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

I look forward to our meeting this Tuesday! If you still need an appointment, please contact me. I will share with you your child’s reading assessment, math tests, and writing samples, and I’ll discuss progress being made in those areas along with successes and any learning targets. Admittedly, our time is brief! Think of this as another step in our yearlong discussion of your child’s education, and know that I remain available for further communication.

Fall Festival was a big hit! The kids had a blast making crafts, hearing stories, and learning about our state history via the Salem witches. Thanks to Sam Boardman, Darren Berge, Ying Chen, and Shwetha Adhikari for keeping the kids engaged and successful!

To complete our study of writing genres, students were introduced this week to Opinion Writing. This genre is at the heart of most collegiate and professional writing as we know it, in which an author presents arguments backed up with evidence. To begin with, students will be taught the difference between fact and opinion; how to craft an introduction and opinion; how to use an outline to scaffold their writing; and how to write in complete sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization.

The kids were treated to an amazing presentation given by animal rehabilitator Jim Parks, who brought us his Wingmasters program last week. Students were highly engaged while learning more about adaptations that help local birds of prey survive. Using live specimens, Jim focused his interactive experience on nocturnal owls, as well as our school mascot: the falcon! Thanks to our PTO for helping to sponsor this informative and exciting event.

This week we begin a very important math unit. Chapter 4 focuses on bar models and using them to solve number problems and work algebraically. This way of doing math is extremely useful, and will benefit students greatly in the future when they apply it to multiplication, division,  fractions, measurement, and more!  As an example, consider the picture below as a way to model this problem: Jim is planning Thanksgiving dinner for 21 people. 15 people will be having turkey, and the rest are vegetarians. How many people will Jim plan a vegetarian meal for?

For students, setting this problem up can be tricky. We’ve learned to use parts and total boxes to model algebraic thinking: bar models are an even more explicit way to show our thinking about problems, one that helps us make sense of the numbers involved. Notice how the bars are drawn to scale in comparison to each other. This skill really requires students to understand the relative size of the numbers involved.

We’ll learn to use a different bar model for Parts-and-Totals, and for Comparison problems. Your Math Homework folder has a full explanation of the different kinds of bar models, to help if kids get stuck!