Social Studies and Science
It was so much fun getting to know this wonderful class of first graders and seeing all of the second grader’s smiling faces once again. We started the week by learning a little more about each other. Everyone had fun sharing their All About Me bags with the class. It was very interesting to see what items each person brought in their bag to represent themselves. They had photos, medals, favorite toys, instruments, collection pieces, and drawings.
This week, we also spent a little time reviewing school procedures,classroom expectations, and daily routines in our class. We began our first social studies unit on geography. Their first lesson was on using Maps. The class was very excited to see their readers for this subject, they did a picture walk and then read with a partner.They will be using these little readers through out the entire school year. The class learned what a compass rose is, used one to tell the direction of things on a map and each student designed their own special one that will be added to a map later in the unit. We also learned the Compass Rose song, which you probably will be hearing throughout the year, (you can thank me later). On Friday we looked at a map of Camas, we made a chart about maps, and we played the “I’m thinking of game” in order to practice using maps.
Picnic lunches!
English Spelling and Phonics
We did a little writing in our Journal this week and took a spelling assessment. Next week we will start our regular spelling sorts and our phonics program. Please remember to check your child’s planner each day after school to see what our Daily Vocabulary words are and to make sure your child is doing their reading. Your initial in their planner is an indicator to me that the reading was done and it is also worth a “boleto” (ticket). First graders should be reading at least 20 minutes a day; 10 in English and 10 in Spanish. Second graders should be reading at least 15 minutes in each language. This will generally be the only weekly homework in English that the students will do and it is so important.
We will also have a weekly idiom in class. This week it was a fitting one for the first day of school – It’s raining cats and dogs.
Spanish Math
Welcome kiddos! I am thrilled to get to work with the second grade group which is made up mostly of kiddos I had the pleasure of working with last year! I am equally as enthused to get to know this first grade group! I can already tell we are in for a spectacular year! In math, we began working with numbers up to one thousand. The kiddos really seemed to retain information from last year and are off to a great start applying it to this year’s curriculum. We used base ten blocks to review counting numbers and place value. The focus was to count on by ones and in the following weeks we will begin to count on by tens and hundreds. We will be running two math groups with myself teaching one of them, and Maestra Sarah teaching the other. If your child works in Maestra Sarah’s math group she will send you a separate email update each week.
Spanish Reading and Grammar
This week we really focused on our morning routine and working on complete sentences for first graders. The second graders, meanwhile, worked on multiple sentences with extra detail. We also began our first story which focuses on words using “B” and “V” in spanish which sound similar when it is being spoken in Spanish. Our theme for this unit is sharing stories, which lead to a great discussion on how we share stories and who shares them with us. From what I could gather from the conversations, everyone is doing a lot of at home reading, which is wonderful! The story we read this week is “Ant y Los Tres Higuitios.” It is an interpretation of the classic children’s story “The Three Little Pigs.” The story was a huge hit and the kiddos really found it funny. We have yet to begin work with our readers, but we should begin them next week. Please remember to have your student bring their reading binder to school everyday!
I am already ecstatic about this group of kiddos and the year we have ahead of us. I can’t wait to see the growth and improvement in everyone and how it takes shape!
Maestra Ivary
ArtThe first and second graders painted some beautiful watercolor apples the first week in art. Instead of a Still Life of apples like we’ve done before, the students painted 4 different varieties of apples in a square “quilt” pattern. The students practiced observing the shapes and colors of real apples, and learned how to use white crayon under the watercolor to show the light reflection. I also introduced the Elements of Art poster to the students, which we’ll be referring to throughout the school year. It is great to have Alora’s mom, Stacy, helping out in the classroom again! The apple pictures are on the bulletin at school.
