2/3 Week 29

by Sarah Segall | Apr 16, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week in 2nd/3rd grade we worked with:

• personal and possessive pronouns
• suffixes: -ado, -ido, -ando, -iendo
• sequences – using words of order and time (Students wrote about their daily routines and quite enjoyed hearing about eachothers!)
• compound words (We illustrated these in our estudio de palabras.)
• writing (Students wrote in their journals on a daily basis but on Friday they wrote an ending to their new little reader.  They were great!! They then edited their own writing for noun/verb agreement.)

Math

We jumped back into measurement with real-world application. Our math objectives this week were to:

• draw bar models to solve one-step and two-step measurement problems.
• choose the operation to solve one-step and two-step problems.
• use spatial visualization.
• identify patterns and relationships

Students were assessed on these concepts on Friday. They will complete their assessments on Monday.

History & Geography

This week we started off with reviewing our lesson on Francisco Vasquez de Coronado we looked at a map of where he traveled and we made a travel log entry into our Expedition journals. The rest of the week we worked on a pausing point in our unit.  Students are creating an expedition proposal that they would present to a sponsor on where they would like to travel. Part of this proposal involves making a map and deciding on a route, creating a list of supplies, designing an ad to recruit volunteers, writing a letter to the sponsor detailing what the purpose of the journey would be and why it would be in their interest to invest. The class is having a great time creating this proposal and are so excited about the finished product. On Friday we also did some review of what we’ve learned so far in this unit.

Science

We began our new science domain on ecology this week. Our first lesson was on animals and their habitats. Some of the information that we read about was a review of this year’s domain on animal classification as well as what they learned in first grade on animal habitats. On Thursday we played the game “Which ecosystem am I?”.  We wrote some responses to chapter questions and begin reading the chapter book Judy Moody Saves the World. On Friday we worked on our stuffed animals for the Children’s Center of Vancouver.  The class weighed out rocks and then put the rocks into their animals. Laura will be delivering them to the center. Everyone was so excited to do this activity, knowing that it was going to a great cause.

English Spelling

For grammar this week we have been  reviewing adverbs.  We discussed the purpose of adverbs and how they make our writing more interesting and meaningful.  The class did several adverb worksheets for practice.  In our journals we wrote about something we learned during spring break, weather it was something about a place we traveled, a new skill, or something about ourselves. Spelling practice was short this week. The class did a great job of getting right to their activities and doing partner practice.  Everyone did really well on their spelling test on Friday.

Art

The 2nd and 3rd grade class, and the 4th and 5th grade class are working on a portrait project in art. We looked at a variety of famous portraits such as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s self portrait, some Picasso portraits, and Matisse portraits, etc. The 2nd/3rd graders are using a collage technique to create a face, and the 4th/5th graders are using pipe cleaners to create a face. These are fun ways to get the students to think about facial features, proportions, and expression!

Music

We learned a South African song, Siyahamba (We are marching) in Zulu, English and Spanish. Sr. Kit also taught the class his Spanish translation of “Life is a Dance,” by Karl Anthony.

Kindergarten Week 28

by Sarah Segall | Apr 2, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

Group mural, day 1!

The kindergarteners finished their writing process and published their work.  These can be viewed in the hallway. This was our first time through the process and I think they did a great job!

We also wrote in our journals about teams we participate on. We did several worksheets which involved writing sentences (using a word bank we brainstormed together). All this writing practice is providing lots of opportunities to work on our capitals, word spacing, line writing, and punctuation.

To practice our teamwork theme we have added a mural station to our daily rotation. Students looked at the mural and said, “that’s huge and a lot of work”. They changed their tune when they saw how quickly the work went (and how fun it was) when they worked as a team.

Math

We had so much fun estimating quantities in our estimation station!  We also had fun learning all about scales. We worked with partners to see how many school supplies (markers or crayons or pencils) would be needed to equal a pound. This was their first experience reading the scale and they did a great job!  We also worked with the balance scale and tried to find classroom objects that would equal the weight of 20 unifix cubes.

