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

Floral Goes Green is coming! This renowned annual event focuses student work on the environment, locally and globally, culminating in a day of exposition on Friday, May 25. This year’s theme is “Consider Plastics.” Our class is pairing up with the Richard grade two classroom. Students will read, analyze, write pieces on both the value and the environmental impact of plastics. We will then put our knowledge of the properties of solids to use, engineering games that will repurpose plastics brought in from home. The students’ work and games will be placed in the gym as an interactive display for schoolmates to explore on the 25th.

Therefore, we’re putting the call out now for plastics you can send in with your child. Ideas include (but are not limited to): Clean plastic bottles, any size; old/broken tubs, mats, trays, plastic balls; pvc piping/caps. 

Please only send in what your child can carry/fit on the bus. We’re collecting donations until Friday, May 17. Thanks!

What a treat! Last week, students were invited to meet children’s book author Anita Sax. Ms. Sax read two of her books to a highly engaged audience. She then spent time explaining the author’s process from idea to published product, and stayed for a long round of apt questions from the audience! You can see more about her work at: https://www.anitasax.com/

 This week we will learn common Themes from children’s literature (lessons like Believe in yourself; Always tell the truth; etc.) and apply them using fiction texts. Then we will learn to read closely and find evidence from the text to support our claims, and compare themes within and among texts. When your child uses a piece of fiction for reading homework, ask him/her to think about the themes that emerge over several pages or chapters of a book. Scholastic has some great ideas on finding themes in books, movies, and songs at home:http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2011/02/helping-students-grasp-themes-in-literature

Our blogging work continues this week with students learning to navigate the virtual online space their blogs represent. They will learn how to upload selfies as avatars; how to customize a webpage/blog; and how to communicate appropriately in an online community with friendliness and respect by creating their first posts!

Our final lessons on telling time will focus on calculating time before or after (elapsed time). Notice the example above. Students have previously learned to tell time to the hour and half-hour, and now they are being stretched to apply that to new situations requiring a deeper understanding of time. In case your child struggles with this during homework, encourage them to try it with a toy clock or this online clock with movable hands (visnos.com):

  

 

Our school meeting Friday was a big success! The theme was centered around emotional problem solving using the book What Do You Do With a Problem? (Yamata). Students in our class created a bulletin board showcasing common problems kids face at school, plus multiple solutions since we know a growth mindset means persevering and finding more than one way to solve problems. We then presented the board at school meeting and engaged the audience of our peers! You can see the book read aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG25YyKJ4qs

With just 9 weeks to go, students will learn to use technology to communicate and evidence their thinking through the use of student learning blogs! They will learn to navigate online environments, including posting, commenting, and replying; to create, find, and upload media such as images and audio files; and to collaborate with peers through reading and writing. This week, we will learn what it means to be part of an online community and how safety rules of common sense apply there as well as in real life. Then we will learn what a digital footprint means and how to create a safe one, as well as how to stay safe online. A note on safety and privacy: Student blogs are created via Kidblog.org. They are only open to invited peers and teachers. Once up and running parents will be invited to view them as well with a private password. For more information, please visit their site. Lessons on privacy and more are taken from Common Sense Media.

This week, students will learn to comprehend nonfiction text by paying close attention to titles, subtitles, and headings when reading informative articles. These nonfiction text features are used by author’s to guide our thinking, and they lead us to understand the most important things worth remembering. You can try it out at home with articles from NationalGeographicKids.com, such as this one on Denali National Park. Notice how the headings cleverly point us in the direction of what’s important.

This week we begin Chapter 14, which teaches kids to tell time to the 5 minutes on an analog clock; write the time in numbers or words; correctly identify AM and PM; and solve problems involving elapsed time (minutes or hours later/before). Check out the graphic above: students are being taught to identify time using the hour and minute hands; to tell minutes of any hour by counting “5s” around the clock; and to use those skills to calculate time elapsed. Here is a link to a great online clock from ABCya.com that kids can manipulate to read the time in analog and digital format, and to use it to play games. Try it out! Just navigate to this page, select “Practice,” and click “GO”: http://www.abcya.com/telling_time.htm

And here’s a great song we’re using to help us tie it all together, from Readeez: In science this week students will explore water in different containers to learn about prominent features of liquids: their levels remain parallel to the earth, and their molecular structure causes them to take the shape of the container they are in. Here are some shots of us exploring a variety of liquids to learn more about their properties!

 

The countdown is on: Just 10 more weeks left in the year! The kids have made huge strides since the start, and I’m proud of their perseverance and accomplishments.

Our reading comprehension spotlight this week is Understanding Cause and Effect. This is an essential skill for students to own. It helps them analyze storylines and character choices, and so develop a deeper understanding of what is read. As an example, we are reading together Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl). Mr. Wonka shut down his factory then opened it to a lucky few. What events led to his actions, and how did they affect the town in which Charlie lives? How do the choices made by Charlie and the other children affect the outcome of the narrative? For more on Cause and Effect and using it at home, check out Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/cause-and-effect

As we begin the last trimester of school, students will return one last time to narrative writing. What’s important by year’s end is that they write several paragraphs of a story from their lives that include an entertaining beginning; description; a main event that stretches out the moment; transition words; and an extended ending. It’s by far the most complicated writing they’ll do!In math this week, students will further their understanding of measurement by learning to develop a sense of how big inches are and applying that knowledge through estimating and actual measuring. Consider the picture above from the student eBook: notice how it pushes kids to understand how big inches are; how many inches long common objects are; and to apply those ideas by comparing lengths. The last big idea is to solve real word problems involving length, height, and distance. At this time of year, kids should be able to model such problems through bar models and/or parts-and-total frames.

Students spent last week in science understanding what solids are by learning about their properties using a variety of objects. They applied their knowledge in the engineering of hats designed to block the sun (see pics below). This week, students will now investigate properties of liquids.  Using a variety of materials in bottles, they will look, listen, spin, roll, tip, and otherwise manipulate these systems to discover the similarities and differences in the viscosity, amount of bubbles and foam, color, and transparency of common liquids around us.

     

Photo Source: Autism Speaks

Light it Up Blue! This week marks Autism Awareness around the world. At Floral St. School, we are committed to serving the diverse needs of Shrewsbury’s population, including students whose needs lie within the autistic spectrum. In class, we will learn to understand the unique learning and behavior styles that accompany autism, in an effort to strengthen our school community. Information, networks, and ways to “light it up blue” can be found at the Autism Speaks website.

Thanks to those who have already sent in Kleenex! We can use lots more–please send in some if you haven’t, and thank you!

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.

In Social Studies, students are learning to apply all the skills they’ve learned (orientation; scale; directions; country vs. continent; natural/cultural features; etc.) by creating world atlases. Armed with continent outlines and iPads, they will be evaluating continent maps for ideas of what the most useful ones look like, then creating their own to fit their purpose. We applied our knowledge of natural & cultural features while researching maps of Japan last week, all while learning about Japan’s tradition of celebrating spring with cherry blossom festivals!