Welcome preschool families! We are so happy to have your kiddos in our class!
Everything we do is an opportunity to learn, show kindness and caring for each other, and to have fun! This week we began our new school year by working with a social skills activity. This activity was a great way to ease anxious feelings, while allowing children to celebrate differences amongst each other. We began with our circle time, as circle sitting tends to make everyone equal and encourages participation of all kids. I announced that this was “all about us” time. Everyone introduced themselves and shared their favorite and special things! It was a wonderful activity and our returning students set great examples for our new students and helped ease some shyness.
We began working with our “My family / Mi familia” topic, which is our theme for the month of September. This week we read ¿Tú Mamá Es Una Llama? We learned some new Spanish words:
llama / llama
vaca / cow
cisne / swan
murciélago / bat
canguro/kangaroo
We also worked with different activities to build up fine motor skills. In addition, we sang songs, danced and played. It was a blast!
Letras
Each week of the school year we will focus on a new letter. We will introduce the upper- and lower-case letters to the class. We will sing songs while passing around objects that begin with that letter sound. We will play games with the sound and learn the correct formation of the letter. (Most uppercase letters begin from the top down.) This first week of school though the students started practicing their names. They used crayons and markers and traced their names with them.
Números
Every two weeks of the school year we will focus on a new number. Our goal is for the preschoolers to count, develop number sense, identify groups of a given number, correctly write numbers, and more!
This week we worked with number 1 / número uno. We had a fun time playing and using some items to recognize and identify the number in a group of other numbers. Also, they did different activities to develop their fine motor skills.
Figura y el color
Shapes is one of the topics taught during preschool mathematics. We will talk about shapes every day, but we will specifically focus on one shape each month. The students will not only learn the name of basics shapes but also how they integrate with each other. This month we are working with the circle shape / el círculo. We passed around different circles so the children could examine the shapes up close while hearing the name. We all had fun tracing the circle with our little fingers and tracing the letter with markers on the board.
We focused on the color red / color rojo. We went on a color hunt around the classroom and found red little bears all around us.
It was a great start to the school year, and we are looking forward to a great year!
It was a great, and very busy, final week of school. We had graduation for our 5th & 6th graders, a rainy field day, report cards and summer enrichment went home, and our final day. We look forward to seeing everyone at our Back to School Night on August 26th.
Have a great summer and remember to READ every day!!!!
This week we started working with the plants. We talked about what the plants need to grow (sun, water, soil, and air), and plants parts (root, steam, leaves and flower), as well the life cycle of plants from seed to plant. The kiddos were fascinated by the notion that a tiny seed can emerge from the ground as a plant. The little ones enjoyed what they were learning and we did some crafts while the kiddos sang “las plantas necesitan…tierra, aire , agua y sol…”
Libro
Ciclos de vida de las plantas: de semilla a girasol.
Después de la tormenta.
Letra
We reviewed the letters that they have been learning (vowels, B, C, D,F, G, H, J, K, L, LL, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W X, Y, Z),
Número
19
Figura
We reviewed all the shapes that they have been learning (circulo, cuadrado, rectangulo, triangulo, estrella, corazon, diamante, ovalo, and pentagon)
Color
We reviewed all the colors that they have been learning (rojo, azul, amarillo, verde, anaranjado y/o naranja, rosado, morado, café, blanco y negro)
This week we started working with our “Water Cycle, Plants, and Light” unit. This week we learned all about the water cycle. In order to understand the water and why it rains, kids need to know about the water cycle first. I explained to them that water covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface, and living things need water to survive. The water cycle is nature’s way of purifying, circulating, and replenishing water.
