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

We’re almost there! Just a couple more snowflakes and we’ve reached our goal and earned our special day. As a special reward for demonstrating good work habits, students are invited to wear pajamas to school Friday. Please keep in mind the following guidelines for appropriateness and safety:

1. Kids will be going outside, so dress for the weather: PJs with tops and bottoms are best. Sweats work equally well, or a combination of the two.
2. Sneakers or regular footwear are a must for coming to school/going home/recess. Kids are allowed (not required) to bring slippers–but keep in mind they’ll be wearing them all over school, including the bathrooms!
3. Nightgowns are not recommended but if they are worn, leggings or shorts must be worn underneath.
4. No toys, stuffed animals, or accessories, please.

On Friday, we will celebrate by making crafts, reciting seasonal poetry; writing a main event with description to accompany Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman; singing together at an all-school sing-a-long; and more!  Thanks for the countless ways you support your child’s learning. These kids are so well cared for physically, emotionally, and academically and I’m proud to be sharing their journey with you. I wish you the happiest of holidays, and all the best in 2018!

In math this week, students will be taught x5 math facts by counting objects; skip counting on fingers; and using dot paper, which shows arrays.

A note about arrays: Arrays are rectangular arrangements of objects like the dots in the picture above. For our purposes, we always count the number of rows first and multiply that by the number of things in each row (columns). In this example, we are looking at a 4 x 2 array (read ‘4 by 2’), the total of which is 8. We can also turn the array on its side like this:

This is a 2 x 4 array, with the same total as 4 x 2. We use these rotating arrays to teach students the commutative property of multiplication. If we know 4 x 2 = 8, then we immediately know that 2 x 4 = 8. There is no need to do the math a second time, and now we’ve learned 2 math facts at once.

And as a fun way to combine skip counting with math facts, we’ll be playing along with this old favorite!

As part of our study of weather, students began investigating what air can do and what we can do with air. The kids concluded: You can trap air; You can use air to propel things; You can make wind with air; You can use air, including suction, to control the directions of objects; You can control the direction of air; Air can make things float. Here’s some pictures of us in action!

Report cards will be coming home next week. A few notes about grading: Gone are the days of letter grades, and the system now works a little differently. A “3” is Achieving the standard, and that is similar to an “A” grade. A “2” means students are making continuous progress and can do it some of the time, or with help. A “4” is rare: it means students are working a grade level above grade 2 benchmarks. A “1” is even rarer: should any student have been heading there, we would have communicated it well before now (and no one is)!

To be achieving on this term’s report card, students should be reading on level 20K, and reading fluently while comprehending text on whatever level they may be at. In writing they should be able to write complete sentences; to show evidence of writing opinion and informative pieces; to tell a story about one event from their lives with a beginning, middle, and end in a clear manner; and to write with spaces, correct upper/lowercase letters, correct punctuation, and mostly correct spelling. In math, they should have passed math facts level 10; they should be able to make sense of and solve problems in daily work and on tests; and they should be able to accurately add and subtract 3-digit numbers with regrouping.

Chapter 6 of MIF focuses on learning multiplication facts of 2s, 5s, and 10s by teaching the connection between skip-counting and multiplication, and using that understanding to solve problems. To solve 8 x 2, for example, we want students to count by 2 eight times. It is a way of learning the meaning behind the numbers involved in multiplication instead of just memorizing facts (which has value, too, just not on its own). One way we teach this is to have students count pairs of objects. Next is counting on fingers while counting aloud by 2 (1 finger up gives you 2, or 1 x 2; etc.). Students will then be introduced to dot paper, which for this chapter shows arrays of 2s, 5s, or 10s. The example below shows 4 x 2. On homework, students should use dot paper by counting down the rows by 2s, then naming how many rows they counted. In this example, they should say “2, 4, 6, 8; I counted 4 times; 4 times 2 is 8.”

See the homework resource folder for examples of each kind of dot paper that can be used at homework time!

In Social Studies, students are learning the big ideas about maps, namely: maps show places; and maps use pictures, a compass rose, orientation, scale, labels, and symbols. We built a 3-d model of our classroom to investigate orientation, scale, and a sense of space. Then we moved to the representational stage and creating maps of our playground and blacktop using photographs and symbols. There are lots of online learning games to help teach and practice these skills, like this one at National Geographic. In addition, we use Google Earth (requires download) all the time to match places relevant in our learning to our actual geographic location. I highly recommend it!

Our science focus this term is on research design! In lots of hands-on lessons, students will learn to: ask questions and make claims; design investigations to test them; collect and analyze data; and draw conclusions. As a central theme, we will focus on earth science, specifically weather. This week, students will engage in observations and investigations designed to get them thinking and wondering about air and water. Here’s a link to the FOSSweather unit page, used by teachers in the district: http://lhsfoss.org/scope/folio/html/AirandWeather/1.html. And a quick web search will present you with lots of kid-friendly sites such as these, which we will use in class:

http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/

Winter’s on its way! Our classroom is in need of lots of bottles of hand sanitizer to keep us germ free. This is especially important because there is no sink in our room for students to wash our hands. Please send in a bottle or two, and thank you.

This Tuesday marks our first Early Release Day! Teachers will be engaging in Professional Development across the district. I’ll be researching the growth mindset approach and charting next steps with students. Note: There is no lunch period on Early Release Days. However, we will have a snack break at 11:30 since kids are used to eating at that time of day. Of course, it’s up to you whether you’d like your child to eat something then or wait till s/he gets home!

This week I will be starting a snowflake jar (like a marble jar) in class for earning points toward a class celebration before the holidays. I’m looking to encourage habits of mind, especially good collaboration skills and self-regulation. Each day the kids will evaluate themselves with my help, and snowflakes will be added for each accomplishment, helping us reach our goal.

Our celebration will be on Friday, December 22nd. Kids will be invited to wear pajamas at school (more on the details to come), and we will spend the day honoring each other’s accomplishments so far. In addition, we’ll have a winter sing-a-long with the whole school; create a working craft to help measure weather at home this winter; write a narrative to accompany Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman; and more!

In math this week, students will be taught the basics of division. Just like multiplication was all about adding equal groups, at this introductory level they should understand division as splitting things into equal groups. Think about that while looking at the picture below:

Notice how it calls for creating a given number of groups with a set number of objects in each group. One way to divide, therefore, is to minus groups of 4 from the whole. Hence, 12 – 4 – 4 – 4 = 0. Students will be taught to try out this strategy, as well as others like “dealing” out objects into groups like you would do with playing cards (one in this group, then one in that group; two in this group, and two in that group; etc.). Like with multiplication, there is no expectation that kids work without objects or pictures to perform operations.

We wrapped up our study of animal adaptations with an investigation involving owl pellets. Students had a blast sorting through bones and beaks, all the while asking questions and hypothesizing about what creatures were on the owl’s menu and the adaptations required for such a diet. Here’s some pictures, plus some of us on a Nature Trail walk designed to focus students’ senses on the setting around them in order to write about it with elaboration: