2023-24 LS Specialists Newsletter Page

List of 6 items.

• Kindergarten

  Art

  • Kindergarteners learned about several visual artists who create abstract artwork based on music. Students tried this themselves as we listened to songs from different parts of the world and they interpreted the music as they painted on large sheets of paper. Students were so serene and focused during this exercise - it was a real joy! 

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance).

  Library

  • Kindergarteners voted for their favorite nominee for the California Young Reader Medal Program, with The Littlest Yak by Lu Fraser receiving the most votes in the K-2 category. Additionally, kindergarteners read the story We Are Water Protectors by Michaela Goade and reflected on ways to protect the planet in preparation for Earth Day. As April draws to a close, kindergarteners will celebrate National Poetry Month by listening to a diverse selection of poems and taking part in a poem visualization activity in the library.

  Mandarin

  • Kindergarten students will continue to practice classroom language in daily practice, such as “can I have/go…” “can I…”, etc. in mandarin. They will be learning about color’s name and practice the most common Chinese phrase, such as “I like… 我喜欢…”, “I don’t like…我不喜欢…”, “I love…我爱…” in color and food topics. They will be learning a new song (找朋友Look for friends). Students will learn some new Chinese characters (上，下，小，雨) by digital game-based learning app on iPad. They will continue to practice counting number 1~100 and color’s name in Chinese through games. Besides, we have been practicing Station Rotation activities to practice writing numbers and characters, and our kindergarten students love it!

  Music

  • Kindergartners are leading call and response songs, learning about musical opposites, and high and low sounds. 

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • Kindergarteners are currently exploring the fascinating world of fabrics, delving into their diverse properties and behaviors when subjected to water and deconstruction. Through our exploration, we've discovered that fabrics exhibit remarkable flexibility, often comprising intricately woven threads. Furthermore, we've observed that fabrics can possess varying abilities to absorb, transmit, or repel water. Additionally, we've learned that despite exposure to moisture, some fabrics retain their original form when dried.

• 1st Grade

  Art

  • I’m so excited to show off first graders' Owl Moon paintings in the upcoming art show! Now that they’re complete, students have moved on to studying the poetic form of haiku for National Poetry Month. They’re working on writing their own haikus then creating illustrations to go with them.

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance).

  DBi Lab

  • First graders worked in teams to design and build a roller coaster for a ping pong ball using paper straws, tape, and pipe cleaners. They learned and applied the flange, a paper prototyping technique, to securely connect straws to the cardboard base.

  Library

  • First graders voted for their favorite nominee for the California Young Reader Medal Program, with The Littlest Yak by Lu Fraser receiving the most votes in the K-2 category. Additionally, we read the story We Are Water Protectors by Michaela Goade and reflected on ways to protect the planet in preparation for Earth Day.As April draws to a close, first graders will celebrate National Poetry Month by listening to a diverse selection of poems and taking part in a poem visualization activity in the library. 

  Mandarin

  • No Mandarin this semester. 

  Music

  • First graders are finishing up their STEAM fair unit in music class.

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • First graders are embarking on an exciting journey into the realm of light and shadows. They've grasped the concept that light sources encompass objects that emit light, such as lamps, flashlights, candles, and the radiant Sun. Moreover, they've comprehended that shadows emerge as darkened regions when light is obstructed. Lastly, they've discovered that the formation of a shadow necessitates a trifecta: a light source, an obstructing object, and a background surface. Notably, they've observed that the size of the shadow cast on the surface undergoes alterations as the object shifts closer to the light source. 

  Spanish

  • First Grade students have been working with the verb “tener” (to have) and have had the opportunity to experience a short mini-skit in Spanish. In order to successfully teach by using student actors, I first clearly established the expectations for my student actors and for my audience. Our first play with student actors was super successful! I look forward to doing more. The mini-skits are a perfect opportunity to focus on using the grammar structures and vocabulary we have learned thus far while weaving in new vocabulary. Both during and after the mini-skits, I ask comprehension questions, in Spanish. As we review more of our Super 7 verbs, students will continue to have the opportunity to either act or be an audience member in one of our mini-skits. Most recently, students have also been enjoying talking about their likes and dislikes. We have been working with “Me encanta,” “Me gusta,” “No me gusta” and “¡Qué asco! Guacala.” Here is a fun video we will be watching,  ¿Te gusta el helado de brócoli?. Each class period has continued to begin with a simple warm-up question to help set the tone for the class. We have continued to focus on answering, “¿Cómo estás?” It is especially fun to hear students ask each other, “¿Por qué estás triste?” or “¿Con quién estás enojado?”

• 2nd Grade

  Art

  • Second graders are nearly finished with their investigations for the upcoming STEAM Fair, and I can’t wait to show them off next week. It’s been an engaging and deeply creative process. 

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance). 

  DBi Lab

  • Second graders were introduced to Scratch, a visual coding program. They worked in teams to animate sprites (characters) and explored adding text, audio, and motion to their scenes. 

  Library

  • Second graders voted for their favorite nominee for the California Young Reader Medal Program, with The Littlest Yak by Lu Fraser receiving the most votes in the K-2 category. Additionally, we read the story We Are Water Protectors by Michaela Goade and reflected on ways to protect the planet in preparation for Earth Day. As April draws to a close, second graders will celebrate National Poetry Month by listening to a diverse selection of poems and taking part in a poem visualization activity in the library. 

  Mandarin

  • Second graders will be learning 12 main action verbs in Chinese Verbs and 16 sports names in daily practice. They will practice these action verbs with fun games. They will learn how to say “你会什么运动？What sports do you play? 我会I can play.../我不会...I can’t play…” in Mandarin. We will be learning some new characters (只，有，牛，水，中, ) in stroke order, and practice with flashcards and Chinese calligraphy brush. We will also be learning a song (春天在哪里？Where is the spring?) and two nursery rhymes (大小多少Compare Big and Small, 比尾巴Compare the tails). Students will continue to work on their Pinyin and start to learn the new 9 compound finals and 9 nasal finals by digital game-based learning apps on iPad.

  Music

  • Second graders are starting their music technology unit where they will be exploring Chrome Music Lab along with other digital music creation applications. This exposure reaps many benefits including opening up students to other music making experience, creation, composition, and improving their technology skills. 

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • In their exploration of solids, second graders have gained an understanding that materials can exist in the form of masses composed of minute particles. They've discovered that these particulate masses can accumulate into piles and provide support for denser objects on their surfaces. Additionally, they've learned techniques for separating solids by size using screens, recognizing that the mass of particles is not uniformly flat or level. Finally, through investigations conducted in our Redwood tree area, they've observed firsthand how particulate matter occurs naturally outdoors, enriching their understanding of environmental phenomena.

  Spanish

  • Since our last newsletter, the Second Grade read and illustrated a short story about a tired and frustrated cat, named Stripes, who goes to Italy with his friend because they both want to eat lasagna. This silly short story, written by me, uses all of the Super 7 verbs and is a perfect way to get students reading in Spanish. Seeing these verbs in context helps students naturally acquire the Spanish and reading is a great way to provide additional comprehensible input. Most recently, the students have been working on another guided writing activity. The students are writing their own Super 7 stories by responding to a set of questions. It has been really fun to see them become more comfortable with the vocabulary. They are almost done with their stories.

• 3rd Grade

  Art

  • We were thrilled to have a special guest artist join us in third grade, printmaker Patricia Miye Wakida, as students explored the tradition of relief printmaking. Then, students learned about the Mexican metal art tradition of hojalata and tried the skill of impressing designs into thin metal sheets, creating small, decorative relief sculptures/drawings.

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance).

  DBi Lab

  • Third grade has been making excellent progress on their automatons for the STEAM fair. They are mostly focused on creating the art component of their mechanical sculptures using a variety of materials: foam, cardstock, pipe cleaners, clay, and whatever material inspires them on our cart. 

