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

I hope you had a great holiday! In class we learned about the defining moments in the life of MLK using nonfiction text, and analyzed them in terms of the character traits he displayed. Here’s a great one from Sid: MLK was determined. When someone threw a bomb in his house he still told people to live peacefully. We’ll next analyze the achievements of Helen Keller and other famous Americans. Besides learning about history and government, the ultimate goal of our work is to instill in children a sense of civic responsibility so that when they take their place as citizen leaders they can make their communities, their country, and their world a better place. Joining us in this effort is SPS Elementary Media Specialist Christy Minton, who will teach us using a variety of print and electronic resources. More on that next week!

We continue to learn and practice elements of good opinion writing. What’s important now is that students learn to construct arguments that include reasons, followed up by detailed explanations. Consider these two excellent examples from (1) Caleb and (2) Nishta on why we should have Gym class every day: 1. One reason I think so is gym makes your body healthier. When you exercise your body loses weight, allowing you to fun faster,  jump higher, and not get tired from running. 2. Another reason is you get better at teamwork. In gym you learn to get along with kids. We learn to include every member in the class. Fantastic!

Having learned strategies for multiplying 2s and 5s (skip counting; finger counting; dot paper), we now apply them to multiplying 10s. In addition, we will review the commutative property (e.g. 10 x 2 = 2 x 10) while stressing the need to model these correctly when solving problems. We will then learn to use multiplication of 2s (repeated addition of groups of 2) to learn odd and even numbers. Students will be taught to group objects by 2s and if there is none left  over then it is even; otherwise it is odd. Likewise, if you can split a group cleanly in half with no leftovers, that also means it is an even number. Learning it like this helps students to understand the nature of odd and even as opposed to only applying tricks (e.g. it’s even if it ends with 0, 2, 4, etc.). Here’s an old chestnut we’ve been using to help us multiply by skip counting:

A word about math facts: I’ve noticed many students are stuck (e.g. not passing quizzes for a few weeks or more). Please keep up the good work you are doing with practice each night. It can be hard not to get discouraged, but I can honestly say every single student I’ve taught has broken through with enough practice. I give them 1-2 times each day to practice here at school, but I know it’s not enough, so including it in homework routines is key. If spending extra time on this each night is presenting a hardship in terms of overall homework time, then contact me and I’ll help figure out a workable solution.

One strategy I’ve seen work, is to focus nightly on just the facts that are hard/that students get wrong. In addition, taking timed quizzes is a necessary part of practice. I’ve posted my original letter to parents in a link under the Parent Resources section above. It contains tips and a suggested schedule, along with web links. And remember, the Xtramath site, on which your child has an account, is great to use anytime they have a few minutes!