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

We’ve arrived! I’m so proud of the hard work and many accomplishments earned by this group. When we met in September, I predicted their effort and perseverance would make the difference, and it’s exciting to see how far they’ve come.

Please accept my heartfelt thanks for the many ways you support your child’s education, and for your generosity of spirit, donations, and gifts. I wish you all the very best as you continue on the road of lifelong learning!

Field Day was a blast! Thank you for helping make it a success by preparing your child at home. And a special thank you to Jill Magarro, Heather and Mark Vaillancourt, Michael Miller, and Ruchi Singh for helping to keep everything running smoothly!

 

Field Day is here! This Thursday marks the big event. Students will participate in their choice of a variety of games designed to engage and challenge them physically and mentally. They’ll compete against others to do their personal best, and work with partners and teams to exercise skills of teamwork and sportsmanship. To make the day run smoothly, we need your help:

1. Please send your child in a red shirt of any kind that day.

2. Sneakers are a must: no flip-flops or sandals.

3. Sunscreen must be applied at home, not at school.

4. Well-fitting hats (e.g. baseball caps vs. big sun hats) are welcome.

5. Dress students for comfort: they will be very physically active and hot, and a few games involve water so expect a little wetness.

6. Water bottles with student names on them are a good idea!

Instead of a single year-end classroom event, we will be celebrating our classroom community with several Fun Days, starting this Friday. Students are encouraged to participate, and might need a little help from home!

• Friday: Show Off Day Reprise. The kids wanted to show off their talents in the classroom, and some needed more time to prepare for the Music Room’s event, so we’ll hold one of our own. Kids can do the same things or something different. It’s at your discretion if they bring in anything from home!
• Monday: Backwards Day. Students can come with clothing inside out or backwards, and our school day will have a backward theme too. Kids love this!
• Tuesday: Dance Party Day. Who knows when the music will play? But when it does, we drop everything and DANCE! No special clothing required.
• Wednesday: Hawaiian Day. Any colorful clothing, leis, sun hats, etc., are welcome. We’ll learn to hula, hear some island tales, and enjoy the sounds of Hawaiian music!

With just 9 days to go, vacation is right around the corner. Over the summer, many students lose some of the gains they made during the school year. You can help avoid this with some easy tips:

a. Our subscription to RAZ Kids continues through the first 1/2 of summer. Keep on reading and take advantage of this on-the-go option! In addition, the Shrewsbury Public Library has a fantastic collection of leveled books your child can borrow. See the report card for your child’s just-right level, then choose books on–and just below–that level.

b. Our Xtra Math membership will not expire! Students can keep studying and moving up levels, and in the fall I can transfer their accounts to next year’s teacher. In the event next year’s teacher does not participate, shoot me an email then and I’ll keep your child’s account active under my next year’s class!

c. Greg Tang’s math site is offering a “Summer Challenge!” http://gregtangmath.com/summer . I highly recommend visiting the site often. His vision for building math fluency in kids is spot-on.

With your help, we can avoid the dreaded regression of skills (or as we call it, The Summer Slide)!

The great book return is on! Please be on the lookout for all books belonging to school. This includes:

a. books from our classroom, with my name on them or with a letter written on the back cover

b. books from our bookroom, with a big, round blue sticker on the back cover, or a small white rectangle sticker with the school’s name on either cover

c. Floral Media books, with a bar code on the front cover. Should you find any of the above books after school ends, you can return them to the office or media center once school begins again.

There’s just 3 weeks to go! This class has worked very hard all year, and come so far. They can be well proud of their accomplishments!

Some end-of-year notes:

• This is the last week of reading, math, and math facts homework, ending on June 8.
• Students will be taking reading tests in class (DRA’s). These are not sent home, but their independent reading level is noted on the final report card, issued on the last day of school.
•  The grading term ends this Friday! A grade of “3” on the report card for end-of-year includes: Reading on an independent level 28 or higher; passing level 20 +/- math facts; writing that has either scored mostly “3” or better on weekly writing assignments and/or has made adequate progress (see scores on top of each week’s writing sent home: F=Focus, Organization, Detail, E=English conventions, spelling); accurate math work in class and/or on math tests.

Our end of year ELA focus is on identifying and recognizing parts of speech. We’ll learn about the purpose of pronouns, verbs, and adverbs in sentences, and how to identify them in text. A fun part of our instruction will be singing along to Schoolhouse Rock (remember those old tunes? Turns out they were right on!). Peruse them at home, and ask your child to identify the teaching going on!

The students continue to impress with their writing work. Here are opinion writing excerpts from 1) Aarika, on why “Puppy Place” is the best book series, 2) Rithik, on why kids should be allowed an iPhonce phone at age 12, and 3) Mia, on why summer is the best season: 1) They put a picture in your head. It’s like you’re a character in the book. And it takes you in another direction. 2) Kids might lose their iPhone if they’re under 12 years old. If they put it in their pocket it could fall out of their pocket and your parents probably won’t but you another iPhone. 3) You can be outside as much as you want. There’s more fruit that’s ripe. You can even go camping. Awesome job!

Our math work has focused on identifying plane shapes and solids by their properties, and recognizing them in figures and models. On their latest blog posts, students created figures with polygons and circles which they uploaded for others to view and identify the shapes. The kids have been asking if they can show people their blogs at home. They are welcome to do this as long as they do not post comments or replies: https://kidblog.org/class/mr-averys-class1/login

Thank you for the many ways you support your child’s learning at home–it shows!