by Sarah Segall | Nov 7, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We began our new Unit: La vida silvestre en la ciudad. We started with a great story: El niño que no creía en la primavera. This is a story about two friends who live in the city and are searching for signs of spring. One little boy doesn’t believe that these ‘signs’ of spring really exist. Through exploration they eventually do find signs in the city.
Here are a few of the skills we focused on this week:
- Identifying dialog in literature (-rayos- are used in Spanish while “quotations” are used in English)
- Identifying adverbs of time and order
- Cursive writing of our spelling words
- Reading aloud with fluency and expression
Spelling/ ortografia(words with soft g and j – Test on Tuesday)
corregir – to correct gente – people
general – general bilogía – biology
lógico – logical urgente – urgent
adjetiv0 – adjective eje – axle
paje – paige boy mensajero – messenger
juegos – games pájaros – birds
dijo – said abajo – under
anteojos – glasses
Using our Halloween candy to form groups and makes arrays was a fun introduction to our Multiplication unit.
Math
We have jumped into our Multiplication unit this week. The big idea of this unit is to develop an understanding of multiplication, the distributive property and related pictorial representations, as well as learn the multiplication facts. This week students were re-introduced to area models as well as arrays. It is imperative to spend extra time going back to revisit concepts and strategies for x3, x4, x5 and x6.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFITX7HQ7j0?list=PLIfm15g-bybouyGpIacKjuWAr__8NIUKx]
Social Studies
Caesar is no longer just the name of a salad, This week we have been learning all about Julius Caesar. We found out that he was born into one of the most influential patrician families in Ancient Rome, the Julii family . We learned that he was going to be a priest for Jupiter until a family feud put him on a path towards the military and later on to a political career. We learned that he earned a Civic Crown for bravery in the army, that after the war he made an alliance with a very rich and influential man named Pompey, that he eventually became a powerful consul in Rome, and that he wrote his own autobiographies. We also learned of his ambition as a proconsul to expand Roman territories and conquer Gallic and Germanic land ( present day France and central and northern Europe).
This week the class has also continued reading their mini books on Ancient Rome and writing notes on the main ideas of each chapter and supporting details. I have been pleased to see that everyone’s note taking ability has improved over the short period of time that we have been working on it.
Science/Writing
Our domain on Classification of Animals is over and we have finished our Animal paragraphs this week as well. The students were taught a 5 step process to get these published. Part of this process included planning, drafting, revising, editing, and having someone else read it for flow and comprehension before publishing. What a difference one year can make! Last year this process would have taken us twice as long and I would have been much more involved in each paper. This time around, almost everyone worked independently with very little input from me. They did a great job! You can see these on our bulletin board.
On Thursday we began our next Domain on Light and Sound. We started off by watching Bill Nye’s video on Light and Color. After watching the movie the class filled out a worksheet that helped them identify their prior knowledge that was confirmed in the video and also new things that they learned. We then began reading about what Light is. On Friday we did a couple of experiments to 
observe shadows.
English Spelling
The class has been surprising me by getting most of their spelling activities done over the weekend. This is great, but I want to encourage everyone to continue to practice their spelling sorts in class and at home through out the week so that they are ready for the spelling test on Friday. Next week we will not have a spelling test, I will be working on reading and spelling assessments in class in order to get ready for our up coming conferences. Students will be doing seat work and silent reading during our spelling time. This is a great opportunity for them to bring in a longer chapter book that they may be reading at home.
Art
The 2nd and 3rd graders learned how to create depth in a still life painting by overlapping shapes. We reviewed the background, middle ground, and foreground of landscape paintings and then looked at the placement of objects in Cezanne’s still life paintings. The students created their own beautiful still life of fall fruits and vegetables using oil pastel and watercolor.
by Sarah Segall | Nov 7, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week we read La Canción del Bichito de Luz, La H, Los Trés Perritos, El Sapito Glo, Glo, Glo, and La Gata Maroma together in class. These are all very quick short stories that the kids really seemed to enjoy. We focused on using the table of contents to find each story, we also talked about how in our book the table of contents includes the author of each piece while in some books it shows chapters or sections. We focused a lot on making predictions while reading a story as well. We first made sure to look at illustrations and make predictions about the story before we began reading. This is a great strategy for students to use while reading any book as it can help them understand what is going to happen or what is happening if they are having trouble following along. We also made predictions while reading using what had already been read and the pictures that we saw before. Although, our predictions were not always correct we had a lot of fun thinking of different endings for the stories.
We also talked about Veterans day this Friday. We explained what veterans are and why it is important 
to thank them for everything they do for us. Many of the kids explained that they had family members that are veterans. We enjoyed telling each other a little bit more about our families that we had not known before. We also did a Veteran’s Day project that is hung on the bulletin board outside the classroom. Please take a second to stop by and take a look. The kids worked really hard on their sentences and I think they all did a fantastic job!
Math
We began subtraction from 1-10 this week. The kids already understand what subtraction is and are able to do 1-5 very quickly in their heads, so we have been working on subtraction strategies. We began with talking abo
ut vocabulary for subtraction such as quitar (take away), menos que (less than), and igual a (equal to). Although, we have used these words before we reviewed using them specifically with subtraction. We used connecting cubes in class to show take away problems from 1-10, the kids of course love the cubes but it was also a great way for them to visually see the blocks being taken away. We also used our numeros conectados (number bonds) to solve subtraction problems. Because they already understood how number bonds worked they caught on to this strategy very quickly. We will begin using subtraction in story problems next week!
We also celebrated a special birthday this week! This was my first time doing the birthday book and I absolutely loved it. It was so great to hear why everyone thinks their fellow student is so special and how happy they are to have her in our classroom.
Social Studies & Science
This week we started learning about the exciting saltwater habitat in science. The class read a mini ocean book, began working on some different sea creature creations, examined some different types of shells and coral, and did a science experiment on saltwater. We read about the coral reefs, kelp forest, the open ocean, and all the animals that live in these places. We also learned a new song about the ocean.
In social studies we have been finishing up our Egyptian unit. On Monday the class got to hear the rest of the interesting story of how Howard Carter found the lost tomb of Tutankhamen and what treasures it held. On Tuesday we made a King Tut mask and did an experiment to find out how the Nile effected farming in Egypt. On Thursday the class got to try their hands at an archaeological dig and do some excavating of a chocolate chip cookie. We also got to look at the BBC site on Ancient Egypt in the computer lab. Finally on Friday we had our Egyptian day. The class got to wear their Egyptian “weskhe”collar that they had made in Art class a couple of weeks ago, they made marshmallow and toothpick pyramids, Egyptian bracelets and tried their hands at mummification. It was a very fun day!
English Spelling
This week and next, I will be working on assessments in order to get ready for the November conferences and report cards. The class took a spelling “test” this week. The test covered words from most of the sorts they have had so far and is a way for me to assess the understanding of the word families and their phonetic awareness. We learned more about verbs this week. The class did a couple of activities to recognize action words in sentences. For journals we wrote about our weekend, with an emphasis on Halloween. We started one writing prompt using descriptive words, such as spooky, wet, rainy, and dark. Some of the class chose to write a Halloween story.
Art
The 1st graders learned how to make a clay “pinch pot” in art, and then they added a head and tail feathers to turn it into a “turkey pinch pot.” We talked about the difference between drawings, paintings, and sculptures. And we looked at photos of famous sculptures such as Native American totem poles, the Statue of Liberty and “Little Dancer” by Degas. These great little clay turkeys will be ready to paint at the next art class.
by Sarah Segall | Nov 7, 2015 | Preschool
El gusto
This week we work about sense of taste / gusto. We read about different ways we use the sense of taste /el gusto while the students were playing with this sense. The students had a great time tasting different flavors as sour/ácido, salty/salado, sweet/dulce and bitter/amargo. Another activity was for them to guess the different flavor that the teacher gave them using only their sense of taste/ el gusto. They enjoy this activity (especially tasting sweets).
La letras y los números
This week we learned all about the letter M m /la letra M m, and the number 6. Be sure to point out this letter when you are reading. The English letter name Mm can be pronounced in English M(em). While the Spanish letter name pronunciation is M (em meh). Example Spanish words beginning with M are: mamá /mom, mano /hand, mono /monkey, mariposa /butterfly, murciélago /bat.
We incorporated our touch investigation with the letter M.
We worked with the number 6 doing different activities. One very well received activity was counting stars, placing a sweet flavor Mm’s inside of each star. We sang LOTS of songs related with the numbers and letter Mm.
by Sarah Segall | Nov 7, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We read a great humorous fiction piece this week: Ginger. This is a story about Ginger the cat, who has a very comfortable life with a little girl. Then, without warning, he finds that he must share his home with a new kitten. When the kitten pushes Ginger too far, he takes a drastic step. In the end they became friends. This was a great story about new things, being unsure, and changing our minds once we give things a chance.
Specific areas of focus this week were:
- Oral blending
- print and book awareness using ellipses, high-frequency words, question marks, word length, and capital letters
- dictation
- synonyms and antonyms (seco-dry/ mojado-wet, encontró-found / perdió-lost)
- making lists ( we made great lists in order to complete our scarecrow/ espantapajaros glyphs)
- listening for details
Our high-frequency words of the week were: mayor/greater, que/than,that, uno/one, dos/two, and tres/three. Our letter studies for the week were Q, R, Ba and Da.
Halloween candy graphing
Math
In our interactive math journals this week we worked on comparing groups of objects using greater than/less than symbols and sentences. 9 > 5 nueve es más que cinco y cinco es menos que nueve.
Social Studies & Science
This week we finished up our unit on Native Americans. We ended with a lesson on a book titled “When the Shadbush Blooms”. See if your child can retell this story to you. Retell is a great way to help with comprehension. It is great practice for Kindergartners to tell you the beginning, middle, and end of a story. We took a True or False assessment together as a class to learn and practice test-taking strategies. The class did great!
We are beginning our unit on “Columbus and the Pilgrims” Our first lesson was learning why the Europeans wanted to travel to India (to get gold and spices) and why they were looking for a new route (the land route was closed and traveling around the southern tip of Africa by ship was dangerous). Our second lesson was on King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and how and why they commissioned Columbus to search for a new route to India.
Art
The kindergarteners made terrific little clay turkeys this week. We looked at some famous sculptures, including Native American totem poles, the Statue of Liberty, and Little Dancer by Degas. The students learned how to use airdry clay to form the head, body, and feathers of a turkey. When the sculptures are dry, the kindergarteners will paint them and bring them home before Thanksgiving. The kinders also had time to make cute crayon drawings of turkeys, so we could compare drawings to sculpture.
by Sarah Segall | Oct 31, 2015 | Preschool
Oso Polar
El oido
This week we worked with our sense of hearing / oido. We read about different ways we use the sense of hearing /el oido in the book Oso Polar Oso Polar, que es ese ruido? The students had a great time playing and using this sense, making different noises, working with sequences through the book, Oso Polar Oso Polar, que es ese ruido?. One activity was for them to guess the noises the teacher did using only their sense of hearing/ el oido.
Even super heroes need to practice sequencing, cutting, and gluing.
La letras y los números
This week we went over the vowels A, E, I, O , U /las vocals. And the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Be sure to point out the letters that we practice when you are reading. The English vowels are A, E, I,O, U. Each of these can be pronounced at least three ways: as a long sound, as a short sound, and as a schwa. While the Spanish pronunciation is very simple, each vowel/ vocal can be pronounced only one way. A/ah/, E/ay/, I/i/, O/o/, U/u/
We also worked with the numbers one to five doing different activities, as a book of vowels and numbers, singing songs, counting numbers 1 through 5, and number recognition.
by Sarah Segall | Oct 31, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week in literacy, it was all about writing! All our students published their expository pieces, that inform our SWS community about our annual fall fundraiser. All pieces are displayed on our bulletin board. Make sure you stop by and read the remarkable writing pieces our students are producing. After finishing our expository writing, we made a transition to our narrative writing. Fall is always such an inspiration and gives us so many rich opportunities to explore a variety of topics, themes and develop vocabulary. One of our favorite ones is, of course, Halloween and Dia de los muertos stories! I can’t wait to read their final pieces! With these projects, we are bringing our unit La herencia cultural (Cultural Heritage) to an end. We look forward to introducing our new literacy unit La energia en accion (Energy in Action) next week!
Science
In connection with our Social Studies, our science investigation was very interesting. We got to work with materials such as 1/2 cup sugar, 2 -3 spoonful of water and 1 spoonful of merengue powder. We talked about the properties of them and made predictions of what would happen if we mixed them. We put our mixture in a particular kind of mold. After we let them sit over night, we discovered that our predictions where mostly right: the mixture hardened. We noticed that the sugar, in some cases, was a little crumbly. Some others turned out very hard. This goes along with the concept that different variables affect the end results. After we documented our process, we had so much fun adding one more material: paint!
Please note that students took home a science packet. The due date for this packet is November 6th. The packet includes a science project for you all to do at home, a math connection and a comprehension quiz of the book La mezcla de la materia students have been reading these past two weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Halloween Parade
Math
Students did a great job practicing the mastery of long division this week! Even those that had the most trouble in the beginning are able to complete an equation independently now! Kudos to their persistence! Next week we’ll start a new chapter, stay tuned!
Social Studies
In History this week we explored further into the Renaissance, learning specifics about notable personalities such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Raphael. We are only in the beginnings of exploring the Reformation, which will continue next week more in-depth. It was a fun and busy week!
Art
The 4th and 5th graders learned how to look for and use basic shapes to draw an eagle. Last year, they made pictures of the upper body of an eagle using torn paper, and this year we looked at photographs of bald eagles in flight, and noted the triangles, ovals, rectangles that could be seen in the head, body, and wings. The students did a wonderful job drawing and then adding color with oil pastel. You can see their impressive drawings on the bulletin board at school.
Music
Looking toward Thanksgiving, we learned a Chilean folk song, “Pavo, Pavo,” “Turkey, Turkey,” and considered the plucking of fowl in multiple languages, recalling the French Canadian song, “Alouette.”
by Sarah Segall | Oct 31, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
We completed our Amistad unit with a big exam. This exam covered reading comprehension questions in both multiple choice and short answer. It included vocabulary and grammar that we have studied, and a short writing piece. The main purposes of this exam were to 1) provide an assessment for the end of the unit and 2) provide students with comprehensive testing taking experience. We spread this test out over 2 days, went through each section afterwards to discuss different test taking strategies, and discussed strategies for showing what you know in the future. Overall, they did a pretty good job and I was impressed with their work and their positive attitudes.
Friday was a special day of Halloween / end of a big unit celebrations. We had a fun afternoon of stations. The language arts stations included a cursive hand-writing skeleton and many descriptive paragraphs in which the students needed to figure out which Halloween character was being described and then draw their picture. Fun! Students were then challenged to create their own mystery writing about themselves.
Math
The students did a fabulous job with the subtraction unit. Borrowing across the zeros was no problem for these kiddos. Did they show you how one strategy is to subtract one from the top and bottom numbers? 9,000-6321 would change to 8,999-6,320. The answer is the same but there’s no need to borrow! Just one of the tools we can keep in our ‘pocket’ for later use.
We completed our subtraction unit and had a fun Multiplication Monster activity on Friday as an introduction to our next unit. (These can be seen on our classroom door.) Multiplication is now open on Quicktables. I would also like for the students to continue working towards mastery on their addition and subtraction quicktables.
Social Studies
We finished decorating our Roman writing tablets this week and then the students had a great time practicing writing Roman numerals to 20 in them. We went over our Punic War quiz in class. Over all the class did well filling in the blanks but many had a difficult time putting the events in the correct order. We reviewed the sequence of events during the Wars and everyone has a better understanding now. On Thursday we had a Roman dinner party Patrician style. Togas and tunics were the requested attire for this event. We enjoyed some traditional Roman food: bread, dates, grapes, olives, cheese, and almonds. We discussed Roman customs and did some Readers Theater with a couple of short Roman plays. We had fun pretending to be in Rome and doing as the Romans do.
Science
We have spent most of the week working hard on writing our animal paragraphs. The students first filled in a planning worksheet for what they wanted to write about, making sure to include a good topic and concluding sentence. They then reviewed a checklist to make sure that all key points from our animal classification domain were mentioned in their paragraph. Next they revised their work and wrote out their paragraph. Finally they edited their work, using a editing checklist and having a classmate read it over to make sure it flowed well and made sense. A few students began publishing their work and drawing an illustration on Friday. The rest of the class will finish on Monday.
We had some special “spooky” science fun on Friday to help us get in the spirit of Halloween. The class got to rotate to different stations and do some eerie activities. We made Flubber, we magically expanded a jack -o-lantern balloon, and like mad scientist we tried to dissolve candy pumpkins in a variety of creepy solutions (milk, oil, water, and vinegar :} We ended the day with a fun Halloween story before our Halloween parade.
English Spelling/Writing
Everyone did very well on their spelling test this week. A couple of the kiddos got a 100% for the first time this week! Great job everyone. Because we have been so much writing during science this week, we didn’t have any new journal entries. Students who finished early could do free choice in their journals. This week in grammar review we have focused on action verbs and linking verbs.
Art
The 2nd/3rd Grade class learned how to use basic shapes to draw an eagle sitting on a branch. They folded their paper into 16 rectangles to create a grid, and then used these lines to draw the body, head and tail of a bald eagle. We also looked at a print of Andy Warhol’s “Bald Eagle.” The students did a great job drawing and using oil pastel for color.
Music
We reviewed the French Canadian song Alouette and learned a Chilean fold song about a turkey, Pavo, Pavo, both of which have a weird fixation on plucking birds’ feathers. We then played our new instruments in rhythm with both songs, and went around the class several times echoing rhythmic passages on all the various percussion instruments.
by Sarah Segall | Oct 31, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
I am sure many of you have heard about leer 5 or The Daily 5. This is a new part of our day where the students move through five different reading stations with a small group. The stations are independent reading, reading with someone, listening to reading, writing, and word work. The students can read either their reading binders or another Spanish book that is at their level. The kids really love it and it gives them time in class to read on their own. This is also a great time to read their reading binder with me if they feel ready. I allow them to read with me while their group is in the reading with someone station, this way they are still reading with someone and they do not disrupt the rest of their group. We have also been reading a lot of short stories and books together as a class. The kids were so excited to read some Halloween themed stories this week including Where the Wild Things Are and Miss Nelson has Disappeared (in Spanish of course). Some of the kids had already heard these stories so it was great for them to hear the stories in Spanish and make word connections.
On Friday, during our Halloween stations our 2 reading stations involved the high frequency words we have learned so far. One game had them spelling the words out using an alphabet written on pumpkins, the other had them matching up their Spanish high frequency word to the English translation on a haunted house. The kids had so much fun matching up the words. It was the most popular station of the day!
I’m so excited to continue doing leer 5 as well as starting our new math chapter. I hope everyone has a great weekend and a very happy Halloween!
Math
What a great Hallo-week we had! We completed our Tu eres la/el maestro/o (You are the teacher) Halloween projects. I hope you all had a chance to see them on our door this week as the kiddos worked very hard building their math stories with their partners and drawing a picture to go along with it. Each group had to come up with their own addition sentence and then pick a Halloween monster to build an addition story problem around. It was great seeing the kids working together to build elaborate and sometimes silly addition stories. At the end we all gathered on the rug to listen to each group teach the class about their addition story. This was an awesome experience as we worked on speaking in front of the class, we made sure, as “teachers”, to speak clearly, face the class, and to try to answer all questions as best as we can. We also talked about what good students do while a teacher is speaking, such as listening and asking questions when confused. Everyone did so well, I am very proud of them all!
We also did our chapter 3 assessment this week, with everyone doing spectacularly! This assessment focused on addition from 1-10 (although in class we worked on 1-20), using vocabulary such as more than and less than, and understanding story problems. Next week we will begin working on subtraction from 1-10. Many of the students already seem to have a solid understanding of subtraction and I think this chapter will go by quickly!
On Friday, we did math and reading stations using math games we have been learning the last couple weeks. One math game was choosing a number between 20 and 50 and then rolling a die and adding the die number to the chosen one. I was very impressed with how all students understood and were able to play this game very easily. Especially when candy corn was involved. We also played a puzzle game where we connected the answer to a math addition problem to its answer which the kids loved. We will continue to play games like this in class that I will adjust as we get into bigger numbers and subtraction.
Social Studies & Science
This week we in Social Studies we finished painting our Sphinx. The students had so much fun mixing different shades of yellows, browns and golds to create their “perfect” colors for these little master pieces. This activity led into more discussion about how the artists and architects of Egypt created lasting pieces of history that we can still enjoy today. We read about the story of Hatshepsut, the first woman Pharaoh of Egypt. The class was so intrigued with this amazing woman, who being told only men could be Pharaohs, declared herself a man. She even had statues made of herself wearing men’s clothing and a beard. We began reading the first part of Tutankhamen’s journey to become the “Golden Pharaoh and discussed the important role that archaeologists play in our understanding of ancient people and their history.
We learned all about fresh water habitats this week in science. The class did a little experiment with water tension and worked on reading their own mini Fresh-water habitat book. We did a webbing map as a class on what we know about different kinds of fresh water sources. The students generated a list of different bodies of water th
at are fresh water and what kinds of living things live in them and are dependent on them. On Friday we celebrated Halloween with the Kindergartners and had a blast doing some “spooky” experiments and activities. We made flubber, painted skeletons with glow in the dark paint, did a static electricity trick, heard a couple of Halloween stories, learned about Halloween safety and more. I think everyone is now good and ready for a happy Halloween on Saturday.
English Spelling/ Writing
Our new sorts went home this week on Monday. Along with sorting their word, we also underlined the word families with different colors, we wrote the words each two times and we took turns doing invisible writing on our neighbors back (using our fingers as the pencil). The class loved this last activity!
We did some free choice writing on Monday in our journals. On Tuesday, during our science time, we discussed what the saying “A fish out of water.” meant. The class came up with several excellent examples to illustrate this saying and they then wrote about it in their journals. We also did a short lesson on verbs.
Character Education
This week we had a great lesson on Conflict. After watching a cute video the students were able to clearing explain what conflict looks like. We then had a great discussion. The outcome of our discussion was:
- Bubbles. Each child/person has a personal space around them that we will call their ‘bubble.’ Sometimes our bubbles are popped by accident. We just (as Eli laughingly showed us) pump them back up. But we talked about how to avoid popping other’s bubbles by sitting and standing a certain distance away. We are all wiggly so we need a bubble around us for when we wiggle.
- We created a poster demonstrating how to solve conflict (taking a deep breath, counting to 10, talking to the other person using “I feel_____, because______, and compromising).
- We talked about how to avoid certain situations but also what to do when someone bumps us, cuts in front of us, says something unkind.
The main point is to give them tools to solve little conflicts. We also talked about the right time to talk to the teacher and this is when there is a safety concern or if any hitting, pushing, kicking occurs.
Art
In 1st Grade art, we looked at Kandinsky’s circle paintings, and the students learned that he used simple colors and shapes to create abstract art, rather than making realistic paintings of people, landscapes, etc. The students made a “Kandinsky Tree” by using construction paper and layers of circles. We enjoyed looking at these colorful abstract trees on the whiteboard.
Music
The class learned a Chilean folk song about a turkey, “Pavo, Pavo.” We then used our rhythm instruments to provide accompaniment to the new song and several others from our repertoire.
by Sarah Segall | Oct 31, 2015 | In The Loop
Costume Parade
Language Arts
We were excited to start our new unit: En busca de amigos ( Finding Friends). We started with Pupurupú. This is a story about a correcaminos (runrunner) and a coyote (coyote) who have a daily race as one tries to eat the other. One day the coyote falls and breaks a paw. The correcaminos takes care of him and then another day the favor is returned. Why? They’ve discovered they aren’t enemigos but amigos. Other things we focused on this week were:
- oral blending
- the comprehension strategies of asking questions and comparing & contrasting
- introduction to synonyms and antonyms (amigo/enemigo, grande/pequeño, alto/bajo, rápido/despacio)
- using our writing to make lists (of the things we like to do on Halloween)
- words that describe color (awareness of adjectives that change with the noun they modify)
- Writing about our halloween costumes. (I’m not a vampire. I’m a ……)
Our specific letter studies this week were: ch, G, C. Please note, the G and C have the same rules in Spanish and English. They make their hard sound except when followed by E or I, then they make their soft sound. (The G soft sound is /h/ in Spanish.)
Our sight word studies this week included: tiene (he/she has), por (through or by), con (with).
Math
We worked in our interactive math journals this week comparing numbers. This included number sentences for the students to read. We also worked on addition sentences with 0 up to 5.
Students were introduced to our bolsas de 5 / #5 baggies. These baggies each have 5 items in them with a line drawn down the middle. No matter how many items are on each side the total remains 5. (0+5=5, 1+4=5, 2+3=5, etc.).
Social Studies & Science
This week we learned about the Wampanoag tribe. We learned about their location, food, shelter, and topography of their land. We learned about a boy named Tapenum in the story “Tapenum’s Day”. He is working toward his initiation in becoming a hunter for his tribe. Ask your student things he did to prepare for this honor. We filled out a visual chart comparing the food, shelter, and location of the Sioux tribe, the Wampanoag tribe and ourselves.
We also learned about Native Americans today. We know that they still live in the U.S. today and while they have maintained some of their customs and culture, many live just like you and me (living in houses, shopping at grocery stores, driving cars etc.)
We are learning about “college talk”. We are learning how to answer questions in complete sentences. i.e. What is your favorite color? My favorite color is _________. You can work on this at home. i.e. What would you like for dinner? I would like _________ for dinner. We will soon start working on supporting our answers with because!
Thank you for your help in making our Halloween activity afternoon a success! The kiddos enjoyed doing the spooky science experiments, hearing Ms. Marcie’s Halloween story and learning about how to be safe on Halloween night! Have a wonderful, safe, Halloween! I know I will be hearing all about it on Monday!
Music
This week we learned a Chilean folk song about a turkey, “Pavo, Pavo,” and introduced the new percussion instruments. We used them to accompany the new song and to echo short rhythmic passages on several different instruments. We also had a discussion about the importance of taking care not to hurt anybody’s ears when we use these instruments.
Art
The Kindergarteners learned about sculpture today, and they made a paper sculpture of a black cat. We compared a flat picture of a black cat that was posted on the classroom door to the 3 dimensional paper cat that the students made. They did a great job cutting, gluing, and following directions! It is great having Alora’s mom Stacy helping out each week the students get more experience with all the different steps in various art projects.
by Sarah Segall | Oct 28, 2015 | In The Loop
Language Arts
This week we started our daily 5 in reading. This is where we have 5 reading stations in the classroom that the students rotate through during our reading time each day. The stations are independent reading, reading with a partner, listening to reading, writing work, and word work. The kids really seem to love it and it gives them a set chance every day to read with me as well. They have mostly been reading their books in their binders but I have also set out some books that we have dead in class together. We are still trying to remember all the instructions for every station but I am sure by next week we will be jumping into our stations right away. Please remember to encourage your student to read at home with you or by themselves as much as possible!
Math
This week we began talking about story problems, all of the students were very comfortable with story problems and were even able to make up story problems on their own on Monday. Because of this I decided to start a fun little project in math called Usted Es El Maestro or You are the teacher. The kids split into partner groups and came up with their own math sentence and story problems (we have also made them Halloween themed!). Next week the kids will be sharing their story problems with class and teaching each other how to work through them. It had been so much fun to see the kids working together to come up with their own stories. We will be hanging up our math story problems on our classroom door next week, so make sure to keep an eye out for them!
We of course also had so much fun doing the pumpkin run this week! Our class total was 64 laps! On Thursday after the run we talked about how the run was for each student and then wrote about it in our journals. I’m so proud of all the kiddos!
Social Studies & Science
This week we continued to learn about Ancient Egypt. On Monday we studied more about how the hieroglyphs worked and practiced decoding some words. We then had fun drawing ourselves in the way an ancient Egyptian artist might have done on pretend papyrus paper and writing our names next to the image in hieroglyph form. We also read a story about Tutankhamen when he was a child. On Tuesday we learned about Amon Ra, the god of the sun. We discussed how the gods were often depicted with the heads of animals and how the people would make offerings to certain gods in order to protect them from the animal in their environment (i.e. To Sobek, with the head of a crocodile, to save them from the crocodiles in the Nile river). We then added a picture of the Egyptian gods to our civilization chart and compared and contrasted Mesopotamian gods to those in Egypt. At the end of the day we had fun “Walking Like an Egyptian” at dismissal. On Thursday and Friday we read about the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. The class loved creating their own Sphinx in clay.
We finished up our study of the tropical rain forest this week. The class worked on learning more about the different layers of the rain forest and what animals live in them. We enjoyed some popcorn and watched a virtual visit to the rain forest on our overhead projector and we drew pictures and wrote facts about an animal from one of the layers. We made a rain forest Kapok tree for our door and added our pictures to it. Take a peek and see if you can find your kiddos animal. On Thursday we reviewed what we have learned so far about all our habitats and we located the different areas on a world map where these habitats can be found. Friday we began learning about fresh water habitats and had a visit from Crystal the 2/3 classes’ pet Beta fish.
English Spelling/Writing
The class got to try some new sorting activities this week. In honor of our Egyptian studies, we wrote our sort list in pyramid form. This activity is a great one for your child to do at home if they would like some more practice with their words. We also circled all the vowels in our words and underlined the consonants. We played a quick game of guess the word on the board. For journal writing this week we wrote about Atticus and Einstein’s visit to our classroom. The students wrote what they remembered about the turtles and brainstormed a word bank that they could use in their writing. On Friday we read about a special trip that an Egyptian family took to see the Great Pyramid and Sphinx of Giza and then the class wrote about a special trip they have taken with their family in their journals. This week we reviewed proper nouns, vowels, and consonants.
Music
In the Houston airport, Sr. Kit met a first grader from Portland who was playing a game in which she drummed the rhythm of a song she knew, challenging her father to name the tune. For inspiring much of today’s lesson, she was awarded a pair of Cuban rhythm sticks. In class, in addition to that game, we tried several rhythms on our new instruments from Cuba, including rhythm sticks, maracas and several styles of drums.
Art
The first graders finally got to work on their fence post portraits this week. It was great having the 4th and 5th grade students, and also Miss Jennie (Kate’s mom), help them during art class. The students painted the faces and clothes, and we will add a few finishing details next week. Great job everyone!
observe shadows.
