We are finishing up our measurement unit before the March break. The test for this section will be on Friday March 11.
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| Find the volume of the prism. How many centicubes make the shape? |
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| Find the surface area of the prism. Remember there are top&bottom, front&back, left&right sides! |
New Math Topic For After the Break
Grade 5 Families
Over the next two weeks, your child will be studying geometry, a very important
strand of mathematics. Your child will have many opportunities to explore geometric
concepts using concrete materials, to think about the design of objects in the world
around us, and to create designs. At this time, the focus will be on two-dimensional
shapes. We will be exploring three-dimensional shapes later this year.
Throughout this time, you and your child can explore geometric ideas together
through activities such as the following:
• Your child might look for objects that contain various angles or triangles,
or objects that are shaped like regular polygons or irregular polygons.
• Your child might go around the house looking for shapes, and use a protractor
to measure the angles in these various shapes.
• Your child might look through magazines to find pictures with polygon designs
on them and then classify the polygons. Your help may be needed to point your
child in the right direction in terms of where to look for these pictures.
• Your child might draw his or her own designs and learn to write instructions so
that another person can duplicate the drawing. You might help by reading through
the instructions, or following the instruction yourself, then comparing it with original
drawing to find out where the weak points are in the communication.
You may want to visit mathK8.nelson.com and follow the links to Nelson
Mathematics 5, Chapter 7, for more suggestions to help your child learn mathematics
and for books that relate children’s literature to 2-D geometry. Also check the Web
site for links to other sites that provide online tutorials, math problems, and brainteasers.
Grade 6 Families
Over the next two weeks, your child will be studying 2-D geometry, or two-dimensional
shapes. Later in the year he or she will also be exploring 3-D or three-dimensional
shapes. During the next two weeks, your child will have many opportunities to explore
geometric concepts and properties of 2-D shapes using concrete materials. These
shapes include triangles, rectangles, squares, parallelograms, pentagons, hexagons,
and other polygons (many-sided shapes). He or she will be asked to make hypotheses
about the properties of these shapes and test them.
Throughout this time, you and your child may engage in activities such as:
• Look for objects that have 90º, 60º, 45º, and 30º angles and for surfaces that have
three and more sides. Try to find surfaces with sides that are equal and others in
which the sides are unequal, and others which have combinations of both.
• Have your child measure the angles and side lengths with a protractor and ruler.
Ask him or her to draw scale models of these objects and surfaces, and to join
opposite vertices on each model with diagonal lines. Ask them to identify the lines
of symmetry on each shape and draw them in colour.
• Have your child look through various print media to find pictures with polygons
and identify the polygons by name. Home decorating, renovation, design, and
style or fashion magazines are usually good places to find polygons.
• Ask your child to make an hypothesis about the properties of each polygon, and
then set about testing it.
You may want to visit mathK8.nelson.com and follow the links to Nelson Mathematics 6,
Chapter 7, for more suggestions to help your child learn mathematics and for books
that relate children’s literature to 2-D geometry. Also, check the Web site for links to
other sites that provide online tutorials, math problems, and brainteasers.
From Nelson Math Family Newsletter
