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

Five weeks to go!

You’re invited! Our Spring Concert/End-of-Year Celebration will be held Wednesday, June 11, 9:30-10:15 in our Cafeteria. Similar to our Winter bash, we will be performing on the stage for family and friends, and we will remain after for photo opportunities and congratulations!

This Friday our school will be hosting Floral Goes Green, an annual event intended to raise environmental awareness for kids and families. There will be presentations by guests and community members throughout the day for students. In addition, every classroom will post project-based learning displays they have been working on.

The learning focus in our class has been on examining the importance of trees and shade in our local environment. Students are learning about the scientific process as we develop questions to test; design experiments to test them; collect data (temperature readings in and out of school); analyze the data to understand what it means; draw conclusions; and make inferences and recommendations based on our findings.

This week we will use our data collected outside to understand temperature differences in sun and shade. Last week we also took readings of temperatures in an enclosed area (box with clear plastic top) to give us schema for learning about the greenhouse effect, which we will explore further this week. We will also learn to use scientific tools (electric temperature probes, data collection software, and building models) to help us learn about the potential for shade as an energy-saving coolant. Our findings will be displayed in the hallways alongside the many other projects explored by our schoolmates.

          

There is room for more volunteers to help us set up (Thurs. after school) and clean up (Friday after school) for Floral Goes Green. If you can help, simply return the blue form sent home last week (I have copies if you need another).

This week we will compete the Everyday Math homework packet. New homework pages (not from the packet) will continue to be assigned each night and will come home pre-dated for the next three weeks, however, to continue the practice and extension of math skills.

Our work with poetry has culminated in an anthology of student poems! We will be sharing (and analyzing) poems with each other this week, after which time each student will bring home their own copy of the collection. They are all awesome! Here are a few: note the use of imagery, metaphor, and expressive word choice that conveys emotion!

•  Cute Wolves

Wolves are like

fluffy white

dandelions.

Their fur

looks like snow

in your hands.

They bark

like dogs

singing Christmas carols.

by Macy Kent

• Playing Soccer

Kids lined up like

soldiers

waiting for a signal.

Whistle screeched.

Suddenly, shoes stomped

clouds of dust crawled

around the field.

The ball slapped my chest.

I kicked it and

it shot in the goal like

a bullet.

by Syed

• Going to El Salvador

In the pitch dark

night he woke me up

carried me to the car

drove the car in the dark until

the lights flashed around the

airport

to show us the way.

by Aleah Rodriguez