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 Thursday, May 23. This year’s theme is “Our World, Our Stuff, Our Solution.” In preparation, we will read, analyze, and 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 23rd.

Therefore, I’m 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, lids, mats, trays, plastic balls; pvc piping/caps; etc.

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

Spring cold and allergy season has begun! Help us fight the good fight, and send in a few boxes of kleenex when you can to get us to the end of the year. Thank you!

With just 8 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.

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):

In science, students will be introduced to the properties of solid objects. They will learn what makes a solid (molecules packed in regular arrangements; hold their shape) and scientific vocabulary of classification (rigid; flexible; pointed; opaque; translucent; etc.). They will apply these ideas as they explore and sort a variety of solid objects, then design and create sun hats with the insulating property of solids in mind!