Language Arts
This week in language arts we read a poem about trucks called Camiones. Some of the comprehension skills we worked with included:
-Comparing and contrasting
-Visualizing
Writing:
We wrote a friendly letter.
To warm up, the kiddos helped me write a friendly letter to Ms. Marci. It was so cute!
Phonics:
We learned about diphthongs/diptongos which are two vowels that together make one sound.
-ai, as in aire
-ay, as hay
-ei, as in seis
-ey, as in rey
To help reinforce these sounds, the kids had a blast making pretend “diphthong smoothies” by blending vowels together in their pretend blenders. Ask your child to show you.
Math
In math this week we practiced different ways to add larger numbers. Our main focus was the introduction of regrouping. We worked on:
-Addition by counting up by 10s, 2s or 1s.
-Addition by using a place value chart/tabla de valor posiciónal.
-Discussed regrouping by using a place value chart
-Played a game to demonstrate more concretely the process of regrouping in addition.
Social Studies & Science
In science this week we learned a little bit about constellations. The class was so excited to learn about the different images in the sky at night and to share their own knowledge of some of these clusters of stars. On Tuesday the class had fun analyzing the poem Wynken, Blynken and Nod and comparing it to another fictional story about the sky that we read together. On Thursday and Friday they wrote their own fictional story about the man on the moon. We had fun doing some experiments testing gravity and theorizing how craters are made on the moon. We learned the idiom “Hit the hammer on the head” this week.English Spelling
We continue to work on last weeks sorts this week. Everyone was creative in coming up with new ways to do their activities. I met with different students throughout the week to help them better understand the vowel patterns that we were working with in these sorts. On Friday the class took their spelling test and did very well. They worked hard on these words and it shows.
In our journals this week we wrote an entry about our favorite Dr Seuss book and another on what “pictures” we see in the sky at it at night. On Friday the class had free choice writing and they also got to create their own Dr. Seuss “Wocket in a Pocket” piece.
Art
In first grade art, the students finished their collage “action” figures, adding details and a background. They did a great job creating figures jumping, waving, catching a football, etc. We enjoyed looking at their creative art on the white board. Then we had a few minutes to start a dinosaur drawing project which we’ll continue next week.
Music
Sr. Kit shared the story of how he first heard the class’ favorite song, La bamba, in Walla Walla. We then listened to three versions of La bamba, an early folk recording, a later and more sophisticated folk version, and Ritchie Valens’ rock and roll version from the 1950’s.