Back in April, Mr. Avery had traveled out to Arizona as part of a trip for LearnZillion While there, he had the opportunity to experience the Education Innovation Summit. He was able to meet people who run many of the websites and apps that we use such as Edmodo and Wikispaces. He even had the opportunity to meet some people who work for EarthKam.

EarthKam is a project that is run by NASA. With this program, students are able to take a look at the location of the International Space Station as it orbits around Earth. Students can choose a time and location and the ISS will take pictures of Earth that then are shared with the classroom. It was an amazing way for us to take a look at the geography of the Earth as we work on our World’s Fair project and also to talk about topics of space such as gravity!

Unfortunately, because the International Space Station looks down at Earth from its orbit, the timing of the images needs to be perfect because on a cloudy day, all you’ll see are pictures of clouds. However, with the right timing, you get to see some amazing pictures of the Earth from above! Students had pictures taken of the countries they are researching. We also took some pictures looking down at some of our blogging buddies such as Mrs. Yollis, Mrs. Morris and Ms. Jordan, B4, and A Room with a View. You can see the images below!

If this is something you’re interested in, they’ll be running another education mission in July. We recommend you check it out!

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This post can also be found on the Our World, Our Numbers blog. Along with this information about area and population of states, you’ll also be able to learn about area and population of other countries as well!

We’ve been learning about all kinds of incredible ways that we use math and numbers in the real world. Math is around us every single day, we often just don’t stop to think about it. Math can be found when we walk into stores, when we look at how many watts are in a lightbulb in our house, or even when we are using up gas in a car. Now, look around you. Is there anyone else in the room with you? How big or small is the room that you’re in right now? Math is tied into those ideas as well!

When we’re trying to determine how many people live in a certain place, that’s called population. The population of a country is just how many people live there. Do you know what the most populated country is? How about the second most populated? I think you’d be surprised to know just how many people live in those countries!

A lot of times when working with the population of countries, we use something called population density. This refers to the number of people compared to the size of a state or country. For example, New Jersey has the highest population density in the United States. This means it has the highest number of people living within its area. In order to determine that, not only is the population important to calculate but also the area.

As mentioned above, area is also an important math concept that we use when looking at states or countries. Area represents the size of something that is 2-dimensional. In math, we often try to find the area of shapes such as rectangles, triangles, and circles. This same idea is used to find the area of places where people live. Do you know what country has the largest area?

Check out our slideshow that we made to share some interesting facts we found about population and area. See if you can answer some of the math problems that we presented.

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Hi. It’s me, Oscar. I’m back again. Just look at that dog above. He is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Don’t you agree? Oh wait, that’s a picture of me. I had no idea!

Mr. Avery needs to learn to put his computer away. I figured I’d get one more post up there before he probably changes everything back. I still think my ideas for a blog are so much better than his but don’t tell him I said that. I’m still trying to get as many treats from him as possible!

I’ve had a lot of questions in regards to just how exactly I’m typing all of this. Well, it just so happens I’m not. You see, with all these new technology tools, I’m able to use voice recognition to speak everything into the computer. After, I just use Google Translate and translate from Dog to English. Then, there it is, ready to post!

So let’s see. Where did I leave off last time? Oh yes, that squeaky thing in my toy. Have you ever played that game with all the toys in it and you have to move the handle to drop down the crane to try to catch one of them? Every time you think that you’re just about to win. The claw drops down and you see the stuffed animal just starting to lift up, only to be dropped at the last moment. Well, that’s how I feel with my toys. Every time. Every single time I can feel that squeaky thing about to be pulled out. I get all the stuffing out of the way. I get that squeaky thing in my mouth and try to pull it out of the toy and yet it somehow doesn’t come out. It’s rigged I tell you! Mr. Avery gave me a trick toy that just won’t completely rip apart. Why would he do that to me? And what is that thing squeaking anyway? Why is it squeaking? It only does it when I try to rip it out or when Mr. Avery squeezes it to try to get me to play. I guess I’ll just never understand it.

So the other day I shared a really funny video of a dog who was so upset that his owner was teasing him about food. I bet you probably really enjoyed it. I told you this blog needed more dog videos! I also said that it needed videos of cute puppies. Well, check this one out. This puppy just can’t keep himself from falling asleep. He reminds me a lot of me when I was just a young pup. All I ever wanted to do was sleep, eat, play, and then sleep some more. Actually, who am I kidding? That’s what I still do!

Well, this will probably be the last time I write. I have a feeling Mr. Avery is going to be taking back over again. To all my fans though, keep in touch. Write me comments on this post and on my other one. Maybe I can sneak back on from time to time when Mr. Avery isn’t looking to respond to a comment or two. NO CATS ALLOWED THOUGH! Cats should get a head start before I chase you up a tree. Squirrels be warned as well. You may feel safe when I’m stuck behind that glass slider door barking at you but one of these days I’m going to get out. You just wait!

Well, it’s been fun. Signing off from Oscar’s Blog. Woof!

Hi. My name is Oscar. That’s a picture of me right above. I’m one good looking dog aren’t I? Well, I also just so happen to be Mr. Avery’s dog. He has no idea that I’ve taken over his blog. However, I think Oscar’s Blog has a much better sound to it than Mr. Avery’s Blog, don’t you? Did you just hear a squirrel? I just heard a squirrel. Oh wait, nevermind. It was just the wind. Where was I? Oh yes. I think there need to be a few changes around here. No more pictures of all these kids working hard and making videos and things like that. I’d like to see more pictures of food. Pictures of chicken, tuna, or anything else will do just fine. I’ll eat just about anything so I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

Delicious. Just get rid of that green stuff in there, would ya?

Alright, I’ve got a toy that needs the stuffing ripped out of it because that little squeaky thing inside of it is absolutely driving me nuts! Then I’ve got a nice, long nap planned. But before I go, I caught Mr. Avery doing something really funny this morning. If you want to see it, you need to click here. Bark at you soon!

This post can also be found on the Our World, Our Numbers blog. Along with this information about recipes and how we tied them in to Pi Day, you’ll also be able to learn about recipes from other countries around the world. Check back next week as each class posts about a new topic!

With recipes being the topic this week, it tied in perfectly with today. It just so happens that today is March 14, which here in the United States we often write as 3-14. Well, this represents a very important number in math. It represents a number that we call pi. Now that’s not pie, like the kind you eat. We’ll get to that in a minute. Pi (π) is often written as 3.14. That represents the number of times that the diameter of a circle fits into the circumference of a circle.

Every year, we like to celebrate Pi Day because it’s something that we learn about it sixth grade. We use pi (3.14) to find both the circumference and area of a circle. The circumference is the distance around a circle. The area is the amount of space inside of a circle (or how many square units can fit into a circle). To celebrate, students bring in pies (not numbers but the actual food). We measure each pie to find the radius and diameter of it. Then, we use those numbers to find the circumference and area! Check out some pictures from our day below.

If you’d like to learn a little bit more about circumference and area, you can watch two of our Math Movie Network videos from last year.

Some students brought in recipes for the pies that they made. We’ve shared them in the presentation below. You can learn about some of the common types of pies that we eat in here in Massachusetts and then you can see how you can make it at home!

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Mr. Avery first learned about this project from Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Krebs. If you’re interested in finding out more about it, you can check it out at the Genius Hour wiki.

We recently completed our first ever version of Genius Hour! Genius Hour is based upon 3M and Google’s 20% policy. This policy says that with 20% of your time, you can work on whatever project you would like as long as it advances the company in some way. Both Post-It notes and Gmail were created during this time! So the question arose, if such amazing things were made during this 20% time at these companies, just what could students come up with if given a chance to work on a project that interested them?

Instead of dedicating 20% of our time each week though, or instead of just simply using an hour of time (hence the name Genius Hour), we modified the idea slightly. We instead took about an hour and a half each day for three consecutive days to create an objective, come up with a plan, and then get to creating!

The results were absolutely incredible! The projects ranged anywhere from a timeline about the history of fashion to a replica version of a basketball court to a catapult! Check out just some pictures of Genius Hour below.

A few students created some wonderful projects that we can share online! They made interactive timelines, Google Presentations, videos, and even an online game. Check out just a few of them below!

The History of Mollusks – Joe D.

How to Draw – Mike K.

The Bird Story – Anna K. and Rebecca A.

Catapult – Ben S, Josh G, and Heston H

Click here to play Digio, an online game created by Jacob and Josh


There were so many incredible projects done through Genius Hour. It was really incredible the creativity, hard work, and collaboration that was shown with the project! We can’t wait to do another one later this year!

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This post can also be found on the Our World, Our Numbers blog. Along with this information about U.S. landmarks, you’ll also be able to learn about landmarks from other countries around the world. Check back next week as each class posts about a new topic!

Welcome to Avery’s U.S. Tours! We’ll be your guides today as we take you across the United States to some of its most historic, famous landmarks. So, buckle your seat belts, hold on to your hats, and enjoy the journey!

Okay, well, if we were really able to take you across the United States to see all of our amazing landmarks, that’s probably how we’d start our tour. Since we’re unable to though, we’ll instead share them with you on here!

Did you know that you can tie math into every landmark? You can try to determine how old they are. You can try to figure out how tall they are. You can try to calculate how much area they take up. You could determine what shapes they’re made out of. It’s incredible how math is tied into almost anything you can think of!

We created a presentation to share some of our landmarks with you. Throughout the presentation there are different math questions based upon the facts. See if you can find the answer to some of the problems. Share the problem you tried as well as your answer down in the comment section!

This presentation is slightly different to ones you may be used to. In this presentation, you can sometimes navigate down, to the right, to the left, or up. You’ll see four blue arrows in the bottom-right hand corner of our presentation. If an arrow is dark blue, it means that you can move the presentation in that direction. You can use your mouse, the arrow keys on your keyboard, or if you’re on a tablet, swipe in the direction you want to move. Start by moving to the right, read the first slide, and then move down to find out the answer! Continue moving to the right to work through the entire thing!

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This post can also be found on the Our World, Our Numbers blog. Along with this information about U.S. currency, you’ll also be able to learn about currency from other countries around the world. Check back next week as each class posts about landmarks!

We’ve been learning all sorts of great facts about currency around the world. It’s so interesting to see the different bills and coins, how they look, and who some of the people and places are that are represented on them. One of the things that a lot of students have thought as they have been looking at the currency of other countries is that ours isn’t that colorful compared to others!

Mrs. Yollis and Mr. Salsich’s classes have already done an incredible job teaching everyone about the American dollar. We really enjoyed the Puppet Pals video that Mrs. Yollis’ class created! What better way to learn about the coin than from U.S. presidents! We also really enjoyed trying to solve some of Mr. Salsich’s coin riddles!

For our class, Ben W. created a video to teach a little bit more about the American dollar. In it he talks about what type of bills America uses, our coins, and some interesting facts about American money!

Great job Ben! We learned some great facts about American money! One other interesting fact is that even though our largest bill right now is the $100 bill, did you know that the United States once printed a $100,000 bill! I’m sure everyone would like to find one of those in the street!

We use currency a lot in math class as we learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide with decimals. We also use it when learning about percents and how to find discounts on items. Click here for an example of a post we did last year with a Math Movie Network video learning about how to find discounts on prices!


Thanks to all the other classes for sharing such amazing facts. We can’t wait for our next topic to learn even more about your country!

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Today we are launching a new global project called Our World, Our Numbers.

We have a blog http://ourworldournumbers.edublogs.org where we’ll meet up with our blogging buddies to learn together for the next five weeks.

In late 2011, many of these classes worked on an award winning global project called Our World, Our Stories. This latest project is based on a similar format with a mathematical focus.

Classes involved

The students are all from primary (elementary) classes and are from three different continents and five countries.

How will it work?

Students from all classes will connect and collaborate by sharing their mathematical lives. This will happen through the blog and involve a variety of media.

A different class will lead a mathematical topic every four days or so, publishing posts and replying to comments. The other classes will read the posts, possibly publish their own posts, and leave blog comments.

We will share topics such as currency, seasons, time zones, population data etc.

The learning

Through blog posts, the students will teach each other about different aspects of mathematics based on aspects of their own culture.

The learning will continue in the commenting section where students, teachers and parents will engage in conversations to explore mathematical and cultural topics further.

Students will gain an understanding of mathematics through the eyes of children in different countries and cultures. They will make comparisons and contrasts between their lives and other studentsí lives.

If you want to keep up to date with how the fun and learning unfolds, there is a “subscribe via email” box on the right hand side of the Our World, Our Numbers blog.

Get Involved

We encourage all members of the community to get involved!

4KM and 4KJ are leading the first topic by sharing their currency.

Head over to the Our World, Our Numbers blog now to check out our post and leave a comment.

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As we were leaving school on Thursday, one question seemed to be on everyone’s mind, “Are we going to have school tomorrow?” We just so happened to have these two storms bearing down on us, ready to combine into one giant storm that was supposed to drop A LOT of snow on us.

The calm before the storm – Sent in by Mike K.

Well, it just so happened that we didn’t have school on Friday because of it. The storm rolled through on Friday and Saturday and by the end of it, most of us found ourselves without power. It dropped up to two feet of snow on us as well as bringing winds close to 75 miles per hour! That’s a hurricane force wind! Because of that, we also didn’t have school on Monday or Tuesday. Some of us are just now starting to get our power back on today!

The storm is just getting rolling.

Mr. Avery’s dog Oscar thinking, “I wish I was just a little taller.”

Looking down our street as the storm winds down.

Even though we thought we got a lot of snow, with some of us receiving about 24 inches, places in Connecticut received upwards of 40 inches of snow from this blizzard! So what caused this storm to be so powerful? It was actually two storms that combined into one. There was one storm that was coming up from the south that had a lot of moisture in it. There was another storm moving in from the west that was part of a cold front that brought cold temperatures. When these two storms collided, they formed a much larger, much more powerful storm with a lot of moisture and temperatures that brought us snow.

A look out after the storm

NASA released an satellite animations of the two storms coming together. You can see just what happened to bring them together and then what they looked like after they combined.

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