Math Mammoth Grade 6-A worktext (Canadian version) is the first student book for sixth grade, and part of the Math Mammoth Grade 6 complete curriculum. In this book, students encounter the beginnings of algebra, learning about algebraic expressions, one-variable equations and inequalities, integers, and ratios. We also review and deepen the students' understanding of decimals, and study ratios and percent as new topics for 6th grade.
The year starts out with a review of the four operations with whole numbers (including long division), place value, and rounding. Students are also introduced to exponents and do some problem solving.
Chapter 2 starts the study of algebra topics, delving first into expressions and equations. Students practice writing expressions in many different ways, and use properties of operations and the idea of maintaining the equality of both sides of an equation to solve simple one-step equations. We also study briefly inequalities and using two variables.
Chapter 3 has to do with decimals. This is a long chapter, as we review all of decimal arithmetic, just using more decimal digits than in 5th grade. Students also convert measuring units in this chapter.
Ratios is a new topic (chapter 4). Students are already familiar with finding fractional parts from earlier grades, and now it is time to advance that knowledge into the study of ratios, which arise naturally from dividing a quantity into many equal parts. We study such topics as rates, unit rates, equivalent ratios, and problem solving using bar models.
Percent (chapter 5) is an important topic to understand thoroughly, because of its many applications in real life. The goal of this chapter is to develop a basic understanding of percent, to see percentages as decimals, and to learn to calculate discounts.
This curriculum is essentially the same as the U.S. version of Math Mammoth, only customized for the Canadian audience in these aspects:
- The curriculum uses the metric measurement units. Since Canadians do use imperial units, such as inches and pounds, in some contexts, the curriculum does mention them, but not often.
- The spelling conforms mostly to American English, taking into account a few key differences where Canadian English follows British English.
- Numbers are formatted with a space as a thousands separator, and a point as a decimal separator.
- Page (paper) size is Letter.
The US version of the curriculum is aligned to the Common Core Standards, which means this curriculum may not be properly aligned to the sixth grade standards in any Canadian province. However, you can probably find material for any missing topics in the neighbouring grade levels of Math Mammoth materials.
Available separately, Math Mammoth Grade 6-B worktext covers the second half of 6th grade math. Also available are the answer keys and a book containing cumulative reviews and chapter tests.