Math
Grade 4 Test:
One problem that seemed to confuse everyone on the test was Nicholas running around the track. One way to solve a problem that has two things changing at the same time, is setting up a t-chart. Most students knew that 3 laps was 900 m. But no one could explain ABOUT how many laps it would take him to run 2 km. You cannot work in two units, so the first thing to do is change 2 km to 2000 m. Your t-chart would look like this:

Laps	Distance (m)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7	300 600 900 1200 1500 1800 2100

2000 m is not on the t-chart so you have to INFER or use your math REASONING skills to arrive at the answer. One possible explanation:
2000 m is between 1800 m and 2100 m. It's a little more than half-way between 6 and 7 laps so I think Nicholas will run about 7 laps.

Another possible explanation:
1950 m is half-way between 1800 m and 2100 m which is really close to 2000 m, so I think Nicholas will run about 6 1/2 laps.

Both answers are acceptable because of the explanations. You could find the solution by skip counting or using a number line. Whatever the strategy you use, you must reason the approximate answer because 2000 is not a multiple of 300.

Grade 5 Test:
You had a similar problem on your test. A tower is 160 m high. ABOUT how many towers would it take to make a kilometre. Again, you cannot work with two units. 1 km is 1000 m. The two things that are changing towers and height. Set up a t-chart:

Towers	Height (m)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7	160 320 480 640 800 960 1120

1000 m is not on the chart so you must INFER or use your math REASONING skills to arrive at the answer. One possible explanation:
960 m is very close to 1000 m so I think about 6 towers will reach a height of 1 km.

Another possible explanation:
1000 m is between 960 m and 1120 m. 1040 m is half-way between, so I think about 6 1/2 towers  will reach a height of 1 km.

For both grades, explaining why a unit was most appropriate for measuring a particular length or distance was a challenge.

For example: Most students knew that the distance from Halifax to Winnipeg would be measured in kilometres. Simply saying you would use kilometres because it is really far, isn't a good explanation. One student wrote that because you would travel by plane from Halifax to Winnipeg, you would use kilometres because plane trips are many kilometres. That's a logical explanation. Relate it to kilometre measure you know. If you know that it is about 200 km from London to Toronto, then you would use kilometres because Winnipeg and Halifax are in two different provinces even further apart than London and Toronto.
You could even write we ran 2 km in cross country and a cross country race is much shorter than the distance from Halifax to Winnipeg and it is measure in kilometres. But you can't just say you use a unit because it is really small or really large, you have to compare it to a known distance or length.

Most students again knew that you would measure the length of your arm in centimetres (or decimetres), but why? Compare it to the width of your hand being 10 cm and there are about 8 widths in the length of your arm so centimetres are appropriate or your arm is less than a metre stick and a metre stick is divided into 100 centimetres so I'd used centimetres.

In all the examples above, you must show math reasoning skills.

Grade 4: Test on perimeter on Tuesday.
Grade 5: Test on perimeter on Wednesday.

Perimeter Questions:
Farmer Joe has 22 m of fence to build a pigpen. Draw two possible pens that he would build. Can he build a square pen? Why not? If fencing costs $10 a metre, how much would it cost him to build the pen?

Minnie made a square with 16 tiles. Mickey took the same 16 tiles and laid them in a row to make a long rectangle. Minnie thinks her square has a smaller perimeter. Mickey thinks his rectangle has a smaller perimeter. Who is right? 
Explain using a picture how you know.

Reminders:

• Mathletics
• Practice multiplication facts. Some of you are improving.... others still need to work hard to master facts
• Print out all research on Monday at school or at home this weekend. We will be organizing our information on Friday