We also worked a LOT with number bonds this week. We continued using small beads in our morning binders to break apart numbers. We also used two tens frames and two different colored markers to add numbers greater than 10. This is a strategy we frequently use in mental math, but this breaks it apart so the kindergarteners can see how it works.

Math buddies.

The first graders came in and demonstrated fabulous teamwork by helping with number bonds (and reading buddies). Math buddies is a great

way for the kindergarteners to have one-on-one assistance while also providing the first graders with the fabulous opportunity to talk through their math.  Math talk is important!!

History & Geography and Science

This week we learned about the different activities on farms according to the season.  We learned how farmers protect their crops from drought and pests and we learned the sequence of planting, growing, and harvesting.

We also learned more about why farmers grow crops and identified that crops are plants grown on farms for use as food.  We learned the sequence of events of crops from farm to store (planted, harvested, transported and packaged).  See if your kiddo can explain this process to you.  When you are at the grocery store, see if your child can identify produce that has come from a crop on a farm and explain how it got from the farm to the grocery store.

Lastly, we learned about Modern Agriculture.  We learned about the machines and tools of farming and how farming has changed through the years.

The students took their end of unit assessment and did wonderfully!  We also finished up the wonderful farm book they created.  I hope you enjoy these together over the break.

I hope you all have a fantastic Spring Break!  When we return, we will be learning about taking care of our Earth.

Music

We concentrated this week on novelty songs: B-I-N-G-O (en español), and the lullaby “Hush Little Baby.” We also watched YouTube videos of mockingbirds singing (“poppa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.”

First Grade Week 28

by Sarah Segall | Apr 2, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week in language arts we continued our section on writing a summary. The kiddos began writing their rough drafts of a summary about the Firefighter story they read last week.

In phonics we worked on the diphthong -oy and -oi as in the words hoy/today and oigo/I hear.

In grammar we discussed action verbs/verbos. We reviewed how verbs are words that show some type of action. To practice our verbs we went outside to the enjoy the beautiful sunshine and ran a verb relay race. The kids took turns running between two given points acting out a verb that they chose. Some ran back and forth doing things like combing their hair/peinando el pelo or flying like an airplane/volando como un avión. It was a blast!

Math

In math we worked on word problems/problemas cotidianas. The students practiced reading the word problems and then underlining the important information/información importante. They then practiced drawing out bar models that represented the important info so that they could better visualize what was going on in the problem. They also used number bonds/números conectados to represent the different parts of the math problem. These tools will become increasingly more useful as they continue to work through word problems that are more complex.

Have a safe and happy spring break!

History & Geography

This week we read the story of Betsy Ross and her meeting with George Washington to discuss making a new flag. The class was particularly interested in this legend of how the Stars and Stripes came about. On Tuesday we all became seamstresses in class and started working on our version of the original 13 colony flag. The class continue to work on sewing their Flags through out the week when they had free time.  On Thursday we did a reader’s theater retelling of the Betsy Ross story. We also reviewed what we’ve learned in the Birth of Our Nation unit so far. we practiced our 13 Colony chant, identified key contributors to the Declaration of Independence, and added where Jamestown, Roanoke Island, and Plymouth Rock were located on our map of the 13 colonies.  The everyone was quite concerned when I said we were  at pausing point. They were disappointed and thought this meant the end of the unit.  I assured them we were only partially done.  The students are fascinated with this history.

Science

We wrapped up our unit on astronomy this week by taking a closer look at the solar system and each planet. On Monday we went more in depth into characteristics of the four inner planets and on Tuesday the outer ones.  The class made their own individual planet books and learned a new song about the planets. Thursday was our review day, we played some games and read a trade book to help us refresh our minds about everything we have learned.  On Friday the class took their unit assessment and did very well!  Afterwards we celebrated the end of the unit by having some “Space” time.  We watched a Magic School Bus episode called “Lost in Space”, ate some astronaut food ( dehydrated ice cream, dehydrated strawberries, and squeezable apple sauce), and by using inches and feet, we measured and marked the distance between planets in the hall to get a better visualization of how far apart each planet is from the Sun. Some students brought in extra credit projects about space and shared them with the class.   It was a fun way to end our last day before spring break, I think the class is going miss this unit.

English Spelling

The class had fun with their sorts this week. They got to practice their words with a friend and go on word hunt around the classroom, looking for words that fell into the pattern that their sorts were in this week. Everyone did fantastic on the spelling tests!

For journal time, students wrote several entries this week.They wrote information they knew about each planet,  they wrote about the Betsy Ross legend, and they also wrote an entry on what they were going to do for spring break .

Music

From the core curriculum, we listened to the original story of “The Sorcer’s Apprentice,” then watched videos of an orchestra playing the Paul Dukas composition, followed by the Disney version with Mickey Mouse.

4th/5th Week 28

by Sarah Segall | Apr 2, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts / Artes del lenguaje

We had such a great time playing fun games, working on art projects, and reviewing concepts seen this term. We are also very sad to say good bye to a wonderful friend, Ale. We will miss you!

After working on reading and listening comprehension activities of our new unit, Going West, we spent time focusing on vocabulary and spelling. Students are taking home our new sentences for the dictado. It would be great if they could spend some time practicing them, at least once during spring break. We also spent time working on our verbs mini-books. Please have your child show you this project. This is a book that compiles common regular verbs in Spanish and their corresponding conjugations in present tense. As a way to keep Spanish alive during break, students were asked to do a short assignment. They also took home a book in Spanish. This book has several short stories.We will be working on this book as a class during our new book club this Spring.

I hope everybody enjoys their time off immensely! Everybody deserves it! Students were also encouraged to spend as much time outside exploring as possible. It would be great if students came back prepared to share their fun adventures with the class after break.

Science / Ciencia

We had such an amazing science week! We not only got to finalize our wonderful winter science studies (Environments), but also witnessed the most outstanding science presentations. Students were responsible for choosing an area of study seen during this term, conduct research and present their findings in front of the class. Students did such a marvelous work. They did very high quality work and delivered presentations maintaining perfect Spanish command. We could not be any more proud!

We are very excited about our Spring science module, Living Systems. It will be just as great (if not greater) as our previous science investigations. We will also get to put into practice all our knowledge creating, planning, and planting our school garden! Stay tuned!

Parents,

On April 22nd, our class will go on a field trip to Columbia Springs (read below). We have sent permission slips this week. Please make sure you return the signed slips after Spring break. Also, we are in need of six chaperons. Please let the teachers know if you are interested in chaperoning for this field trip.

–      Friday, April 22^nd from 9:30am-1:30pm.  4/5 split class will do Eco-Explorers. We will have a picnic afterwards.

·         Dress for the weather! Everyone should be prepared to spend the day outside (wear clothing & shoes that can get wet and dirty & layers for the cold). We will be outside rain or shine!  

·         Pack it in, pack it out! If you will be having lunch on the property please be aware that Columbia Springs has a pack it in, pack it out policy.  Please bring a garbage bag to collect lunch trash. 

·         Be involved! 

http://www.columbiasprings.org/

History & Geography

We began our chapter on Lewis and Clark this week! At the beginning of the week we reviewed the information we received last week on the Louisiana Purchase and why it was so important. I had the students work on a web quest this week, where they were given a specific website to explore and find the answers to a work sheet about the Louisiana Purchase. As many of the students will be moving into middle school next year I think it is important that they continue to improve in being able to find resources online. We also did a short read-aloud on Lewis and Clark, which we were able to read outside because of the beautiful sun this week! The students took notes during this read aloud as there was a lot of important information that we will add to our lapbooks when we return from spring break as well as 5 new vocabulary words. Again, I did work to catch up students who were absent, I believe most of them are caught up now or only have a couple more things to add to their lapbooks to be caught up. We will be having a vocabulary quiz on our 5 new vocabulary words when we return from spring break. I have listed the vocabulary words and their definition here just in case anyone forgot to bring home their vocabulary sheet.

