BOOK DAY

On Friday, April 23rd 2010 we celebrated our first ever bilingual Book Day! We had a great time reading books in Spanish and English. Each student had brought in their favorite book out of which they read a few lines. The English teacher and auxiliary then each read a book in English. Students also got to make their own bilingual bookmarks, each with a spanish/english quote related to reading. Check out the pictures!

UNIT - MATERIALS

Welcome back!

For our return from spring break, we started the materials unit.

In this unit we introduced different types of materials: stone, metal, glass, plastic, wood, cotton, leather, and wool. We used flashcards and random objects found in the classroom as visual aides and had students use (both in written and spoken form) the sentence structure " it´s made of ..." to describe what these objects. They also described them, using the vocabulary from the five senses unit: rough, smooth, hard, soft and the new vocabulary: bend, stretch, twist.

Here is a fun online experiment / quiz. It tests various materials to see if they are bendy and/or waterproof:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/sorting_using_mate.shtml

Later, students learned that some materials such as wool, cotton, and leather are found naturally and can come from plants or animals. We further explored these natural materials. Students learned that wool, cotton, and leather are best for clothing, while glass, stone, wood, and metal are best for other objects such as houses. In the case of clothing, students learned that warm (and waterproof materials such as plastic) are more suited for cold weather, whereas cool materials are more suited for hot weather.

We finished the unit teaching students that some materials can be recycled. We placed different colored boxes (coordinated with the ones they might find on the street) for plastic/aluminium/glass, paper, and trash and had students recycle their snack and work materials.
This is an online recycling game that tests students on what can be recycled:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/barnabybear/games/recycle.shtml

"HAPPY EASTER!" PENCIL HOLDER

Before the students went on their "Semana Santa" break, they made "Happy Easter!" pencil holders to take home. This is a fun hands on project that is practical and very easy to make.

Materials are:

- a toilet paper roll

- colored pencils or markers

- scissors

- foam paper (for the "feet")

- cotton balls (for the "tail")

Father´s Day

For father´s day students made an english/spanish book for their fathers. Students used colour, food, animal, toy and season vocabulary they learned in class and chose one of each that best represented their fathers. They wrote out the word and drew it out on the page. They finished the book with a poem (see picture).

Daddy I love you

For all that you do

I´ll kiss you and hug you

Because you love me, too

UNIT - WATER and LANDSCAPES

In this unit students learned about the different states of water. As part of our experiment, we grew sugar and salt crystals (see picture). Students learned about the three states of water, and that water evaporates with sunlight. Each group of students mixed their own salt and a sugar solutions. We let the solutions sit by the window until the water evaporated and only the crystals were left. Later, we showed students how water changes from a solid to a liquid using ice cubes. We went over both results as a class. Following the experiment, students learned that liquid water exists in the form of lakes, seas, and rivers and that we have different uses for it such as washing our hands, watering our plants, drinking, and washing the dishes.

Landscapes are part of our world, and in this unit students learned about the differences between rural and urban landscapes. We introduced this part of the unit with a video of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse". The students really enjoyed the story and got to make their own country mouse paper puppet. They learned that urban landscapes have cars, streets, buildings, shops, highways, and bridges and that in contrast rural landscapes have farms, rivers, mountains, and forests. They distinguished various rural landscapes such as the forest, the jungle, the seaside, the savannah, the desert and the country by their principal characteristics (such as the desert is hot, the seaside has water) and which animals live in them.

Here are some neat links to online games and activities:

http://pbskids.org/rogers/buildANeighborhood.html This is a fun activity about elements of country and city landscapes. Students choose how many of each elements (such as streets, houses, trees etc) they put in their landscape.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ey/science/animal_h/index.htm (This activity deals with animal habitats. Students either drag and drop animals in their proper habitats or choose which animals live in each habitat).

UNIT - My Body

In this unit students learned the various parts of their bodies and faces. We used the songs "if you´re happy and you know it..." and " head, shoulder, knees and toes". For their final project, students received a sheet of a blank body with each of their faces already printed on it. They then cut and pasted labels of the appropriate body parts on the sheet.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION - ANIMALS

This game had students imitate various animals that they learned in science class.
We used different colored jerseys or handkerchiefs.
The students used two jerseys and imitated fish, birds, and a lion. They used their handkerchief or jersey to imitate the movement of each animal. To finish the activity, students played a game of ¨tail tag¨. They imitated a lion and had to catch other students´ tails. At the end each student counted how many tails he/she had caught.