by Sarah Segall | Jan 9, 2016 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We jumped into the New Year with a few fiction pieces to highlight our wind / el viento unit. We talked about how the students see, hear, smell, and feel the wind and how the very windy weather has changed things in our neighborhoods. We read Gilbert y el viento. In this story, young Gilberto plays, and sometimes struggles, with “Wind.” We followed Gilberto, his dog, and wind through different seasona and in all sorts of weather.
This week we also had a great time with antonyms, concept words, and initial and final sounds.
Writing
We wrote about our hopes for the New Year. In our writing we are focusing on letter size, word spacing, spelling of our high frequency words, sentence formation, and punctuation.
High Frequency Words
We added three words to our High-Frequency word wall and path this week. These books are prominent in the little reader: El avión.
tú – you
puede – he/she can
puedo – I can
Math
We are working on forming number sentences with counting on as well as identifying the number that comes before and after a given number. The students enjoyed using dice to add teeth to boy and girl pictures. They needed to write and say the equations.
Social Studies & Science
This week we continued our study of seasons and weather. We had fun doing different experiments like making rain, making a rainbow and our failed attempt to make a cloud. See if your child can describe these demonstrations to you.
We also learned about three different types of clouds: cumulus, cirrus, and stratus. We painted the three types of clouds. You can see them on display in the hall. See if your kiddo can tell you about the different clouds.
We read some fun stories; The Little Cloud by Eric Carle, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, It Looked like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw, and The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola. See if your child can tell you which one was their favorite and why. We did some fun activities that went along with these books. 
We will continue to learn more about seasons and weather next week and about the seven continents.
Art
In Kindergarten art we switched from North Pole activities (reindeer paintings in Dec.) to South Pole Penguins. The students learned about penguins that live in Antarctica, and they used construction paper to draw and cut out their own penguin shapes. They used an upside down U for the body shapes, and a D shape for the wings/flippers. We had just enough time to add a hat and scarf to these very cute penguins!
by Sarah Segall | Dec 19, 2015 | In The Loop
Happy Holidays!
We will be sure to send a link to the video of their fabulous 12-days (once it is up).
Language Arts
We are so excited and happy to know miss Sally had her baby this week. Welcome to this world little Finn! We all can’t wait to meet you!
We could not thank miss Ayn enough for coming into our 4th/5th grade class as a guest speaker, to share the captivating stories of her trip to Guatemala. After hearing her touching accounts, students were left with a marked sense of appreciation for the conditions we are lucky to live in, and the desire to go places to help make the world a better place. We are so honored to have this amazing woman as part of our SWS community. Thanks miss Ayn!
La magia esta en creer…
We had so much fun this week working on several holiday projects. After reflecting and sharing our conceptions of El espiritu de la navidad, we sang Christmas carols, worked on a holiday art project and decorated cookies. Our favorite project this week was our holiday writing. Some students already finished their stories! Other students were allowed to take their pieces home so they could finish the last details over the break. I can’t wait to read them all!
We culminated the week watching El expreso polar en español while wearing our cute-ugly outfits! This is one of Valentina’s favorite movies, and she was so happy she got to come in a watch it with us! Students were somewhat skeptical about watching the movie in Spanish and they discovered they were able to understand absolutely everything! The ultimate touch was added when we sang Twelve Days of Christmas in Spanish to our beautiful 2nd/3rd grade audience. What a perfect way to send our kids off to their much deserved winter break!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful families for the wonderful gifts and cards I received this week. It is such a wonderful feeling to feel so loved by my students. The sentiment is reciprocal.
English
There was a little bonus optional homework sent home. Please ask your student about the vocabulary activities they can complete for a treat (or two or three) upon their return to school.
It has been wonderful reconnecting with this amazing group of students! I am looking forward to our two weeks together after break! –Ms. Lisa:)
Social Studies
Curriculum Overview: Through our study of Kings & Queens of England from the Golden Age we having been working on the following skills:
Skill Objectives
- The student uses geographic tools to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
- The student analyzes the effects rulers, religions, and leadership philosophies have on England.
- The student uses writing as a tool for learning and research.
- The student speaks clearly and appropriately to different audiences for different purposes and occasions.
- The student reads to increase knowledge of his/her own culture, to the cultures of others, and the common elements of cultures.
- The student will explain how people adapt to and modify their environment.
- The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms.
- The student relates music to history, to society, and to culture.
- The student applies critical thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of sources.
- The student listens actively and purposely in a variety of settings.
Art
The 4th and 5th graders finished painting their clay sculptures this week. These turned out great, and we wrapped them in berry containers to take home. You’ll probably see them wrapped as gifts. Every have a wonderful holiday season!
Music
This week it was the class’ turn to teach Sr. Kit: he had never sung a Spanish version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, so they taught him the version they had learned from Sra. Paola. We also learned Spanish lyrics to O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night and Joy to the World.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 19, 2015 | Preschool
Los Días festivos del Mundo
What a great week! This week we continued with celebrations.
Monday and Tuesday we learned about the Kwanzaa celebration and then continued the rest of the week with Cuentos Clasicos de Navidad / Classic Christmas Stories. Rodolfo El Reno / Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was a particular favorite for the students. We also tried to show that Holidays give us a wonderful opportunity 
to share with others and the opportunity to learn our different traditions. The kids were really exited learning a little bit of this Classic Christmas Stories. It is amazing to see how they enjoy the stories. We worked with different activities doing Kwanzaa crafts and Christmas crafts (Ornaments, Santa Claus, and Reindeer).
Las letras y los números
This week we learned all about the letter Nn /la letra Nn. We also reviewed the number 9/ nueve. Be sure to point out this letter and number when you see them on signs, in stores, or when you are reading. The English letter name is said N(en). While the Spanish letter name is N (ene). The letter N makes the same sound in both English and Spanish.
A few examples of N words we used in class are:
- naranja / orange
- nueve / nine
- nudo / knot
- nube / cloud
The kiddos are doing a good job counting 1 through 9. We had fun with different activities throughout
the week. One activity, which can also be reinforced at home, is counting and recognizing the number through dots with different colors (1= green, 2= baby blue, 3=orange, 4=purple, 5=red, 6=yellow, 7=pink, 8=brown, and 9=blue.) Everyone also really enjoys forming groups of a number using 9 stickers! The purpose of these number projects is to help the kiddos recognize the number as well as counting up to the number.
We sang a lot of songs related to the number 9 and letter Nn. I’m sure you will hear some of our classroom songs during the winter vacation.
Have a wonderful holydays, see you next year!!!
by Sarah Segall | Dec 19, 2015 | In The Loop
Happy Holidays!!
Language Arts
Students received two new readers this week. They have an assignment for one of the books. They are to make a list of cognates from the story on one side of a paper. On the other side of the same paper they are to make a list of words that are new to them. They shouldn’t automatically look these words up. Are they able to use context clues to help figure out what the word might mean? Please have them read their books throughout vacation so they are ready to jump back in when school resumes.
This week we focused on cause and effect during our reading. We have studied this previously but are looking at more complex examples in our anthology. A good way to reinforce this skill at home is to ask about it. What happened? What caused that to happen?
Ask your child to summarize something they are reading. Ask them questions. This helps them to be more involved readers.
Spelling/ ortografia(present tense words)
This past week’s spelling words included knowing their meaning. This is something we’ve focused on each week but never been tested on before. We will continue to do this in subsequent weeks.
The 2/3 class was a great help this week in the kindergarten class. They were wrapping and reading buddies. It was so nice to see them take on the big-kid roll.
Math
We worked on the relationship between multiplication and division this week. The students made fact family gingerbread houses on Friday. They also wrote a story problem to accompany their house. These can be viewed in the hallway on our class bulletin board.
We spent a lot of time this week on story problems. To better understand the information contained in story problems we wrote our own. They did a great job sharing their story problems as well as solving their classmates’.
We talked about how math in the real world isn’t being given and solving a simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem. Math in the real world is all about knowing when to use your math skills, which math skills to apply, and how. We talked about the math skills I needed to use when purchasing supplies for big school projects. (I needed 1.5 cups of M&M’s for each student. There were 32 students. How many cups of M&M’s did I need? Each bag of M&M’s contained 5 cups. How many bags did I need to purchase? The bags cost $9.98 each. How much money would I be spending? Should I do the exact calculation or round up to $10?)
The students have a math packet that is due on Tuesday, January 5th.
Social Studies
On Monday Ayn did a wonderful presentation about her recent trip to Guatemala. She gave the class some background information about the countries geography, economics, and political climate, as well as it’s recent history. She shared her slide show, showing what the country and people were like. She told us stories about some of the extraordinary individuals she has established friendships with in her many trips to this country. She left us with a much better understanding of the hardships the people in Guatemala face and their remarkable ability to persevere in spite of them. She also helped all of us better appreciate what we have in this country and in our own personal lives.
We have been writing a narrative paragraph on what it would be like to live in a Norse village during the age of the Vikings. In the planning process for this piece the students listed five things under each of the senses that they might have experienced during this period of time. The class pulled information from our read aloud in class, classroom reference material, and our vocabulary list that we have been compiling as we move through this unit. They wrote their narrative in first person, many of the students looked up Nordic names to use for their character. I am very pleased with this piece of writing that they have done, I can tell that everyone is really enjoying learning about the vikings.
In class we have been reading two short chapter books, Leif Eriksson and The Time Warp Trio, Viking It and Liking It. We have been leaning about what viking raids were like as well as trade and exploration.
Science
This week in science we learned about the qualities of sound, including volume, timber, pitch, and frequency. We also read about how our voice is formed by air from the lungs traveling through the trachea which then vibrates the vocal cords in our larynx.
English Spelling/Writing
Wow! The class did great on their last week’s spelling test, I’m sure they will do just as well this week. Our class has such a good handle on their spelling words and sort homework. They have been very responsible about studying and it shows! Fantastic job to everyone!
In grammar review this week, we have been having fun with homophones. After doing some practice worksheets, everyone noticed and pointed out homophones in our reading and in our discussion. We had lots of giggles playing Homophone Charades on Thursday. Come to think of it we had lots of giggles in general this week, there is definitely merriment in the air.
Journals have been free choice every day. We haven’t spent a lot of time writing in them since we have been doing the bulk of our writing during social studies time.
I hope you all have a relaxing and joyful winter break. Safe travels for all those who will be away and I look forward to seeing everyone in the new year.
Art
The second and third graders finished their holiday tree pictures in art this week. These turned out very beautiful, and you will get to see them when you open gifts. The students also made beautiful holiday cards for you. Have a wonderful holiday!
Music
Sr. Kit shared a story about the origin of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and we learned Spanish versions of traditional carols including Silent Night and Joy to the World.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 19, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We had such a fun week, my son was home from college so he came into help out in the classroom and was so impressed by how well behaved and incredibly cute your kiddos are!
The kids did a really good job writing sentences using their new high frequency words. Ask your child to give you an example of the word poco/few. They also learned the word sino/but, which was a little trickier but they still managed to come up with some really good sentences.
The students also finished publishing their raccoon stories which gave them practice using the comprehension strategy of comparing and contrasting.
Math
We had a great time preparing for the Christmas holiday while using math! The kids continued working on their song, “The 12 days of Christmas” in Spanish. They continued working on learning the song by heart and identifying the different ordinals that went along with each day. They even had a chance to perform the song for the kindergarten class and also had an opportunity to sing it in Senior Kits class for friends in Ecuador. We finished our Christmas light bell project associated with the “12 days of Christmas”. Ask your kiddo to show them to you. They are strung over the top of our whiteboard in our classroom.
We had fun making math gingerbread houses. The students used their understanding of number bonds to help make their houses. They rolled dice and used addition to help them choose what number bonds they should use.
Each of the kids received at least three Spanish readers to practice while on break, as well as a math packet.
Have a Merry Christmas and a we’ll see you in the new year!
Social Studies & Science
This week we are in between social studies units. I decided not to start our Early American Civilizations unit due to the fact that we have had several students out ill and on vacation. Instead we are doing a little of this and a little of that. On Monday we spent our social studies time with the kindergartners learning about bears. We talked about how they are mammals and what this means, we looked at how they behave during each season, and what kind of bears live in North America. We read bear books and did a few activities around bears. The rest of the week we have been learning a little more about how different religions and groups celebrate special holidays this time of year and how these holidays often involve lights. We read about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Christmas in several countries.
In science we have begun our unit on the state of matter. So far the classes’ favorite activity was to act out how atoms behave in different states. They especially enjoyed the solid state where they all got to stick together. We are reviewing the water cycle as we learn about matter. We are looking at how the water cycle is an excellent example of all forms of matter. Some of the vocabulary we have been discussing are: solid, gas, liquid, atoms, precipitation, evaporation, condensation, and water vapor.
English Spelling, Writing, and Grammar
The holidays are definitely on every student’s mind this week. I have had multiple requests for funny holiday prompts each day during our journal writing. We have written about Santa getting stuck in chimneys, penguins showing up on our beds eating frozen treats, new Christmas songs that would make Bing Crosby smile, and elves running a muck through out our house (I think someone must have an elf living on a shelf in their home). This class does love to write! I hope you all had a chance to take a look at your child’s journal last weekend. I will continue to send these home once a month so you can get caught up :0)
For grammar this week we did a little more work on pronouns and then moved on to reviewing adjectives. We played a fun holiday adjective game that every one really enjoyed – it was a little bit like the old Telephone game. We also did Zoo Phonics this week and learned both the short vowel and long vowel sounds for our animals. Our sorts were on Short vowels and consonant blends at the end of the word. Students sorted both by the vowel and then again by the blend. Sorting by the blend was much more challenging.
I hope you all have a wonderful relaxing winter break. I will look forward to hearing all about your families’ adventures when we return next year.
Art
In first grade, the students learned how to draw a red Cardinal for a holiday picture. The students outlined their drawing with crayon, and then used watercolor to paint the bird, branches, and a snowy background. They did a beautiful job! Thank you to Emily’s mom and grandmother, and Marisol’s mom for helping out this week!
Music
We discovered that the class and Sr. Kit know different Spanish lyrics for Rodolfo el Reno, and talked about how different versions of a song come to be. We were able to have a Facebook video conversation with Yuliana (11), Génesis (5) and Mati (4) Guerra in Ecuador, and were shown their tree and ornaments made in school.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 19, 2015 | In The Loop
Happy Holidays!
Language Arts
This week flew by! We read a great book about the lady who swallowed all the parts for Santa’s sleigh. We then made our own version in a class book of what la senora might swallow. We will send this book around. Please be sure to read through it and return it the next day so everyone will get to take it home in a timely manner.
We worked on compound words / palabras compuestas this week. This was a difficult concept in Spanish and in English for the kiddos. We will certainly have many more lessons and spotlights on this topic but it would be great if you helped reinforce this concept as you find yourself reading or even saying compound words. 
We had the wonderful opportunity to listen to the 1st graders perform their Spanish 12 days of Christmas.
We also had the 2nd/3rd grade class join us so that each kindergartner had a reading buddy. These buddies also helped to wrap your parent gifts!
Math
This week in math we were able to incorporate some holiday and winter fun into our activities. We did great projects around:
- Forming groups of 10
- Counting on to 10
- Writing number words
Holiday Homework
Holidays are great for involving the entire family in games, reading, and activities that could actually include quite a few skills we are working on in class. Here are a few ideas:
- Counting during baking (measuring too!)
- Games involving dice or number cards (instant number recognition, two-dice equals counting on practice)
- READING to your child and having them read to you (So important!!).
- Writing thank you cards using their best handwriting.
- Coloring, using multiple colors, with efforts to stay within the lines. (Quite a few kiddos could use this practice.) Color as a family and see how it changes your child’s effort.
Social Studies & Science
We had tons of fun learning about the seven continents and the winter holidays that are celebrated throughout the world. Enjoy the pictures of the kids playing dreidel, making a diya from the Indian holiday Diwali, a prayer stick from the Hopi Native American tradition, a dragon from the Chinese New year celebration and a Kwanzaa bracelet. Happy holidays!!
Art
We had a very busy “Ornament Workshop” in kindergarten art this week. The children used popsicle sticks to make a snowman, a reindeer, and a Christmas tree. They all did a great job creating these cute ornaments! Have a wonderful holiday and I’ll see everyone in January.
Music
We worked on Rodolfo el Reno, Feliz Navidad, and En el portal de Belén. We were able to have a Facebook video conversation with Yuliana (11), Génesis (5) and Mati (4) Guerra in Ecuador, and were shown their tree and the ornaments they had made in school.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 12, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
As we wrap up our unit, Energy in Action, our focus on Literacy this week was on two expository texts. The texts presented different ideas for discussions: our dependence on fossil fuels and the need to find alternative energy sources. Students were also invited to analyze the pros and cons of the two view points and take a stand. We talked about cause and effect situations and reviewed concepts of persuasive writing. Students also provided thoughtful ideas of how we can make a difference. It was such a rich opportunity for language development!
Other activities in literacy this week included:
- Genre review: Interview
- Non-fiction text features: footnotes
- Spelling sentences (words with c and s). Students will be having their spelling quiz on Thursday!
- Independent reading time
- Personal, Demonstrative and Possessive Pronouns
- Listening comprehension vocabulary preview
- Subject – verb agreement
- Take projects home! (It is so hard for me to part from these! Make sure you and your child take some time to look through these projects and reflect on the great work they have done!)
- Holiday Art
P.S. Parents!!! Please have your child wear a cute-ugly sweater on Friday! We will be having a fun Friday holiday celebration!
Math
Students continued work with adding and subtracting mixed numbers. A practice homework packet was sent home and is due next Friday the 18th.
The 5th grade skill objectives for fractions are:
1. Identify numerator and denominator
2. Recognize equivalent fractions
3. Put fractions into lowest terms
4. Rename fractions with unlike denominations to fractions with common denominator.
5. Compare fractions with like and unlike denominator using the signs <,>,=.
6. Add and subtract mixed numbers and fractions with like and unlike denominators.
Social Studies
In Social Studies we started a new history unit on England. We’ve read quite a bit about Queen Elizabeth I so far and will continue reading about the Golden Age through the Glorious Revolution.
Concept Objectives
- Learn how major events relate to each other through chronology.
- Understand how historical events have multiple causes and effects.
- Learn how a nation’s literature and arts react to its political and social development.
Science
This week, we have completed our Investigation 3: Concentration. After finishing our sweet exploration on soft drinks, students made salt solutions and compared their concentrations. Taste was no longer a viable indicator, so we used a balance to determine the relative concentration of the salt solutions. Using scientific thinking processes, students have demonstrated strong skills to conduct investigations and build explanations. With this, we concluded our the first science unit of the year: Mixtures and Solutions. 
Next week we will be reviewing key scientific concepts learned! Good job scientists!
Art
The 4th and 5th graders continued working on their clay sculptures this week. They are making animals, snowmen, and even a human figure. Next week the students will paint their clay pieces and bring them home. They’re all doing an excellent job! The students also helped out the first graders during their art class, and several of them made snowmen pictures which are on the bulletin board at school.
Music
The class watched two YouTube performances of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, noticing differences between the chamber ensemble for which it was originally written and the popular rendition by a large orchestra and huge choir.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 12, 2015 | Preschool
Los Días festivos del Mundo
What a great week! This week continued learned about celebrations from around the world. We specifically learned about Hanukkah celebrations and Cuentos Clásicos de Navidad / Classic Christmas Stories and El Árbol de Navidad /Christmas Tree. We read about different ways holidays are celebrated. These great stories show values, generosity and how sharing with others are so important.
We like to read a few different stories about our topics to provide different examples for the students. We also had a great time doing different activities for this topic.
Monday and Tuesday we continued learning about the Januca/Hanukkah 
traditions. Holidays give us a wonderful opportunity to share Jewish traditions and histories. One of our students was very proud to share how his family celebrates this holiday.
The rest of the week we discussed the tradition of Christmas tree. The kiddos were really exited to learning a little bit of the Classic Christmas Stories. It is amazing to see how they enjoy the stories and share their own family traditions with their classmates. Every family celebrates in their own way, with some similarities and some differences.
Las letras y los números
Our letter focus for the week was the letter Tt /la letra Tt. This letter makes the same sound in both English and Spanish. We form the letter, like most letters, from the top down, then cross. Some specific words we worked with from our letter tubs were:
tomate/tomato, tortuga/turtle, triciclo/tricycle, tambor/drum
We have fun passing these items around, singing about them, listening for the letter T. Does anyone in your family have the letter T in their name? Write out your names and have your kiddo look for the letter T. Also, pause when reading a story and do a letter search on certain pages (that happen to have a few letter Ts.)
Our number focus for the week was the number 9 / nueve. The kiddos are funny and get confused during our daily weather and want to say nueve for snow/nieve. We are trying to help them distinguish the difference in the sound.
Forming groups of nueve, counting up to nueve, identifying the number 9 are all ways to reinforce our number concepts/knowledge.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 12, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week we completed our Perchas story with a text study. We examined this piece for specific examples of names of places (and their capital letters). We also looked for text evidence of main idea/topic sentences and their supporting sentences.
The students also started a new story this week. Typically we access prior knowledge, do a pictures preview, discuss what we think the story might be about and then read the story together. This time the students read the story with a partner the first time through and then individually (and orally) summarized the story for me. Their comprehension is FANTASTIC!!! I was very impressed!!
We had a very in-depth word study of words that represent concepts. We completed a two-page spread in our Estudio de Palabras journal. These concept studies included:
- other words connected to the concept
- descriptive words
- synonyms
- definitions
- illustrations
Please ask your child about this and the concepts they chose.
Spelling/ ortografia(palabras con güe y güi) Test on Tuesday, 12/15
vergüenza desagüe
pingüino cigüeña
bilingüe zarigüeya
paragüero lengüeta
antigüedad yegüita
ungüento lingüista
agüero argüir
averigüe
Math
The class has a done a great job demonstrating understanding of the concept and process of multiplication. They are able to label the factors and products, describe the step-by-step process of double and triple digit multiplication with and without regrouping. They have shown an understanding of story / real-life application of multiplication. We also worked in pairs to create our own multi-step story problems and then asked the rest of the class to solve them. Creating our own problems helps us to better understand how to read and understand what questions are being asked and to determine how to use the information given in story problems.
The students took their multiplication assessment on Thursday and did a fantastic job. Friday we introduced division through it’s relationship with multiplication. Fact families!! They thought these were pretty neat and facil/ easy. We used the 4 sections of our ‘gifts’ to show our multiplication and division fact families.
Social Studies
This week we have continued learning about the Vikings and the Norsemen of Scandinavia. We have 
read about what their home life was like, some of the rights of passage for boys, and what their general daily life was like. We also learned that, like the Romans, the Vikings had three different classes. As we go through each chapter the class writes responses to questions about what we have read and then some students share theirs with the class. I have been so impressed with the quality of answers that are being written down and the discussions that they elicit from the rest of the class. We are keeping these answers to be used later as study guides for our end of the unit test. Students are also encouraged to write vocabulary words down. This process is furthering them along on learning how to take good notes.
On Friday we took a break from the Vikings and got into the holiday spirit. Holly and Sophie did a presentation on Chanukah for the class. We played dreidle and got to try some yummy Latkes. We loved hearing about this special holiday!
Roman tests were returned on Monday. Overall the class did a fantastic job. Almost everyone remembered some of the idioms we learned from our lessons and were able to earn extra credit for writing them down. Our reports and some of the smaller illustrations are up on the bulletin board in the hall.
Science
We have begun our sound portion of the Light and Sound domain in science. This week we learned what sound is. We found out that sound is a form of energy that travels in waves. These waves are made by vibrations which move tiny particles in the air. The vibrations are called sound waves. Sound waves travel at different speeds depending on the medium in which it travels. We also learned that sound cannot travel through space because it is quite nearly a vacuum, absent of particles, and sound needs particles in order to travel.
On Thursday we did several science experiments that demonstrated sound waves. We explored what happens when sound travels through a variety of 
mediums. We also watched a short film on how sound travels.
English Spelling/Writing
For journal this week some of the class wrote about what it would be like to be a Viking. Others decided that they wanted to write what it would be like if their teacher was a Viking. I can’t wait to read these entries!
