April 5, 2022
Spring Issue #6
Weekly activities and lessons to keep your child thinking and progressing throughout the school year.
“Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. ” 
Happy McManus Files Tuesday!
Welcome back to school. I hope all of you had a wonderful Spring Break. It this week's flyer I'm recommending one of my favorite fantasy series. These books are the perfect jumping off point for your advanced reader into more advanced material and story telling. They will love this approachable series and become better readers at the same time. check it out. The Inquiry Quest is something I think the whole family would enjoy doing and something I think we all need to practice. Sitting quietly and listening :-) Enjoy the writing prompts and the fun gumball math problem.

Please share this flyer with your friends and encourage them to join our mailing list by following the links on this page.

Mr. McManus :-)
Great Read of the Week
The Sword of Shannara
by Terry Brooks
If your child is a lover of fantasy, and you feel they need to challenge themselves by raising the level of their independent reading choices, you must discover the magic of Terry Brooks. He is an amazing story teller who has created a fantastic trilogy! This is a classic coming of age and epic hero story with the usual cast of characters; gnomes, elves, dwarfs, men, strange creepy creatures and much more. People fall into rivers, smite fearsome opponents and everything is great fun. Although originally written for an adult audience, these are perfect, clean, exciting, action-packed novels that will both challenge and engage any reader needing a bit of a push off their traditional selections. On par with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, fantasy fans will devour these books, but don't worry, these are just the first three of twenty books in the Shannara series.
Enjoy!
Inquiry Quest
Exploring Sound Mapping

This project will get your kids to listen - maybe not to you, but to the world around them
Sound waves are everywhere, giving us information about the world around us. But our brains do a fantastic job of ignoring mundane sounds, often times not giving us a full picture of our surroundings.

This simple activity will help you concentrate on sounds that shape your environment. By closing your eyes, you may hear birds you've never heard before, the faint sound of a freeway nearby, or even your mom asking you to pick up your socks. Yay, science!

GATHER THIS:
  • Piece of paper (one for each participant)
  • Pencil or pen
  • Compass (optional)

THEN DO THIS:
  1. Go somewhere you’d like to better understand by listening – in your house, backyard, a park – anywhere!
  2. When you’ve found your spot, put a mark in the center of your paper. Your mark can be an “X,” a dot, or even a drawing of yourself. This mark represents you. The blank space around your mark represents your surroundings.
  3. If you’d like, use a compass to mark North, East, South and West on your map.
  4. Close your eyes and listen for any sounds.
  5. When you hear a sound, notice the direction the sound is coming from. Is the sound moving or is it still?
  6. Mark the sound on your paper in the direction you heard it. If the sound came from your right, put a mark on the right side of your paper. Draw or write what sounds you heard to help you remember later.
  7. Continue listening and filling your paper with all the sounds you heard.
  8. Review your map. If doing this experiment with friends, it’s always fun to share your data.

ASK THIS:
  • Are there more human or nature sounds? Why do you think that is?
  • What new sounds did you hear?
  • How might certain sound effect behaviors in people or animals?
  • What sounds surprised you?

WHAT IS HAPPENING?
We hear sound through waves which enter our ears. These vibrations turn into signals which your brain interprets into the sounds we hear every day. Luckily, our brains can filter out unimportant sounds. If we stop, close our eyes and listen, a whole new world will be revealed to us. One can pick up the subtleties of their environment and learn about the areas they live, work, and play in just by listening.
If you feel your child might benefit from a group or individual tutoring program to prepare them for the next phase of their education, please contact McManus Tutoring.

Programs are structured so that students learn independence, accountability, and self-possession. They will develop a repeatable structure that can be used to build success in the future.
Three Writing Prompts and a Riddle

These prompts and questions will help jump-start your daily writing. Just as it's important to read for at least 30 minutes each day, you should also write for 30 minutes a day. Don't worry about your organization or spelling, just write!


"It was my first start on the team..."


"The winding road led into the favela towards..."


"Living on the kibbutz was idyllic until..."

A container without hinges,
Lock or a key,
Yet a golden treasure
Lies inside me.

What am I?

Answer in next week's issue :-)

Last week's answer... An alarm clock
Problem of the Week
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