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Ms. Karlsson's 5th Grade Class Discovery Elementary 2300 228th Ave SE Sammamish WA 98075 425.837.4100 |
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The District has just adopted Everyday Math as our new mathematics curriculum. 5th grade teachers are excited to use this new curriculum! Everyday Math is comprehensive. To read more about Everyday Math and the topics covered in 5th grade, please follow the link to the Everyday Math Family Letters. Compacting Activities are for students who know 80% or more of the skills/concepts about to be taught. Compacting may look slightly different with our new Everyday Math curriculum. All students will take a pretest for each Everyday Math unit. Those who qualify will be given a combination of projects and enrichment activities/practice PLUS, or instead of, the original Compact Activities explained below: Compact Activities are divided into three main sections: Whole Numbers and Decimals, Fractions and Geometry. Those who know 80%, or higher, may elect (with parent permission) to participate in a Compact Activity. Compact Activities are long story problems that are real-world based. It is an independent study that takes the place of teacher-guided math lessons and homework associated with those lessons. Students work independently, but will meet with the teacher every day during math to discuss, strategize, and clarify directions/questions, as needed. In addition, for parts of the pretest where these students scored lower, they must join the whole class when instruction is given and are responsible for completing homework/activities associated with those areas. Students take on being an accountant that must calculate employee hours and wages in the Decimal Compact activity, become an executive chef for a retirement home who must purchase and feed the residents while staying within a strict budget in the Fractions Compact activity, and become and architect who must design a corporate building with specifications in the Geometry Compact activity. Compact Activities are complex and multi-layered. They are designed to have more than one way to solve it and there is no real ‘right answer’. The purpose is to allow students who already know the math skills and concepts to use them in a more meaningful, challenging, in-depth way. Students are encouraged to contact real people in our community who have these careers to answer questions. All students are given a math ‘brainteaser’ packet. These are used for students who may not have scored 80% or higher, but were either really close or are quick learners. These packets can be pulled out during instruction when students know the skill/concept being taught that day. Students can still be called upon to answer questions and they are responsible for any homework given for that lesson.
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