La lectura

This week we continued with our Friendship unit. We read a great story of a lonely prince.  His parents give him everything he asks for, and none of it makes him happy. When he sees the gardner’s boy’s pet rabbit, he asks for the rabbit. The other boy won’t give up his pet but instead suggests that they play together and share the rabbit. William discovers that what he needs to be happy is a friend.

Our weekly objectives were to:

• Ask and answer questions during and after a story.
• Write about what they like to do in a story.
• Leave proper spacing between letters and between words.
• Identify the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
• Practice our dictation skills (based on our letter segments in Estrellita.)

On Fridays the students will have the opportunity to work on the  computer as one of their rotations (stations).  They are very excited about this station! Please remember, they can access this program at home too.

Students will progress through a number of exercises for each lesson. The lessons correspond with the segments on the Sonidos chart we are working with in class.

Each lesson will provide students the opportunity to go from the known – the picture, to the unknown – the sound.  They will have the opportunity to practice the Estrellita Sonidos chant, move from exposure to mastery and sequence through each segment in the same manner being used in our class – whole group lessons. Each lesson has different segments creating a scaffolding and sequential process that will accelerate their reading process.  In order for them to achieve mastery, prior to learning the new segments, they will have a review, just like they have in class.

They must demonstrate mastery in order for the next lesson to be unlocked.

 

Las matemáticas

We had a lot of fun measuring things in the classroom this week! We are comparing the heights and lengths of items in the classroom using non-standard units.  (Cubes, etc.)

Our weekly objectives were to:

• identify who is taller than whom (______ es más alto que ________.)
• identify who is shorter than whom (______es más bajo que ________.)
• measure items in the classroom and record the measurement.
• Create a snowman glyph (pieces are chosen based on the answers to questions)
• Cutting circles isn’t tricky for us!!! (They all did such a great job with this.  They cut all the snowman pieces all by themselves!!)
• We are counting higher and higher and by 10’s and even 5’s.

 

History & Geography

We continued our history unit on the first voyage of Columbus this week. We learned more about Columbus’s first and second voyages.  The class learned a song to go with this section, acted out how the first voyage was like for the sailors, and made a picture depicting one of the ships.  Some chose to add a sea monster to show some of the sailors’ fears along the way.

Our objectives this week were:
• identify the continents of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia
• recall the year of Columbus’s first voyage to America:1492
• recall the names of Columbus’s three ships mean yeah, Pinta, in Santa Maria
• describe the accomplishments of Christopher Columbus
• explain why Columbus called the land where he landed “India” and the inhabitants “Indians”

Science

This week in science we read short biographies about Ray Charles and Helen Keller. The class watched a video of Ray Charles performing a song and a short film on Helen Keller. We continue to work on our sensory booklet and made a touch book.

Our objectives were to:
• describe the experiences and challenges of someone who is blind and/or deaf
• explain the contributions of Ray Charles and Helen Kellar
• understand what a biography is
• recall a general timeline of Helen Keller and Ray Charles’s life

Specialists:

Character Education with Ms. Jennie,

This month our theme is GENEROSITY. This past week we discussed different ways we can be generous out in the real world, such as buying a coffee for the person behind you in line, inviting a neighbor over for dinner, giving out snack bags to the homeless, or participating in a giving tree like we are doing at SWS. Our quote of the month is by Thomas Jefferson: “I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” To celebrate the holiday season we are reading the famous poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and we are reading various books that focus on giving and generosity such as Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant and Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo.