by Sarah Segall | Dec 12, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We read a fantastic story, one of my favorites, Mediopollito. This story has been passed down through the generations and tells how the weather vane came to be. All the students did a fantastic job recalling the sequence of events from the story in an oral recounting as a whole group. They were also asked to illustrate their own sequence, with a few students also taking this to the next step and copying appropriate sentences onto their sequence.
We also read a few winter and Christmas books. It’s fun for the kiddos to connect their prior knowledge of these topics with their new vocabulary. They did a great job using this vocabulary in their daily conversations, class contributions, and sentences.
We worked on the sound/syllables wa, ya, za, and cha this week. Students are able to provide large numbers of words for our word banks during each of these syllable studies. We also practiced our dictation this week, using these syllables as well as those previously studied.
Our high-frequency words of the week were: casa – house, grande – big, hoy – today and muy – very.
Math
We played quite a few games this week, providing students the opportunity to practice the following skills:
- subitizing
- tens frames
- number formation (writing numbers correctly)
- counting on
- counting to 100 by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s
- Adding on to form groups of 10
Social Studies & Science
This week continued learning about the seasons and weather. We already learned about the characteristics of winter and spring last week and we learned about summer and fall this week. See if your kiddo can tell you some of the distinctive characteristics of each season. We learned about seasonal activities and sports. We also read a fable called The Grasshopper and the Ants. See if your child can tell you the beginning, middle and the end of this story along with the lesson learned.
In addition to learning about seasons and weather, we will be learning about the winter holidays around the world. We started last Friday by learning about Hanukkah. And will continue this week and next learning about others. Please let me know if there are any holidays you would like to make sure we cover. Or if there is a winter holiday you know about and would like to come in and share either class, please let me know and we will make sure to arrange this!
Art
The kindergartners learned how to paint a reindeer today, using basic shapes for the body, neck, and head, and using letters (U and Y) to make antlers. And of course a red nose! Then they added some evergreen trees in the background. I hope you enjoy these cute reindeer paintings during the holidays!
Music
We watched two YouTube versions of “The March of the Toy Soldiers” from Victor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland and snippets of the Laurel and Hardy version of that musical. We also reviewed our Spanish language carols.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 5, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
In Literacy this week, we did a great deal of oral language development. It was wonderful to share and hear our holiday adventures. This was a great opportunity to review vocabulary and language structures we often use during this special time of the year. Some of the word work included verbs in their infinitive and participle forms(compartir – compartido, decorar – decorado-, cocinar – cocinado, leer – leido, festejar – festejado, viajar – viajado, etc.). Similarly, some of the language structures included comparatives and superlatives: Este vaso de jugo es mas dulce que este otro. Este color es el mas claro de todos.
We also had a chance to check the homework and revisit some key concepts about biographies. Great job everyone turning in their homework reading records! We finished our short but full week with our dictado. On Monday, students will be given their new spelling words.
Math
We did some continued work with fractions and mixed numbers this week and will continue with more of the same next week. We are learning quite a bit about adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing (next week) fractions that are improper and proper as well as mixed numbers. The students are all working well toward mastery with these concepts!
Social Studies
In Social Studies everyone presented a speech about an important figure of Renaissance history. These were so fun! I was highly impressed by all the work put in and facts memorized. Thank you to the parents who were able to take time and come watch these informative presentations! Next week we will start a new unit on England: Golden Age to Glorious Revolution. Stay tuned!
Science
We had a great time conducting the first part of Investigation 3: Concentration and Soft Drinks Recipes. Some of the guiding questions included: “What is a concentrated solution? How can we determine the relative concentrations of solutions?”. During our investigation, students observed and compared soft-drink solutions that differed in the amount of powder (water held constant) and the amount of water (powder held constant) to develop the concept of concentration. Great work everyone!
At home, help your child reflect on the following question: Is a concentrated solution the same as a saturated solution? How are they different and how are they similar?
Art
This week we discussed Renaissance art. The students recently studied Renaissance history with Miss Sally so it was good for them to see some of the famous artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli. We started by looking at the differences between a Medieval painting and a Renaissance painting of Mary and Jesus. Then we looked at several more Renaissance paintings and sculptures. We had a few minutes to start on a clay project, but we will have more time next art class to work on clay sculptures. This is such a wonderful little group of students!
A NOTE ABOUT ART GRADES: I use art grades to let you know what topics in the curriculum we’ve covered and not as an indication of skill, since all children have wonderful creative abilities.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 5, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We completed our reading of a great non-fiction piece this week Perchas urbanas: dónde anidan las aves en la ciudad / Urban perches: where the city birds nest. We went for a quick walk outside and talked about the different locations around the school where birds could nest. Students were then given this as a writing prompt, being sure to include a 
topic sentence in each paragraph.
Students received reading book number 10. They should read this book aloud several times throughout the week. There is no reading worksheet this week.
Spelling/ ortografia (There are no Spanish spelling words this week.)
Math
Our multiplication study this week focused on multi-digit multiplication with regrouping. We worked in small groups to talk our way through the steps, with each student explaining the process to their classmates multiple times. We also had partner fun, using 4 dice and multiplying. The students did a great job explaining their steps/thought process to their partners.
Students will need to fluently multiply numbers within 100, and to multiply 1 digit number x multiples of ten. Students should work on their multiplication fact fluency. We will also review and reinforce mental math and estimation strategies daily. (Students will need to know the multiplication facts by the end of the year.)
Social Studies
Our Roman opinion papers were due this week. Everyone was so creative in making their illustration to go along with them. I loved seeing the variety of work that came in. Those students who wanted to, shared their papers and illustrations in class on Thursday. This week we finished up our Ancient Roman unit and took an assessment on Tuesday. Over all everyone did well, the most challenging parts were identifying locations on a map of the Roman Empire and writing out responses to some of the short answer questions. On Thursday we began our Viking unit. The class found and marked Scandinavian countries on our Living Map. We also started a KWL chart on the Vikings. The class had a lot of enthusiasm and quite a bit of prior knowledge about this subject. I think we are going to find this unit very interesting.
Science
We finished up the light portion of our Light and Sound domain this week. The class worked on their T chart, identifying light terms and vocabulary and writing out definitions in their own words. We did a lesson on what color is. We discussed the different kinds of light waves, how their wavelength is measured, and how only a small fraction is actually visible to the eye. We reviewed the visible light spectrum and discussed what a prism does to light, the class compared it to the water in the glass that bent the straw. We also discussed the other kinds of light waves that are invisible to the eye, such as microwave, x-ray, and ultraviolet. On Thursday we played a riddle game to review core content and began working on a class book about light.
English Spelling/Writing
The class had a quick week with their word sorts with only having three days in class to work with them. I am particularly impressed with the Green group since their words have been extra challenging these last couple of weeks. Almost everyone took advantage of the holiday weekend and got their activities turned in early – good job class! For grammar this week we reviewed synonyms.
I finally was able to go through everyone’s journals, make comments and ask questions. I love reading what is on all of their minds. I read about exciting travels, time spent with family and friends, desires to own dogs or cats, clubs that some of them have started, and wonderful ideas for inventions. Reading all of their journals is a great reminder to me as to how each one of these kiddos is unique and adds so much to the richness of our class!
Art
We started an evergreen tree holiday picture this week. The students used colored tissue paper to create 3 different textured papers, with warm colors, cool colors, and mixed colors. We reviewed the Elements of Art and how they are used in various art projects. Next week the students will use all these elements and their textured papers to create beautiful evergreen landscapes.
A NOTE ABOUT ART GRADES: I use art grades to let you know what topics in the curriculum we’ve covered and not as an indication of skill, since all children have wonderful creative abilities.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 5, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week we had Iliana team teaching with me as she prepared herself to take over the class next week. We focused a lot of time into doing Leer 5 so that Ms. Iliana could read with each student this week, to understand at which level all the students are at.
We also started our new reading unit this week. This unit will be about different animals. This week we read about raccoons. We had the students compare and contrast raccoons from themselves. They had so much fun discussing and writing about the raccoon’s diet compared to theirs. Ask them to share with you what they learned about raccoons this week!
The students this week also wrote me gorgeous little notes saying goodbye which I will cherish forever. I wish I could post all of the notes on drawing here because they did such a fantastic job on their sentences and spelling.
Our high frequency words this week were contra (against or versus) and gran (great). Contra was a particularly difficult word to wrap our heads around. We really had to be careful to use the words against as in versus and not as in lean against. Try to have your student use the word contra with you at home to practice it’s meaning.
We also had Elsa, my dog, visit us in class this Thursday. The students were beaming with excitment all day! It was great fun to watch them read with her and talk to her in Spanish. Even with this distraction in class the students were still very focused on their class work and I am so proud of them for that! Doggy hugs are a lot of fun but getting our work done is more important!
Math
I
n math this week we took our unit test. This test was much longer than past tests and it was very complicated. I am so proud of all the students for persevering and doing such a good job on them. Everyone understood the concepts, it was really just making sure that they knew what the question was asking of them.
Next week Iliana will being working on ordinal numbers with the class in their new unit. We have seen that they already have a lot of prior knowledge about ordinal numbers which will be a great foundation to build upon!
This was my last week at Spanish with Sarah teaching this amazing group of first graders. I just wanted to say thank you to all the parents for giving me the honor of teaching your student. They are such a joy and always found new ways to impress me with their knowledge and capabilities. Although, I am sad to go I know that they will have a wonderful first grade year. Again thank you.
Social Studies & Science
Thank you for finding the time to meet with us during conferences this week. We loved having the opportunity to share with you how special all of your kiddos are and how much fun we have with them in
class!
This week was short but we had a “whale” of a good time. In science we continued our study of the ocean’s creatures and turned our attention to the largest mammals of our planet. The class spent time doing different whale activities through out the week. We read books on different species of whales, both toothed and baleen. We listened to different types of whale sounds, our favorite being the Blue Whale. We worked on our own little whale book, reading both on our own, chorally and with a partner. We also identified word wall words within the text. The students had fun writing their own tall tale story called a “Whale of a Tale” in their journals.
In social studies we wrapped up our discussion on the Islam. We finished filling in our World Religion chart which compared and contrasted the three religions that we have been reading about. On Thursday Laura McBride came into the class and did a wonderful presentation on special holidays and customs in the Catholic religion. We had some thoughtful questions and comments by the class. I am still looking for someone in the Muslim community who might like to come into the class to also do a presentation, so if someone you know might be interested in doing this please let me know and I would be happy to contact them. Thank you!
English Spelling
This week we did not get new sorts but instead we were focusing on our spelling within our writing. The class is paying special attention to word wall words to make sure they are consistently spelling these correctly in their work. Everyone worked very hard on their animal book reports this week. They first had to choose an animal that they wanted to write about, then read a book on the animal several times and then write several drafts for the report. The reports are the first big writing project that we have done so far this year. I was proud at the amount of focus that these first graders put into them and impressed with the end results . If you didn’t get to see your child’s report during conferences, please look for them in the hall on our bulletin board.
Art
The first graders looked at photos of snowmen and learned how to draw simple snowmen with hats, scarves, and buttons. After outlining the snowman with black marker, the students learned how to wet the background with water, add paint, and then sprinkle with salt to get a snowy texture. Their wonderful snowman pictures needed to dry so I will send them home next week.
A NOTE ABOUT ART GRADES: I use art grades to let you know what topics in the curriculum we’ve covered and not as an indication of skill, since all children have wonderful creative abilities.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 5, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week the kindergartners showed off their sentence formation skills. They are doing a fantastic job using their daily high-frequency words in oral sentences. (I typically have to cut them off so we can move on to accomplish other tasks.) They are showing understanding of their words, sentences structures and how to use their little reading books as samples when forming their own sentences.
Our high-frequency words this week were: dijo – she said/he said, día – day, ella – she. We continued with our sound-syllable study through class brainstorming, dictation, and exercises. The class is really impressive with the size of their brainstorming word banks! Their language acquisition is fabulous!
We read a fun book Copito de Nieve about an actual white gorilla who was shipped from Africa to a zoo in Barcelona. Our story is all about Copito looking for animals like him. This was great for our color words, and to see how the students were following along with the story as they frequently jumped in to complete sentences. Great learning!!
Math
We switched up our subitizing this week from dice to hearts and fingers. Remember, the goal is to have automatic recognition of how many objects are in a set and then to count on (5 then 6,7,8 is the same as 5+8).
For our Calendar routine in December we have a new pattern and a new countdown until Christmas. We do have several students in our school who celebrate both Hanukah and Christmas so we are sure to talk about and incorporate both into our studies. Happy Hanukah (Sunday, December 6th)!
Instant number recognition, counting by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s are all things that we worked on throughout the week as we finalized assessments for our report cards. We are very hands-on with our math time and the students are doing a great job grabbing cubes when they need manipulatives to help solve problems. This was the case for some this week when we worked on addition in our interactive math journals.
How can you reinforce math concepts at home? Play games!! Dice games provide great practice for all the skills we are working on.
Social Studies & Science
This week we started our Weather and Seasons unit. In this unit we will be learning/reviewing units of time and their relationship to one another: day, week, month, year. We will be learning about the four seasons in cyclical order as experienced in the U.S. and identifying a characteristics of each. On Monday, we learned about how the seasons are different depending on our location on the earth (the North and South Poles are always cold in temperature, the middle section of the earth is usually warm and areas in between these experience the most differentiated seasons. This is a fun time of year to do this unit as we usually experience some exciting weather! We are crossing our fingers for some snow!
About once a week the students write in their journals. The kiddos are progressing nicely with labeling their illustrations, remembering capitals and periods, adding detail and using complete sentences. This week we wrote about what we did over Thanksgiving break. It sounds like a lot of fun was had by all from playing Monopoly to drawing and coloring, to eating pie!
Art
The kindergarteners used torn and cut paper to create a snowman collage this week. We looked at Lois Ehlert’s book about snowmen, and also at photos of snowmen. The students used basic shapes to create their own paper snowman in a snowy landscape. These delightful snowmen are on the bulletin board at school.
A NOTE ABOUT ART GRADES: I use art grades to let you know what topics in the curriculum we’ve covered and not as an indication of skill, since all children have wonderful creative abilities.
by Sarah Segall | Dec 5, 2015 | Preschool
Holidays Around The World
This week Monday and
Tuesday we started learning all about
Cuentos Clasicos de Navidad / Classic Christmas Stories (Christmas Carol). We read about different ways that the children have learned values such as generosity and sharing with others. The students practiced these concepts with different examples and activities using this topic.
Wednesday and Thursday we learned about the Januca/Hanukkah tradition. Holidays give us a wonderful opportunity to learn about our differences and similarities. We were able to share a Jewish tradition and histories (with Hanukkah starting December 6th this year). The kids were really exited learning a little bit of this amazing and beautiful history. We worked with different activities, doing a crown and star of David.
La letras y los números
This week we introduced the letter Pp /la letra Pp. Be sure to point out the
letter that we practice when you are reading. The English letter
Pp. The letter name can be pronounced in English P(pi). While the Spanish letter name pronunciation is P (pe). Examples:
puerco/pig,
pavo/turkey,
pelota/ball,
perro/dog. The letter sound pronunciation is virtually the same in English and Spanish. (There is less air in the Spanish pronunciation – non-aspirated.)
This week we also had fun working with the number 8 doing different activities such as counting through balls and stickers. As well, they worked tracing the number 8. We were singing songs related with number 8 and letter Pp.
by Sarah Segall | Nov 21, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week our focus was on a poem: Amigos. We used this poem to practice our visualization strategy. We also used this poem to focus on specific syllables for more oral segmentation practice.
Other things we focused on this week were:
- oral blending and segmentation (clapping out our names)
- sounds within words
- comprehension strategy: visualization
- vocabulary: sensory words
- writing: things we are grateful for
- Grammar: words that describe weather
Our specific syllable studies this week were: la-le-li-lo-lu, ma-me-mi-mo-mu, na-ne-ni-no-nu, pa-pe-pi-po-pu.
Our sight word studies this week included:ocho, nueve, diez,
Forming groups of objects to match turkey numbers.
Math
Yahtzee kindergarten style!
This week in math we worked on counting on. This is such an important skill so students will be able to start from any given number and count on. We practice this skill using the number line, our number baggies from last week, our daily subitizing with dice, and in the activity pictured here. Students had turkey numbers and needed to put the correct number of links with each turkey number. They selected random links,counted them, and then needed to count on, adding links, to make the correct number. Sometimes they selected too many links and needed to count backwards to subtract links. Counting backwards is something we have been working on all month during our daily calendar routine, as we counted down the days until Thanksgiving vacation.
subitizing defined: recognizing a number without using other mathematical processes. (Think: instant recognition.)
Social Studies & Science
This week we focused on the Pilgrims. We are working on a timeline of events between the 1400’s and the present. This is a nice visual to help the students understand the time frames we are discussing. We learned the reasons the Pilgrims left England and learned about their pilgrimage to the New World. We learned the Mayflower was the name of the ship the Pilgrims took on their voyage and the conditions they endured en route. We learned the importance of Plymouth Rock (see if your kiddo can explain the significance) and about the Pilgrims’ bleak first year in North America. Finally, we learned about the help the Pilgrims received from the Wampanoag Native American tribe and how they all came together for the First Thanksgiving. We enjoyed eating some of the foods that may have been served at the First Thanksgiving.
We hope you enjoyed our little Thanksgiving program and we hope you have a fabulous fall break, a wonderful Thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing you on November 30th!
Art
You could have heard a pin drop when the Kindergarteners were painting their clay turkeys this week. They did a wonderful job using acrylic paint and being very careful with their sculptures. Their “Wild Turkeys” all turned out so cute! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!
by Sarah Segall | Nov 21, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts 
Thi
s week we talked a lot about being thankful. Lots of kids were buzzing about how they were going somewhere or seeing someone special over the break. I took this time to talk about being thankful to have the opportunity to go visit different places and to see family we may not get to see often. We made “thankful pies” this week that I hope everyone has had a chance to see on our front door. Everyone tried to write at least one thing about our school we were thankful for in our thankful pies. Many kids wrote about how they have lots of friends in school and how they are thankful for all the teachers as well. The kids really had a fun time writing and discussing everything they were thankful for. For the long break I made sure to give everyone a new book for their binder. I hope everyone has some time to read over and practice these books. Have the kids read to family members they are not usually able to read to as well! Our two high frequency words this week were quien (who) and esto (this). Most of the kids already knew both words so we worked through them very quickly. Again, always try to have your child use their high frequency words at home. When we get back from Thanksgiving break we will be writing in our journals about what we did so make sure to remind your student of events going on that would be good to remember for this activity!
Math
It was a very exciting math week!We began the week by discussing using subtraction in real world problems. We also learned about using addition and subtraction in fact families. For example: 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-2=3, 5-3=2. We then played a game where we had to go to the store and buy groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. We picked out traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole. Each item said how many it would feed and how much it costs. From their the students had to add up how many they would need to buy and what the total for that item is. I then had them subtract t
hat amount from our budget of $100. This activity used a lot of addition and math but also built our knowledge with money and real world problems. Each student was so involved with the game and we were able to buy all the food we needed, including pumpkin pie and apple juice for our Thanksgiving dinner. As we bought things from the store the students would draw them on their paper plates to show that it had already been purchased. These plates should have gone home on Thursday, please ask your student what specific items they had to “buy”! For the break I have sent home a large subtraction math packet, this packet is just review of the subtraction we have been doing in class. It does not need to be turned back into me nor does it all need to be completed during this one week. If your student take more time finishing the packet
because of the holiday it is fine. We also celebrated a special birthday this week (because her real birthday is on Thanksgiving day and we won’t be able to celebrate it with her on that day). But we do all wish her a very happy birthday!
Social Studies & Science
This week we got to have a couple of special guest speakers come in and do a lesson Judaism. Holly and Sophie Jacobs presented information on Jewish history, important holidays, and customs. Sophie made a wonderful poster board, which we still have on display in class, to help illustrate the topics. Afterwards they had us playing a game of dreidel while enjoying some traditional treats. I was impressed not only by the presentation, but also by the thoughtful questions that were asked by our class. On Thursday we started reading about the Islam faith. We compared and contrasted this religion to Christianity and Judaism and then we began filling in a comparison chart on the three.
We finished our Habitat curriculum last week, though we will continue to focus on the ocean habitat this week and the first week of December. The class did a domain assessment and we began thinking about what animals we might want to do for a report. We did lots of reading about the ocean creatures and made some of our own to decorate our “ocean habitat” in the room. The class has been enjoying watching our brine shrimp (Sea Monkeys) grow.
English Spelling and Writing
The class worked on sorts and journal writing this week as I finished up reading assessments. Everyone read an expository passage on either turtles or fish and whales, while I checked for fluency and comprehension. This week in our journals we wrote about our visit from Holly and Sophie as well as what we would do if we were under the sea. We brainstormed word banks and ideas of what we might write. The class took their underwater writing entry and published their work inside a “scuba guy” template. Your child can’t wait for you to view their underwater diver, swimming in our ocean.
Art
The First Graders used acrylics to paint their clay “Turkey Pinch Pot” this week. They did a great job following directions and being careful with their clay sculptures. I hope you enjoy these wonderful little turkeys during Thanksgiving break!
by Sarah Segall | Nov 21, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week we had a great classroom discussion on organizing expository texts, their topic sentences and the types of sentences we can use to support them. We talked about using examples, reasons and causes, and facts. We also worked on synonyms, comparing fantasy and reality texts, and verb tenses.
We began daily journal writing. We talked about how this journal is a place for us to free-write with no worries about grammar, spelling, or punctuation to get in our way. We will have a 10-15 minute daily free write. Students may choose to share their writing with their classmates or keep it private. (All writing, however, will be viewed by me so it can be an interactive journal where I respond to their writing at least once a week.)
Students received their 9th reading book and an accompanying worksheet, which is due December 3rd.
Spelling/ ortografia(words with gue and gui) Spelling test on Tuesday 12/1
juguete – toy guerra – war
guiso – stew pague – I paid
cuelguen – hang colgué – I hung up
guiño – wink guión – script
guitarra – guitar seguir – to follow
albergue – hostel manguera – hose
jueguen – they play águila – eagle
Math
We continued our multiplication unit. Students learn new facts by building on known facts.(If I know 10 x 7 = 70, then 9 x 7 is just 7 less or 7 x 8 = 2 groups of 8 + 5 groups of 8)) Students are not expected to master all strategies. By using a number line, dot paper arrays and area models students are building a deep conceptual understanding of multiplication. We began taking 2-minute timed tests on the multiplication facts. These tests are really for the student’s benefit/awareness of what they need to work on. They can retake the tests as many times as they’d like to, on non-testing days. Here are a few fun videos for them.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRW_Q6Y_IIE]
Tabla de 6
Tabla de 8
Tabla de 9
Adding Constantinople to our world map.
Social Studies
We wrapped up our readings on Ancient Rome this week. We went into greater depth on the demise of the Roman Empire. The class pointed out causes such as the greed of the leaders and elite, the sheer vastness of its territories, growing numbers of invading groups, and religious divide. We pulled out our classes’ Living Map and marked the Constantinople as the byzantine capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. We also reviewed the lasting contributions of this great empire which led into a great class debate as to which contribution was the most important. Surprisingly so, not everyone stuck with the contribution that they are writing about in their opinion papers, some students were persuaded by others to change there stance. We continued to work on our opinion papers in class, focusing on the revision piece more in depth this time around. Students are to do an illustration for this paper at home, using mix mediums and or making it 3 dimensional. I want them to be creative and put more effort into it than just a simple drawing. This will be due on Tuesday Dec. 1. We will also have a unit test on this day.
Science
We are continuing to work on our Light and Sound domain in science. This week we got to explore with different tools that use lenses and light. We started a light log to write down key ideas and vocabulary that we have been learning about. We also did a lesson on what color is and how we perceive it. We discussed how color is derived from the spectrum of light, which is the distribution of light power versus wavelength. We talked about how the eye has light receptors that allow us to see color. We also review that objects have color based on how they absorb, reflect, and emit light.
English Spelling/Writing
The class had a short week with their spelling words, they came home on Monday instead of last Friday. We turned in activities on Friday and took a spelling test. I finished doing reading assessments this week. Everyone read an expository passage. They were assessed on fluency and comprehension. On 
Friday we read some Thanksgiving books and did a gratitude activity in honor of the up coming holiday.
Art
The 2nd and 3rd graders took a break from their painting and drawing lessons (landscapes, still life, eagles) and learned how to make a “Wild Turkey” from recycled materials. We looked at Pablo Picasso’s assemblage “Bulls Head,” which he made from a bicycle seat and handlebars. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is as fun as these turkeys!
Music
We had a special treat for music this week: Maestra Iliana! She filled in for an under the weather Señor Kit.
by Sarah Segall | Nov 21, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
“La imaginacion es más importante que el conocimiento” – Albert Einstein
The literacy focus this week was on biographies. Students know that a biography is a text written to inform the reader about a real person’s life. Manipulating different biographies, we had a chance to observe the features they present: table of contents, chronological order, information about the character’s childhood and family, pictures, captions, headings, facts, timelines, etc. We have been reading the biography of the prominent scientist Albert Einstein.
As homework during the holidays, students will be reading a biography of this influential character, but by a different author. After break, we will compare and contrast the two biographies, the authors’ points of view and writing styles.
Other activities during literacy included:
- New spelling list: Homophones
- New dictado paragraph
- Grammar, Syntax and Word Studies: Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Literacy centers
- Quote analysis
- Debate
- Sharing books with first grade class.
- Independent reading time
- Thanksgiving literacy and art project
Math
This week we focused on adding and subtracting mixed numbers and putting improper fractions in simplest form. Every single student has worked hard to master this and many have commented that they were unsure how to this when they came across it on ALEKS and are now looking forward to going back and showing what they know in order to move ahead.
Social Studies
We had a great time devoting our history time this week to our research projects.
On Tuesday we started creating very intricate drawings of our historical figure’s portrait. I was so impressed with the students’ work on these! They turned out looking very beautiful. We will have these portraits as well as the final reports hanging on our bulletin board in the hallway in the weeks to come. Look forward to checking them out! We voted on waiting until after the Thanksgiving break to do our speeches. Students will need more time to memorize and gather materials for costumes, as the speeches will be delivered in the first person. As of now we will aim to do speeches on
Thursday December 3rd. On this day all reports and portraits will be finished and speeches memorized and ready to deliver (in full costume). It is not my expectation that anyone need go out and purchase items for creating costume attire. I do encourage creativity by way of using household materials (i.e. cotton balls for a beard, etc.). Any questions, please feel free to ask! Fun times ahead with the wrapping up of this enjoyable project!
Science
Our investigation this week entailed observing, comparing, contrasting and documenting our findings about crystals. After setting up our saturated solutions (Kosher salt, citric acid and Epsom salt) in evaporating dishes, we observed the characteristics they presented to identify them. As a class, we discussed: Do the crystals of materials have different patterns and shapes? What descriptive language can we use to explain how they look and feel? With that, we finished investigation 2: Reaching Saturation. We had so many opportunities for leaning and language development, as well as fun serious science experiences! Stay tuned to know more about our next investigation!
Art
The 4th and 5th grade students continued working on their still life projects this week. Some were finishing their oil pastel and watercolor paintings, and others started a tropical still life picture using wet tissue paper for the color. I am saving all their beautiful artwork and will send it home sometime during December. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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