Seventh grade math students are finishing their unit on applying percent. We have learned how to calculate sales tax, tip, discount and simple interest. Students also worked on finding percent of change and used statistics to predict results of a larger group. When you are shopping or in a restaurant, talk with your child about sales tax, tips and discounts. They should be able to tell you how to calculate each of these!
We are now ready to start working on geometry. Topics will include classifying triangles and quadrilaterals. We will use proportions to work with similar figures and also translate figures on a coordinate grid. Next, students will work with two-dimensional figures as they find the area of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids and circles. Once they master this, students will be able to calculate the area of complex figures. We will also work with three-dimensional figures as we learn how to find the volume and surface area of cylinders and rectangular prisms.
As we begin the second semester, students will take a math benchmark test to measure how well they have learned concepts we have worked on the last nine weeks. It is a 20-question test that will be taken on the computer through a new software called Interactive Achievement. This system is very similar to the one we use for SOL tests and we hope it will be beneficial in helping students prepare for the SOL testing.
