Week 10 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Nov 9, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

This week we continued working on the Age of Exploration. Our objectives were:

• continue compiling notes for our poster project
• check notes for accuracy
• design an informational poster about assigned chapter
• begin creating poster

Mathematics

This week we continued our chapter on Adding and Subtracting Fractions. Our objectives were:

• add and subtract mixed numbers
• apply skills from this chapter to complete word problems
• practice adding and subtracting mixed numbers by completing a scavenger hunt
• convert division expression to mixed numbers and decimals

Lectura

Dear families,

Please take the time to stop at our bulletin board and see our published magazines articles!

 Objectives:

• Establish purposes, audiences and the need for  different genres: Una critica de libros
• Apply reading comprehension skills and strategies (asking questions, clarifying,  summarizing, compare and contrast information)
• Understand the spelling patterns of homophones. This week we reviewed homophones with and without h.
• Learn how to use relative pronouns in context (que, quien, quienes)
• Apply knowledge of the use of capitalization and proper punctuation.
• Compare and contrast two objects or ideas, in oral and written for. Demonstrate understanding of how to compare and contrast texts. 

Ciencias

Focus questions: How and why did our ancestors look at the sky? What did they see? Why do stars appear to move across the sky?

This week we assessed our students understanding of the concept of gravity. After that, students were introduced to constellations as traditional stars patterns. They identified images in patterns of stars and give them names. Students simulated Earth’s rotation. While rotating, they observe the appearance of stars rising in the east, traveling across the sky, and setting in the west. Students observed a demonstration of the relationships and orientations of Earth, the Sun, and the Milky Way to explain why different stars are visible in different seasons. We read and informative piece titled ¨Stargazing¨ and watched watched a video that showed how star brightness, distance, and alignment converge to produce constellations. We concluded working on a fun constellation art project.

• Stars are at different distances from the Earth. Stars are different sizes and different brightness.
• Groups of stars form patterns and form constellations.
• Stars (constellations) appear to move together across the night sky because of earthś rotation.

Week 9 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Nov 2, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

Happy Halloween!

History & Geography

This week we continued to learn about the Age of Exploration. Our objectives were:

• begin our history poster project: students will read a chapter in pairs and create a poster describing important events and people from that chapter
• Describe the effects of Spanish colonization on the indigenous peoples of the Americas, including
  the encomienda system
• Summarize the journeys of Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa
• Summarize the viewpoints and impact of Bartolomé de Las Casas

Mathematics

This week we began learning about Fractions and Mixed Numbers. Our objectives were:

• use the Least Common Multiple to change fractions so that they have common denominators
• add and subtract unlike fractions
• practice adding and subtracting unlike fractions by completing a Harry Potter escape room
• estimate adding and subtracting fractions using benchmarks (0, 1/2, 1)
• change division expressions to fractions

Lectura y Ciencias

This week we continued to work on the final pieces of our portfolio, Con carino Amalia.

This week we started unit 2, Our Corner of the Universe. Some of the essential questions for this unit include: What is our place in this vast universe? How much do we know about it? Through the study of a variety of genres and mediums, we will explore this fascinating topic. Students will have the opportunity to raise their own questions and go through and inquiry process to find answers and/or explanations. This week we read the expository piece,  El universo. After reading, we applied to skill of organizing information into different categories. Lastly, we finished our solar system art project. When working on this project, we had an opportunity to use the science vocabulary in Spanish.

Some of the objectives for this week included:

• Establish purposes, audiences and the need for  different genres: expository and fiction, for example. 
• Establish the purpose and audience to write an expository writing piece: Un articulo de revista. 
• Apply reading comprehension skills and strategies (making connections, clarifying,  visualizing)
• Understand the spelling patterns of words with h.
• Learn how to use relative pronouns in context.
• Apply knowledge of the use of capitalization and proper punctuation.
• Compare and contrast two objects or ideas, in oral and written for. Demonstrate understanding of how to compare and contrast texts.
• Cross-check different sources of information. 

Visiting the Preschool class to hear Miss Macky’s presentation about one of Mexico’s most sacred traditions, El día de los muertos.

Specialists

Art with Ms. Kelly

Apples Paintings

• Observe shape, color and texture of real apples
• Learn about our state’s apple orchards
• Look at Paul Cezanne’s paintings of fruit
• Draw overlapping apples on a plate (aerial view) or in a bowl (side view)
• Use only red, blue, yellow and white to mix a variety of colors
• Each class from K through 4th/5th made stunning apple paintings!

Owl Drawings

• Thank you Kate Westfall for sharing this great project from your teacher at Prune Hill Elementary!
• Look at photos of real owls
• Follow a Directed Drawing of a Great Horned Owl
• Use markers and colored pencils to create color, pattern, and value (shading)
• These beautiful owls are on the bulletin board at school!

Pumpkins and Still Life Art Project 

• Choose 3 different art styles to create 3 still life pictures
• Look at still life art by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock
• Use a variety of techniques to add color and texture
• Some of these very creative Still Life projects will be on the bulletin board next week, and we’ll continue this project in November.

Ginkgo Leaf Rubbings

• Thank you Ms. Laura for gathering all these beautiful leaves for our art projects!
• Learn about ginkgo trees
• Incorporate ginkgo leaves into your still-life designs

Music with Ms. Nadia

Wow, has it been two months already?! This month flew by as we learned about the treble clef, triplets, and Beethoven.

At the end of September, each student chose a song to incorporate into our class. Each week I pick one to pair with an activity. This month we played a game of Old Town Road Madlibs, participated in an active drawing activity to I Can Only Imagine, performed House Party using everyday objects as percussion instruments, and beat drums to Don’t Let Me Down in a lesson about triplets. We learned the difference between pitched-percussion and non-pitched percussion as we played the notes of the treble clef on handbells and the glockenspiel. On music staff whiteboards, we practiced drawing treble clefs and notes on the staff. This is all in preparation for this coming month, in which we will learn the recorder!

Beethoven was a remarkable composer whose music expressed intense emotion. While he composed 9 symphonies, we focused on Beethoven’s 5^th. Through drumming out the rhythm, we engaged the piece and learned the difference between a triplet and three eight notes with a rest (Beethoven used the latter). In a game of Two Truths and a Lie, we learned that Beethoven wrote a song for Napoleon, but scratched out the title once Napoleon made himself emperor. We also learned that Beethoven’s birthplace has been turned into a museum, and music saved his life. There are many epic arrangements of his 5^thsymphony we enjoyed listening to, from acoustic guitar to metal, jazz to rock. I encourage everyone to keep exploring Beethoven’s symphonies!

Other class highlights include our improv games of Emotion Choir and Sound-ball.

Character Education

Stem-building under our blanket forts.

We had a great time with all our team building – cooperative activities throughout the month.  We really learned the value of sharing our ideas, listening to other’s ideas, and making a plan that everyone agrees on.

Week 8 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Oct 26, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

Mathematics

Lectura

Unit 1 has come to an end. This week  we spent time working on our unit review. After that, students took their end of the unit assessments. Now we are ready to dig into Unit 2, Our Corner of the Universe, which is closely connected to our science studies. We also had time to continue to make progress on our expository writing pieces. We will be ready to see the published pieces next week. In spelling, we studied homophones.

Book Club Gallery

Con carino Amalia – galeria del club de lectores   

Ciencias

Solar System Art Project

Focus question: How do the parts of the solar system interact?

This week we took a close look at the parts that form our Solar System. We studied, compared and contrasted the characteristics and conditions of each planet, as well as others parts such as asteroids, moons, etc. Students modeled the concept of orbit and the gravity effect using a ball swinging in a circle on the end of a string. Gravity was introduced as the force that changes the planets’ direction of travel and produces circular orbits.

The solar system includes a star, the Sun, and the objects that orbit it, including Earth, the Moon, seven other planets, their satellites, and smaller objects.

The pulling force of gravity keeps the planets and other objects in orbit by continuously changing their direction of travel. 

Week 7 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Oct 19, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

This week we continued learning about the Age of Exploration. Our objectives were:

• explain why Portugal launched missions of exploration
• explain why Europeans needed spices
• identify new technologies that allowed Europeans to launch voyages of exploration

Students also received their explorer for their presentation at the end of this unit. Their speech will be written entirely in class but students are encouraged to dress up!

Mathematics

This week we continued working with multiplication and division . Our objectives were:

• divide by a 2-, 3-, or 4-digit number by a 2-digit number
• use order of operations to simplify a numeric expression
• use efficient strategies to solve multi-step problems involving multiplication and division
• express and interpret the product or quotient appropriately

Lectura

As we conclude our first unit in literacy, we look back to our original questions: What is cultural heritage? How is cultural heritage passed through generations. and why is it important? We were fortunate to welcome some wonderful guests speakers on Thursday. Denice from Republica Dominicana, Marilu from Mexico, Analia from Argentina, Carla from Argentina and Jose from Colombia, shared their perspectives and words of wisdom on the subject. What a wonderful opportunity for our students to experience. They not only had the pleasure of trying (and making!) delicious traditional foods from these countries, but also hear the diversity of the Spanish dialects spoken in Latin America. We were honored! Gracias!