We learned the four basic steps in the water cycle:
1. Evaporation: When heat from the sun turns liquid water into gaseous water vapor, causing it to rise into the air.
2. Condensation: When gaseous water vapor cools at high elevations and becomes liquid (or solid) again
3. Precipitation: When liquid water (rain) or solid water (snow) falls to the ground.
4. Collection: When large amounts of water gather in oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams
We did a simple demonstration to help the kiddos understand the basic elements of the water cycle, . We used water and ice. In a larger container I put hot water, stirred it well to make the ocean(evaporation). I covered the top of the container with a plastic wrap so we could see the water condense into clouds. We put some ice cubes into the center of the cling wrap covering the top of the container, so the cool ice in the “sky” would cause the evaporated water to condense when it rose up. After several minutes the kiddos could see water condensing into “clouds”, and then precipitation began with water dropping from the plastic, back into the ocean.
This week we continued work with our camping uint: “Vamonos de Campamento”/ “Let’s go Camping” theme. All the kids loved it and they had such a good experience with the whole theme. Thanks to all the parents for supporting their kids and helping them to enjoy the awesome experience of camping that we had Thursday and Friday. The kids played outdoor games and we used a “campfire” for sitting around singing songs and telling stories for fun while we roasted marshmallows. We played games like: find letters, bingo, musical chairs, and finally we reviewed the vocabulary that they learned throughout this month.
This week we continued working with the unit “Let’s go Camping”.The children continue having a lot of fun with this unit. They love to learn new words that are related to the theme and have been doing an excellent job learning the vocabulary.Also, the kids enjoyed and had fun this week making plans for some of the foods that the families can make while camping, such as hamburgers, hot dogs, and smores.
This week we continued working with the unit “”Let’s go Camping”. The kids are having a
great time learning the new vocabulary and reviewing the vocabulary they learned earlier.
We also made projects such as lanterns, fireflies with a water color and printing their little
fingers simulating a firefly. We also made a compass where the kids decorated it and
worked their fine motor skills by waving a strip of yarn. We read the book “Vamonos a Acampar”,
the kids were very entertained while I was reading the book, learning words such as:
avergonzado-embarrased, encantado-enchanted, enorm-huge, feroz-fierce, susurrar-whisper. It is
amazing to see how kids are learning.
Review vocabulary:
Tienda-tent,
Saco-sleeping bag,
Lena-firewood,
Fogata-campfire,
Oso-bear,
Ardilla-squirrel,
Pino-pine tree.
New vocabulary:
Mochila-backpack,
Linterna-flashlight,
Brujula-compass.
Letra: Y
Numero:16
Color: blanco
Figura: pentagono
This week we continued working with our unit “Let’s go Camping.” The children had a great week learning our new vocabulary and creating different crafts. The children have done a great job learning new vocabulary and different activities. This week the children learned that when people go camping they can find beautiful landscapes; pine trees, rivers and lakes. Also, people can find different types of animals such as squirrels, rabbits, and birds.
We read a very funny book where the kids used their imagination and discovered how it would be for different animals to camp, such as fish, crocodiles, bears, pigs, giraffes, and monkeys, etc. It was fun! After reading, the kids made crafts like, bears with watercolors, manipulating the paint with a fork, they also colored and decorated some cute squirrels and pines with silk paper.
We finished our April theme of our “Pirates” unit with more pirate games: memory and treasure hunting with a map. We also read the great book “Los Miedos del Capitan Cacurcias”. This book was super fun and talked about tackling our fears.
We started the month of May with the unit “Let’s go Camping.” The children were very excited this week, learning new vocabulary and doing projects!May is a perfect time to start with this topic as summer vacations soon come and children can be familiar with the activities that can be done in a camp, such as hiking, campfires, telling stories, fishing, etc. We used some camping ideas and activities to teach the children about outdoor activities. Kids had fun with activities such as campfires and tents this week.
Vocabulary learned this week:
Tienda de campaña-tent,
Saco de dormir-sleeping bag,
Leña-firewood,
Fogata-campfire.
Libros de la semana
“Los Miedos del Capitán Cacurcias” and “Vamos a Acampar”
llama / llama
