Our class has been working on a very special project. We would like to invite our wonderful families to save the date for December 13 at 2:30, to come see the product of all this hard work!
Our class is working of a very special project!
• Identify and explain the characteristics of historical fiction.
• Identify key ideas and details about ancient societies.
• Take notes, summarize, restate, and paraphrase the key ideas of the text.
• Integrate knowledge and ideas and make text-to-text connections.
• Analyze the craft and structure of a text: determine the author’s point of view and analyze the word choice.
• Express ideas applying vocabulary with precision and accuracy at an academic level.
• Discuss the development of the plot and characters throughout the story.
• Vocabulary and word studies: building academic vocabulary, roots of words.
• Accurately identify demonstrative pronouns and adjectives.
• Spelling : Words with ga, go, gu, gue, gui, gue, gui
• Identify the elements of a play.
Ciencias
As we continue to work on our on-going model ecosystem project, students inquire into where food energy comes from. They learned the conditions under which plants add biomass. We also revisited the concept of photosynthesis as the process that produces new energy-rich biomass called food. Students learned a convention, trophic levels, for describing the movement of food energy from organism to organism in a food web. They created food webs and learned about the efficiency of transfer across trophic levels (10% rule).
Mathematics
This week we finished our chapter on ratios and began working with rates. Our objectives were:
solve unit rate problems including unit pricing and constant speed
review ratios by playing Review Connect Four
demonstrate understanding of ratios on the chapter test
History & Geography
This week we completed our unit on Ancient Greece and Rome. Our objectives were:
Describe the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire between 1 CE and 200 CE.
Recognize the Germanic tribes, the rise of Islam, and the role of Christians at the end of the
empire.
Understand how Greek and Roman contributions have had lasting effects in our culture.
Review important events and people from the unit by playing Snowball Review
Demonstrate critical thinking and understanding of the topic on the Unit Test
English Writing & Spelling
Our Greek and Latin words this week were:
fort: strong
frac, frag: to break
gen: birth, origin
geo, terr: earth
Students are also finishing up writing their first narrative piece of the year. They have worked very hard for many weeks on this piece. Their writing will be on the bulletin board next week so make sure to take a look!
Specialists
Art with Ms. Kelly
Figure Studies
Each year I like to do a Figure Study project with all the students. This is a good way for them to learn about and review the basic proportions when drawing a person. We start with cutting out basic geometrical shapes for the head, body, arms and legs, and the students make a simple standing person using a collage technique. Then they learn how to make a moving figure, such as a person running or jumping.
We started the project by looking at human figures in Art History, from early Greek and Roman sculpture, to Medieval religious art, to Renaissance paintings and statues, to Modern art. The students could observe the differences in realistic figures and more abstract ones.
We also had fun with different students modeling for the class, to see if the rest of the class could create that pose using the paper basic shapes.
After the students made a collage figure, they also used crayon rubbings to create duplicate figures, and they cut out a variety of figures to show movement and rhythm in their art. Some of these amazing figures are on the bulletin board by “los banos” at school.
Holiday Mural
The students were able to practice their figure drawing skills when they made the Ice Skaters for the Holiday Mural at school. They all did a great job showing different ice skating poses. Many of the ice skaters are already on the bulletin board, and I’ll add more as they are finished.
Puzzles available for extra credit and Friday (Math) Bingo
Remember: MATH …. It’s everywhere!
La lectura
We began our new LA unit: From dreams to jobs. Our first story was an expository text on how to make some extra money and the planning process involved before staring your own business. We did not have a spelling list this week so we spent that time focusing on verb conjugations. With explicit instruction, the students were able to identify the patterns they see in the different types of verbs and then use them in games.
Verb conjugation is fun!
Celebrating reading 12+ hours this past month!
Uncovering our fossils!
Ciencias
This week we were able to see the “fossils” we had made before Thanksgiving break. It was fun to see how the plaster of Paris had filled in the imprint of our shells.
Students can now describe the process by which fossils are formed in sediments that became rock. (They are buried in sediment, a mold forms, as the organism decomposes, other minerals oil in the mold as the rock hardens.)
Students are also able to explain that fossils are evidence about the past. For example, if you find a fish fossils in a desert, that is evidence that the land was once covered by water, even though now the landscape is dry.
Specialists:
Art with Ms. Kelly
Figure Studies
Each year I like to do a Figure Study project with all the students. This is a good way for them to learn about and review the basic proportions when drawing a person. We start with cutting out basic geometrical shapes for the head, body, arms and legs, and the students make a simple standing person using a collage technique. Then they learn how to make a moving figure, such as a person running or jumping.
