This week we started working with the plants. We talked about what the plants need to grow (sun, water, soil, and air), and plants parts (root, steam, leaves and flower), as well the life cycle of plants from seed to plant. The kiddos were fascinated by the notion that a tiny seed can emerge from the ground as a plant. The little ones enjoyed what they were learning and we did some crafts while the kiddos sang “las plantas necesitan…tierra, aire , agua y sol…”
Libro
Ciclos de vida de las plantas: de semilla a girasol.
Después de la tormenta.
Letra
We reviewed the letters that they have been learning (vowels, B, C, D,F, G, H, J, K, L, LL, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W X, Y, Z),
Número
19
Figura
We reviewed all the shapes that they have been learning (circulo, cuadrado, rectangulo, triangulo, estrella, corazon, diamante, ovalo, and pentagon)
Color
We reviewed all the colors that they have been learning (rojo, azul, amarillo, verde, anaranjado y/o naranja, rosado, morado, café, blanco y negro)
Puzzles available for extra credit and Friday (Math) Bingo
Lectura
This week we had a lesson on identifying exaggeration in texts and using it in our own writing. We identified that exaggeration is typically used to inject humor.
We did a big review of our verb conjugation and practiced with timed conjugations.
The spelling test on Friday looks like more practice is needed with abbreviations. We will do a re-take on Friday, June 14th.
The students did an amazing job brainstorming and writing their own song for the end of the year program. This will be performed at Field Day.
Ciencias
The last few students presented their month-long science project and did a great job. Students then reflected (in paragraph form) upon their experience and wrote about what they would do differently next time. The process of completing a long science project, preparing for their presentation, presenting it (without notes), and then doing a self-reflection, has been a wonderful experience for everyone.
Specialists
Music with Ms. Erin
In May took a musical trip through time by learning about Gregorian Chant music from the Medieval Period, Handel’s The Messiah from the Baroque Period, Haydn’sSurprise and Farewell Symphonies from the Classical Period, Chopin’s Nocturnesfrom the Romantic Period, the inventor of the piano, Cristofori, and contemporary piano music by Yann Tiersen, David Lanz, and Yiruma.
In June we will be listening to and singing modern popular songs, along with more classic songs such as Blow the Man Down, Loch Lomond, and The Marine’s Hymn. We will also be working hard to prepare the song chosen by the class for the End of Year performance at Field Day!
Did I make everybody late for their appointments and obligations on Tuesday? The truth is, I have too much fun with your/my kids so time just flies by! This week we continued with the same objectives as last week during our literacy time and routines (please refer back to our previous newsletter). Students had a chance to work on their science reports and I had the opportunity to sit down conference with most of them to finalize the details for our science presentations on June 13th/14th. I could not be more proud of their work!
We are so excited to share with our Spanish with Sarah community a big project we have working on for weeks. Students have taken care of every detail of this production – a classic of the Spanish literature, Don Quijote de la Mancha. We cannot wait to share it with you all on Monday, June 10th at 2:30. We hope to see you all there!
Mathematics
This week we began our final math unit Measures of Central Tendency. Our objectives were:
•review finding the mean of a set of data
•find the mean of a set of data using a dot plot
•review finding the median of a set of data
•find the median of a set of data using a dot plot
History & Geography
This week we finished our last history chapter. Our objectives were:
• review unit vocabulary by filling out a crossword puzzle
• Review chapter events, people, and concepts by playing jeopardy
• Begin our end of the year project Mock Career Fair
English Writing & Spelling
This week we continued with our final writing pieces. Our objectives were:
•review grammar concepts from the year
•write final argumentative piece
Specialists
Music with Ms. Erin
In May we learned about music styles, instruments, and composers from the Classical and Romantic period. We learned about how keyboard instruments evolved from the early baroque clavichord and harpsichord to the modern day piano.
We continued the involved, hands on work of developing the songs that the students are creating.
In June we will be putting our all into End of Year performance preparation.
This work involves:
– Development and practice of vocal melody and harmony
– Adding percussion and practicing rhythm skills
– Chord, melody, and rhythm notation reading and playing on piano and guitar
– Performance and presentation skills
We’re excited to perform for everyone on Field Day!
This week the class took their Immigrant assessment on Tuesday and began writing their Immigrant reports from the information that they gathered during their family interviews. The stories they have collected from their families have been absolutely wonderful! We will celebrate our combined Spanish and English immigration studies with a potluck next Friday at 11:40.
We also started our last unit on Civil Rights this week.The students are working on reading several books about the Women’s suffrage movement, Martin Luther King, and Ruby Bridges.
Working hard on our Immigration reports
Our weekly objectives were to:
• Understand the rights of citizens
• Learn how immigrants can become citizens
• Understand the metaphors of the “melting pot” and the “mosaic”
• Identify Susan B. Anthony as a civil rights leader devoted to woman suffrage.
• Understand why Anthony’s trial was unfair
• Recognize it often takes a time to succeed.
• Understand the challenges Mary Mcleod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt faced.
• Explain how Mary Mcleod Bethune worked in education to help others.
• Explain Eleanor Roosevelt’s way of helping others.
Last birthdays of the school year!
Science
This week in our Simple Machines we finished pulleys and learned about complex machines and reviewed what we’ve learned so far.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• Explain that a pulley is a simple machine that is used for lifting heavy objects or moving objects up and down or side-to-side
• Explain that simple machines can be combined together to make a complex machine
• Examine and name the types of simple machines that are found in a complex machine
English Spelling and Writing
We learned the idiom of the week “She had to eat her words” . The class got their last spelling sort and took their practice test on Friday . Our Word Wall words were: truck, into, drink, bug,
Green Sort
La lectura
This week we read Nueva Esperanza. Our objectives were:
•begin our final unit Our Country and It’s People
•when reading the first time focus on asking questions before, during, and after reading
•when reading the second time focus on making inferences
•review the three types of sentences: exclamatory, interrogative, and declarative
Las matemáticas
This week we continued with our end of the year Math Olympics! Our objectives were:
•review how to write numbers in word and standard form
•review place value by adding/ subtracting 1, 10, or 100 from a 3-digit number
•review 3-digit addition and subtraction
Specialists
Music with Ms. Erin
In May we listened to pieces by Bach, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and learned about the lives of these composers. We learned and sang Goodbye Old Paint, Follow the Drinking Gourd, The Erie Canal, and students shared songs they’ve learned with each other.
In June we will be completing this year’s focus on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons by listening to the three movements from Summer, as well as reading the sonnets written for each movement.
We will also be working hard to prepare the song chosen by the class for the End of Year performance at Field Day!
This week we started working with our “Water Cycle, Plants, and Light” unit. This week we learned all about the water cycle. In order to understand the water and why it rains, kids need to know about the water cycle first. I explained to them that water covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface, and living things need water to survive. The water cycle is nature’s way of purifying, circulating, and replenishing water.
We learned the four basic steps in the water cycle:
1. Evaporation: When heat from the sun turns liquid water into gaseous water vapor, causing it to rise into the air.
2. Condensation: When gaseous water vapor cools at high elevations and becomes liquid (or solid) again
3. Precipitation: When liquid water (rain) or solid water (snow) falls to the ground.
4. Collection: When large amounts of water gather in oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams
We did a simple demonstration to help the kiddos understand the basic elements of the water cycle, . We used water and ice. In a larger container I put hot water, stirred it well to make the ocean(evaporation). I covered the top of the container with a plastic wrap so we could see the water condense into clouds. We put some ice cubes into the center of the cling wrap covering the top of the container, so the cool ice in the “sky” would cause the evaporated water to condense when it rose up. After several minutes the kiddos could see water condensing into “clouds”, and then precipitation began with water dropping from the plastic, back into the ocean.
Practicing while they wait to read with the teacher.
I was so impressed with everyone’s reading this week! Most students passed 2-3 books this week! Please keep up the great work. Nightly reading is so important and really helps with their writing skills too.
This week we worked on forming compound, more detailed, sentences. They did a great job with this. They are also able to identify the people (nouns) in the sentences they read and write. They are doing a great job making connections between the noun and verbs and making sure they are in agreement.
Las matemáticas
Students are doing such a great job using the number line for their addition and subtraction! We continued to practice this throughout the week.
Students have been working on their subitizing skills all year. They line up each day by ¨seeing small groups without adding¨. A great way to continue practicing immediate number identification and addition throughout the school year and through the summer is by playing games. Some games to help with this would involve 2 or more dice.
One of our June birthdays shares her special poster.
History & Geography
This week in our unit Fun Stories we read the Native American tale The Story of Jumping Mouse part one and two. The class made an interactive picture to go along with the story, please have them retell the tale to you using their character puppets and the picture setting. We also reviewed all the stories we’ve learned so far and did several activities to reinforce concepts and vocabulary. On Friday we celebrated an adoption day with a special story, song, and treat.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• demonstrate familiarity with the stories we have read this week
• identify the characters and how they interacted with each other
Exploring different kinds of cones and tasty pine nuts.
Science
In our plant unit we learned all about Evergreen trees. We had fun examining different types of cones, needles and tasting pine nuts from conifers. On Friday we began reading about interesting plants and plant facts.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand that there are many different kinds and sizes of plants
• understand that different kinds of plants grow in different environments
• identify the parts of specific plants that are eaten by people
• understand that Evergreen plants are one type of plant that stays green all year and does not become dormant
• understand that a pine is a type of evergreen tree
• understand that conifers are trees that produce cones
Puzzles available for extra credit and Friday (Math) Bingo
Remember: MATH …. It’s everywhere
La lectura
We read a very entertaining Tall Tale this week: McBroom y el vendaval. We talked about how a tall tale portrays the adventures of a fictional character using humorous exaggerations. A tall tale relates a series of extraordinary events and challenges that are handled in inventive ways.
Our objectives for this week were to:
develop an understanding of what coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and interjections are and how they are used. (and, but, or = coordinating)
become familiar and comfortable with abbreviations for units of measurement (without periods) and other abbreviations (with periods) and acronyms.
to identify author’s purpose.
to summarize and illustrate passages read.
Ciencias
The students began presenting their science projects on Friday. They did a great job preparing for their no-notes presentations! It was obvious that they put in the work and prepared. We have three more presentations to finish up on Monday.
Specialists
Art with Ms. Kelly
I want to say a special THANK YOU to Stasia Cook (Alora’s mom) who helped out in ALL the classes on May 8th so that the students could complete their special Mother’s Day flower/hand collages.
Alexander Calder
We were inspired when Eli brought in some of his “gadget sculptures” that he made at home from hardware, office supplies, and cardboard boxes. He even made a little “paint brush” machine! This is similar to how Alexander Calder began creating art as a child – “tinkering” with scraps of wire and scrap materials. We looked at some of Calder’s famous mobiles, sculptures, and wire art, and then read Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Stone. This describes how Alexander (Sandy) made his famous “Cirque Calder “sculpture using wire, leather, cloth, etc. The circus sculpture is in Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The students then made a fish (or seahorse or stingray) using wire coat hangers, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons and straws. It was fun watching the kiddos make these very creative sea creatures!
Math and Art
Thank you Ms. Laura for inspiring the students as they made Tessellation Art and a Letter Design with Radial Symmetry. These wonderful Math/Art designs have been on the bulletin board at school. Remember, Math and Art are everywhere!
Color Wheel Flowers: We reviewed the Color Wheel and the students made beautiful multi-colored sunflowers from a variety of papers.
In June we’ll make summer-themed art as we look forward to summer vacation!
Character Ed with Ms. Jennie
The 4th Annual Bake Sale was a huge success! We raised $470!! Thank you so much to all of you who donated baked goods and to everyone who showed up and bought something. And a very special thank you to Jorge for baking and donating the delicious bread – always a huge hit! All the kids did a great job in planning, setting up, making signs, and running the event. The 3rd/4th grade class had their first chance to be behind the cash registers this year and so a special thank you to Eli, Kate, Ramon, Pierce, Marisol, and Miria, as well as Rafa and Jack from 5/6, for handling people’s money. And thank you for the girls who stayed afterwards to clean up and count the cash (Mariela, Naomi, Emilie, Marisol, Kate). The money will be donated to Ryan’s Well Foundation and go towards water projects in Africa!
Poetry Partyin Character Ed next week. Remember to bring in a copy of a favorite poem, an inspirational quote, or a poem you have written to class. Please try and have it on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper so we can compile all of them into a school book. This is going to be fun day of celebration and sharing.
Essential question: How have people used natural resources?
This week we were very fortunate to have maestra Denice teach our 5/6 grade class! Our students were so excited and happy to welcome such a wonderful guest teacher. They had a chance to read a very informative piece: La historia de la sal. This text illustrated historical information to answer the focus question ¨How have people used natural resources¨. This week we continued to review some of the big concepts seen in grammar, syntax, and word work.
Objectives:
Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
Ciencias
This week in science, students spent their time working on their science research projects. This is a project students are doing completely independently. They are expected to apply what they have learned, having complete freedom to choose their area of study and designing their plan of action.
Mathematics
This week we began intro to statistics. Our objectives were:
We represented data from a dot plot.
We identified the shape of data on a dot plot.
We interpreted data from dot plots. 📝👍
(By: Tamra )
History & Geography
This week we learned about Mexico after independence…
We learned that Mexico was turbulent after its independence.
We learned about Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.
We learned about Simon Bolivar, and the set of circumstances that changed the world.
(Written by: Evan)
English Writing & Spelling
This week we:
Finished our Narrative writing piece
Completed our reading packet
Checked our narrative writing with a partner
(Written by:Sophia)
Specialists
Art with Ms. Kelly
I want to say a special THANK YOU to Stasia Cook (Alora’s mom) who helped out in ALL the classes on May 8th so that the students could complete their special Mother’s Day flower/hand collages.
Basket Weaving
I found an “Upcycled Basket” lesson plan and supplies at Dick Blick Art Supply so that the students could try a basic form of basket weaving. We watched a short video about basket making, and the students used a combination of materials to weave some very creative baskets! This required soaking, measuring, and cutting both flat and round reeds, and using string, yarn and more reed for weaving. These great little baskets will be on display at graduation.
Art Display for Graduation
Each of the students is making a display board with a sampling of their artwork from both school and home. The hard part is choosing which artwork to put on the display board since each student has so many wonderful pieces! The students are also including poetry from Ms. Jennie’s class. You can see their Art Display Boards at graduation on June 18th!
CONGRATULATIONS to this wonderful group of 5th and 6th grade students as they graduate from SWS! I’ve known several of these students since they were K/1 students, and they have been joined by more amazing students to round out this exceptional class. It has been fun and inspiring to watch these students learn, grow, and create awesome art! I love all the artwork that they have brought from home to share, and I appreciate all their insights when we discuss various art forms. THANK YOU Parents for raising such kind, creative, and wise children. Have a great time in Middle School, and keep making art!
Character Ed with Ms. Jennie
The 4th Annual Bake Sale was a huge success! We raised $470!! Thank you so much to all of you who donated baked goods and to everyone who showed up and bought something. And a very special thank you to Jorge for baking and donating the delicious bread – always a huge hit! All the kids did a great job in planning, setting up, making signs, and running the event. The 3rd/4th grade class had their first chance to be behind the cash registers this year and so a special thank you to Eli, Kate, Ramon, Pierce, Marisol, and Miria, as well as Rafa and Jack from 5/6, for handling people’s money. And thank you for the girls who stayed afterwards to clean up and count the cash (Mariela, Naomi, Emilie, Marisol, Kate). The money will be donated to Ryan’s Well Foundation and go towards water projects in Africa!
Poetry Partyin Character Ed next week. Remember to bring in a copy of a favorite poem, an inspirational quote, or a poem you have written to class. Please try and have it on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper so we can compile all of them into a school book. This is going to be fun day of celebration and sharing.
Thank you everyone who was able to make it to our Civil War puppet shows. The groups did a great job and learned so much. On Thursday I also handed out the immigration interviews information packets. We listened to an interview in class on Friday, and each child should complete their own interview at home. These are due on Monday. We learned about contributions made by immigrants this week. We enjoyed music by Irving Berlin and watched old movie clips of people arriving on Ellis Island and listened to a very emotional interview of a Polish immigrant remembering what it was like when he arrived in the United States, and his impression of seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand where immigrants settled
• recognize resistance to immigrants and discrimination
• recognize contributions of immigrants in building the Transcontinental Railroad
• identify Andrew Carnegie, Albert Sabin, and Irving Berlin
• describe the contributions made by these three men
Science
This week in our Simple Machines we continued to learn about axles and gears and began to learn about pulleys. We worked in our Simple Machine journals and watched a short video about pulleys.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• explain that a pulley is a simple machine that is used for lifting heavy objects or moving objects up and down or side to side
English Spelling and Writing
In our journals we used the idiom of the week “It cost an arm and a leg” . The class worked on their two spelling assignments and took their final spelling test on Friday . Our Word Wall words were: sports, snap
La lectura
This week we finished reading La maceta vacia. Our objectives were:
Reread the story, write a summary about a section of the story. Work together to put our sections in order based off the summary
Review combing sentences using and
Discuss when to use a colon in writing (a list, time, after for example))
Wrote I am brave stories to finish our unit
Las matemáticas
This week we continued learning about time. Our objectives were:
Review saying the time using words (half past, fifteen until, ect
Discuss when to use a.m. vs p.m.
Find elapsed time in hour and half an hour increments
Specialists
Art With Ms. Kelly
I want to say a special THANK YOU to Stasia Cook (Alora’s mom) who helped out in ALL the classes on May 8th so that the students could complete their special Mother’s Day flower/hand collages.
Eric Carle Animals
We reviewed this wonderful author/illustrator and the students used leftover painted paper from Mothers Day art to make their own very creative Painted Paper Animals, along with the background or setting.
3-D fish
The students learned how to fold and cut card stock to make a 3-D fish. They decorated these colorful fish with dot stickers.
Butterflies and Beetles
We looked at the shapes and patterns in butterfly photos, and the students learned how to use basic shapes to draw butterflies using oil pastels. Then they added watercolor to create a resist. We also looked at photos of Scarab Beetles, and the students used the same technique to create their own beautiful beetle.
Color Wheel Flowers: We reviewed the Color Wheel and made beautiful multi-colored sunflowers from a variety of papers.
In June we’ll make summer-themed art as we look forward to summer vacation!
Character Education with Ms. Jennie
Character Ed with Ms. Jennie
The 4th Annual Bake Sale was a huge success! We raised $470!! Thank you so much to all of you who donated baked goods and to everyone who showed up and bought something. And a very special thank you to Jorge for baking and donating the delicious bread – always a huge hit! All the kids did a great job in planning, setting up, making signs, and running the event. The 3rd/4th grade class had their first chance to be behind the cash registers this year and so a special thank you to Eli, Kate, Ramon, Pierce, Marisol, and Miria, as well as Rafa and Jack from 5/6, for handling people’s money. And thank you for the girls who stayed afterwards to clean up and count the cash (Mariela, Naomi, Emilie, Marisol, Kate). The money will be donated to Ryan’s Well Foundation and go towards water projects in Africa!
Poetry Partyin Character Ed next week. Remember to bring in a copy of a favorite poem, an inspirational quote, or a poem you have written to class. Please try and have it on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper so we can compile all of them into a school book. This is going to be fun day of celebration and sharing.
We loved our language arts story this week! “Humphrey, la bellena perdida” is the true story of the rescue of Humphrey, a whale that got lost and ended up in the Sacramento River. Our student objectives for the week were to:
Connect their own life experiences to the information and events of the story.
Continue their development and understanding of the language of the ocean.
Use comprehension strategies of Asking Questions and Predicting.
Continue to develop print awareness by focusing on directionality and sentence structure.
We reached 2,000 tallies this week and earned a piñata. The students are doing such a great job using complete sentences in Spanish while speaking and writing. Their reading is really sailing along. Please be sure to show them how important reading is by establishing a nightly routine of 20 minutes read-aloud time. THEY should be reading aloud to YOU. It really makes a difference!
Las matemáticas
We have been all about our number lines, using the add and subtract. We’ve even been doing some double and triple digit addition and subtraction. We used number family houses and number bonds to show how the numbers work together.
We have also completed our study of money. At the kindergarten level we are looking for correct identification of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar. Student did this, comparing their sizes to help distinguish them. They also stacked them up to form groups of 5 and 10 pennies, or groups of 5 nickels to show how they can be the same amounts.
The Bremen Musicians
History & Geography
This week in our unit Fun Stories we read The Bremen Town Musicians and Momotaro: Peach Boy, a Japanese folktale. The class wrote in their journals about both stories and we made a class chart comparing the two. The class absolutely loves acting out our stories so we did this on Friday.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand that fiction can be in many different forms, including folktales
• identify the characters and setting in both stories
• find Japan on a map
Science
This week in our unit on Plants we read different versions of the Johnny Appleseed story. We also learned about deciduous trees and identified some outside of our school. We went for a nature walk and hunted for both types of trees. According to the class the evergreen trees won. We talked about how Washington has the nickname the Evergreen State, and how we can see why.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• demonstrate familiarity with the tail “Johnny Appleseed”
• understand the deciduous trees are one type of plant that loses its leaves in the fall and becomes dormant in the winter
• compare and contrast deciduous and evergreen trees
• understand that an apple tree is deciduous
• understand that seeds are the beginning of new plants
• identify how deciduous trees are important to people and nature
Specialists
Art With Ms. Kelly
I want to say a special THANK YOU to Stasia Cook (Alora’s mom) who helped out in ALL the classes on May 8th so that the students could complete their special Mother’s Day flower/hand collages.
Line Sculpture
We reviewed types of lines, and the students learned how to create a variety of lines using paper strips (curvy, zigzag, spiral, etc.). They really enjoyed this activity! Sticker dots were added for detail on their colorful, fun artwork.
Intro to weaving
I made paper looms for the students and they learned about going “over and under” with contrasting paper strips. Having the second strip go “under and over” was challenging, but we will continue practicing this in first grade.
Butterflies and Beetles
We looked at the shapes, patterns, and colors of butterflies and beetles. The students learned how to use basic shapes to draw butterflies and beetles using oil pastels. Then they added watercolor paint to their beautiful insects.
Colorful Sunflowers
We reviewed the Color Wheel and read The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle. The students used construction paper scraps to cut out petals for a large sunflower.
In June we will make a “Picnic Collage” as we look forward to summer vacation!
Character Ed with Ms. Jennie
The 4th Annual Bake Sale was a huge success! We raised $470!! Thank you so much to all of you who donated baked goods and to everyone who showed up and bought something. And a very special thank you to Jorge for baking and donating the delicious bread – always a huge hit! All the kids did a great job in planning, setting up, making signs, and running the event. The 3rd/4th grade class had their first chance to be behind the cash registers this year and so a special thank you to Eli, Kate, Ramon, Pierce, Marisol, and Miria, as well as Rafa and Jack from 5/6, for handling people’s money. And thank you for the girls who stayed afterwards to clean up and count the cash (Mariela, Naomi, Emilie, Marisol, Kate). The money will be donated to Ryan’s Well Foundation and go towards water projects in Africa!
Poetry Partyin Character Ed next week. Remember to bring in a copy of a favorite poem, an inspirational quote, or a poem you have written to class. Please try and have it on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper so we can compile all of them into a school book. This is going to be fun day of celebration and sharing.
Ciclos de vida de las plantas: de semilla a girasol.
This week we read Nueva Esperanza. Our objectives were:
