Math Fundamentals 

The first year of upper school math is off to a great start! Sixth graders spent some time practicing positive collaboration and perseverance in problem solving. We discussed the characteristics of good collaboration in order to create “rubrics” for learning together in math class. On this solid foundation we are building new math understanding. Our first unit focuses on positive and negative numbers and the coordinate plane. 

Integrated Math

Integrated Math students began their year with the opportunity to re-engage their problem solving and collaboration skills as well as get to know their classmates a bit more. They worked to create a collaboration rubric so that there are clear expectations for when they work together in groups, which happens quite often in math class. Soon after they started their first unit on rigid transformations. Students have performed translations, rotations, and reflections over the past few days on various figures of increasing difficulty. 

Foundations for Algebra 

After taking some time to focus on mathematical thinking and positive collaboration, we began to tackle new math learning. This year we are kicking things off with a review of scaled copies to build into dilations and similar figures. Last year students learned about scaled copies and dilations, so similar figures are a great way to review and add new information to start the year. 

Algebra I

Algebra 1 students also engaged in problem solving and collaborative activities to begin their year. Then it was time to begin a study of functions. Learning what makes a function and how to use function notation were the first two topics studied and students solidified their learning with a function auction and their first few days of note-taking. With a bit more practice planned for next week, students will be ready for their first knowledge check!