SOLs Covered: 7.PFA.2 Simplify Numerical Expressions
Math Topic: 05 Simplify Numerical Expressions
Daily Agenda: October 20-24, 2025
Upcoming Assessments: Topic 5 Formative #4 (Mon. 10/27); Topic 5 Summative (Thurs. 10/30); Unit 3 Expressions & Linear Equations (~Wed. 11/12)
Greetings! We've officially finished up the first marking period and we're already off to a great start for the second one. As previously mentioned, all of the Topic 5 grades are going onto this new marking period, so you'll already find that students have a grade for math for MP2. Unfortunately there are also already students who have let things slip through the cracks, so please talk with your child if you see they have anything less than a 100% for math on ParentVUE at this point. If you also check grades on Canvas, you might notice that the assignment "Topic 5 Formative" is less than a 100%, but that is one you shouldn't worry about at this point as we are working on it in parts as we finish each component for this standard. We'll be wrapping that assignment up at the beginning of next week, so you'll see it also posted to ParentVUE when we have completed it and at that point, you can start fussing at the kids if they still haven't reached a 100%.
Before jumping into the actual math topic from the week, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind everyone with the way I'm doing grades this year, students have the chance to redo all work and potentially improve each individual grade to a 100A+ and thus also the overall grade. This does require extra work, but the chance is there. That being said, I don't necessarily expect all students to end each term with a 100A+, especially as I know students have to devote time to working on their other subjects along with their extra curriculars, but I do encourage them to correct and thus learn from their mistakes, trying to get the best grade they can while improving their overall understanding.
For this week's math work, we continued working on our first of several algebra units. We are still modeling using algebra tiles but we added on how to work things out through written work, often doing both back-to-back as we solve questions so that students can see the connection. Thus far we've worked with basic combining like terms, distributive property, a combination of the two, and discussing the algebraic properties. Next week we'll be adding on algebraic substitution to evaluate expressions and reviewing all of this along with basic order of operations before we take our first quiz of the year. It's not a full "unit" quiz as the county currently defines it as this unit will also include solving equations, but I didn't want to wait until the middle of November when we finish this month-long unit to do the first assessment.
That should cover everything plus some, so I'll close things out here and get this out early while the kids are at lunch. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Hope everyone has a great weekend!