Kindergarten students just finished learning about farm animals and have now moved onto zoo animals! They noticed that their names sound similar to what we call them in English… such as el tigre, el elefante and el pinguino. These are called cognates! We also talk about their size and colors and try to find the animals around the room using “Adonde esta.../Where is...?” Students enjoy acting out the animals and using phrases such as “Yo soy ____/I am ____” and “Me gusta/I like” and “No me gusta/I don’t like.” Each class, Kindergarten students review the date, weather and share how they are feeling. They also count from 1-15 and stretch/move different body parts! Please be sure to ask your child what they are doing in class and practice with them at home. Gracias!
Fourth graders have begun their last unit of the year: texture, form, and sculpture. We have stepped away from the traditional art works on paper and have been working with other materials, such as yarn and aluminum foil. With their weaving skills that they have been developing over the years, every fourth grader was able to make a functional pouch. We also have learned about Alberto Giacometti’s figurative sculptures, and created one of our own showing a suggestive gesture. Currently, fourth graders are working hard on their clay bottle people, and they are absolutely creative and inspiring! I am so proud of how far our fourth grade class has come. Their clay bottle figures attest to what fine artists this class has developed into!
Thank you to all the parents that have supported the art program this year!
Second graders have been learning about the music staff where pitch/notes are written. They began with a 3-line/2-space staff. They sang, read, wrote, and played on xylophones 2-pitch melodies (“sol-mi”) in songs like Lemonade (ask about the charade game) and Here We Sit (ask about that game, too) using solfege syllables (solfege = do re mi fa sol la ti do).
Second graders “graduated” to the full staff with 5-lines/4-spaces recently. They should be able to tell you the number of each line and space, not the letter names yet; we played a “Simon Says” staff game and did a staff label worksheet to help us. They read and played another two-pitch song on xylophones called Tinker, Tailor from the full staff.
Now, they are currently working on 3-pitch songs on the full staff with the pitches “sol,” “la,”and “mi” in Bobby Shaftoe (den pennies). They are singing and reading the pitches of these melodies ask about the game like Marco Polo) and Lucy Locket (ask about finding the hidfrom the full staff. They are also writing 3-pitch melodies for the songs Bounce High and Snail, Snail. In the next week, they will read and play these songs.
Wow, the time is just passing us by. Our P.E. students really enjoyed the month of April. It was our bowling unit. In this unit, they have an opportunity to bowl down 10 pins with different size balls ( they are surprised when they can knock down more with a smaller ball). Our 3rd graders do Disco Bowling. They listen to saturday night fever music, the spinning disco balls glow as the lights are turned off, they learn how to keep score, and they work cooperatively setting the pins up for each other.
Our 4th graders do a two day bowling tournament, trying to knock down as many pins as they can in two days.
We will be beginning our track and field and fitness units next.
4th graders have been reading and listening to poetry and recently published cinquains. We have discussed alliteration, simile, metaphor, haiku, cinquain, free verse, and much more. In addition, students can identify and interpret various primary sources, and have gained an understanding of how primary sources can deepen our learning and understanding. Lastly, we have reviewed some great reference resources, including encyclpoedia, atlas, dictionary, and almanacs.