We will be having our end of the unit assessment next week on Thursday October 24th. We had originally planned this assessment for Monday October 21st, but we have made a change to make sure we have enough time to be fully prepared and answer all the questions before the test. During this assessment students will be asked to apply reading comprehension strategies and skills, as well as their understanding of the Spanish grammar concepts seen this far. This includes: subject and predicate, common and proper nouns, adjectives and adverbs, verbs and verb phrases. 

Students getting ready for their spelling assessment.

Ciencias

Focus question: How do the parts of the solar system interact?

Students worked in pairs with a set of solar system cards. Based on previous knowledge, information on the cards, and information provided by the teacher, students organized the objects into a model of the solar system. Students had closely look at the description of the objects and sort them into different categories (generated by them). They also had to compare and contrast the objects using descriptive vocabulary.

• The solar system includes a star, the Sun, and the objects that orbit it, including Earth, the Moon, seven other planets, their satellites, and smaller objects.

• The pulling force of gravity keeps the planets and other objects in orbit by continuously changing their direction of travel.

Week 6 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Oct 12, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

This week we wrapped up our unit on the Maya Aztec and Inca. Our objectives were:

• review whole unit vocabulary with a word search
• complete a team test by collaborating with classmates to discuss each question
• complete a short essay performance task as a team

Mathematics

This week we continued working on multiplying and dividing. Our objectives were:

• divide numbers by 10, 100, and 1000 using patterns
• use rounding and related multiplication facts to estimate quotients
• divide a 2-, 3-, or 4- digit number by a 2-digit number

Lectura y Ciencias

This week in Lectura, we continued to work on the objectives from last week. We finished our writing project, Describir un objeto. Make sure you stop by our bulletin board to see the final pieces. Students did such a great job using descriptive, sensory language and creative ways to put their paragraph together. They used figuratives language such as similes and metaforas. And yes, my object was a chestnut! Castana! Although our time was limited, we were able to read through chapter 11 of our book Con carino Amaila. Students were assigned to read chapter 12 this weekend. 

In Science, we completed our studies Phases of the Moon. During the rest of the month, we will continue to look at our Moon calendar and record the sequence of changes we observe.

On Wednesday night , we had our stars viewing party. We were so fortunate to have Mr. Stan, who volunteered his time to come teach us about the mysteries of space and telescopes. We got to see Saturn, Jupiter, and of course to Moon! It was a real gift! On Thursday, we read(and listen to) our FOSS science resources, made some progress on our mini-research projects and got to recreate the phases of the Moon in a very “sweet” way!

Character Education

We had a lot of fun with our cooperation/teamwork activities this week!

Week 5 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Oct 5, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

This week we continued to learn about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Our objectives were:

• explain how the Inca engineers overcame challenges presented by the geography of the land
• describe how the Inca kept their empire together without a written language
• explain why the Spanish were rapidly able to conquer the Aztec and Inca Empires

Mathematics

This week we continued learning about multiplying and dividing. Our objectives were:

• use rounding and related multiplication facts to estimate quotients
• multiply a 2-, 3-, or 4- digit number by a 2-digit number
• practice these skills by completing a Math Escape Room!

Lectura

At the end of the week, students were assigned to read chapter 8 from our book, Con carino Amalia, and be prepared to discuss in class on Monday.

Understand and learn how to compare and contrast two objects or ideas, in oral and written form.

Participate actively during class discussions using evidence from the text to support claims.

Using our senses, generate descriptive language to use accurately in different contexts, for example, when describing an object.

Apply reading comprehension strategies such as making connections, clarifying, summarizing, visualizing.

Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a context (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).

Ciencias

Without a doubt, the highlight of this week was our OMSI field trip, but before that, these were the concepts discussed in class. Focus Question: How can you explain why we see some natural objects only in the night sky, some only in the day sky, and some at both times? How could you describe the size of and distance between Earth, the Moon, and the Sun?

This week we continued with our investigation 2, Planetary Systems. Students worked together to build a model of the Earth/Moon/Sun system. They applied many math and computing skills such as determine the distance and converting measuring units as well explain the concepts of  diameter, angles. Students analyzed the Moon observations to discover the sequence of changes. They learn the names for the four specific phases and the intermediate phases. Students used a light source and sphere to simulate an Earth–Moon– Sun system and explore the cause of Moon phases. There are so many questions that came up during this investigation. Students wanted to expand their understanding of concepts by formulating a question and starting a mini-research project.  This information will serve us so well as we continue to make meaning and construct explanations of the infinite  mysteries of the cosmos. 

Character Education

This month we will continue to add ribbons to our school Kindness Wreath but we will now focus on Teamwork and Cooperation.  We will be doing many great activities to show the importance of how communication and cooperation make teamwork so much better! We encourage you to point out how everyday tasks at home are made easier with a little bit of teamwork.

