Learning To Go Mr. Avery's Class on the Web 

Students were treated to lessons in fire safety and prevention last week! Shrewsbury firefighters were on hand, engaging kids through video and equipment demonstrations. We learned what to do and what not to do in various situations involving fire at home. Besides monitoring smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, one of the best ways to improve safety for families is to have a plan in place that includes 2 ways out of the house and a meeting place where the family should gather in case anyone gets separated. This is a good time to start or review your plan! Our thanks go out to Shrewsbury’s finest for their work with the kids on Friday and everyday.

Our poetry work has led to great things! Here are some excerpts of in-class poetry from 1) Teagan, on “The Beach” 2) TJ, on “Football”. Notice their use of careful word choice, metaphor, tone, and imagery: 1) Seashells on the warm sand/Warm sun like a blanket on my back/The fresh sea water smell tickling my nose./Dolphins jumping out of the water/And seagulls shaking with joy because they got the last french fry. 2) Ball flying overhead/Peddling cleats all around you/reaching out/and in your hands you have an oval ball./Coaches yelling left and right/jumping over monstrous players/Running, running, running…Touchdown!

Our next math topic for exploration involves standard units of measurement. Students will engage in hands-on activities to develop a sense of how big one foot and one inch are. They will learn to compare heights and lengths in standard units, and use their knowledge to solve real-world problems about measurement. Consider the picture above. Notice how it encompasses all three big ideas? Now think: how would you find the answers using bar models as well? There are vocabulary and picture resources added to math homework folders to help at home.

We applied our knowledge of natural & cultural features while researching maps of Japan this week, all while learning about Japan’s tradition of celebrating spring with cherry blossom festivals!

In science, students were introduced to the properties of solid objects, including scientific vocabulary of classification (rigid; flexible; pointed; opaque; translucent; etc.). They will apply these ideas next week as they work to design hats using a variety of materials and based on their properties (absorbent, soft, etc.). Here’s us testing the materials in the research phase of our project:

Literacy Night is coming on Friday, April 7th! This annual school event features games, books, local authors, food, and more. A favorite feature of this event is the reading of original pieces by student authors. I encourage any student from our class to participate.

If your child wishes to read his/her writing (in classrooms with a group of about 9 other students), here’s what to do: 1. Select a piece of writing from home or school this year (think of the great work they’ve done with Opinion, Informative, and Narrative writing, or something they’ve worked on at home). 2. Let me know this week that you will be participating. You’ll be sent a permission form to be returned no later than March 30. This will be followed by a confirmation letter with room assignment and time. 3. Come and celebrate! Students begin presenting at 6:00 PM.
Our reading focus this week is on using the comprehension strategy Determining Importance. In nonfiction texts, authors use titles, subtitles, and headings as clues to their main ideas. Using a variety of texts, students will read the supporting details of an author’s argument. Then, they will sort out interesting vs. important information using the headings and title to guide their thinking. You can try it out at home, too! Visit a kid-friendly site like Time For Kids or National Geographic Kids; choose an article with headings; read the sections; and look for the main idea of each with the heading and title in mind. Here’s one example, about a new species of tree frog that looks just like Kermit: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/new-real-life-frog-looks-like-kermit/

This week students will learn the ins-and-outs of writing poetry, having studied poetic elements all year. What’s important is that they identify meaningful moments, memories, people, or objects from their lives and tell about them in verse (short descriptive phrases vs. sentences) with attention to imagery and word choice. Here are some great last snippets from our recent work with character traits (opinion) and informative writing from 1) Aubrey and 2) Vennela, on Helen Keller  and 3) Oliver on Thomas Jefferson: 1) Helen Keller was brave. When she was fourteen she attended the Wright Humason School for the deaf. She went all by herself.  2) For another thing, she was intelligent. Anne taught Helen how to spell words by spelling letters into her hand. Helen learned spelling words quickly.  3) Many people in America wanted the king to lower the cost of paper, tea, and glass which came from England. They sent Ben to speak to the king about unfair charges.  Awesome!

We will wrap up our study of fractions by learning to add and subtract “like” fractions. We’ll then connect this concept to bar models we’ve previously used to represent problems. Check out the picture above: notice how bar models can be used to think concretely about the relative space and size involved in fractions–smart!

