4th/5th Week 17

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

Language Arts

In Literacy this week, we spent our time working on a collaborative class project, Desastre inminente: volcanes, terremotos y tornados. Amongst these three titles, (Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes), students had a chance to select one book to read during the holidays. This week students got together in collaborative groups to work on a project that will assess their comprehension, as well as their ability to retell the message of story to others. In order to complete this project entailing a poster and an oral presentation, students were given a rubric explaining the expectations and information about the pieces they needed to include in the project. Students were expected to complete this assignment in class with materials and resources provided by the school. They did a fantastic job completing the different stages of the project. They even took it to the next level, elaborating models, puppets and creative artistic pieces. We will be having our presentations on Tuesday next week.

Science

During science this week, we focused on identifying the main ideas of the book Los habitats y el medio ambiente, and discussed how these ideas connect to our new unit: Environments. We spent time introducing vocabulary and key concepts we will see during the course of our investigations. It was also a great opportunity to talk about non-fiction text features. We took a closer look at diagrams and interpreting information and data. One of our goals is for students to be able to answer comprehension questions drawing information from a table or a diagram. We have scheduled a quiz for Thursday that will assess said skill along with using evidence from the text to answer multiple choice questions, among others. Please make sure that your child reads their book over the weekend.

This week in English/Math, we have been doing a bakery project in which we have been working with lots and lots of fractions.  So, on Friday we could bring in baked goods and present our bakery sign, slogan, logo, a fractions word problem, and explain how we used fractions in our bakery. ~By Azalea and Alana

Art

The 4th and 5th graders finished their realistic shoe drawings this week in art. They used colored pencil and markers for the shoes and background. I put their beautiful drawings back up on the bulletin board at school so be sure to look at this impressive artwork!

Music

Spirituals, slavery and the Civil Rights Movement were our topics for today. We discussed the parallels between the end of slavery in the South and the biblical exodus, and learned Follow the Drinking Gourd and Go Down, Moses.

2/3 Week 17

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

Language Arts 

This week we concluded our unit 2 with a study of author’s purpose and a good beginning in writing pieces. Student wrote in their daily diary (with much excitement!) and even drafted a letter.

We took our second big language arts exam of the year. These tests are great practice for the students. Some of the questions are multiple choice while others are short answer with one big essay at the end. The students all did a great job showing ‘what they know’ in regards to vocabulary, grammar, spelling, language use, comprehension, oral fluency, and writing of an expository piece.

The spelling test and sentences for this week were phenomenal!  Great job!! The next spelling test will be on Tuesday, January 26th – in Spanish.

Math

This week we worked a lot on our division.

• Students used related multiplication facts to divide. They apply inverse relationship of multiplication and division to write division statements.
• Students learned that in division there is always a quotient / cociente and possibly a remainder / residuo.
• Students learned the steps of vertical division to divide with or without regrouping or a remainder.

Students should be working on completing their multiplication and division section on their ALEKS pie.

Social Studies  

Our Viking journey continued this week with a lesson on sagas and the making of swords.  We finished our Time Warp Trio book in class this week and decided to start one on Thor.  We also had a lesson where we learned about the knarr, a Norse cargo ship, what they were used for and how they were different from the Longships.  On Friday everyone had fun making their own knarr in class.

Science

We are rapping up our Light and Sound domain this week.  We read about Alexander Graham Bell and how re related to the science of sound.  We discussed how he took the idea of the telegraph and invented the telephone.  We defined the prefix tele (to or at a distance) to better understand the these words.  Most everyone has been working on their science reports in class this week.  The students signed up for their day and time slot.  Please see the list below and let me know if this time won’t work for your schedule.

Tuesday:   10:50- Spencer     11:00 – Jack    11:10 – Evan    11:20 – Hazel

Thursday:   10:40 – Tamra     10:50 – Rafa   11:00 – Nathaniel    11:10 – Maddie

Friday:   10:40 – Luke    10:50 – Sophie    11:00 – Juliette     11:10 – Lucy    11:20 – Lily

English Spelling/Writing

The class continued to work on our sorts from last week.  We had our first spelling test of the new year and most of the class did super.  I added a few new activities to our list in order to give everyone a little variety. Starting next week I have lowered the points to 15 for weekly activities.

We reviewed compound words during our morning work.  We did some seat work with compounds and we kept our ears and eyes open for them in our reading and writing.

Besides having free choice and bucket journal writing (picking a prompt idea out of our bucket), the class also used a T chart to compare and contrast two of the cousins, Toli and Bjorn,  from our Social Studies read a loud.  They then wrote about these two characters in their journal.

Art

The 2nd­3rd graders continued working hard on their weaving project this week. We looked at photos of different weavings from around the world and then the students used different colors of yarn to weave a bookmark. They are learning how to be careful with the “over­under” pattern and to not pull the weft threads too tight! We’ll need one more week to finish this project.

Music

African American songs we worked on today, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, included Follow the Drinking Gourd, John Henry, Go Down, Moses, and Old Dan Tucker.

First Grade Week 17

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

Language Arts 

This week we read an interesting expository piece called Lo que comen los animales. The kiddos enjoyed learning about some of the different eating habits of various animals. Ask your kiddo to tell you how many hours a day a Panda eats. A vocabulary word we discussed was alimentos/food, nourishment.

In preparation for their Spanish Animal report and expository writing that the students will be writing, we talked about the main idea/idea principal. We also discussed how details in our writing must support our main idea.

Statements, questions and exclamations were the three types of sentences discussed this week. The kiddos had fun coming up with their own exclamations and sharing them with the whole class! We learned that statements are most likely the types of sentences they will be using in their expository writing.

La Estrella del día or star of the day was a student that was presented with a special sticker for speaking a LOT of Spanish or putting forth the biggest effort to speak Spanish in class. A different child was chosen each day. Thank you to those that have been signing their kiddo’s planner when they speak Spanish at home! I always make a big deal out of it in class and love to recognize the kids and they love it!

Math

In Math we took a pretest on Numbers 1-40. This was a multiple choice test and gave the kiddos practice in taking multiple choice exams. We also reviewed i/tens and unidades/ones. We also reviewed the relationship of the tens and ones to valor posiciónal/place value. I gave them a two digit number and they practiced identifying the number in the tens place and the number in the ones place. They also used unifix cubes to demonstrate a number’s value.

Social Studies & Science

This week we’re learning about the Maya civilization.  We located where they lived, Mexico and Central America, on a map and discussed what their climate was like.  We learned about how the grew maize, how they traveled in canoes, and how they had large cities like Baakal.  We also learned that they were polytheistic, like the Egyptians and Mesopotamians.  We colored some Maya art designs and worked on our class civilization chart and timeline.  On Friday I wasn’t feeling well and had no voice, so Miss Jill was my hero and took our class.   She did some Martin Luther King activities with the class and a directed drawing lesson.

English Spelling

This week we continued to work with last weeks sorts.  Everyone sorted their words each day and then chose an activity to do with them.  Some chose to write them down in alphabetical order, some practiced spelling them with a partner, and others wrote their words 3 times.

In our journal we wrote about our social studies read a loud.  The students made predictions on what they thought would happen to Kenal’s village after the hurricane hit and wrote about it.  We also wrote about Mr. Chuck’s visit to our class and what we learned about stranger danger.

Art

The first graders continued working on their winter birch tree project. They cut out 2 or 3 tree trunk shapes from the textured papers that they made last week. They glued the tree trunks and branches to a blue background. Then the students used the tissue­paper-colored paper from last week to cut out shapes for birds. We looked at some of Eric Carle’s art to see how he used several pieces of colored paper to create different animals. These beautiful winter scenes are almost finished!

Music

Songs featuring sleepy critters, Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Mi Palomar, were today’s focus, and we followed that theme to sleeping in heavenly peace and other songs about sleep. This led to a discussion of differences in translated versions of songs. For instance, did Rudolph’s nose look like a light bulb or a tomato?

Kindergarten Week 17

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

Language Arts 

El cubo está debajo del pupitre.

We continued our wind unit with ¿Qué pasa cuando sopla el viento? This nonfiction selection introduces students to the many aspects of wind and the ways people use wind are affected by it. It describes days with no wind, with gentle winds, and with destructive winds. A few objects from this week are:

• To participate actively during reading, asking appropriate questions and listening attentively.
• To distinguish between fiction and nonfiction.
• To identify headings in text.
• To use reading comprehension strategies of Asking questions, Monitoring and Clarifying, and Predicting.
• To group vocabulary words based on concepts.
• To describe things using appropriate position words.

High-Frequency Words

bien – well (I am well. I read well.)

dónde – where

estoy  – I am

Math

We had fun with our addition sentences up to 10. Students are becoming quite adept at solving their addition problems using the counting on strategy, using the number line, using the dots on the dice, etc.

Social Studies & Science

Art

In kindergarten art we looked at a globe and “traveled” back to the Arctic region where polar bears live. We read a short book about polar bears, looked at some photos, and also looked at Eric Carle’s “Polar Bear” art. The students learned how to draw a polar bear with pencil and oil pastels. To make the white polar bear show up on white paper, the kindergarteners learned how to use the side of the oil pastel to create a background. We enjoyed looking at all the wonderful polar bears when everyone finished.

Music

Songs featuring sleepy critters, Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Mi Palomar, were today’s focus. We also learned You Are My Sunshine, and talked about the fact that the daughter of the song’s composer is a good friend of Sr. Kit who is also a composer of simple but beautiful music.

4th/5th Week 16

by Sarah Segall | Jan 9, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts

We are so excited to be back after a restful and fun winter break. Everybody had a chance to share their wonderful stories and adventures. I was very pleased the see all of our students jump right into Spanish eagerly. Yay!!!

Some of the activities this week included:

• Review of classroom procedures
• Spelling work: homophones
• Spelling sentences (Please make sure your child practices their sentences for our quiz next Thursday)
• Oral language development: new year’s resolutions
• Oral language development: cause and effect situations
• Independent reading time
• Read aloud
• Word studies: Latin roots and prefixes
• Holiday writing sharing time!!!!

Science

“All living things depend on the conditions in their environment”

During this week, students were presented with a sneak peak of our new science unit: Environments. Students were assigned to read a book that introduces some of the concepts that we will be discussing these next couple of weeks, prior to our investigations. They will have the weekend to re-read and activate prior knowledge about this topic. Next week, as a class, we will talk about the main ideas of the book,  vocabulary, key concepts and discuss how these connect to our new unit. We will also be going a for a little walk around the school next Thursday. Some of the objectives for our new science unit include:

• Develop an attitude of respect and understanding for life.
• Relate laboratory studies to the natural systems.
• Gain experience with the major environmental factors in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
• Determine an organism’s optimum conditions and environmental preferences.

Dear parents! Our class will be working on some projects that require the use of photographs and pictures of animals, plants and different environments and settings. Please check if you have old magazines that can be cut and used, such as National Geographic, etc. Thank you!

Art

The 4th and 5th graders started a drawing project this week in art. They used their own tennis shoes/boots as the subject matter for a realistic pencil sketch. They learned to sketch lightly, look for large basic shapes first, and then add detail. Although these drawings are not quite complete yet, I put them on the bulletin board in the hallway so you can see what an amazing job the students are doing! I’ll take them down for the students to continue working on them next week.

2/3 Week 16

by Sarah Segall | Jan 9, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts 

Our final passage in our La vida silvestre unit was Un lugar secreto.  During this week we focused on:

• Homophones
• Author’s purpose (to inform, to explain, to entertain, to persuade)
• Identifying a good beginning and producing a good beginning in a writing piece.
• Using a graphic organizer
• Review of dialogue, commas in a series, verbs, capitals and punctuation in preparation for next week’s end of unit exam.

Writing

We continued our daily journal writing. The students all had a lot to share! It was very fun to see them dive right back into their routines.

We also used a graphic organizer to describe an everyday classroom object and then the students did the same with one of their Hanukkah or Christmas gifts.

Spelling/ ortografia(Words with Y – Test on Tuesday 1/12)

yo

ayer

leyes

yema

rey

oye

estoy

desayuno

ya

voy

muy

fluyen

vaya

hay

joya

Math

This week we jumped right into division. Previously the students learned multiplication as repeated addition, and division as sharing or grouping. We have been working on our multiplication facts for 0-10, and are learned division using repeated subtraction or related multiplication facts.

In this new division unit concepts will be extended to division situations with remainders. We discussed how the dividend does not always divide exactly into equal groups, but sometimes leaves a remainder.

Vocabulary

quotient / cociente – A quotient is the answer in a division problem.

remainder / residuo – A remainder is the number left over when a number cannot be divided equally.

even/par numbers – When an even number is divided by 2, there is no remainder.

odd /impar numbers – When an odd number is divided by 2, there is a remainder of 1.

Social Studies  

Everyone finished their final draft of  the  five  senses Viking village paragraph this week.   We also had a great time making our own personal Viking paper doll.  You will see both the writing piece and the Vikings on the bulletin board next week.  We read about family like in a Nordic village this week and wrote out responses to summary questions and then shared some of these in class.

