Major Focus of 6th-grade Mathematics

Students focus on a variety of topics in 6th grade.  Here are the big ideas we want all 6th-grade students to understand:

• Understand ratios and rates, and solve problems involving proportional relationships (e.g., if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours?)

• Divide fractions and solve related word problems (e.g., how wide is a rectangular strip of land with length 3⁄4 mile and area 1⁄2 square mile?)

• Use positive and negative numbers together to describe quantities; understanding the ordering and absolute values of positive and negative numbers

• Work with variables and expressions by generalizing the way numbers work (e.g., when adding numbers, the order doesn’t matter, so x + y = y + x; likewise, properties of addition and multiplication can be used to rewrite 24x + 18y as 6(4x + 3y), or y + y + y as 3y)

• Write equations to solve word problems and describe relationships between quantities (e.g., the distance D traveled by a train in time T might be expressed by an equation D = 85T, where D is in miles and T is in hours)

• Reason about relationships between shapes to determine area, surface area, and volume and solve problems

General Resources for Supporting Math at Home

Good Games using simple materials from around the house - click on the link for a document containing 40+ games for fluency practice using simple materials - pencils, paper, paper clips, a deck or cards and dice.

Pre-made Games

Chess

Tangoes

Set

Muggins Math games (http://www.mugginsmath.com/store.asp) including Muggins, Fudge, Opps, Over and Under, Down and Around, Pirate and Plunder, and Sink the Ship

Five Crowns

Quiddler

Blokus

Iota

Math Twister

7 Ate 9

Krypto

24 Game

On the Dot game

Websites to Visit

http://nrich.maths.org/students - Cambridge University’s puzzle website

http://wild.maths.org/ - new website from Cambridge University to explore math

http://solveme.edc.org/  - Waltham’s Educational Development Center’s mobile puzzles

www.mathmunch.org - fabulous website to explore the “mathematical internet”

http://gameaboutsquares.com/ - fabulous, simple, logic game

mathicalbooks.org - has lists of books with mathematics related themes for kids aged 2 to 18.

https://arbitrarilyclose.com/home/ - This challenge was started March 16, 2020, and has some wonderful activities that connect math and art.  

Puzzle Books – listed from easiest to most challenging

The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade by Brian Bolt

Mathematical Cavalcade by Brian Bolt

A Pandora’s Mathematical Box by Brian Bolt

A Mathematical Jamboree by Brian Bolt

This: Math Activities for Students and Clubs by James Tanton

What’s Your Game?  By Michael Cornelius and Alan Parr

The Mathematician and Pied Puzzler: A collection in tribute to Martin Gardner.  By Elwyn Berlekamp and Tom Rodgers

Riddles of the Sphinx: And other mathematical puzzle tales. By Martin Gardner

Mathematical puzzle tales. By Martin Gardner

The Colossal Book of Mathematics. By Martin Gardner

Family Support Materials for Illustrative Mathematics 

Mathematics program used in the classroom

Illustrative Mathematics' Family Support website has materials to support families of kindergarten to Grade 6 students.  Families can watch overview videos explaining each unit (with subtitles in English and Spanish) and read Family Letters for each unit, translated into 14 different languages.