May 2-6:ISATs

CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW PACKETS

We are starting ISATs this week and will continue testing through Friday.  If you are absent any day this week, please be sure to talk to your Advisory teacher or to me as soon as you return so that you can make them up ASAP!

And please don't worry too much about these tests- 

they do NOT define you!  

You are ALL bright, wonderful, unique individuals, and the characteristics that make up the person you are can never be decided based on a computer program.  Just know that I am so immensely proud of each and every one of you, and I know you'll do the best you can do, and that's all anyone can ask!

April 27 - May 1: ISAT Review

* UPDATE: Here is the link to the Review Packets. The file is very large (70 pages) so don't print it- just work from your computer!

We begin our Math ISATs next Monday, so this week we are reviewing ALL of the concepts we have learned this year.

We have 5 unique packets we will be working on in class in groups this week to review.  Each packet is separated into the 5 main concepts, or stands, we learned this year:

• Number System (8.NS)
• Expressions and Equations (8.EE)
• Functions (8.F) 
• Geometry (8.G)
• Statistics and Probability (8.SP).  

Each of the individual 8th Grade Idaho State Standards for Mathematics can be found in these strands.  We have covered all of them over the course of the last 8 months, but I know that many of these concepts have been forgotten or may be a bit "foggy" at this point!

There will be no take home "homework" this week- everything we do will be in class, so please make every effort to be here this week for review!

Friday, April 24: Finish Test

Today was dance day, so classes were only 35 minutes long.  Students that did not finish the test yesterday had time today to complete it.

PLEASE make sure if you that you complete the test ASAP if you were gone yesterday or today!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Thursday, April 23: Geometry Test

Today we took the Geometry Test.  If you were gone today, be sure to make that up as soon as you can!

No Homework on test days!

Monday, April 20- Wednesday, April 22: Volume

Because of  ISATs the week, we did different notes on different days in each class.

We started by reviewing how to find the volume of a rectangular prism.We created booklets that we will use today through Wednesday to keep track the formulas for each individual figure.  

Front of the booklet: each shape opens to reveal the formula and an example.

Volume of a Rectangular Prism: l ^. w ^. h

Volume of a Cylinder:  π r² . h

Volume of a Cone: ¹/₃ π r² . h

Volume of a Sphere:  4/₃ π r³

Formula s and examples for Rectangular Prism and Cylinder

Formulas and examples for Cone and Sphere.

The homework packet was assigned on Monday but not due until Thursday (test day). There were a few more challenging problems on the last page of the homework, so we worked a couple of those in the notes (see below).

Examples of more complex problems comparing the volume of one figure to another. 

Click here for this week's homework packet that is due Thursday, April 23.

Friday, April 17: Angle Relationship Quiz

Today we took a short quiz on Angle Relationships.  If you were gone today, please make sure you take that when you return on Monday.

Next week, we will spend a few days on volume, and then the Geometry Test is next Thursday!

Thursday, April 16: Exterior Angle Theorem

Today we learned the Exterior Angle Theorem.  In crazy confusing "mathy" terms,

The measure of the exterior angle of a triangle is equal to the sum of the measures of the non-adjacent interior angles.

The notes we took in class were very helpful on this one!  We took some triangles and started by tracing them our notebooks.  Then we tore 2 of the vertices off and moved them down to the third vertex and noticed something interesting...

THE 3 VERTICES OF A TRIANGLE ARE SUPPLEMENTARY!

We discussed this and realized we kind of already knew this, since we know the interior angles of any triangle always add up to 180^o (Triangle Sum Theorem). Like I said, we kind of knew this, but we never really connected this to the angles being supplementary.

We took another triangle and did the same thing, but this time we put both of the non-adjacent angles (angle A and angle B below) and laid them next to each other.  From here we determined what that crazy math theorem was actually saying made sense!

The measure of the exterior angle of a triangle is equal to the sum of the measures of the non-adjacent interior angles.

So, in other words, the measure of the angle that supplementary to Angle C (the Exterior Angle to Angle C) is equal to the measures of Angle A plus Angle B!  So the sum of Angle A and Angle B is equal to the Exterior Angle to Angle C.  

There was no new homework tonight- we had a lot of students gone for ISAT testing, so we focused mainly on making sense of this new theorem and then we spent the rest of class working on the maps that are due tomorrow.

We will also have a short quiz on Angle Relationships tomorrow, so if you have ANY questions, please be sure to ask!