Language Arts
We read a very entertaining tall tale this week. The bursts of laughter from your children really showed their complete understanding and grasp of this story.
We read ” Cuatro dólares y cincuenta centavos”. This is a humorous story set in the Old West. Bajito Largo is a cowboy who owes everybody money. One day Widow Macrae, who runs the Café Dólar de Plata, decides she’s tired of Bajito not paying his bills. Bajito owes her four dollars and fifty cents, and she wants him to pay up. When Widow Macrae goes to the ranch where Bajito works, Bajito pretends he’s dead so he won’t have to pay her. Well, if Bajito is dead, he has to be buried. Widow Macrae takes Bajito’s body to Boot Hill, where dead cowboys are buried. That’s when the outlaw, Narizotas Joge Perico, and some of his gang come riding along and Bajito’s troubles multiply.
Sharing our stories with the kindergarteners.
Ask your child to tell you what happened when the outlaws came. It was VERY fun to read this!
We also worked on publishing our stories. Most of these are now on display in the hallway. Please take a few minutes to read through (or have your child read to you) some of the stories. They really enjoyed this process and I couldn’t be more pleased with their work.
Students received their new spelling list this week. They will be tested on these words the Tuesday after spring vacation.
Spelling
iba
autobús
busqué
necesitaba
haber
debían
saber
caminaba
cobró
miserables
palabras
culebra
estaba
cobran
bromeando
Math
Estimating and measuring our throws and jumps using Meters.
This week we worked with metric length, mass, and volume. Our objects this week were:
- Use meters and centimeters as units of measurement of length, estimate and measure length, convert units of measurement.
- Use kilometers and meters, estimate and measure length, convert units of measurement.
- Read scales in kilograms and grams, estimate and find actual masses of objects by using different scales, covert units of measurement.
Mass & volume scoot had the students moving all around the school to test their measurement knowledge.
- Estimate and find volume of liquids in liters and milliliters, find the volume and capacity of a container, covert units of measurements.
one meter = 100 centimeters
one kilometer = 1,000 meters
one kilogram = 1,000 grams
one liter = 1,000 millilters
History & Geography
We learned about three European explorers and conquistadors this week; Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. We watched short documentaries on Leon and Coronado. The class read articles about each of these explorers and wrote out answers to questions on their readings. We did our read-aloud lessons and created a travel log for each explorer. We added these to our Expedition Folders which we created earlier in the week. Students will be choosing one explorer to draw a portrait of at the end of the unit.
Science
Space ice cream!
On Monday we reviewed for our astronomy assessment and then worked on our biographies. We took our assessment on Tuesday and overall everyone did very well. Thursday our focus was to finish up our biographies, edit, and try to write out the final draft. Some students finished but most will be doing so after we return from break. On Friday we had our Space Day. The class had fun trying different astronaut foods, like dehydrated strawberries , dehydrated Napoleon ice cream, and applesauce in a bag . We watched Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space , and the students who did an extra credit assignment got to share these in class. It was a fun way to end the week before Spring Break. We also had some silly April Fools high jinks as well!
English Spelling
During our spelling and grammar time this week the class worked on new activities and doing their sorts. I met with individual groups for clarification and review. Everyone rocked their spelling tests! We will have our new sorts after the break. Our focus for grammar was on time and order words, as well as contractions. The class had practice worksheets for both of these areas. We did not do journal entries this week but instead revised and edited our biography reports.
Music
We tied up a few loose ends from the core curriculum in years when we were mostly singing in Spanish: read a translation of Goethe’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and watched videos of it played by an orchestra, and then the Disney version from “Fantasia.” We also watched the class’s favorite conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”.