Language Arts
We continued our language arts unit: En Equipo with a great poem, Solidaridad. This poem describes how we need all different types of workers in our world so we can all help each other.
We wrote about our spring break vacations. The students did a great job using the past tense in their 3-or more- sentences. We also read a great email from Ben and then the class dictated a reply. It was fun seeing Ben’s pictures and reading his email detailing his adventures.
We worked with the following pronouns: nosotros/nosotras – We, elllos/ellas – they.
Math
We had a lot of fun with money this week. We played a fun game with money identification, we used stamps to show various amounts of money, and we added up purchases (in small amounts).
We also created a spring flower of our math knowledge. Each petal on these flowers shows a different method we have learned this year. These include: number cubes, tallies, addition, subtraction, number bonds, and two ways to show the number in coins. These are on display in the hallway.
Social Studies & Science
It was great to be back in school this week! I missed all these smiling faces over the break. As always, we jumped right back into the fun of learning!
This week we continued our unit “Taking Care of th
e Earth”. We learned about composting- how to, and why it’s important. We are starting our own compost bin. As always, if there are any parents out there that have experience with this, we invite your guidance!
We learned about natural resources and how to use them responsibly and ways to conserve. See if your child can list a few natural resources and then tell you ways we can preserve them.
We also learned about the saying “Reduce, reuse, recycle”. We learned what each of these terms mean and about how doing these three things can help conserve our natural resources. We learned about common recyclable materials including glass, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, and paper. We discussed the process of recycling materials from home to the recycling factory.
Character Education
This week in Character Education we talked about Earth Day. Spanish With Sarah celebrates Earth Day all month long every April. We read a few short stories about our environment, how we take care of it, and why it’s important.
The kiddos are budding environmentalists and did a wonderful job in our class discussion!
Next week we will be working in our school garden, weather permitting, so please send in any gardening gloves or small gardening tools your child might want to use.
Art
In K-1 art this week, we looked at photos and paintings that show reflections. We talked about the difference between reflections and shadows, and how reflections can be seen in mirrors, in lakes, rivers, and rain puddles. The students learned how to make a reflection picture using markers and water. After folding their paper in half, the students drew several houses on the top half of their paper. I sprayed the bottom half of the paper with water, and folded their drawings over. The marker drawings “printed” onto the wet surface, creating beautiful reflections! A NOTE ABOUT ART GRADES: The Core Knowledge curriculum uses “D” for developing, “P” for progressing, and “M” for mastery. I use these as indicators of which units we have worked on or completed, and not as a grade of a student’s artistic ability. Every student has their own unique creativity, and I am always inspired by their beautiful artwork!