Expedition: A journey for a particular purpose (as for exploring).

Plains: A large area of level or rolling treeless land.

Louisiana Territory: Land stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, which more than doubled the size of the United States.

Corps of Discovery: A group of men who signed on with Lewis and Clark to explore the far west.

Math

This week such a busy and exciting week! After our Chapter 6 test last week the students worked on correcting and missed problems and the explanations of the correct answer. I feel that test corrections are so important especially in math, to get students really looking at their work and what mistakes were made. Many students found that they made the same mistake on multiple problems and were able to correct and understand what they did wrong. We then jumped to chapter 12 to continue our work with angles. We discussed what we already knew about angles and review information they may have forgotten that will be needed in this next chapter. I know many students were gone the past week so the last two days of class this week so I did work with them on anything they missed and making sure they understood all the information covered in chapter 6. I did assign pages 101-104 for homework over spring break. They should also have a “Lets Practice” piece of scratch paper were they worked out similar problems, this is a great tool to help them with their homework over spring break.

English Spelling/ Vocabulary

We did receive new spelling lists this week from Lesson 25. I pass out the usual packets that the students are used to getting but did not assign them a due date this time. I wanted the students to have access to their packets all week so that they could study for their spelling test on Friday. We did a $100 word warm-up using our spelling lists to familiarize ourselves with the words for the week. Each letter in the alphabet was assigned a value between $1 and $26 and the students had to add up how much each word was worth. They were then able to compare what their “cheapest” words were, their most “expensive” and if they had any $100 words. I also redid our Mountain Language system this week to include the students spelling lists. This way they are not only practicing their grammar skills but also practicing spelling their words. Again, we played BAM! this week for review which the students absolutely love.

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 started work on individual compositions, with lyrics to be drawn from words starting with the letters of each student’s name.

2/3 Week 28

by Sarah Segall | Apr 2, 2016 | In The Loop

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”.

4th/5th Week 27

by Sarah Segall | Mar 26, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts / artes del lenguaje

What a busy week! We spent a lot of time working on science, although we had time to work on our literacy routines: spelling(dictado), word work, grammar, listening comprehension and independent reading time. Students took home a new book this week. Please make sure your child continues to practice their reading in Spanish on a daily basis.

Our theme this week was Las flores, and thanks to Connor and his beautiful family, the ending of the week could have not been more perfect. Thank you!. Please make sure you stop by and see our beautiful bulletin board. Students worked really hard on the spelling and vocabulary project of the song Las flores. Also, in connection to math (lines, segments, angles, triangles, etc.), students created wonderful art pieces!

We also had a small preview of our new literacy unit, Going West. We had a chance to preview vocabulary and do a listening comprehension activity of the story La caza del bufalo. We will be working on this story and digging into our new unit next week!

Science / ciencia

During science this week:

Research Project – Based on the science investigations covered during our Environments module this term, students choose an area of study , formulate a question and plan an investigation to answer it. Students selected a topic from our winter science module, Environments, to investigate in greater depth. The results of their project will be shared with the rest of the class in a formal presentation next week. On Monday, students were given a rubric, a calendar, a book and possible ideas for their research projects. They are welcome to come up with their own as well. Most of the work will be done at home, however, we will spend the first part of next week working on this project in class. Students are encouraged to come to class prepared to conduct independent research. Presentations will have a duration of 3 to 4 minutes and will take place on March 31st. Please make sure your child completes their obligations on a timely manner.

