Spanish With Sarah

4th/5th Week 21

by Sarah Segall | Feb 12, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts and Science

What a fun loving week we had! In literacy, we spent time working on spelling and reviewing some concepts of grammar. Students did a terrific job in both their reading comprehension quiz of the book Las plantas and a small writing assessment. All the hard work is definitely paying off. This week students took home a new book. Please make sure your child continues to practice their reading in Spanish daily. We culminated our week in Literacy working on some fun language and writing Valentine’s Day projects.

While students continued to record their observations of their terrariums they were encouraged to check their predictions about the growth and development of their plants. They shared their thoughts, as well as compared and contrasted changes. Students will continue to make decisions about their terrarium based on their experiences. Students are starting to think about our school garden, and the plants that would most likely do well in that particular environment.

We started our Investigation 2: Bugs and Beetles. Following the guiding questions, “What type of environment do isopods and beetles prefer? How much moisture do isopods and beetles prefer?, student constructed aluminum foil runways in order to find out the organisms’ environmental preferences. They also used these runways to see how these organisms responded to the environmental factor of water and light. We used this opportunity to discuss the concept of variable.

Students did a great job turning in their science homework packets!

Math

We worked hard and had a great time learning about dividing fractions this week! We had practice with dividing fractions by fractions, fractions by whole numbers and fractions by improper fractions. Again this gave us a nice opportunity to gain experience with presenting answers in their simplest form. We were fortunate to have Ms. Wagner in our room on Thursday to help out with a culminating dividing fractions project. Some students worked with her to create a paper pizza (using donated pizza boxes) and invent their own fractions for individual toppings. These students also created their own story problem equations which will require other students to solve a division fraction problem using the created pizza. Others spent time on Thursday using white boards to practice all of the steps involved with the process, and then enjoyed a game of “Dividing the Dice”. It was a productive week for math!

History & Geography

We finished our at home research about Early Russia and spent time in class reading more and looking at Power Points to gain more insight into the culture, people, and ideas of how Russia started out politically and religiously. Next week we will begin a new and exciting unit on Feudal Japan! Stay tuned for more at home requirements that will allow students to dive deeper into the rich history of Japan!

Art

The 4th and 5th graders had a choice of finishing up some weaving projects or working on their figure collages. Some students worked on the background for the figure collage, and some made Valentine weavings, and some finished a weaving still life. I’m always wishing there was more time in art for this creative and artistic group of students!

2/3 Week 21

by Sarah Segall | Feb 12, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

This week the students read the story Picasso as a whole group and in pairs. We worked on comparing and contrasting skills, figurative language, and plural nouns.

Math

This week we worked on telling time. Our objectives are:

Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes.
Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes.
Calculate elapsed time.

Social Studies

This week in social studies we have been learning about the Native Americans who lived in the greater Mississippi River areas. We learn how they were great mound builders and we compared these mounds to the pyramids of the Egyptians. We found out that some of these mounds were shaped like animals, some had artifacts buried in them, and others were used as burial sites. We’ve also been reading the book The Children of the Longhouse. It’s been interesting because to compared the lives of these characters to the those of the Viking children that we learned about in our last unit. We have discussed similarities and differences between the two groups. On Friday afternoon we had a special day of combining the 1st graders to the 2/3 class. We did fun Valentine activities, sang songs, read books about Abraham Lincoln and even made campaign speeches if we were to become president. Our class also got to help out in the preschool by reading Spanish books and helping with a craft activity.

Science

We had a wonderful field trip to Aladdin theater to see Slim Goodbody and his Bodyology show . We learn some new things about the systems of our body and we also learned that Mr Jesse could move like a gorilla and Jack could do a double kick . Wow! We have some talented folks at our school. This week we have gone more in depth into facts about the planets and our solar system. The class has begun their own coloring book about each planet and other celestial bodies and are reading details about these as they color each item. On Friday we learned about the Milky Way and other galaxies in our universe. We added the final line to our “address “.

English Spelling/Writing

The class is doing a amazing job on their spelling and sorts. I am so impressed with the scores on the spelling tests and how hard they work on getting all of their activities done. For grammar this week, we have been focusing on plural nouns, both irregular and regular ones. In our journals we wrote about our field trip and what it would be like to be a tour guide for a Native American mound that still exist today. The class wrote their own tour guide information about these mounds. On Friday they had free choice to write in their journals but I encourage them to write a “love letter” to someone who is important in their life or a pet.

Art

The 2nd and 3rd graders continued working on their figure collages this week. They added the background, using simple shapes to create a scene, as Romare Bearden did in his collage art.

Next week they’ll add a border to finish up these great “story quilts.”

First Grade Week 21

by Sarah Segall | Feb 12, 2016 | In The Loop

1st grade Important date: Tuesday 2/16 is the 100th day of school. Please have your child dress up as one might have dressed 100 years ago or might dress up 100 years in the future.

Language Arts

This week we read a story called Voy con mi familia a casa de mi abuela or I’m Going With my Family to Grandma’s house. In the story we were able to discuss the different method of transportation that was used by the different characters to visit their grandma. We then used the comprehension strategy of classifying and categorizing/clasificando y categorizando which allowed for the kiddos to put like things and ideas together to help them understand the relationships among different things in the story.

We also learned a special song to help us remember the sounds gui and gue as in the words guiso and guepardo. Ask your child if they can remember it.

We celebrated Lincoln’s birthday on Friday. The students had fun reading a book about Lincoln and then they made their own books. Ask your kiddo to tell you something they learned about him.
We also celebrated Valentine’s Day on Friday. The kids exchanged their valentines and played a word scramble game using valentine theme words. They also decorated valentines holders.

Math

In math we learned some subtraction short cuts. One subtraction strategy that we learned had three steps:
1. Group the tens and ones
2. Subtract the ones
3. Add the tens and ones
We also practiced some subtraction problems using a base ten block to help them to visualize subtracting a number from ten.

Social Studies & Science

We’ve had a exciting and busy week! We had a wonderful time going to Aladdin theater and seeing the Bodyology show with Slim Goodbody. We learned lots of new things about our bodies systems. We also learned that Mariela could touch her feet to her head and that Mr Jesse could move like a gorilla!

In science we have been learning about the planets and our Sun. We’ve read several trade books about our solar system and made our own Sun book. On Friday we started making an alien and talked about symmetry. We also did a writing activity to go along with this art project.

In social studies we finished up our section on the Aztecs. We learned

about Cortez and how he effected these people. We added more information to our civilization chart and we watched some videos that showed ancient Aztec ruins. The class could have spent another couple of weeks learning about these amazing people! Ben brought in some interesting facts about Cortez and his ships, as well as a map of his travels. Next week we will make our own Aztec suns. On Friday we had fun joining the 2/3 grade class in the afternoon to do some Valentines games, sing some songs, read about Abraham Lincoln’s life, and write a campaign speech for what we would do if we were the president.

English Spelling

This week for spelling we have been working on our sorts which have focused on the short o sound and or sounds. The class has sorted several times. This has been a more challenging sort than some of the others we have done. Most of the class has done at least one activity with their words this week. We will have a test on these sorts at the end of next week. We continue to focus on our word wall words in our journal writing and our punctuation. In in our journal we wrote a letter to someone as if we were discovering the Aztecs. We also wrote about our field trip, a love letter to a pet or a favorite animal, and we had free choice.

Art

The First graders learned how to make a couple different popup cards for Valentines day. They drew and cut out a heart pattern, and then used this to cut out hearts of different colors which were layered on the front of the card. The students brought home their cards and the beautiful watercolor paintings from last week. Happy Valentines Day!

Kindergarten Week 21

by Sarah Segall | Feb 12, 2016 | In The Loop

Tuesday, February 16th is the 100th day of school! Don’t forget to send your child with their 100th day super cape project.

Language Arts & Math

This week we read a great book: Tillie y la pared. In this book there is a wall that no one ever questions or notices, except Tillie. Tillie wants to know what’s on the other side of the wall. All the other mice help her to try to climb the wall. When they aren’t able to climb the wall they try to walk around it. They aren’t able to do so. Tillie doesn’t give up. While imagining what could possibly be on the other side she sees a worm and has the idea to dig underneath. At this point in the story we paused and the students did a journal entry where they wrote and illustrated what they thought might be on the other side of that wall. This story was a very fun story for the students in our Perseverance theme.

We did a LOT of math as part of our Valentine celebration. We counted objects from heart boxes and then showed the number in 4 ways. We chose tallies, cubes, tens frames, addition number sentences, subtraction number sentences, or dice.

We used candy hearts to measure lines of different lengths. Candy hearts were also used to graph. The students did a great job with both of these activities.

Social Studies & Science

Whew! What a fun-filled week packed full of learning!

This week we had a fun time at the “Bodyology” field trip! Sure was fun seeing some of our very own students on stage, including Alora and Mr. Jesse!

Monday was Chinese New Year. We learned that this is the year of the monkey, we located China on the map, and did some fun activities related to the holiday.

This week we also continued our Senses unit. We learned about nearsightedness and farsightedness which was interesting since we have several students in our class wearing glasses this year.

This week in preparation for our upcoming Presidents’ Day (Monday), we learned about the day itself and some interesting facts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also did some fun craftivities, writing prompts, and read some books around the holiday.

And of course we celebrated Valentine’s on Friday! We did so by doing some fun science experiments and activities. See if your child can name some of these and walk you through the steps.

Art

The kindergarteners practiced drawing and cutting out hearts this week in art. They made large and small hearts in different colors, and then combined these with circles and triangles to create some very cute Valentine birds. Happy Valentines Day!

Preschool Week 20

by Sarah Segall | Feb 6, 2016 | Preschool

Los Piratas

This week, we started with our Piratas y Mapas/ Pirates and Maps topic. This topic is very creative with the little ones because it helps them to develop their imagination through different activities that we work with. Throughout the month we will work with this topic, it promises that the little ones are going to have fun with our games and activities. They are going to find the little imaginary pirate in them. As well, we are going to learn new vocabulary. This week the kids have a lot fun making a pirate ship, pirates and pirate hat. They used their fine motor skills for cutting paper and tissue paper (very tricky!). They also did these same tasks by tearing the paper. This is a definite skill that proves tricky at first. Tearing paper engages the muscles in your pincher grasp while moving your hands in opposite directions.

We played games such as memory cards while practicing our vocabulary.

Las letras y los números

This week we incorporated our touch investigation with the letter Ll. Be sure to point out the letters that we practice when you are reading. The English letter name is L (el), while the Spanish letter name is; L (ele). Some examples, of letter L;

leche/milk

lámpara/lamp

lápiz/pencil

lechuga/lettuce

lagartija/lizard

león/lion

Números

This week we worked with the number 12, el número doce. The students did an excellent job counting 1 through 12. We did different activities with this number such as counting and recognizing the number through dots and shapes. We played “finding treasures” and counting how many they found. We also worked on our number formation by tracing the number 12, and count in groups.

4th/5th Week 20

by Sarah Segall | Feb 6, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

Most of our Spanish time this week was devoted to our science investigations! Hands-on activities are such rich opportunities that allow us to develop oral language as well as vocabulary. Students have to be extra focused to be able to process the directions of our investigations. However, we did have time to work on our Literacy routines. Some of these included:

Community circle
Sharing our book reviews
Independent reading time
Spelling list: Homophones
Spelling sentences (Quiz next Thursday)
Grammar and Word Study: Past Participle
Grammar and Word Study: Diminutivos, Aumentativos y Adverbios
Valentine’s day art
Homework sharing time
Interactive journals!!
Sneak peek of our new book club title
Blanquita’s and Negrita’s visit

Science

We continued this week with our first FOSS Invetigation: Terrestrial environments. Working in collaborative groups, students planted their terrariums. They created a plan, mapping where they would put pea, corn, barley, radish, and clover seeds. Afterwards, students decided how much water the plants would need. We discussed concepts such as environmental factors and organisms and what environmental factors affect the growth of the seeds(organism). We also discussed how environmental factors can be living and nonliving.

It was very interesting to observe the changes in our terrariums in just a few of days. They all look somehow different. We all planted the terrariums on the same day, using the same materials and tools. We will continue to discuss concepts like environmental factors and variables next week, as well as maintain accurate records of our observations on our science journals. Students are making remarkable connections and are already considering what our school garden will look like this year!

We had some interesting visitors this week! Ask your child about Blanquita nad Negrita!

We also had a little preview of our next FOSS Investigation: Bugs and Bettles. Ask your child to tell you about our isopods and beetles puzzles.

On Friday, students took a small science homework packet. Make sure your child turns it in by Friday, February 12th.
Students took home a new nonfiction book, Las Plantas. Students will be taking a comprehension quiz on Tuesday the 9th.

Math

We worked very hard this week toward further mastery of multiplying fractions and answering in simplest form. This continues to be a challenge for many of the students. Next week we will resume various games and activities for further practice and hopefully begin division of fractions as well.