Spelling test scores last week were outstanding! I have been very impressed at how hard everyone has been working on their spelling this year. I told the class that after the winter break I will try lowering how many activity points they need to turn in, as long as scores continue to stay at the level I am seeing I think we can cut one activity per week.
We reviewed antonyms this week for grammar.
Art
The 2nd and 3rd graders continued working on their holiday tree landscapes. They created a background using bands of tissue paper, and then they cut out tree shapes from the tissue paper designs that they made last week. The students learned how to arrange the trees to show depth in their pictures. Next week we’ll add some finishing touches to these beautiful landscapes.
Music
We talked about Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, with Sr. Kit playing “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” on the harp and discussed the differences between folk and classical music. We also reviewed our Spanish language carols.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 12, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
I had such a great time being back in the class room with your children! Thank you so much for entrusting me with such precious gifts!
This week in language arts we continued reading our story Los mapaches/ The Raccoons and also read 
Las crías de los animales/Baby Animals.
We also introduced the use of adjectives. We kicked off the topic by watching a cute animal video on descriptive words. We discussed how adjectives make our writing more interesting and put this into practice by adding some describing words to our current writing project about Raccoons. We also did some brainstorming and came up with some words we could use to describe people.
Please be sure and sign your child’s planner when they have spoken spanish at home so that their name can be moved up on the “Excelence Chart”.
Math
In Math we started our unit on ordinals 1st-12th. We had tons of fun learning the “12 days of Christmas” in Spanish to put our knowledge of ordinals into practice! Ask your child about the Christmas lights we made in class using our ordinals and the ordinal Christmas tree they made on our classroom door. We also practiced using the words ante/before, después/after and entre/in between. The kiddos seemed to have difficulty with the word ante so to get some practice we played a game where the students were given a number and then had to go up to the giant number line in the front of the room and show the class the number before, after and in between the number they were given. We also did a similar activity using the placement of the students. The kids lined up in front of the class and I photographed them and then projected the image of them on the white board and then I asked them to say which student was in front behind and in between.
Social Studies & Science
This week we wrapped up our unit on Early Civilizations. On Monday we reviewed the civilizations Mesopotamia and Egypt by reviewing our civilization chart. We also took one more look at the three religions by studying our Compare and Contrast worksheet. The class did a great job of noting key elements that we have learned. Tuesday was our assessment, it was a big one and I was so proud of how hard everyone worked on it. They did very well. On Thursday we went over the assessment in class and talked about the questions that some of us had a difficult time with.
In science we have been working hard on finishing our whale studies. The class put together all their work sheets to make a book of information that they can take home. They all have been practicing reading it on their own and with each other. We watched a wonderful movie by the BBC on Humpback whales on Friday and listened to them “sing”. We read several books about different kinds of whales this week and put together a whale dictionary. We have had so much fun with our Ocean unit.
English Spelling/Writing
Lots of journal writing lately. We have had some wonderful ideas for entries and the students have had fun with them. Friday they brought their journals home to share with you over the weekend. Please remind your child to bring them back on Monday. Enjoy reading them too!
We have been working on vowel’s “o, u, e” this week in sorts. The class has been sorting and writing them down and circling the letter that makes the vowel sound with a specific color. We figured out that the word from was an oddball and needed the same color as the “u” sound. We have been doing Zoo Phonics in class, it is a great reinforcement for these vowel sounds and as well as all our letter sounds. It is fun to do too!
Along with all these activities we have been working on a little seasonal activities too. We have been busy little elves.
Remember Fridays are sharing days in class. If your child would like to share something related to what we are learning or have learned they are encouraged to bring it in on this day.
Art
The first graders learned how to create a snowy texture using a sponge and white tempera paint. We compared this technique to last week’s snowmen using watercolor and salt. The students made a closeup view of a snowman’s head and then added a hat made from construction paper. We had the 4th and 5th grade students helping out, and everyone made wonderful snowmen! Enjoy these over the holidays!
Music
By popular demand, we completed an online game presenting the concept of opera through Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.” Students can play it at home at http://www.classicalkusc.org/kids/opera/index.asp. We also reviewed Spanish carols in Spanish, taking note of those in major and minor keys.