Our Trimester 3 mapping goals include locating and identifying the ‘big three’ countries in North America, distinguishing between countries and continents, and identifying major physical features of the U.S. such as the Mississippi, Rocky Mountains, Appalachians, Great Lakes, etc.

The final science topic of the year that we will explore is States of Matter. Through a combination of hands-on activities, investigations meant to teach the scientific process of inquiry, and multimedia approaches, students should develop an understanding of matter and be able to identify solids, liquids, and gases by their observable properties. This week they will investigate solids, liquids, and gels by manipulating examples of each in order to learn about their properties. Here’s a link to our district’s science program for this topic, with objectives and content defined:https://www.fossweb.com/delegate/ssi-wdf-ucm-webContent?dDocName=D568667

Luck o’ the Irish? There’s just 13 weeks left in the school year! We’ll start this one by flexing our map skills as we explore directionality and landforms related to the Emerald Isle, share Irish folk tales and music, and more. For some fun sharing of Irish culture, check out: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/1Kids/2Index.html

As the second trimester of school comes to an end this week, students will be taking reading tests (DRAs) and a district-wide writing assessment that tests students’ abilities with focus, organization, details and English conventions (punctuation, spelling) while producing a piece of informative writing. Quizzes and tests will also be given to measure students’ progress with math problem solving; map skills (natural/cultural features; directionality; countries vs. continents; oceans and continents; finding places on maps) and science concepts related to weather.

In our final trimester, students will engage in short, skills-based math units on topics such as telling time, measuring in inches/feet, graphing, and more. We begin by learning fractions: what they are; how to name them; how to compare them, and how to add fractions with similar denominators. What’s important, according to the Common Core, is that students gain an understanding of what fractions mean and become fluent using halves, thirds, and fourths. Consider the example below. Notice how it encourages students to think about what fractions are and about their relative sizes. This picture and many more can be found in the Student Book accessible via the Math in Focus link above (Book B; Chapter 12). As always, hit me with any questions!

 

Here’s our young scientists comparing temperature date they collected, analyzed, and presented–awesome!

What a great time we had during Read Across America week! Our class and the Richards class presented a reader’s theatre version of Dr. Seuss’ The Sneetches to grades 1 and 2 at our School Meeting. The kids did an awesome job acting their parts and reading with expression, and they engaged the audience who read along with us.

We also kicked off a community-wide literacy project as a way to promote reading to a wide audience! Students at our school will be making bookmarks that will be handed out to all children when they borrow books at the Shrewsbury Public Library. Kids are then asked to take a picture of themselves reading, and post it on social media using the hashtags #readtosucceed and #shrewsburylearns. We’re hoping to go viral!

On Friday, we were treated to a visit from Shrewsbury’s own Firefighter Vincequere. Mr. Vincequere read aloud And to Think That I saw it On Mulberry St, and shared with students the impactful ways reading affects his personal and professional life. A big thanks to him for being a great model for our kids!

 We are still in need of boxes of Kleenex  to get us through the rest of  winter and through the spring. Please send in a couple of boxes if you haven’t, and thanks!

This week, students continue to use a variety of print and visual sources to research a famous American and the traits that made them stand out. Here are two great examples from 1. Naomi on Susan B. Anthony, and 2. Elaine on Sally Ride: 1. Susan was hardworking. Susan and Elizabeth gave speeches, held meetings, and wrote books and articles. They wanted to bring attention to women suffrage. Susan worked for women’s rights her whole life. 2. Sally was intelligent. She got good grades. She went to college, and then she got her doctorate!  Awesome!

Our work with money wraps up by challenging students to solve real world problems involving computation and reasoning. Consider this problem from their workbooks: Devon spends 2 dimes at the store. Then he spends 3 nickels more. If he pays with $1.00, how much change should he get? Notice how it requires that students apply their understanding of money amounts and thinking skills in order to calculate change? Here is an awesome online game that helps kids practice these useful skills:

And last this week:

What an amazing job students have done in science! After collecting temperature data from the past month that is valid and reliable, they organized it in tables and created bar graphs (try it yourself with any data you like–it’s really cool! http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/). This week they will analyze the data to look for trends and anomalies; aggregate the data to answer specific questions; and draw conclusions about temperature in winter, 2017. Wow!