We started the project by looking at human figures in Art History, from early Greek and Roman sculpture, to Medieval religious art, to Renaissance paintings and statues, to Modern art. The students could observe the differences in realistic figures and more abstract ones.
We also had fun with different students modeling for the class, to see if the rest of the class could create that pose using the paper basic shapes.
After the students made a collage figure, they also used crayon rubbings to create duplicate figures, and they cut out a variety of figures to show movement and rhythm in their art. Some of these amazing figures are on the bulletin board by “los banos” at school.
Holiday Mural
The students were able to practice their figure drawing skills when they made the Ice Skaters for the Holiday Mural at school. They all did a great job showing different ice skating poses. Many of the ice skaters are already on the bulletin board Mural, and I’ll add more as they are finished.
This week we have begun our next unit on Modern Day Japan. We learned about how rice and seafood are staple foods of Japan. We learned about the geography and important landmarks of Japan and that Tokyo is Japan’s capital, as well as a city of over 12 million people. The class worked on making a map of Japan and labeling important features. We also wrote “What Am I ?” haikus.
Our objectives:
• locate Japan on a map
• identify Japan as a country made up of four main islands
• recognize the Japanese flag and understand its symbolism
• understand the main geographical features and staple foods of Japan
• recognize that Japan is a modern industrial nation
• identify Tokyo at the capital and largest city
Science
This week in our science domain Cycles in Nature we continued to learn about butterflies. The students worked on making a life cycle flip book and practicing reading it. We learned a butterfly rap, and worked on our butterfly life cycle diorama.
Our objectives were to:
• explain that is cycle is a sequence of events that repeats itself again and again
• explain effects of seasonal changes on plants and animals
• define the term life cycle
• identify the stages of the light cycle of a butterfly (egg to egg)
• explain metamorphosis.
English Spelling and Writing
This week the class worked on their new spelling lists. They came up with several ways to sort their lists. On Friday we took our practice spelling test. In our journals we wrote about the idiom of the week “It goes in one ear and out the other.” Apparently reminders to do chores seems to be a popular subject to apply this idiom to. Our word wall words this week were: here, house, how, hurt
La lectura
This week we read La casa de la mariposa.
Our weekly objectives were to:
learn the spelling of the /s/ sound through our PUF words
understand correct use of commas in a list
use the comprehension strategies summarizing and visualizing during our first read
use the comprehension skills sequencing and point of view during our second read
Our PUF words for next week are lunes, miércoles, and martes.
Las matemáticas
This week we continued learning about multiplication and division. Our weekly objectives were to:
solve division and multiplication word problems
divide to share equally
divide by repeated subtraction of equal groups
multiply by repeated addition of equal groups
Specialists:
Art with Ms. Kelly
Figure Studies
Figure Studies
Each year I like to do a Figure Study project with all the students. This is a good way for them to learn about and review the basic proportions when drawing a person. We start with cutting out basic geometrical shapes for the head, body, arms and legs, and the students make a simple standing person using a collage technique. Then they learn how to make a moving figure, such as a person running or jumping.
The 1st and 2nd graders did a great job with this! We looked at Henri Matisse’s cut-out figure called “Icarus” and the students also made crayon rubbings on top of their figure collages, which added another fun dimension to their figure studies.
Holiday Mural
After Thanksgiving, the students learned how to draw and paint Evergreen trees. We started with using the sides of oil pastels to create branches and a tree trunk. Then we switched to tempera paint, and the students learned how to use their paint brushes to create the texture of evergreen branches. Some of the small evergreen trees are on the Holiday Mural at school. I’ll be sending home the rest of these beautiful drawings and paintings loom so you can enjoy them over the holidays.
This week we read about Ginger the cat who is not happy to have a new kitten in the house. In the end this big cat and the little kitten become fast friends who are willing to share all their things. Students then wrote in their writing journal about a friend. We focused on starting with a capital letter, leaving space between the words, and ending the sentence with a period.
We have been having a GREAT time with our Estrellita program! Everyone is getting very good at saying their sound chart. Here is a link to the sound chart without hand signals.
And here is a link to the sound chart with hand signals.
Your child brought home a login to the online student portal of our Estrellita program on Friday. (I put it into the front cover of their reading binder). This is very fun for the kiddos and they can progress through the sounds. Right now we are focusing on letter sounds and NOT letter names.
You might see a plastic baggy with syllables con “a”. We did an activity with these in class but you can have your child read them to you at home too.
Las matemáticas
Our weekly objectives were to:
Count on and identify more and less than a given number.
Use non-standard units to measure classroom items.
Compare the length of items. (más largo, más corto)
Compare the height of items. (más alto, más bajo)
History & Geography
Smelling spices
We have begun our next American history unit on the first voyage of Columbus and the later voyage of the Pilgrims. This week we learned about how gold and spice were strong motivators in Europe’s desire to find a non land route to Asia. We read about King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and their granting Columbus the means to attempt his new westernly route across the ocean to the Asia.
Our objectives this week were:
• identify the continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia
• understand why Europeans wanted to travel to Asia
• identify King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
• understand that Columbus had a new idea of how to get to Asia
Science
This week in science we learned about our sense of touch. The class watched a short video showing how nerves and skin work together to allow us to feel things. We continued to work on our sensory booklets and we began making a book on the sense of touch. On Friday we played games using our senses and reviewed what we have learned so far in this domain.
Using our senses and getting our wiggles out
Our objectives were to:
• identify the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
• demonstrate understanding of the sense of touch
• provide simple explanations about how the sense of touch works
• demonstrate understanding of different textures the skin can feel
• label each of the body parts associated with the five senses
• describe how the five senses help humans learn about their world
Specialists
Art with Ms. Kelly
Me and My Shadow
The kindergarteners learned how to use basic shapes to draw a person, and then they worked very hard cutting out their figures and tracing them onto black paper. We reviewed the concept of shadows when the students were outside at recess, and then we read Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “My Shadow.” We’ll do more weather-related art during the different seasons.
Turkeys and Reindeers
We did a Guided Drawing of a turkey and the students added their own fun colors. The students also used basic shapes to paint a reindeer with antlers and a red nose of course!
Holiday Mural
For the “Holiday Mural” on the bulletin board at school, the Kindergarteners made houses using construction paper scraps, and then they added snow using sponges and tempera paint. These cute houses are on the Holiday Mural at school.
This week’s essential question was: How was life like for people in ancient cultures? We enjoyed reading and discussing two historical fiction pieces. The objectives were to:
• Identify and explain the characteristics of historical fiction.
• Identify key ideas and details about ancient societies.
• As we read the stories, take notes and summarize the main ideas, ask and answer questions.
• Integrate knowledge and ideas and make text-to-text connections.
• Analyze the craft and structure of a text: make predictions and determine point of view.
• Express ourselves with fluency and expression, enunciating properly in the target language, especially when in front of an audience.
• Identify the key elements of a play.
• Vocabulary and word studies: Connotations.
• Accurately identify plural nouns and collective nouns.
• Spelling: Words with c, k, and q
Ciencias
Now that students have been studying the interactions and interdependence amongst organisms in the Yellowstone ecosystem, they will create a food web showing the transfer of energy from one organism to another. Applying their knowledge about food webs and energy transfer in a balanced system, students will construct a model ecosystems. Students will have to explain each part of the model to show how the ecosystem works.
Guiding Questions:
What is this model trying to show?
How does this model give us more information about the ecosystem than a food web does?
What types of organisms will they have at each trophic level and how will these organisms interact?
What non-living, or abiotic factors will play a role?
Mathematics
This week we continued working on Chapter 4 Ratios. Our objectives were:
Complete real-world problems with ratios, three quantities, two ratios, and with before and after ratios
Students should complete their Chapter 4 Review over break. We will have a day to review and clarify when we return from the break before the chapter test
History & Geography
This week we continued learning about Ancient Greece and Rome. Our objectives were:
Identify architectural features of the Pantheon in Rome.
Describe the sweeping changes made by Caesar Augustus to the army, buildings, arts, and law.
Describe how Augustus restored Roman pride in the empire and brought about the Pax Romana.
English Writing & Spelling
Our objectives for writing were:
Understand and edit Punctuation in our writing
Understand and edit Spelling in our writing
Our Greek and Latin roots this week were:
Flec, flex: to bend
Foli: leaf
Form: to shape
Specialists
Character Education with Ms. Jennie In character ed, we continue to read Number the Stars and have done another Reader’s Theatre on one of the intense scenes in the book where Nazi soldiers search the home of the Johansen’s. Since we are celebrating Thanksgiving this month, our theme is Gratitude and our quote is “The best things in life are not things” and our poem is “The Harvest Moon” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We illustrate each quote and glue in the poem in our composition notebooks each month so they will have a nice collection at the end of the year. In December, we will set up our Giving Tree for Share so please look for it in the hallway and consider purchasing a gift for someone in need in our community!
