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

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Fall Festival is coming! In the classroom this Friday, students will have some fun making fall crafts, designing pumpkins to be used in descriptive writing lessons, and learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated by many South American and Mexican American families. More at http://www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead.com/day-of-the-dead-facts.html. Thanks to the parents who volunteered on Curriculum Night to lead groups on that day!

Our CAFE reading focus this week is on Fluency. Fluent reading means that the rate of reading aloud matches a person’s speaking or storytelling rate; that the reader uses long phrases instead of choppy short ones or word-by-word; and that key words in the sentence are accented. Think about this example: When an octopus loses an arm or leg, it can grow another one. Fluent readers (like you) would read to the comma, probably take a breath, and continue until reaching the period. This shows you know how to sound out, decode words, and anticipate the words coming up. In addition, you would accent the words octopus, arm or leg, and another. This shows you understand what you’re reading and what the author’s important points were. It’s because it encompasses so many fine points of reading, that students are graded on fluency at report card time. For more info, see Reading Rockets–a great source for everything reading!

This week in writing, students will learn about the qualities of good personal narratives. This is one of 4 genres that will be our focus this year, across Shrewsbury. Good personal narratives are about one moment in time, with the action stretched out and description thrown in to put readers in the picture. We will learn to generate topics to write about, and how to find the “story seed”–the small moment that should serve as the basis for the main event. As an analogy, we encourage students to think about a watermelon. The melon is your big idea, for example, My Vacation. A slice of the melon is your narrowed focus, for example, My Day at the Magic Kingdom. But the story seed, the one event that should comprise your story, would be one thing that you did there, for example, Going on Splash Mountain.

Students will continue to refine their small moment ideas this week, and delve into ways to start their stories with a bang.

Our work with subtraction has involved checking our answers by reversing the process using addition. The reason for this is that the brain learns and holds onto the process of addition better than subtraction, so it’s a useful tool for checking. Practicing this process helps to strengthen those neurons in the brain and leads to a solid understanding. The Greg Tang Math game Missing Numbers is a great way to practice! Select “Subtraction”; then any of the strategies (difference, subtrahend, etc.); then  “Easy” or “Hard”. Your child can have fun while internalizing these skills! Click on the picture below to get started:

Our first Grade 1 & 2 School Meeting was held on Friday, the theme of which was Growth Mindset: You can grow your brain! Students were introduced to “The Power of ‘Yet'”, as illustrated perfectly in this video! (Source: Sesame St. on Youtube.com)