Dear Families,
This weekend I assigned some review homework. I rarely assign homework on the weekend, and this time it's because we've had such a long time between learning some skills are the unit test that I felt students needed some refreshing. The homework this weekend is about finding surface area (the area on the outside of a 3D shape) and it is self-correcting (the answers are on the page).
But I wanted to share some information with you in case students need some help ore reminders.
Your child should have 3D models of this in their math notebooks
In class we have built paper-folding 3D models of blocks. They fold out flat into a format we call a "net". Using these nets, students can see that any one surface of a rectangular prism (block) is just a square or a rectangle itself. So to find the total surface area, you simply find those individual surfaces' areas and then add them up. The same is true for triangular prisms and pyramids, and students have models of those in their math notebooks, too.
This website, LearnZillion, is AMAZING!
So, wanting to find something for a family, I looked online and found a website I hadn't looked at in a LONG time. It has matured GREATLY and has some GREAT resources for you!. The site is called LearnZillion [link] and you can find tutorials to all of the common core state standards for 6th grade (and 7th, and 8th). Now, we are in a transition year, so we don't match up totally with this site yet. But we will by next year (for example, we still do circles in 6th grade in WA, but when we have moved over 100% to common core, that will be a 7th grade topic).
There are interactive models, videos, and text explanations. They have a section specifically for surface area here and here; which is the topic reviewed in this weekend's homework!
I hope these resources are helpful and that you have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Brian MacNevin
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