basic vocabulary that will help them to better understand future newspaper articles that we will be reading.

In other news, don’t forget that Longfellow Middle School is having a special event for potential students for next year. If you’d like to go check out Longfellow and all they have to offer, head on over to the Longfellow campus tonight at 7 pm.

Homework:

1. Language Arts: Lit. Circle groups – read and fill out job sheet
2. Mathematics: Finish Gathering Journal first 6 pages.
3. Reading: Read for 20 minutes and fill out pink reading log.

Mr. Weis