Week 4 4th/5th Grade News

by Ivary & Paola | Sep 28, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News

History & Geography

This week we continued to study the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Our objectives were:

• complete a summary chart of Mayan culture
• explain how the Aztec built and controlled a powerful empire
• describe Tenochtitlan and the surrounding landscape
• explain how the Inca organized their empire and met the needs of the people

Mathematics

This week we began chapter 2, Whole Number Multiplication and Division. Our objectives were:

• use a calculator to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers
• multiply numbers by 10, 100, or 1,000
• multiply numbers up to 4 digits by multiples of 10, 100, or 1,000
• use rounding to estimate products

English

This week we began our first writing study Narrative Writing. Our objectives were:

• understand the writing process we will use throughout the year
• identify the Elements of Narrative writing
• pre-write for our narrative writing pieces
• We also began our new spelling routine this week

Lectura

This week’s essential question: Como la historia nos enseña sobre la herencia cultural? We explored possible answers reading the informational text, Cinco de mayo. We will continue reading this piece next week. These were our objectives for literacy this week:

• Explain  the characteristics of expository texts.
• Establish purposes, audiences and the need for  different genres: expository and fiction, for example. 
• Apply reading comprehension strategies such as making connections, clarifying,  summarizing.
• Study the spelling patterns of words with stress on the antepenultimate syllable.
• Learn about adjectives and adverbs and use them in different sentence types.
• Write a summary of a text. 
• Identify main ideas and events and distinguish them from supporting details. 

This week we read the first three chapters of our book, Con carino Amalia. Students did a fantastic job keeping up with their reading assignments and participating actively in our book club discussions. The main theme this week was changes. Changes are not always easy, and the main character of our story is having to face difficult challenges that are making her feel sad and troubled. As we see in nature (and is mentioned in our story), contemplating the beautiful changes of the leaves in the Fall is a reminder that changes can also be good and beautiful. Students have established some deep connections to the story. We can’t wait to continue with our book discussions next week.

**Students have been assigned to read chapter 4 this weekend and come prepared to share their connections on Monday.**

Objectives during our book club:

• Determine a central idea of a text  and how it is conveyed through particular details; distinct from personal opinions or judgments. 
• Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a context (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).  
• Participate actively during class discussions using evidence from the text to support claims.
• Follow reading calendar.

Ciencias

Focus Question:  How could you describe the size of and distance between Earth, the Moon, and the Sun?

This week we started our Investigation 2: Planetary Systems.Students grappled with the size and distance relationships among Earth, the Moon, and the Sun.  After illustrating some of these concepts on their science journals we looked at the models of the the Earth and the Moon. Students found out that the diameter of the Earth is approximately four times the diameter of the Moon. Students applied math vocabulary and computing skills such as division and multiplication, diameter, angle, measuring distance, converting units (cm, mt, km, miles). We will continue with this investigation next week as well as learning about the moon appearance. 

• The Moon is much smaller than Earth, and orbits at a distance equal to about 30 Earth diameters. If the Earth’s diameter is 12,742 kilometers, what is the distance between the Earth and the Moon? 

Music with Ms. Nadia

Music is a great way to get the wiggles out and learn something new! This month we learned about rhythm through tapping sticks, hitting drums, striking triangles, clicking claves, shaking maracas, sliding sandpaper blocks, and jingling jingle bells. We reviewed half, quarter and eighth notes, along with half, quarter, and eighth rests. We played these in syncopated patterns on the percussion instruments, eventually spitting the class into sections and performing up to four different patterns at the same time! Some students were given the opportunity to create their own patterns and direct how they would like the class to perform on the instruments. Our focus song of the month was Hey Ho, Nobody’s Home, which we performed in several different ways. Students also contributed their own song suggestions, which will be implemented weekly.

Other highlights include vocal warmups about MNMs, playing the song game Down by the Banks, jamming out to the Lion King, and writing our own version of Do You Know the Muffin Man. This group’s dedication and eagerness makes it fun to sing with them every week!

Art with Ms. Kelly

I’m really enjoying working with this very creative “senior” class!

The first week we reviewed our Art Class procedures and rules, and then each student made an Abstract Name Design using markers and crayons. We looked at the artwork of the American artist Stuart Davis who used lots of letters and numbers in his abstract paintings during the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Our next project has involved learning about the Kuna People of Panama, and creating a fabric “Mola” using felt. We looked at several traditional Mola designs created by Kuna women, using an appliqué technique. The students created their own designs on paper first, and then cut out their designs from felt, using glue to attach the shapes to a background. Each student created beautiful fabric art! I’m trying to figure out a safe way to display these colorful pieces.

We are very thankful to have Ms. Stacie and Ms. Laura help out each week with this wonderful class!