by Marci & Ivary | Sep 21, 2019 | First Grade News
La Lectura
This week we continued to work with Vamos a leer! Our objectives were:
- La H: poems and identifying letters
- Los tres perritos: practice dictation and identifying letters
- El sapito glo, glo, glo: order words
- La gata Maroma: capital letters
We also received our first readers of the year. Remember to practice with your kiddo every night. I will read with them Mondays and Fridays to check their fluency and see who is ready to move up to the next book.
Las matemáticas
This week we finished our chapter on Numbers to 10. Our objectives were:
- compare numbers using tens frames and connecting cubes
- make patterns using connecting cubes
- demonstrate knowledge and understanding on the chapter test
- review prior knowledge needed for our next chapter Number Bonds
Science
This week in our Astronomy domain we listened to the poem Wynken, Blynken, and Nod and learned about the moon, its phases and craters. The students created their own moon phases picture and did an experiment to show how craters were created.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand that astronomers study the moon and stars using telescopes
• understand that people sometimes tell stories about the moon and stars
• Identify the four phases of the moon – new, Crescent, half, full
• state that the moon orbits the earth
History & Geography
Making a ziggurat
This week we continued our study of ancient Mesopotamia. The class made their own interpretation of a ziggurat which are on display in our classroom windows. We continue to add information to our chart about what makes a civilization.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• identify major landforms of Washington State.
• locate the area known as Mesopotamia on a map and identify it as part of Asia
• describe the significance of gods / goddesses, ziggurats, temples, and priests in Mesopotamia
• describe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• describe the significance of leaders to the development of civilization
• identify Mesopotamia as the “cradle of civilization”
• understand that a civilization evolves and changes over time
Spelling sorts
English Sight Words of the Week
can, call, car, come, could, day, did, do
Thanks to all of you who were able to attend Curriculum Night. It was so nice to be able to share with you the things that your kiddos will be doing in school this year!
by Jill & Sarah | Sep 21, 2019 | 2nd/3rd Grade News
September: Dress as your favorite movie/movie character. Fun!
La Lectura
We read a great story, Niña ángel, niña dragón. This was a realistic fiction piece about a girls who’s family immigrated to the United States but she didn’t speak English. This story told of how the girl adapted to her school and how once she started sharing about her family, the other students welcomed her and even helped her family.
Our learning objectives this week were to:
- work with the diphthongs: ie and ei
- work with cause and effect
- identify closed and open syllables
- identify pronouns and when we use them
Students received their second reader of the year. They read with classmates and worked to identify pronouns within their two readers.
Looking for subject pronouns in our readers.
We will have a spelling test on our new words (received Thursday) on Friday, September 27th.
Las matemáticas
The kiddos did such an amazing job completing their math packets, working in stations, and completing their first test of the school year. They took their test on Thursday and the entire class did an excellent job! Next up: Mental Math!!
We reintroduced Prodigy during our station time on Friday. All students should have brought home a parent letter (on yellow paper) to remind the family how to login to student accounts. Students also have their login information inside the front cover of their planner.
We will:
- rely heavily on composing and decomposing numbers (with number bonds)
- take weekly multiplication tests
- use prodigy to reinforce skills (during a twice weekly math stations)
This week students were asked to look at their previously created list of possible ideas and choose one. We talked about thick and thin questions and how ideas that required thicker questions would be better to research. Students then chose their topic/idea, formulated their main question, and received teacher approval. (We are learning the step-by-step process involved in research!) Formulating their questions was really great because it made them really think about their purpose and even reconsider their topic.
Science
This week we learned to:
- Identify the Andromeda Galaxy as the closest spiral galaxy in our universe
- Describe gravity
- Describe the effects gravity has on Earth, within the solar system, and the universe
- Describe the characteristics of stars
- Compare and contrast our sun and other stars
- Describe a galaxy as a very large cluster of many stars
- Identify the Milky Way as our galaxy and Andromeda as the closest spiral galaxy in our universe
- Explain what constellations are and how useful they are
- Recognize and name important constellations in the hemisphere in which you live.
Our English spelling lists for the test on October 4th.
Labeling our large World map. We will be working on this for several weeks, adding to it daily.
History & Geography
Our objectives this week were to:
- Describe the mouth and source of a river
- Refer to a map and identify the location of the Murray River
- List at least two ways people use the Murray River
- Understand the meaning of : drainage basin, orchard, vineyard and pasture
by Ivary & Paola | Sep 21, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News
History & Geography
This week we wrapped up our World Lakes unit and began unit 2, Maya, Aztec and Inca Civilizations. Our objectives were:
- demonstrate understanding of lakes around the world and their geography
- identify the Maya as one of the earliest civilizations in the Americas, located in parts of Mexico and Central America
- describe how archaeologists have been able to learn more about the Maya
- identify the main achievements of the Maya and some specific discoveries
Mathematics
This week we continued to learn about Whole Numbers. Our objectives were:
- round numbers to the nearest thousand
- use rounding to estimate sums, differences, and products
- demonstrate understanding of Whole Numbers on the chapter test
- review prior knowledge needed to complete chapter 2
English
This week we began learning about writing paragraphs. Our objectives were:
- identify relevant details and match them to their topic sentence
- add transition words to paragraphs
- practice writing closing clinchers
- complete the Sentence and Paragraph assessment
- complete the spelling quiz and choose new words quiz next Friday, Sept.27
Lectura
This week we continued to dig deeper into our theme Herencia cultural. We discussed how is cultural heritage passed through generations and we read a realistic fiction piece titled Nuestra cancion. Students had a chance to compare and contrast this piece to last weeks selection, La tierra que perdí. Such beautiful pieces of literature. Students are working very hard on increasing vocabulary and using it in different contexts. This week students received a rubric that states the expectations of our first literature circle: Con carino Amalia. We answered questions and created a reading calendar. We are very excited to start our book club on Monday!
Other objectives for the week included:
- Explain the characteristics of realistic fiction.
- Apply reading comprehension strategies such as clarifying, asking questions, predicting and summarizing.
- Write a list of ideas that can be developed into possible narratives.
- Study the spelling patterns of words with stress on the penultimate syllable (palabras graves).
- Learn about simple sentences, and identify subject and predicate.
- Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific language; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
- Determine a central idea of a topic and how it is conveyed through particular details; distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
- Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a context (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
Ciencias
This week we wrapped up our first investigation, The Sun. The weather did not cooperate as we had expected. We will make sure we bring out our sun trackers later on this fall when the skies are clear to continue to analyze and measure all the different time patterns associated with the position of the sun.
Students received globes and flashlights and simulated Earth’s rotation. Using the model, students discussed concepts such what is sunrise and sunset, direction of the rotation of the Earth and what “appears” to happen, and what in reality happens. We discussed vocabulary such as rotation versus revolution. Reviewed all vocabulary introduced in investigation 1 in context. Next week, we are so excited to start our second investigation: Planetary Systems!
by Macky & Veronica | Sep 14, 2019 | Preschool
This week we continued working with our social’s skills activity and “Family” unit. Family is forever. This unit provides the kiddos with a basic knowledge of how family works and how every family is different. When the children were participating in our circle time, they had the opportunity to discuss their families, and gain knowledge on how each family is unique. I provided a variety of ideas to capture the essence of family importance. We have worked with reading the book as “Eres tu Mi Mama?”/ “Are You My Mother?” The kids enjoyed this book and they had a good time learning new words such as:
gato – kitten,
gallina-hen,
perro- dog,
vaca- cow.
The kiddos were very excited learning about families. Words of the month:
Mamá-mother,
Papá-father,
Bebé-baby,
Hermano-brother,
Hermana-sister,
Abuela-grandmother,
Abuelo-grandfather.
In addition, the children did activities with a bird and nest, bird nest sensory bin, pasta bird nest, baby bird eats the worm (fine motor sensory bin) and find the mamá game.
These activities help the children to build up their fine motor skills.
Special Focus:
We practiced tracing and writing our names throughout the week. Soon we will begin our letter study!
by Jackie & Marci | Sep 14, 2019 | Kindergarten News
La Lectura
It was very exciting to see how quickly the children are learning! We reviewed the vowels, A E I O U with their sounds and motions with their hands. They learned a song, “El barquito” where children learned to focus attention by mimicking the rhymes of the song as well as review counting the numbers.
We practice making curved lines and circles, first making strokes in the air with their fingers to later make the strokes on the whiteboard and then writing circles on sheets of paper. We learned that many letters have curves and circles. (We made a list of them.)
We read the book again, Look Out, Kindergarten! Here I come! (¡Prepárate Kindergarten!, Allá voy! and summarized the main events.
The children shared their thoughts and feelings about the story, encouraging them to think about and become aware of how stories are written. We used pictures to retell a story, likewise they learned the vocabulary used in the school that they use to read: book, big book, letter, card, poster. Also, we tried different types of writing materials: pencil, crayons, marker, pen.
As a follow up, students were reminded that letters make words in reading and writing so we practiced with different words as well as with their names so they could make the connection between what letters these words carry and how they sound.
In order to continue expanding their vocabulary in Spanish, we did fun activities , labeling different utensils in the classroom: board (pizarron), table (mesa), door(puerta), desk (escritorio), chair (silla), window (ventana), wall (pared).
The students learned two new focus words (word of the day) “El, La” (The) where children contribute ideas to make sentences and then write those ideas in their notebooks.
Las matemáticas
We continued working with numbers 1- 6 practicing their strokes, the amount they represent, whether it is even or odd and what is a “ones place” / unidad in the place value chart. We also worked on forming tallies. Four down and the fifth one crosses to make a group! We will be working with tallies every day, all year long. (We keep tallies for their Spanish usage in the class to earn trips to the treasure box as a class. They learn to LOVE tallies!)
“Jack be nimble…”
History & Geography
“Jack be quick!”
Another terrific week! The class has been having fun with our unit on Nursery Rhymes. We have been doing lots of singing and acting out. Your children are excited to share some of these with you in their “I Can Read This!” binder which will come home next week after we discuss it in Curriculum Night.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• act out familiar nursery rhymes
• identify rhyming pairs when listening to poems
• listen to, understand, and recite the rhymes: “Jack be Nimble”, “Jack and Jill”,” Little Miss Muffet”, “This Little Pig Went to Market”
Little Miss Muffet and her spider friend.
• find and circle word wall words in copies of the rhymes.
Science
We began our first science domain on Farms. The class is learning about what a farm is and what they might find there. This week our focus has been some of the animals found on a farm.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• explain what a farm is
• describe the farmers job
• Identify some animals on a farm and the sounds they make
• describe how some food comes from farms as crops
• Identify some buildings on farms
• sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm
English Sight Words of the Week
blue, go, the, be, he, her, to, and
Character Education
This month in Character Education we are focusing on Kindness. We have done a few hands-on lessons with cotton balls, sandpaper, a tub of water with rocks/leaves/feathers/pinecones. Our objectives for the lessons were:
- What makes a good friend?
- Words, tone, and facial expressions can affect our message to our friends.
- Cotton ball words/tone/facial expressions are received as kind. (Please, Thank you, May I help you? Good job!)
- Sand paper words/tone/facial expression are not kind.
- Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson – to show how each small act of kindness has a ripple effect.
- Compliment circles- practice giving and receiving compliments (say thank you!)
by Marci & Ivary | Sep 14, 2019 | First Grade News
La Lectura
There was lots of rain, just like our story Llueve!
This week we continued working on our unit Vamos a leer! Our objectives were:
- Las hormiguitas: identifying letters and asking questions while reading
- La abejita chiquitita: onomatopeias and identifying letters
- La hormiguita y el ratón Pérez: identifying letters and writing autobiographies
- Canción del bichito de luz: capital letters and poems
Las matemáticas
This week we began our first unit Numbers to 10. Our objectives were:
- review prior knowledge that will help us this chapter
- use tens frames to count to 10 and identify numbers
- use connecting cubes to count to 10 and identify numbers
- use tens frames to compare numbers
Science
This week in our Astronomy domain we focused on the relationship of the earth to the sun and stars and constellations. The class got to do demonstrations on how the Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• identify the Earth’s rotation, or spin, as the reason for day and night
• explain sunrise and sunset
• understand that the Earth orbits the Sun
• classify the Sun as a star
• understand that stars appear small in the sky even though they are very large
• describe stars as hot, distant, and made of gas
• identify the Big Dipper and the North Star
• understand that people sometimes tell stories about the moon and the stars
• explain what a constellation is
• understand that astronomers use telescopes to study the moon and stars
History & Geography
Making cuneiform tablets
This week we finished off our landform unit by creating an edible landform map of Washington State. We Began our next unit on Early World Civilizations, our first focus being Mesopotamia. On Thursday the class had fun creating cuneiform in clay tablets.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• identify major landforms of Washington State.
• locate the area known as Mesopotamia on a map and identify it as part of Asia
• explain the importance of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the use of canals, to support farming
• describe the city of Babylon
• describe cuneiform as the way of writing in Mesopotamia
• explain the importance of writing to civilizations
Edible topographic map of Washington
• identify the Code of Hammurabi
English Sight Words of the Week
about, after, be, been, big, boy, but, by
Character Education
Testing out the “ripple” of acts of kindness.
This month in Character Education we are focusing on Kindness. We have done a few hands-on lessons with cotton balls, sandpaper, a tub of water with rocks/leaves/feathers/pinecones. Our objectives for the lessons were:
- What makes a good friend?
- Words, tone, and facial expressions can affect our message to our friends.
- Cotton ball words/tone/facial expressions are received as kind. (Please, Thank you, May I help you? Good job!)
- Sand paper words/tone/facial expression are not kind.
- Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson – to show how each small act of kindness has a ripple effect.
- Compliment circles- practice giving and receiving compliments (say thank you!)
by Jill & Sarah | Sep 14, 2019 | 2nd/3rd Grade News
Friday, September 20th: Dress as (or with) something from your favorite movie.
La Lectura
Place value with Ms. Laura.
This week the students received their first reader of the year. We will be using the readers to continue our fluency goals. We will also use the readers to point out spelling and grammar points of interest. Our learning objectives this week were:
- Dipthongs ue and eu
- Distinguish between proper and common nouns
- Identify purposes of writing
- Understand the difference between a biography and an autobiography
- Write a list of important facts for their own autobiography
- Understand the use of pronouns
This week we also began our first Genius Hour. We will spend one hour each week where the students research a specific topic of their own interest. They will complete a lap book, walking through the research process, and end with a class presentation to share their new knowledge. A big Thank YOU to Ms. Laura for helping with Genius Hour! (And helping with math stations!!)
Las matemáticas
Using digits to show greater than and less than. (Mayor que y menor que).
This week we continued our study of numbers up to 10,000. Our learning objectives this week were to:
- Use base-ten blocks to compare and order numbers.
- Use place value to compare and order numbers. (Greater than > and less than <)
- Read, write, and represent numbers to 10,000 in standard form, expanded form, and word form.
Science
Our learning objectives this week were to:
- Identify the sun as a constant source of heat and light energy
- Classify the sun as a star
- Identify our planet Earth as the third planet from the sun and ideally suited for life
- Describe the eight planets of our solar system and their sequence from the sun
- Identify our solar system as the sun and all of the smaller bodies that orbit it
- Describe the characteristics of a planet
- Explain that Pluto has been reclassified as a dwarf planet
- Describe the asteroid belt
History & Geography
We learned to:
- Measure straight-line distances on a map scale
- Use the maps in the atlas of the Student Reader to find geographic information
- Describe two ways that rivers bring life to farms and cities
- Compare the Nile and Yellow River
- Understand the meaning of the following domain-specific vocabulary: river, riverbank, source, irrigation, silt, and flow.
Character Education
This month in Character Education we are focusing on Kindness. We have done a few hands-on lessons with cotton balls, sandpaper, a tub of water with rocks/leaves/feathers/pinecones. Our objectives for the lessons were:
- What makes a good friend?
- Words, tone, and facial expressions can affect our message to our friends.
- Cotton ball words/tone/facial expressions are received as kind. (Please, Thank you, May I help you? Good job!)
- Sand paper words/tone/facial expression are not kind.
- Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson – to show how each small act of kindness has a ripple effect.
- Compliment circles- practice giving and receiving compliments (say thank you!)
by Ivary & Paola | Sep 14, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News
History & Geography
This week we continued learning about World Lakes. Our objectives were:
- describe Lake Tanganyika, Victoria, and Chad as well as their continent
- describe Lake Titicaca and Maracaibo as well as their continent
- describe the Great Lakes as well as their continent
- describe Lake Baikal, the Caspian Sea and the Aral sea as well as their continent
Mathematics
This week we began our first chapter, Whole Numbers. Our objectives were:
- review prior knowledge needed to complete this chapter
- read and write numbers to 10,000,000 in standard, word, and expanded form
- identify the place value of any digit in numbers to 10,000,000
- compare and order numbers to 10,000,000
English
This week we began our first writing lesson Sentence Structure. Our objectives were:
- understand and identify complete sentences (subject and predicate)
- identify sentence fragments and run-on sentences and fix them
- Find the topic sentence and write details based off a topic sentence
- write our first spelling list quiz next Friday, Sept. 20
Lectura
Essential Questions: How do you define heritage? How does heritage affect who you are? How is cultural heritage passed through generations?
Reading Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections, Visualizing, Summarizing, Author’s Point of View
Our objectives for this week in literacy were to:
- Explain the characteristics of autobiographies and discuss the author’s point of view.
- Apply reading comprehension strategies such as making connections, visualizing, and summarizing when reading the selection.
- Write a list of ideas that can be developed into possible narratives.
- Study the spelling patterns of words with stress on the last syllable.
- Learn about proper and common nouns.
- Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific language; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
- Determine a central idea of a topic and how it is conveyed through particular details; distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
- Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a context (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
Ciencias
This week, pairs of students constructed Sun trackers. After using a compass to orient the Sun tracker north-south, students made hourly records of the position of the tip of the shadow cast by a golf tee. Students imagined themselves as observers on Earth and positioned around a lamp to observe day and night. They discover that rotation of Earth results in day and night and, in the process, figure out which direction Earth rotates on its axis.
Character Education
This month in Character Education we are focusing on Kindness. We have done a few hands-on lessons with cotton balls, sandpaper, a tub of water with rocks/leaves/feathers/pinecones. Our objectives for the lessons were:
- What makes a good friend?
- Words, tone, and facial expressions can affect our message to our friends.
- Cotton ball words/tone/facial expressions are received as kind. (Please, Thank you, May I help you? Good job!)
- Sand paper words/tone/facial expression are not kind.
- Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson – to show how each small act of kindness has a ripple effect.
- Compliment circles- practice giving and receiving compliments (say thank you!)
by Macky & Veronica | Sep 7, 2019 | Preschool
Bienvenidos a Prescolar!
Welcome preschool families! We are so happy to have your kiddos in our class!
Everything we do is an opportunity to learn, show kindness and caring for each other, and to have fun! This week we began our new school year by working with a social skills activity. This activity was a great way to ease anxious feelings, while allowing children to celebrate differences amongst each other. We began with our circle time, as circle sitting tends to make everyone equal and encourages participation of all kids. I announced that this was “all about us” time. Everyone introduced themselves and shared their favorite and special things! It was a wonderful activity and our returning students set great examples for our new students and helped ease some shyness.