Understand the effects of the Black Death on medieval society.
Describe the role Joan of Arc played in driving the English out of France.
Identify and describe the major events and accomplishments of Joan of Arcś life.
Thank you for contributing to our Middle Ages/Thanksgiving feast! The food was delicious and we all had a great time feasting, making stained glass, knights helmets and head pieces according to role, played checkers and decorated goblets. Happy Fall Break to all!!
Mathematics w/Laura
Data and Probability
Review
Math Journal
Put On Your Thinking Cap
Assessment on Thursday, November 15th
Happy Thanksgiving. No new homework assignment!
More fun extra credit (optional) puzzles to work on over the break.
This week we completed our first unit of study with a culminating test. Students also were introduced to an app as another way to find more Spanish books (in audible form too). This is not a mandatory assignment, just another option.
Ciencias
Focus Question: How do fossils get in rocks and what can they tell us about the past?
We thought about what happens to and in sediments over long periods of time as sediments layer on top of each other. We watched a video, made models, and read an article to learn about how sedimentation processes can result in fossils. We learned how fossils provide evidence of life and landscapes from the past.
Specialists:
Character Education with Ms. Jennie In character ed, we continue to read Wonder and have had some really great discussions about empathy, courage, betrayal and more. Since we are celebrating Thanksgiving this month, our theme is Gratitude and our quote is “The best things in life are not things” and our poem is “The Harvest Moon” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We illustrate each quote and glue in the poem in our composition notebooks each month so they will have a nice collection at the end of the year. In December, we will set up our Giving Tree for Share so please look for it in the hallway and consider purchasing a gift for someone in need in our community!
Making instruments for our Chinese New Year Parade.
History & Geography
This week we finished our unit on Ancient China. We learned all about the Chinese New Year. Students did some work with the Chinese zodiac calendar and worked on a Chinese counting book. On Friday, after we took our unit assessment, we celebrated with “New Year” activities and food. We even had our own Chinese New Year parade and sang our newly learned Chinese New Year song.
Let the parade begin!
Science
This week in our science domain Cycles in Nature we continued to learn about butterflies. The classed learned the cycle of a butterflies life and important vocabulary associated with each stage. The students worked on reading a butterfly book, making a life cycle flip book, and began making a butterfly life cycle diorama.
. . . . that relate to our studies
Our objectives were to:
• explain that is cycle is a sequence of events that repeats itself again and again
• explain effects of seasonal changes on plants and animals
• define the term life cycle
• identify the stages of the light cycle of a butterfly (egg to egg)
• explain metamorphosis.
Sharing treasures from home . . . .
English Spelling and Writing
In our journals we used the idiom of the week, “Don’t let the cat out of the bag “. We had our sort spelling tests on Friday. Several students also took a Word Wall spelling test this week. Our new Word Wall words were: girl, gym, have
Green group’s next sort
Blue group’s next sort
La lectura
This week we wrote thank you letters. Our weekly objectives were to:
Review PUF words so far
Review when to use capitals versus lower case letters
Review when to use a colon and a comma in writing a letter
Write a friendly letter letting someone know that you are thankful for them
Las matemáticas
This week we began working with Multiplication. Our weekly objectives were to:
Understand that multiplication is repeated addition
Understand how to use equal groups to show multiplication
Specialists:
Character Education We have focused on the theme of gratitude, thankfulness and being content this month of November. We made a Thankfulness Book where each kid illustrated little pictures of things they are thankful for. We read a great book called “Those Shoes” about a boy really wanting a new pair of trendy shoes, but his family not having enough money to buy them. Our quote is “The best things in life are not things” and we talk about what this means. We are also reading the funny poem “The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven” by Jack Prelutsky. In December, we will set up our Giving Tree for Share so please look for it in the hallway and consider purchasing a gift for someone in need in our community!
We had a lot of fun celebrating the 50th day of school this week. We are counting all the way to 50 by ones, tens, and fives. We also worked on number bonds in several different ways this week. The number bond turkeys are just one way to represent this concept.
Painting an Native American sunset scene
History & Geography
Wampanoag bags
This week we finished our unit on Native Americans. The students drew pictures to complete our class chart and to identify shelter, food, and clothing of the Wampanoag. On Friday we took our assessment and had a mini “appanaug”. We made butter to go with our cornbread and also had local honey and clams. The class had fun making a Wampanoag woven bag out of paper.
Making butter!
Our objectives this week were:
• understand that Native American still live in the United States today.