Science

We had some wonderful questions, comments and reflections this week during science.  On Tuesday we read about the qualities of sound, we discussed how different kinds of instruments make sound and the type of sounds you would hear from them.  It was fun to hear all the different instruments members of the class play.  We also did some seat work on sound waves and measuring sound. On Friday our read a loud focused on voice.  We took a closer look at the anatomy  of voice, understanding how the diaphragm, lungs, trachea, larynx, and vocal chords work together to produce sound.  Some of the students also had time to begin researching some possible experiments for our light and sound project.

English Spelling/Writing

The class recieved their new sorts this week and had some time to work on their activities, but we did not take a spelling test due to the shortened week.  We will have the same sort next week and both the test and activities will be due on Friday the 15.

For grammar review this week, we spent more time working on homophones. We especially focused on commonly confused ones such as: They’re, their, there, one, won, two, too, to and are, our.

During our journal writing time, we wrote about our two weeks off and we also compared and contrasted our daily life to that of Bjorn’s ( a character from our Social Studies read aloud)

Art

In 2nd­3rd grade art, the students learned how to start a small woven bookmark. We looked at a photo of a woven Navajo saddle blanket, and the students learned about looms, and the warp (lengthwise threads) and weft (horizontal threads). Next week we’ll continue working on this weaving project. The students are off to a great start!

First Grade Week 16

by Sarah Segall | Jan 9, 2016 | In The Loop

Language Arts 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyable first week back at school. Though it was a short week we still covered plenty of things! We introduced the high frequency word algunos/some to our word wall. The kiddos worked really hard to write solid sentences that demonstrated their understanding of the word. We also read a comprehension story called El tutú de Tati. The story introduced words like teatro/ theater and tela/fabric. It was fun acting out the meanings of these words, almost as if we were playing a game of charades! Since the story also emphasized the letter “t” we sat in the shape of a “t” during calendar time.

Math

This week we discussed number patterns. The students had to figure out the missing number in a sequence, for example: 6,_,12,15,_, in this case they worked out that 3 was added to each number or they could simply count by threes. In other cases the pattern wasn’t as straight forward,  for example: 4,5,7,_,14, here the kiddos had to figure out that a 1 was added to the first number, a 2 was added to the second number and a 3 to the fourth number etc. This was a challenging concept but the kids took it in stride and didn’t give up! I sent home a short math packet as reinforcement on number patterns that the children can bring back to class on Monday.

We also spent time on some pretty tough word problems that not only had to be written out in number sentences but also had to be represented pictorially which is an important aid that we will be exploring more and more to help the kids work through word problems.

Social Studies & Science

In science we continued to learn about the states of matter.  We learned a Rap song that helped us remember the properties of solids, gas, and liquid.  We did several investigations with liquid and recorded our observations.  We tried pouring water into different shaped containers to see how it forms to whatever shape it is in.  We added pennies to a full bowl of water to find if we could go above the brim without spilling over (surface tension), and we poured water on to a slanted surface at different points to observe rate and direction it moves.  This week we also began reading  an A to Z book on matter.  Everyone took turns reading sections out loud while the rest of the class followed along in their own book.  As we move through this book we will be working on summarizing and identifying key terms such as properties, substances, form, etc.

English Spelling, Grammar, and Writing

This week everyone got their new sorts (a copy to keep at school, and one for home)  We cut and sorted them in class and not much more.  We will work more on this list next week.  For grammar, we continued to review adjectives.  We read  several fun books about adjectives and did some adjective seat work.  I am asking everyone to try and add more descriptive words to their journal writing.  It would be great for all of our kiddos to try and recognize these kind of words in their daily reading and conversations at home too.

One of our journal entries this week was where we would want to live if we were a nomad and why.  I wasn’t suprised to read that most of the class wanted to live somewhere warm, possibly tropical, and where hunting would be easy.  We also wrote about what we did over the winter break.

Art

The first graders started a winter birch tree project this week. They learned how to use cardboard scraps dipped in tempera paint to create the texture of a birch tree. Then they learned how to use tissue paper to create colors and textures on another paper. Next week we’ll use these textured papers to cut out tree trunks and branches, and then add some colorful birds. The students did a great job, and we really enjoyed having Marisol’s mom and little sister as our very helpful assistants!