 Kindergarteners have been focusing on numbers to 100, counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's and they enjoyed some 100th Day of School activities with their third grade buddies. Students also learned about measuring length, height and width; they estimated the lengths of various items first and then measured using centimeter cubes. Valentine's Day is an opportunity to create mailboxes and practice reading names and numbers while delivering valentines. The kids created stamps for their valentines in the computer lab using Kid Pix. In language arts, the kids have been learning all the letters of the alphabet, how to write their first and last names with capital letters and writing sentences. The teachers have been reading winter theme stories and discussing story elements like characters. Students take home books to read and bring them back to trade for a new selection of books each week. First graders also just celebrated the 100th Day of School with a festival of activities all revolving around the number 100. They created fun projects such as lining up 100 Q-tips back-to-back, stacking 100 pattern blocks and raced the clock to see in 100 seconds how many times they could write their name and then make words with letter tiles. The fire department was on campus to teach first graders about fire safety; inside the fire department trailer, the kids watched a movie, experienced touching a door that felt hot and safely climbed out of the window. Soon, the first graders will have field trips to the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve to observe plants and animals in their natural habitat. Valentine's Day will transform the classrooms into post offices where everyone will have postal duties - stamping, mailing, sorting, analyzing addresses - to deliver valentines and learn how the postal system works. Second graders are studying various science units this year through hands-on experiences, report writing and art. The curriculum covers the physical, life and earth sciences including sound, magnets, simple machines, life cycles, rocks and minerals. We are excited about the challenges through our new math program. Students are learning mental math strategies and new methods for problem solving. As a part of the visual and performing arts curriculum, the second grade classes will be going to Skyline College to see a performance of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" this month. Third graders enjoy Junior Great Books every winter. Parent volunteers, who have received training, assisted teachers in leading small group discussions of short stories specially selected for their rich content. The adults used well designed questions to foster discussions and the students enjoyed giving their perspectives on each story and its characters. All third graders have a Kindergarten buddy with whom they share library time. All third graders take turns doing recycling duty for the school and they may choose to become Kindergarten Playground Buddies as well. They look forward to four art lessons with the Artist-in-Residence, Donine Ettinger, in which they will learn drawing, painting, printmaking and clay sculpture. Fourth graders have performed plays, decorated ginger bread houses, and staged in-class readings of the award winning book Because of Winn-Dixie which they have been reading and studying for some time. They have been studying early history of the state including the Missions and recently had an exciting field trip to Mission San Juan Bautista. All students are working on a presentation, drawing, or model of the Mission to solidify their understanding. In Math, students are mastering multiplication, division, basic algebra, and graphing. They are about to move on to fractions, decimals, geometry, and probability. In Science, students planted seeds to watch them grow along with bugs as part of a study of terrestrial environments. Students finished a unit on earth science including getting to know their rocks, minerals, and landforms. Ask a fourth grader whether granite is harder than gypsum or calcite -- he or she will know. Fifth graders have been diving into literature, reading Esperanza Rising and other award winning books. Earlier in the year the students learned about the elements of fiction and now many fifth graders are participating in Literature Circles in which they discuss novels in small groups. Ask your grandkids about the Literature Circle jobs like discussion leader, connector, and literary luminary. The students have been practicing different types of writing including literary response and creative writing. In social studies, fifth graders have been studying early explorers to America and the original 13 colonies including settlements like Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg. Your grandchild has likely completed a report or project on one of the colonies. The highlight of this phase of the study was "Colonial Day" at school on February 11th. Recent science units include the digestive and circulatory systems and weather systems. In math, the children have been learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide negative numbers. Sixth graders had the chance to participate in the recent La Entrada Science Fair and had very innovative projects. Experiments this year included: can people tell the difference between cakes baked with baking powder or baking soda (and what do/don't these ingredients do); whether people remember pleasant or unpleasant words better; if you can only use your nose or your mouth when running, which is "more efficient"; the exercise value of different WII sports; and is the creation of carbon dioxide affected by water temperature. The County Science Fair event was held the week of January 31 at the Air Museum in San Carlos. That means we will learn soon if the sixth grade is sending any finalists to the state competition. Seventh graders are just finishing The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. Some were amused to hear that the author failed her creative writing class the year she wrote this classic. They just finished studying DNA in science and all have double helix key chains to prove it. In math, they just took their major test on algebraic equations with fractions and decimals. Everyone is excited that Mr. Ertola has made math make sense this year! Seventh grade is ahead of all the other grades in earning spirit points and, if they have the most points at the end of the year, they plan on having a great time at Raging Waters! Eighth graders are so looking forward to their Washington DC Trip in a few weeks. They are counting down the days and checking out the weather reports from the East Coast daily. In social studies, they are learning about the California Gold Rush - go 49ers! In English, they are reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" and they all think Boo Radley is "super cool" and Atticus Finch is a hero that belonged to another generation. In science, they are focusing on chemistry. This is their favorite joke: Two atoms meet. 1st atom: "I have lost an electron." 2nd atom: "Are you sure?" 1st atom: "I am positive!" |
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