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

Students were treated to a visit from local children’s author, April Jones Prince! Ms. Prince shared with students the journey it takes to publish your own writing, from brainstorming, to revising, to the all-important skill of editing. The kids were highly engaged and asked many great questions. Thanks to our PTO for funding this enriching opportunity!

This is last call for Literacy Night readers! If you child wishes to read an original piece of writing, please let me know today. All permission forms are due no later than this Wednesday, March 27.

Our work with narrative writing has paid off! Here are some great examples of stories from 1) Ari on going sledding, 2) Mohan on building a leprechaun trap, and 3) Yash on having a snowball fight. Note how they stretch out the action with details and a good sense of author’s voice: 1) Should we build a snowman? Should we have a snowball fight? And then right as we were thinking, it hit me! Let’s go sledding. 2) I started first with the cardboard box. I had to cut out 49 x 6 inches, so I used my mom’s measuring tape. Then, I was snipping off cardboard like I was the greatest tailor! 3) We both raced to my front yard and started building rectangle walls made out of pure, cold ice. I made a hole in the roof  so we could throw snowballs from the top. Once we finished the fort, we started crafting snowballs.  Awesome!

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.

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

Literacy Night is coming on Friday, April 5th! 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). It is requested the piece be original and no longer than 3 minutes.
• 2. Let me know this week that you will be participating. You’ll be sent a permission form to be filled out and returned no later than March 27th. This will be followed by a confirmation letter with room assignment and time.
• 3. Come and celebrate! Students begin presenting at 6:00 PM.

Another feature of Literacy Night is a visit from local author, April Jones Prince. In addition, Ms. Price will be presenting workshops to second graders this week in school! Students will learn about the craft of writing, with examples from the author herself! Many thanks to our awesome PTO for funding this program to enrich our curriculum.

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. Students will be introduced this week to natural and cultural features on maps and use them to extract information, applying critical thinking. I encourage kids to do the same with your guidance! Maps are like treasures that get more interesting the more kids delve into them.

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.

Our reading focus this week is on Finding the Theme and Author’s Message. A reading theme is a big idea that we encounter again and again in literature, such as bravery or honesty or perseverance. The author’s message, on the other hand, is the moral of the story. We find evidence of it by looking at what the main character(s) learned, usually through failure. In The Gingerbread Man, for example, the theme is boastfulness. It’s a broad idea we find in many books, movies, and songs. The lesson to be learned (author’s message) is Don’t brag about yourself to others. We know this because when he did that, he came to a bad end. In any case, notice how looking at stories this way helps children to think deeply and critically about text, which is a big goal of reading instruction! You can try it at home with your young reader using any fiction story, and of course Aesop’s Fables are a great resource for finding the moral of the story. Here’s a great online collection from the Library of Congress!

 

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!

March Madness has begun! Students in Phys. Ed. classes have been running laps to work on fitness goals, including reaching the one mile mark!

Read Across America Day was a big hit! Students in our class were treated to stories read aloud by Shrewsbury Librarian Sonja Drotar. Ms. Drotar also answered questions from the crowd, promoted the awesome services available at SPL, and shared with us her lifelong love of reading and learning. Big thanks to her and to our volunteers who helped create a special morning for us!

Our reading focus this week is on finding the main idea in fiction. It’s important that students learn to identify big ideas in texts and separate them from details. To do this, students will learn to ask: What did the main character do? What did the main character want? What did the main character achieve? The answers to these questions lead the reader to understand what the page, or chapter, or book is about, thus improving their comprehension. You can practice during homework time by guiding your child through these questions during or after reading.

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:

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, 2019. Wow!