Week 35 - Algebra Readiness

For the remainder of the school year, we will be preparing for Algebra.  Some of the material will be new, some will be review, and some will build on extensions of what we have already learned.

This Week
This week, we will be factoring binomials by "un-distributing" the greatest common monomial.  Basically, it's using the distributive property in reverse.  For example, we will un-distribute 3x^2 from 12x^3 - 6x^2 to get 3x^2(4x - 2).  We will also review the concept of slope as a rate of change.

Stations
Beginning on Thursday, students will be working in small groups in stations - one station per day.  There are 5 topics: Problem Solving, Equations, Graphing, Factoring, and Slope.

A Look Ahead
Below is the schedule for the next three weeks of school:

Thursday (5/10) - Stations
Friday (5/11) - Stations

Monday (5/14) - Stations
Tuesday (5/15) - Stations
Wednesday (5/16) - Algebra Readiness Test (this is a change from before to align with when all other grade levels are testing in math)
Thursday (5/17) - Stations
Friday (5/18) - Career Day

Monday (5/21) - Pre-Algebra Cumulative Review
Tuesday (5/22) - Pre-Algebra Cumulative Review
Wednesday (5/23) - Pre-Algebra Final Exam
Thursday (5/24) - Test Results and Final Points
Friday (5/25) - 6th Grade Field Trip

Somewhere in here, we will return textbooks to the depository, but that date has not been confirmed yet.

Homework for this week is as follows:
Monday (5/7) - Factoring Worksheet ("Tadpoles")
Tuesday (5/8) - Factoring Worksheet ("Double Cross")
Wednesday (5/9) - Slope Worksheet
Thursday (5/10) - Stations Worksheet (different for each student)
Friday (5/11) - Stations Worksheet