Grade 6: Expressions
12 Days—89 pages

Writing and Simplifying Expressions is part of the AIMS Essential Math Series that uses real-world investigations, comics, and animation to engage students and help them discover and make sense of key mathematical concepts. The units in this series are narrowly focused, conceptually developed, and carefully sequenced to provide a continuum of introduction, development, and reinforcement of the essential ideas.

In Writing and Simplifying Expressions, students will develop fundamental understanding of key algebraic concepts. The four “big ideas” expressed through creative activities in this book are:

• Variables: Using a variable to represent an unknown amount is a powerful tool that is central to doing algebra.
• Order: Changing the order in which operations are done gives different answers, so mathematicians have agreed on a specific order.
• Commutative Property: The commutative property is used to rearrange expressions so like terms can be combined and a simpler equivalent expression written.
• Distributive Property: The distributive property can be used to multiply expressions with unlike terms and simplify them into equivalent expressions.

The book includes a CD with interactive PDF instructions. Interactive links in the digital format enrich the learning experience with videos, animation and Flash® applications. Using a projector or interactive whiteboard allows the materials to display for the class and supplements the teacher’s instruction.

This book, Writing and Simplifying Expressions, is an interactive pdf. In order to utilize the functions in it, you will need to have Adobe Reader 9.0 or higher. This is a free download from http://get.adobe.com/reader/  

You may also need to upgrade your version of the Flash Plugin, which is also free from adobe.com.

Minimum RAM requirement: 2 GB. Minimum processor speed: 1.5GHz.

Operating System: Windows XP or later, MacOS X 10.4 or later

The digital version of the book, which is provided on the CD, is set in landscape format to better fit on interactive whiteboards. Embedded within the pdfs are videos, games, and answer keys that can be toggled on and off. All links are colored.

Some tips that will help to optimize your use of this digital book are:

• Drag the files to your computer. They will run better on your computer than off the CD.

• When using activity pages, use full-screen mode for classroom viewing. This option is found under the View menu.

• Press the escape key to exit full-screen mode for activity pages.

• Videos can be viewed in full-screen mode by right clicking for options. For Mac users who have not enabled right clicking on the mouse, use control click for options.

• Once the class has viewed the videos, exit full screen by again right clicking or using the control click option. To close the video, now click the X in the upper right corner of the video.

• Use the arrows on the tool bar or type in the page number to advance to the desired page. We regret that the pagination is one page off. The pdf counts the cover as a page. To find the pdf page using the table of contents, you will need to add one to the page number that is listed.

• Answers on the student pages can be toggled on and off by clicking on the recording area. Sometimes the answers for the whole page will appear, at other times answers for sections of the page will appear. When only one section appears, just click on another section to get those answers. It is suggested that you click all answers off when leaving a page so that those answers are not displayed when you next use that page.

• The videos for the activities should be shown in the following sequence: green links, blue links, red links. Green links indicate the key question and the focus of the activity. Blue links explain the procedure and suggestions for implementation. Red links explain and summarize the learning inherent in the activity.

• Comics are displayed in a slideshow format. Click on the forward arrow to progress through the frames.

• Do not play the games from the interactive pdf. Find the game files on the CD and drag them to your desktop. The files can be distributed to student computers. Each game has a PC and Mac version.