Reading to our preschoolers.
Language Arts
This week we read a poem called El trenecito cañero/The little Sugarcane Train. Afterward we reviewed the the skill of categorizing items by grouping the like items in the poem together, as a reading comprehension strategy. We also read Al rededor del mundo, that talked about transportation around the world. Ask your kiddos if they can tell you what it was about.
In writing we practiced using words that indicate order. The kids learned to use words in their writing like primero/first después/next, luego/later, por último/finally. To demonstrate this I played charades with the kiddos. I acted out a task that had four steps. First I pretended to dig a hole, then I pretended to put seeds in the hole, later I pretended to cover the hole with dirt and finally I watered the area. As the children guessed each step, I wrote it on the board using the key words that indicated order. The students then separated into groups to act out something that required four steps. The class then had to guess what they were doing. It was a lot of fun kind of like playing charades! Later the kids wrote in their journals how to do something in four steps, again using the order words. Some kids wrote about the steps it took to get ready in the morning.
We also discussed the importance of answering the questions of who/quién, what/qué, where/dónde, 
when/cuándo. The kids learned that a good writer will always answer these questions when they write. Ben said that writing without answering these questions would be like a weather man announcing what the weather is going to be but leaving out the time and location of when and where the weather will be occurring. Good analogy Ben!
Math
In math we worked on our addition and subtraction strategies and incorporated them into the solving of word problems or problemas cotidianas. We discussed some math vocabulary such as the word for resolve which is resuelve. We took a math quiz which everyone did a great job on! We closed the week by playing a game using unifix cubes to add and subtract two digit numbers. The kids also took turns playing the maestra/maestro drilling the class with math flash cards.The class had to express their answers in number form and tens and ones. They loved pretending to be the teacher!
Social Studies & Science
In science this week we we talked about the day and the night and what AM
and PM mean. We did an activity where each child represented a different planet and we demonstrated how the orbits of each planet worked around the Sun. The class made an orbit book and they learn the poem Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jane Taylor. They read it both on their own and as a group, and then sung it through. On Friday the class had a chance to examine and look through a telescope. We also did a lesson on stargazing and constellations.
English Spelling
We got our new spelling sorts this week and have been working hard on understanding how to sort them. Some of the students have been a little confused between words that make the short a sound as in “cat” and those that have an ar combination to make the sound in “star”. The class has been creative in doing different kinds of activities with their words this week. Everyone has completed two activities so far. Our next spelling test will be Friday March 4th.
In journals we continue to underline and look for word wall words in our writing as well as vocabulary words. This week we wrote about our favorite subjects in school as one of our entries and we also wrote sentences about star, meteor, and moon as another entry. On Friday the class had free choice to write.