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

What’s in a rainforest? Students found out this week when the Rainforest Reptiles show came to our school! This engaging presentation involved up close viewings of live animals with demonstrations, and provided a perfect kick off to our environmental studies. Thank you to our PTO for providing this exciting enrichment opportunity!

As a reminder, we’re planning on re-using plastics to create games to share for Floral Goes Green. Please send in: Clean plastic bottles, any size; plastic bags; old/broken tubs, lids, mats, trays, plastic balls; pvc piping/caps; etc. We’re happy to take extras for any students without.

Spring cold and allergy season has begun! Help us fight the good fight, and send in a few boxes of kleenex when you can to get us to the end of the year. Thank you!

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.

Our final writing focus in on the Informative Genre. Students will engage in readings centered around  the environment such as the rainforest and recycling. They’ll  use their knowledge to become the experts who share that information with others in pieces that use an introduction, facts and details, and a conclusion. Smart!

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.

 

 

Floral Goes Green is coming! This renowned annual event focuses student work on the environment, locally and globally, culminating in a day of exposition on Thursday, May 23. This year’s theme is “Our World, Our Stuff, Our Solution.” In preparation, we will read, analyze, and write pieces on both the value and the environmental impact of plastics. We will then put our knowledge of the properties of solids to use, engineering games that will repurpose plastics brought in from home. The students’ work and games will be placed in the gym as an interactive display for schoolmates to explore on the 23rd.

Therefore, I’m putting the call out now for plastics you can send in with your child. Ideas include (but are not limited to): Clean plastic bottles, any size; old/broken tubs, lids, mats, trays, plastic balls; pvc piping/caps; etc.

Please only send in what your child can carry/fit on the bus. I’m collecting donations until Friday, May 17. Thanks!

Spring cold and allergy season has begun! Help us fight the good fight, and send in a few boxes of kleenex when you can to get us to the end of the year. Thank you!

With just 8 weeks to go, students will learn to use technology to communicate and evidence their thinking through the use of student learning blogs! They will learn to navigate online environments, including posting, commenting, and replying; to create, find, and upload media such as images and audio files; and to collaborate with peers through reading and writing. This week, we will learn what it means to be part of an online community and how safety rules of common sense apply there as well as in real life. Then we will learn what a digital footprint means and how to create a safe one, as well as how to stay safe online. A note on safety and privacy: Student blogs are created via Kidblog.org. They are only open to invited peers and teachers. Once up and running parents will be invited to view them as well with a private password. For more information, please visit their site. Lessons on privacy and more are taken from Common Sense Media.

Our final lessons on telling time will focus on calculating time before or after (elapsed time). Notice the example above. Students have previously learned to tell time to the hour and half-hour, and now they are being stretched to apply that to new situations requiring a deeper understanding of time. In case your child struggles with this during homework, encourage them to try it with a toy clock or this online clock with movable hands (visnos.com):

In science, students will be introduced to the properties of solid objects. They will learn what makes a solid (molecules packed in regular arrangements; hold their shape) and scientific vocabulary of classification (rigid; flexible; pointed; opaque; translucent; etc.). They will apply these ideas as they explore and sort a variety of solid objects, then design and create sun hats with the insulating property of solids in mind!

Our School Meeting Friday focused on growth mindset, specifically taking risks. Using the book What Do You Do With a Chance (Yamada, 2018), students shared their everyday challenges and why taking a chance is worth it! You can read the story with your child by watching the video below (source: PV Storytime via Youtube.com).

Our reading comprehension spotlight this week is Understanding Cause and Effect. This is an essential skill for students to own. It helps them analyze storylines and character choices, and so develop a deeper understanding of what is read. As an example, we are reading together Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl). Mr. Wonka shut down his factory then opened it to a lucky few. What events led to his actions, and how did they affect the town in which Charlie lives? How do the choices made by Charlie and the other children affect the outcome of the narrative? For more on Cause and Effect and using it at home, check out Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/cause-and-effect

The kids have done a great job with writing poetry! The goal is to help kids think like a poets, with careful word choice, metaphor, and imagery. Here are some snippets from: 1) Ellie, 2) William, 3) Ekansh, 4) Kian, and 5) Luana:  1) Tiger//Stalks through the grass//Striped body quiet and controlled//as if a monster. 2) In winter it snows//with the frosty wind that blows,//And when you go out it’s like a wolf is biting you. 3) Dodgeball//As I look for the ball//something catches the glimpse of my eye//something blue//as if it were hunting for prey. 4) The hot sun blazes down to the ground.//The grass turns as brown as wood. The trees bloom as green as a bush. 5) Where I go my dog follows//I can’t pass be her//and when I go to school//I have to dash outside. –Awesome stuff!

Next, we return to Opinion Writing one last time. By year’s end, students achieving the standard should be able to write an introduction, opinion, 2 reasons with details and explanations, and a conclusion. Watch for the Writing Pillar organizer that comes home with your child’s writing. It lays it all out nicely!

This week we begin Chapter 14, which teaches kids to tell time to the 5 minutes on an analog clock; write the time in numbers or words; correctly identify AM and PM; and solve problems involving elapsed time (minutes or hours later/before). Check out the graphic above: students are being taught to identify time using the hour and minute hands; to tell minutes of any hour by counting “5s” around the clock; and to use those skills to calculate time elapsed. Mr. Nussbaum’s site has games kids can use at home (though be advised his sites come with many ads now). Let me know if you find other good ones!

The countdown is on: Just 10 more weeks left in the year! The kids have made huge strides since the start, and I’m proud of their perseverance and accomplishments.

Photo Source: Autism Speaks

Light it Up Blue! This week marks Autism Awareness around the world. At Floral St. School, we are committed to serving the diverse needs of Shrewsbury’s population, including students whose needs lie within the autistic spectrum. In class, we will learn to understand the unique learning and behavior styles that accompany autism, in an effort to strengthen our school community. Information, networks, and ways to “light it up blue” can be found at the Autism Speaks website.

Our reading focus this week is on identifying how characters in stories respond to challenges. This skill requires kids to think critically about characters’ traits and feelings in order to analyze their actions and understand cause and effect. For example, in The Little Red Hen, the hen has work to do–so, she asks for help. When none arrives, she does it herself, until the end when she’s learned a lesson about hard work. The video below does a great job of teaching the skill to kids! (Source: eSpark Learning via Youtube.com)

As our final Trimester of school begins, students will be taught the ins-and-outs of good poetry, and to write meaningful poems of their own. They will learn how to choose topics that they feel strongly about; how to write with a mix of thoughts, feelings, and carefully chosen words; how to replace uninteresting text with better words and similes; and how to edit the structure (lines, repetition, etc.) of their poems until it looks and sounds right. Here is a very cool site for you and your child to view at home, where children’s poetry is read aloud and you can learn more about poets and their craft! http://childrenspoetryarchive.org/?_ga=1.112867396.1951796194.1461419863

In math this week, students will further their understanding of measurement by learning to develop a sense of how big inches are and applying that knowledge through estimating and actual measuring. Consider the picture above from the student eBook: notice how it pushes kids to understand how big inches are; how many inches long common objects are; and to apply those ideas by comparing lengths. The last big idea is to solve real word problems involving length, height, and distance. At this time of year, kids should be able to model such problems through bar models and/or parts-and-total frames.