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

Thanks to all who came out on Saturday to pitch in for our community building project! What a great way to involve students in the care of their school and community. And speaking of that…

Floral Goes Green will soon be here! This renowned annual event focuses student work on the environment, locally and globally, culminating in a day of exposition on Friday, May 19. Our class will be learning all about water, from resources to pollution to conservation. This week, students will learn how precious a commodity it is on earth (just 1% of ALL water on earth is potable). They will also learn how it used inside and outside our school and begin to understand its importance in our daily lives. In addition, we will learn how Shrewsbury gets its water, from aquifers to wells to tanks.

Check out the map above (click on it for larger image, or use the link under the Parent Resources section to the right). It reveals the location of 6 water tanks throughout Shrewsbury. Think of it as a treasure map, and drive/hike to find them all with your child! If you take pictures of your child standing in front of each one, print them out, and send them in to school by Friday, May 12, I will display them! Note: a few tanks are on hills; simply take the photo at the bottom of the hill where the fences are.

This week, students will learn to comprehend nonfiction text by paying close attention to titles, subtitles, and headings when reading informative articles. These nonfiction text features are used by author’s to guide our thinking, and they lead us to understand the most important things worth remembering. You can try it out at home with articles from NationalGeographicKids.com, such as this one on Denali National Park. Notice how the headings cleverly point us in the direction of what’s important.

We wrapped up our narrative writing lessons with a bang, “exploding the moment” when writing about a roller coaster ride. Here are some from 1) Teagan and Srinitin, 2) Prisha and Oliver, and 3) Alana and Vinnie: 1. As I walked along, I saw a measuring stick. Would I be tall enough? “Load ’em up! Two to a seat!” the ride operator said.  2. Suddenly, the ride operator let go of the brake. The car went up, up, up, clickety-clackety. Zip and zoom! It plummeted down the hill.  3. I felt tired and my legs were wobbly. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go again!  Super!

This week we will return to Opinion Writing one last time, as students create book recommendations based on plot, suspense, characters, humor, etc., and using evidence from the text to back up their thinking.

Our next area of study in math is graphing. As outlined in the Common Core, students should understand how to collect and organize data. They should be able to  analyze, interpret, and create a variety of graphs including picture graphs, line plots, and bar graphs. As usual, MIF challenges students to go beyond the literal. New for kids is the concept of “key” in graphing. Take a look at this picture from the student book.

Notice how the key provides necessary understanding to interpret the graph correctly. Please check your child’s homework to be sure they are reading the key when answering questions. You can find lots of great information with very helpful picture support at the Think Central site! (Link to it via the Parent Resources section of this blog.) This unit is Chapter 17, found in eBook B of the student book.

Our blogging work continues this week with students learning to navigate the virtual online space their blogs represent. They will learn how to upload selfies as avatars; how to customize a webpage/blog; and how to communicate appropriately in an online community with friendliness and respect by creating their first posts!