vlbrown-mzydt

6th grade math – part 1

Problem:
0.375 + 5/8

Guys. There's a trick.
What's an eighth?
(silence)
What's a quarter?
(Clown: 25 cents!)
Me, writes .25 on the board.
What's half of 25?
kid: 15?
Me: close. What's half of 25?
What if I have a pie (draws circle) and I cut it into quarters (draws) and then I cut one of those pieces in half? How much of the pie is that?
Kid: 1/6?

(aargh)

We finally got to 0.125.

How many is 3 eighths?
(discussion)
We got to 0.375.

Does this number look familiar? Anything else on the board?

Beat… beat… uh… oh.. oooh.

Eighths.

I said "You're in 6th grade. The math problems they give you may look really complex (that's a decimal number added to a fraction!) but they probably aren't as difficult as they look if you think.)

Learn 1/8. Learn 0.125. It's a good number.

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6th grade math – part 2

Problem:
7 - 3 3/5

Kid: 4 and …?

No, it's less than 4.

No, you don't have to convert this to 35/5 – 18/5

You're working too hard.