 The new school year opened a few months ago with zero glitches or surprises. Students arrived eager and ready to learn. After several years of holding hiring steady while experiencing rising enrollments, both schools were finally able to add quite a few new teachers and support staff this year. Some of the new teachers are replacing teachers who are on leave, and some of them are helping reduce class sizes. With the school year well underway, we would like to share some highlights.
Kindergarteners - This is the exciting beginning of a long academic journey ahead for many kindergarteners. They are quickly getting used to their new environment. This is the time for discovery, adventure and new friends. Kindergarteners are attending computer lab, exploring movement (their version of P.E.), library and music. They are meeting and getting to know their Third Grade buddies. Seasons are one of the science units so we have talked about summer and now we are onto fall and harvest. The kids are also learning about the ecosystem, farm animals, rainforest and pets. Some classes will go to Elkus Ranch in the fall and others will go throughout the school year. Colors, shapes, patterns, sorting and classifying are all part of the math curriculum.
First graders - September was a month of exciting discoveries, making new friends, reconnecting with familiar faces and exploring the larger playground. Highlights included the new sandbox, learning new playground games, and practicing jump rope skills. A special jump rope assembly sparked interest in learning these new skills. Students continue to identify and learn about American symbols. A surprise visitor, the Statue of Liberty, paid a visit to the Las Lomitas first graders. This come-to-life learning experience supported our ongoing social studies curriculum. Students were engaged as they created their models of Lady Liberty's torch. Halloween is fast approaching. We will be working the excitement for this holiday into our curriculum by learning Halloween poems and songs, telling stories and much more.
Second graders - In reading, 2nd graders have been learning about choosing "just right" books, decoding strategies, and making connections to the books they read. In writing, they have been practicing writing friendly letters, and using the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, editing and publishing) to write paragraphs on a variety of topics. They have also been working hard in math on addition and subtraction. Our Primary Math program is exciting as it develops solid thinking skills as well as an in depth mathematical understanding. The students love music, art, P.E. and going to the library - we are very grateful to have these programs at our school. To round it out, the students are looking forward to some upcoming fall art projects with our art docent and of course, Halloween! Third graders - Three new teachers have joined the 3rd grade teaching team. Students will be visiting the DeAnza Planetarium to support the science study of "Sun, Moon, Stars" and to the Woodside Store to support their social studies on local early towns. They will be attending a Mad Science assembly with First Graders on Matter, which also supports our science curriculum. Third graders have begun some special third grade school jobs, including Kindergarten Buddies, Recycling Team, and P.E. Helpers. We will also begin Playground Buddies soon which is an opportunity for 3rd graders to show their leadership skills by resolving conflicts on the playground.
Language Lab at Las Lomitas - We have a very international school community. Languages represented on campus include Swedish, Japanese, Korean, Finnish, Spanish, Danish, Vietnamese, Mandarin and many others. The Language Lab provides intensive small group lessons which emphasize developing English fluency and focuses on the four ELD standards domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing. Vocabulary development is also an area of emphasis. We are fortunate at Las Lomitas to have such a diverse group of students and families!
 Fourth graders - Fourth graders made their transition to La Entrada easily. They are finding out that being in the same school with the bigger and older kids isn't so scary after all - especially considering there are snow cones to be had on Fridays. All the classes are working on the play Grammar Gulch and they are reading the novel "Because of Winn-Dixie". Some of the classes collaborated with 7th graders by learning the importance of character description and how to develop a story that will "hook" the audience. Students continue to learn about California geography and have finished making salt maps. They also learned about rocks and minerals with experiments that included Cupcake Geology, Jelly Belly Mineralogy, mock rocks, crystals, mineral properties and more. Fifth graders - In math, students have been working on solidifying what they learned in 4th grade including graphs and data, place value and algebra and moving on to fractions and decimals. In the core classroom, a big focus this year is writing. In some classes, weekly essay assignments develop students' creative and narrative writing skills. Each week, students are asked to write a 250-300 word essay. Students can choose their own topics or pick from suggested topics. After they read the story about Apollo 11, "First Moon Landing", students wrote a letter as if they were one of the astronauts to a family member describing their journey to the moon. In Social Studies, students learned more about the Native Americans and made clay totem poles. In science, they studied the process of germination, condensation and evaporation.
Sixth graders - In 6th grade core, students have been reading short stories and writing plot summaries in English. They have written two short stories. This month, they'll be writing a response to literature and reading a novel. In Social Studies, students have studied the evolution of humans and the first civilization in Mesopotamia. Ms. Olson's class will host a poetry recital on Halloween - grandparents are welcome to attend.
Seventh graders - Students in 7th grade are writing scary stories this month. They will also tell scary stories to the 4th and 5th graders on Halloween day. In November, students will research their family histories and prepare written and oral presentations. They will also cook a dish from their culture to share on November 22, Multi-cultural day, in addition to listening to stories from different cultures and performing dances from around the world. In December, they will work on poetry - reading, analyzing, and writing. In Social Studies, students have studied the fall of the Roman empire and Europe during the Middle Ages including the role of the Catholic Church, the plague, and the rise and fall of feudalism. In Science, students are currently studying cells and learning all of the main parts of the cell and their functions. They will be taking a look at their own cells under the microscope along with numerous plant cells. They will also look at a number of single celled organisms, discussing how they move and eat. As an example we will be feeding paramecium colored yeast and watching how they capture and digest the yeast. It should be interesting. Ask your grandchild about it! Eighth graders - In 8th grade English, there was an optional assignment to read Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie" and record their thoughts about the novel in a journal. But, "the catch" was that they had to read and journal with their parents. Basically, the parent and student read sections of the novel separately. Then, the student wrote the first entry, answering specific questions and posing questions for his/her parent(s). Then, the parent responded to his/her child's questions and thoughts. When the teacher designed this optional assignment, the expectation was that only a handful of 8th graders would choose to do this, but actually 75 out of 119 8th graders (and their parents) participated in this assignment! La Entrada Library - This year at La Entrada, we are starting a Book Challenge with Hillview Middle School. We held our first meeting last week with the 7th and 8th graders to discuss the 30 books we want to (as a team) have read for our April match with Hillview. In addition, the 8th graders just finished "campaigning" for this year's California Young Reader Medal. They lobbied 5th and 6th graders for their vote for the best Picture Book for Older Readers. This year's selection included picture books about the Underground Railroad, South Africa and a Japanese concept called Wabi Sabi. We are also starting the Letters About Literature project. Last year one of our 6th graders' letters was one of the top ten winners! Sixth - Eighth Grade Art - 6th Grade art students have been learning about color theory. They are currently working on landscape paintings where they must mix their own hues from the primary colors and neutral colors. Art 1 elective students have been learning about George Rodrigue and his Pop Art paintings of Blue Dog. They are creating acrylic paintings on canvas of their own pets done in the Expressionistic colors that Rodrigue is known for. Art 2 elective students have been studying the works of the Impressionists such as Claude Monet. They have been creating a landscape using acrylic paint on canvas. They are recreating the Impressionists' techniques of loose brushstrokes and capturing the light and atmosphere in a setting. Photography students are learning all about how to use the dark room. This week, they began developing the negatives from their first roll of film. Soon they will be making black and white enlargements from these negatives.Foreign Languages - Chinese became the latest foreign language to be added to the La Entrada curriculum, joining Latin, French, Spanish for students interested to learn. Of course there are many other classes and activities we would love to tell you about such as music, drama, computer lab, library, PE.... Stay tuned for the next newsletter. |
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