What's Going On? December 16th through December 20th

Polygons and Quadrilaterals

During this last week before winter break we will be finishing up our study of polygons and quadrilaterals.  We will talk about how we can address polygons on the coordinate plane (graph).
Early in the week we will also spend some time reviewing.  The consensus of the class was that we would like to spend our review day working on our review questions individually and then go over any major trouble spots as a class.  We will decided on our test date as a class at then end of our review.

Please note that if you are going to be absent from class on the test date, please make sure you take the test BEFORE winter break.  You will do much better on the assessment if the material is fresh.  Also, all tests must be completed before winter break.  If you need additional time to finish the test, please make arrangements with Mrs. Kamenar to finish it before school, after school, or during lunch.

Since we will be finishing Unit 6 before break, students will have a break free from Geometry homework.  Enjoy your break! :)

What's Going On? December 9th through December 13th

Polygons and Quadrilaterals

This week we will continue our study of polygons and quadrilaterals.  On Monday we will have a
shortened schedule due to Academic Excellence.  On this day we will also talk about the properties of special parallelograms.  We will refer to the hierarchy of quadrilaterals while we talk about the relationships between these figures.  We'll also test our knowledge of the properties of quadrilaterals by doing our "cootie catcher" review activity.

We will then have a short formative assessment that covers how to find the measures of interior and exterior angles of a polygon, properties of parallelograms and special parallelograms, and how to apply a two column proof to classify a quadrilateral.

At the end of the week we will learn about the special characteristics of trapezoids and kites.  We will then combine the worlds of Algebra and Geometry when we take a look at quadrilaterals on the coordinate plane.

When we look at figures on the coordinate we will need to apply some of our previous knowledge.  We'll calculate measurements using the distance formula, the midpoint formula, and the slope formula.

We are looking to wrap up this unit right before we leave for winter break.  If students know that they will be absent from school during the days prior to break, it would probably be a good idea to make arrangements to take our summative *before* winter break.

What's Going On? December 3rd through December 6th

Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

Welcome Back!  I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Break!  Now that we're back to school, we're going to spend the next couple of weeks looking at Polygons and Quadrilaterals.

This week we'll first take a look at how we can find the measures of interior and exterior angles in polygons.  We already looked at this a little bit in our previous unit when we talked about how the angles in a pentagon always add up to 540 degrees.  We'll make some discoveries about how to find the measures of a figure with any number of sides.

After we talk about interior and exterior angles, we will talk about different types of quadrilaterals.  During class we'll talk about the characteristics of parallelograms, trapezoids, kites, rhombuses, rectangles and squares.  We'll also talk about the relationships between these figures.  This week will lay out the groundwork for next week when we start to write two column proofs about quadrilaterals.