Investigation 5: Salt of the Earth

What is the salt tolerance of several common farm crops? To find the answer to this question students set up a controlled experiment to test the effect of salinity of four kinds of plants. They planted four containers with identical arrays of seeds: barley, corn, peas, and radishes. They watered each container with a different concentration of salt water. In order to make sense of this investigations students needed to apply the concepts/objectives learned through our units:

• Environment is everything that surrounds and influences an organism.
• An environmental factor is one part of an environment. It can be living and non-living.
• Optimum is the condition or degree of an environmental factor that is most favorable to growth, development, and reproduction of an organism.
• Organism have ranges of tolerance for environmental factors.

Our aquatic environments investigation has come to an end. Your child is allowed to take their fish home. If they are authorized by a parent, bring a container on Monday so they can bring their fish home.

History & Geography

In history and geography we started our lapbooks about ” The Westward Expansion before the Civil War”. We began by learning about Daniel Boone and his contributions to Westward expansion. In our lapbooks we traced the U.S., made a wilderness journal, made a vocabulary pocket, and added a wilderness trail patch. In our Wilderness journal we were able to add our first entry, which was a letter written from the perspective of Daniel Boone. We pretended that Daniel Boone explored the land that Spanish With Sarah is built on. The students were given a lot of free creativity to decide the time period when Daniel Boone is exploring as well as who the letter is addressed too. Ms. Ivary read us a book about Daniel Boone and Westward Expansion, and that’s where we found our vocabulary words.We also had a quick vocabulary quiz at the end of the week, ask your student to define or use any of our vocabulary words in a sentence. We have had so much fun!

Vocabulary Words: blaze, commerce, frontier, Wilderness Trail, Cumberland Gap

Written/Edited by Riley and Bailey in collaboration with Ms. Ivary

Math

This week we focused on finding the area, the base, and height of a triangle. We began with in class discussion about what we already knew about triangles. We went over the rules of finding the area of a triangle. Ask your student what they are! We went out to the hall and did a fun activity with triangles. We had to find the area, base, vertex and height of the large triangles, you may have seen them in the hallway this week. We presented our findings for the triangles to each other in preparation for our area of a triangle test. On Friday we had our area of a triangle test and we will continue to work with angles next week. We went over our corrected homework about finding the height of a triangle. We will begin correcting our own math homework so that we can correct any mistakes and clarify any confusing points. We had a very FUN week!!!

Written/Edited by Riley and Bailey in collaboration with Ms. Ivary

English Spelling/ Vocabulary

This week for spelling we played BAM!. Because this was a review week for spelling, all 5 spelling lists were thrown into a bag. Then one-by-one we pulled out a word and had a classmate read us the word, if we were correctly able to spell the word we kept the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the month will win a prize! If we pulled a SWIPE card we were able to swipe a card from another student as long as we can spell the word on the card. If we pulled a BAM! card we had to pull a card from the BAM! bag and spell it. Words in the BAM! bag are from the next unit and so the students have not worked with them yet. If they could spell the word correctly they could keep both the BAM! card and the word card giving them double points! If not they must return all their cards to the bag. We will also have a quick 10 word spelling quiz on Monday, the quiz can have any of the words from the 5 lists on the review packet. In vocabulary this week we made little flash cards that go in our Vocabulary pocket in our Westward Expansion Lapbooks. On each flashcard we were able to choose whether to write the exact definition, an example sentence, or a drawing; which ever helped us remember the definition of the word the best.

Written/Edited by Madi in collaboration with Ms. Ivary

Art

The 4th and 5th graders continued working on their painted­paper landscape collages. They cut out shapes from their painted papers and pieced them together to make very colorful, textured landscapes. We’ll finish up this project next week.

Music

Cowboy songs were this week’s topic. We listened to YouTube versions of The William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger), “Back in the Saddle Again,” (Gene Autry) and “Happy Trails” (Roy Rogers and Dale Evans) and learned “Git Along, Little Doggies” and “The Old Chisholm Trail.