• identify the environment in which the Wampanoag lived
• understand how the Wampanoag tribe lived
• identify the Wampanoag as a settled tribe
• describe the food, clothing, and shelter of the Wampanoag
Let the “feast” begin!
Science
This week in science we learned about our sense of taste. The class learned about the different specific types of tastes: sour, bitter, salty, sweet, unami (savory), that we receive from our taste receptors. We used our “appanaug” feast to try out our different types of taste. Each student worked on their own sensory book. We also watched a short science video on taste.
Our objectives were to:
• identify the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
Working on our senses book
• demonstrate understanding of the sense of taste
• identify the parts of the mouth and their functions
• provide simple explanations about how we taste food
Specialists:
Character Education with Ms. Jennie We have focused on the theme of gratitude, thankfulness and being content this month of November. We made a Thankfulness Book where each kid illustrated little pictures of things they are thankful for. We read a great book called “Those Shoes” about a boy really wanting a new pair of trendy shoes, but his family not having enough money to buy them. Our quote is “The best things in life are not things” and we talk about what this means. We are also reading the funny poem “The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven” by Jack Prelutsky. In December, we will set up our Giving Tree for Share so please look for it in the hallway and consider purchasing a gift for someone in need in our community!
Our essential question this week in literacy was: How did democracy developed? We read some expository texts that presented information about the topic. One of our main objectives was to engage and participate in a conversation, using evidence to support claims, and politely express opinions or disagreements while practicing the principles of a democratic community. Students dug deep into the text analysis, asking questions to clarify understanding, identifying key ideas and details and making relevant and meaningful connections to how these concepts have been relevant for thousands of years until today. Honoring this week’s democratic process during our elections, we discussed our rights and obligations, and the importance of civic participation. Other objectives included:
• Cite relevant evidence from the text.
• Paraphrase fragments from the text in oral and written form.
• Determine the structure of a text: Comparing and Contrasting.
• Accurately identify singular nouns and plural nouns.
• Use Latin/Greek roots to determine the meaning of unknown words.
• Spelling: understand the patterns and rules of hiatus, diphthong, and triphthong.
Objective: Identify the elements of a play.
We had so much fun visiting the Post-Record Newspaper
Ciencias
Thank you Rafa for sharing your experience at Yellowstone National Park!
As we continue with our observation and documentation of the development of our milkweed bugs habitats and terrestrial environments, we began with our studies of the interesting phenomenon of Wolves of Yellowstone. We will be reading and studying different articles showing the contrast before and after the wolves were reintroduced. In this lesson, which will span over a few weeks, students will explore and explain how species are interconnected and how energy flows from one organism to another in an ecosystem. The questions to be explored are:
How did the wolves cause a cascade of changes in Yellowstone?
What surprised you or stood out to you?
How did the biotic (living) factors change once the wolves were introduced?
How did the abiotic (nonliving) factors (such as streams, rivers, ponds, etc.) change once the wolves were introduced?
Mathematics
This week we continued working on Chapter 4 Ratios.
Our objectives were:
Write ratios to compare two quantities
Interpret ratios given in fraction form
Use a ratio to find what fraction one quantity is of another or how many times as great one is as the other
Write equivalent ratios and ratios in simplest form
History & Geography
Working in Google Classroom!
This week we continued learning about Ancient Greece and Rome. Our objectives were:
Describe Julius Caesar’s rise to power, his conquests during the Gallic Wars, and his alliance with Pompey and Crassus
Summarize the events of each of the three Punic Wars
Identify Hannibal and Scipio Africanus
English Writing & Spelling
We had so much fun visiting the Camas Post-Record!
Our objectives for writing were:
finish revising our writing using DARE
Understand how and when to Exchange parts of our writing exchanging our conclusions for Jammin’ Conclusions
This week we completed our unit on Ancient Greece and Rome. Our objectives were:
Figure Studies
Week of November 26 – November 30, 2018
Each year I like to do a Figure Study project with all the students. This is a good way for them to learn about and review the basic proportions when drawing a person. We start with cutting out basic geometrical shapes for the head, body, arms and legs, and the students make a simple standing person using a collage technique. Then they learn how to make a moving figure, such as a person running or jumping.
Figure Studies
The kindergarteners learned how to use basic shapes to draw a person, and then they worked very hard cutting out their figures and tracing them onto black paper. We reviewed the concept of shadows when the students were outside at recess, and then we read Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “My Shadow.” We’ll do more weather-related art during the different seasons.
Mathematics w/Laura
