Draft Notes for Stage 1 of Understanding by Design Unit:

Unit Title: Balancing your checkbook!
Subject/Topic Areas: Mathematics, Numbers Sense and Operations
Grade Level: 5th grade
Key Words: place value, add, subtract, multiply, divide, number sense, operations, whole number, decimal
Designed by: Courtney Ariola
Time Frame: 2 weeks
School District: Cicero-North Syracuse School District
School: Bear Road Elementary School

Link to Content Standards:
NYS Learning Standards Mathematics- Grade 5- Number Sense and Operations Strand – Number Sense - Operations

Brief Summary of Unit:
There are many different skills needed in order to be successful in the real world. The ability to use, balance and maintain a checkbook is a valuable life skill. This unit will give students the skills needed to apply number sense and operation concepts to real world situations by learning how to balance a checking account register. Students will be applying mathematics in real-world settings. Students will also use number sense and operations to communicate and reason mathematically. Students will be completing a series of problems to balance their own checking account register. Students will be writing a narrative on the importance of keeping a checking account register balanced and how they kept it balanced, while using new vocabulary terms they learned throughout the unit.

Established Goals:
  • Students will be able to use number sense to develop an understanding of the multiple uses of numbers in the real world.
  • Students will be able to use numbers to communicate mathematically.
  • Students will be able to use numbers in the development of mathematical ideas.
  • Students will be able to use mathematical operations and relationships among them to apply mathematics.

What understandings are desired?

Students will understand that…
  • Money can be use in a real-world setting
  • Mathematics has operations and relationships among them
  • There are a variety of ways to communicate mathematically
  • The use of numbers will help to communicate mathematically

What essential questions will be considered?
  • How can money be used in a real-world setting?
  • Why is it important to keep your checking account balanced?
  • How can you determine if a mathematical word problem is addition, subtraction, multiplication or division?
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know…
  • The order of whole numbers and commonly used fractions and decimals
  • How to add, subtract, multiply and divide word problems with whole numbers and decimals
  • How to use place value with whole numbers
  • How to carry and borrow numbers when adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing
  • Checking account vocabulary and how it applies to real-world situations

Students will be able to…
  • Use number sense and operations in a real-world setting
  • Communicate mathematically with money
  • Use mathematical operations and relationships to understand number sense in a real-world setting