Writing Algebraic Equations

We were very happy to welcome Ms. Toth back to our classroom this morning.

Our goal for today was to take our knowledge of how to solve our mobiles picture problems one step further... actually writing out "the Math" to go along with our thinking!

First, we started off by reading the book Mystery Math - A First Book of Algebra by David Adler.

It seems like a silly sort of picture book, but it actually introduced us to the key concepts 

AND vocabulary words we would need to move ahead in today's lesson!

Books are SO incredible like that! :)

Next, Ms. Toth called us all up to the board to model how to write algebraic equations to explain our Math thinking when finding the values of each shape in our mobiles.

We also learned key words such as "variable" and "equality."

Now that we had an idea of how to get started, we got into our randomized groups and got to work!
As we worked through each mobile, Mme Careen and Ms. Toth stopped by our groups to check our equations and ask us questions about our thinking. Writing down an equation only isn't enough; ALL members of our group had to be able to explain the reasoning behind each equation and the order in which it was placed. This is NOT as easy as it sounds! Our brains were on maximum thinking mode today!

We will revisit this process once more - as our class "shared write" - before Ms. Sandy arrives.
Who knew a simple Math mobile could teach us so much Math? Wow! :)