"I like Buffalo most of all."

We celebrated Hispanic Heritage month, from September 15-October 15.
The Dual Language Immersion students were treated to salsa dancing lessons.

I was very impressed with the effort and creativity that the students put into their  
Hispanic Heritage Biographies.  They presented them in front of the class, and then we put them in the hall for the other classes to admire.

Some of the most interesting things that took place in the classroom were during Science and Social Studies.

Science

Alexis:  Look, I found my seed under the plant's leaf!
Nereilys:  The shell is from the seed. 
Chris:  My leaf is spiky.
Alexis:  All of these plants are yellow and one is green.
Chris: Mi planta esta cerciendo flores.
Norah:  Mine too.

The kids were balancing the leaves of the plants by dropping water on them.
Norah:  Water is actually very heavy. In France, there was water that rushed through a mountain and now its a cave.

Abigail: Some of my leaves are shaped like a heart


The students took cut flowers and dissected them to find the parts of the flower (style, stigma, anther, filament) and draw their own diagrams.
Adeline:  The style is really big on these plants.

The students were amazed to observe that some of the plants had pollinated since our last observation, and had sprouted some beans!

 Social Studies

Teacher:  As you fill out your maps, what do you notice about our state?
Norah: It has lots of mountains and rivers and lakes.  And its extreemly close to Canada.
River: Our NYS map looks like a boot to me.
Alexis: When you turn it on its side, it looks like an ax!
Chris:  It looks like PA is bigger than the Atlantic Ocean.
Teacher:  Is it?
Chris:  No, nothing is as big as the Atlanitc Ocean.
Daniel:  Que nos estados tienen muchos ciudades y tienen y cosas importantes como Niagara Falls y New York City.
Teacher:  What's your favorite thing about New York State?
Sydney: I like how the borders can be rivers like Lake Champlain.
Alexis: I like the big buildings of it, like New York City.
Norah:  I like the mountains, but I like Buffalo best of all.

ELA/NLA 

We had some fun during our author's circle.  We gave feedback to one another on our characters, the problem, and the solution to the problem.

The students in this class are very good at group work and helping one another.  Congratulations!

I just found something!

  This week we began our study of plants.  We had an exciting time planting our fast-growing plants and watching them grow.

 

First we just observed dry beans and noted some of their properties.  Then we soaked the beans in water overnight to compare them to the dry beans.  The following is some of the dialogue I heard from the students:  

Teacher: What have we noticed about our seeds now that they have been soaked?

Sydney:  When we soaked the bean for 24 hours it got bigger.

Alexis: La semilla crecio.

Teacher:  What's inside the seed?

Noel: It's a little plant! Mine looks like a rose.

Sydney: Mine looks like a pepper.

Alexis:  The skin looks like the chrysalis of a butterfly.

Chris:  I just found something! A little seed thing inside the seed. And the skin is clear. Not white.

 

The students are measuring the length of the plants every day so that we can graph their data.

 

Now the students are talking about the emerging buds the day after we planted the seeds.

Jomar:  I could already see the seed and it looks like the hairs of the dandelion.

Adeline: It's growing white.

Alexis:  Puedo ver una raiz.

River: If I had an invention I would try to make something to help the plants grow faster.

Teacher:  We have an invention!  We put fertilizer in there.

Some of us have named our plants!

Integrating ELA with Social Studies

Buddy reading.  We use highlighters and sticky notes to mark important passages. 

Use use place vlaue charts to explain the "why" of regrouping.

We even had time for a brain break.  If you wonder what that means, go to GoNoodle.com and see our class mascot.  He's cute :)

Our first weeks of school

Welcome to our first blog post of the 2014-2015 school year.  This will be a summary of our first weeks.  On September 11, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the parents at our Open House.  I talked about my expectations of the students, as well as how the language distribution will look in this 50/50 Dual Language classroom.   It was nice to share ideas on how to handle missing homework.  I really like to hear feedback from the parents so we can put a system in place that works for all.



In Social Studies the Fourth Grades are utilizing New York Studies Weeekly, a newspaper dedicated to covering the Common Core Standards for the grade.  The first theme we are investigating is Precolonization which includes the study of native americans.

  In Math, we are studying place value.  The new Math Modules are extremely rigorous.  I would like to direct parents to EngageNY.com as a resource where the Math Mods are published by grade level. Parents can go on and see the exact lessons that will be taught.    

Here we are using number lines as a strategy for rounding.

Abi and Matthew critiqued each other's fluency during center time.  They took notes and gave one another tips on how to improve their reading.  Some things that were mentioned were, "raise your voice a little" and "pause when there is a period."

In Science, our first topic is Astonomy.  The class created moon calendars for September, which we traced onto acetate which the students can hang in their bedroom windows and compare with what they see in the sky at night.

It has been really great getting to know the students.  Now it's time to work hard and learn!

Our very own arboretum

Mrs. Rose, our Atelierista, and I brought our students out to the land behind our school.  We were looking to find a permanent home for our classroom fairy house.  As we were walking, Mrs. Rose pointed out that this area is just like the arboretum that we had visited at the Opal School in Portland. Amazing discovery!  We have our own slice of wilderness in the middle of South Buffalo.   

The students were so enthusiastic about being there. 

We cut through a path...

Raced through a field...

Discovered a pond...

And finally found the right spot to leave our fairy house...

It was a fun culminating activity to the year!