We began working with our “My family / Mi familia” topic, which is our theme for the month of September. This week we read ¿Tú Mamá Es Una Llama? We learned some new Spanish words:
llama / llama
vaca / cow
cisne / swan
murciélago / bat
canguro/kangaroo
We also worked with different activities to build up fine motor skills. In addition, we sang songs, danced and played. It was a blast!
Letras
Each week of the school year we will focus on a new letter. We will introduce the upper- and lower-case letters to the class. We will sing songs while passing around objects that begin with that letter sound. We will play games with the sound and learn the correct formation of the letter. (Most uppercase letters begin from the top down.) This first week of school though the students started practicing their names. They used crayons and markers and traced their names with them.
Números
Every two weeks of the school year we will focus on a new number. Our goal is for the preschoolers to count, develop number sense, identify groups of a given number, correctly write numbers, and more!
This week we worked with number 1 / número uno. We had a fun time playing and using some items to recognize and identify the number in a group of other numbers. Also, they did different activities to develop their fine motor skills.
Figura y el color
Shapes is one of the topics taught during preschool mathematics. We will talk about shapes every day, but we will specifically focus on one shape each month. The students will not only learn the name of basics shapes but also how they integrate with each other. This month we are working with the circle shape / el círculo. We passed around different circles so the children could examine the shapes up close while hearing the name. We all had fun tracing the circle with our little fingers and tracing the letter with markers on the board.
We focused on the color red / color rojo. We went on a color hunt around the classroom and found red little bears all around us.
It was a great start to the school year, and we are looking forward to a great year!
Have an amazing weekend!
by Jackie & Marci | Sep 7, 2019 | Kindergarten News
La Lectura
I am very excited this first week of school. The children were so excited to know everything about what it is to be in kindergarten and were especially interested in learning new words in Spanish. They got to know the names of their classmates by doing fun activities with their names in the form of a necklace. They studied the days of the week, how to say yesterday, today and tomorrow, also the months of the year and the four seasons.
The children heard different sounds and rhythms in order to differentiate them and identify the first and final sounds.
We introduced the vowels in a fun way by singing and motioning with their hands for each letter.
A=Avión (airplane)
E= estrella (star)
I= Imán (magnet)
O= Oso (bear)
U= Uva (Grape)
We drew straight diagonal lines and curves to learn how to write the letters. This activity is an important starting point to learn the process of how to correctly form the letters.
We read the book ¡Prepárate kindergarden! ¡Allá voy! ( Look out kindergarden!, here I come! The children did a great job asking and answering questions.
We worked together to classify images, to expand their vocabulary. The images were about people, animals and school material. The children were asked to group the images according to the kind of object. (All of these exercises were done in Spanish and they did a GREAT job!)
Las matemáticas
This first week the children practiced even and odd numbers from 1 to 3, making strokes to learn how to write them. They studied what a unit is, and learned the concept of ones, as a foundation to teach them others concepts in future lessons, as tens and hundreds.
I really enjoyed working with all our returning students and our newcomers! All of them worked great and with enthusiasm.
History & Geography/ Science
My robot!
What a great week and what a terrific class! We have had so much fun getting to know one another, exploring our classroom and learning about our school. Our classroom theme is space and space robots . Our first field trip this year will be to OMSI to visit the planetarium . More information to come soon about this trip . We’ve been working on a “My First Week of School” Space Robot book. The kinders have had fun expressing their feelings and interests in it. They made their own space robot out if playdough. We began a unit on Nursery Rhymes for Social Studies. They also learned the ¨Red¨ song.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• get to know one another
• review rules and procedures for our classroom and school
• practice using and putting away our supplies and following directions.
• listen to and understand “Roses are Red” and “Ring Around the Rosie”
¨Ring Around the Rosie¨
English Sight Words of the Week
me, red, I, a, can, am
