Math

Big Ideas I'm Working to Learn in Math:

I will use this page to reflect on all that I am learning about math and the world around me.  Specifically, I will be working to answer the essential questions that we are studying in math class over the next few years.  Those essential questions are linked below.

Sixth Grade Math Essential Questions


Sixth Grade:

One of the big ideas that we have been working on in math this year has been calculating percentages and then figuring out when calculating percentages might be useful in the real world.  At first, I didn't really see how that was an idea worth learning.  I hadn't ever really thought about converting percentages.

But I've been looking around a lot lately when I'm in the store with my mom and dad and I'm seeing opportunities to calculate percentages everywhere.

Sometimes, stores will advertise that items are 20 percent off or 30 percent off.  That's definitely a place where calculating percentages can come in handy.  Other times, I'll see items that are bigger than the normal size.  Their labels say things like "20% More than the Leading Brand!"  And then my dad was figuring out a tip to leave for our waitress at a restaurant the other day.  He gave her a 15 percent tip -- and he used his calculator to figure out how much that would be.

So I can tell that calculating percentages is actually a bigger deal than I thought it would be.  It's definitely a skill that I am proud of having learned this year.

My wonderings about this topic:

Calculating Percentages

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