La lectura

This week we read el forastero en el bosque. The kiddos really enjoyed this story with real photographs.  Forest animals, awakened by the birds’ warning that there is a stranger in the woods, set out to discover if there is danger and find, instead, a wonderful surprise. This book led to sharing about the different snowmen they would make and what seeds and vegetables they would include.

Our weekly objectives were to:

• identify beginning, middle, and end of a story
• retell important events from a story
• sequence events
• identify letters and read syllables
• listen to sounds and correctly write them (dictation)

Much to the kiddos’ disappointment, we did not have time to do our computer station, as there was no class on Friday.  I bet they would all like a little time on www.estudiante.estrellita.com!

Las matemáticas

Our weekly objectives were to:

• measure items in the classroom by length and height
• use different non-standard units to measure
• compare the height and length of items within our classroom
• compare the length of items using different non-standard units and explain why the numbers are different
• count in sequence by 1’s and 10’s
• identify numbers out of sequence

History & Geography

This week in our social studies unit we focused on the Puritans who became the Pilgrims in the New World. The class learned about why they left England and about their journey on the Mayflower. We worked on a timeline in class as well as pictures in our journals to describe our read-alouds. The class worked on coloring a map of the world and they are also learning a song about the continents and one about the oceans.

Our objectives this week were:
• identify the seven continents of the world and the oceans.
• Define what an Explorer is
• identify reasons why the pilgrims left England
• describe the pilgrims Voyage on the Mayflower
• make predictions prior to and during our lessons based on the information from previous or current lessons
• draw pictures to represent details or information from our read aloud in our journals

Science

In science we learned about nearsighted and farsightedness and we read the fable of the Seven Blind Mice.  We also discussed the proverb  “Better safe than sorry” and how this related to the fable. The class finished their sensory booklets and had fun with some optical illusion illustrations.

Our objectives were to:
• understand how we can enhance the sense of sight
• distinguish fantasy from realistic text
• describe how the five senses help humans learn about their world
• describe the challenges of someone who is blind
• review that a fable is a short made up story with moral that has animal characters that talk and act like people.