  Library

  • This month in the library students commemorated National Poetry Month by exploring novels in verse. One section created book spine poems and used an iPad app called Chatterpix to animate a photo of their poem so their poem read itself!

  Mandarin

  • Third graders will start to learn 12 main action verbs in Chinese Verbs and 16 sports names in daily practice. They will practice these action verbs with fun games. They will learn how to say “你会什么运动？What sports do you play? 我会I can play.../我不会...I can’t play…” in Mandarin. We will be learning some new characters (只，有，牛，水，中) in stroke order, and practice with flashcards and Chinese calligraphy brush. We will also be learning a song (春天在哪里？Where is the spring?) and two nursery rhymes (大小多少Compare Big and Small, 比尾巴Compare the tails). Students will continue to work on their Pinyin and start to learn the new 9 compound finals and 9 nasal finals by digital game-based learning apps on iPad.

  Music 

  • Third graders are working on singing and playing C and G chords on the ukulele. This upcoming month they will be challenged to sing in two-part harmony while playing a chord progression.

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • Third graders have been immersed in the captivating study of force and motion, delving into the myriad forces present in their surroundings. They've engaged in investigations to discern the impacts of both balanced and unbalanced forces, probing the dynamics of push-and-pull interactions within bridge structures. Moreover, they've examined the influential roles of gravity and friction in shaping the movement of objects. Venturing further, students have explored the remarkable capabilities of magnetic forces, leveraging their understanding to devise innovative solutions for everyday challenges.

  Spanish

  • The Third Grade has successfully finished reading “Edi el elefante.” Students took a final assessment of their reading and listening comprehension of the material covered in the book. It was exciting to see my students feel so comfortable and confident with their comprehension skills. Most recently, students have been enjoying several classes of Movie Talk. The goal of using Movie Talk is to improve my students’ listening comprehension and get them talking, writing and reading without them realizing they are doing it! We are currently in the process of viewing and discussing the video clip, Monster & Dumpling. As we view the video, I stop and we discuss specific frames within the video thus telling the story together . This short story targets many important high-frequency verbs. The discussion also allows us to discuss the monster's physical description, location, and emotions. Students will be doing a “Write & Discuss” activity about the video and collectively we will write about it. Later, our writing will be used as a class reading activity. 

• 4th Grade

  Art

  • Fourth graders have been hard at work on the art component of their STEAM Fair project. Students have been working in teams to make meticulous Martian landscapes for their rover to explore. I’m looking forward to seeing the entire project on display next week.

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance).

  Library

  • This month in the library students continued building their Google Site portfolio for their STEAM Fair project. Students learned how to add subpages, add hyperlinks, embed documents, and insert photos.

  Mandarin

  • Fourth graders will start to learn 12 main action verbs in Chinese Verbs and 16 sports names in daily practice. They will practice these action verbs with fun games. They will learn how to say “你会什么运动？What sports do you play? 我会I can play.../我不会...I can’t play…” in Mandarin. We will be learning some new characters (只，有，牛，水，中) in stroke order, and practice with flashcards and Chinese calligraphy brush. We will also be learning two nursery rhymes (猴子穿新衣monkey wear the new clothes and 谁会飞？Who can fly?) and a song (春天在哪里？Where is the spring?). Students will continue to work on their Pinyin and start to learn the new 9 compound finals and 9 nasal finals by digital game-based learning apps on iPad.

  Music

  • Fourth graders are working on playing the 12-bar blues on ukulele. This upcoming month they will be working in small groups to arrange a 5 verse blues piece in A-A-B form.

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • Fourth graders have been delving into the fascinating realm of energy transfer, discovering its presence in various forms such as motion, electric current, sound, light, and heat. They've grasped the concept that energy possesses the remarkable ability to migrate from one location to another. Additionally, they've explored the diverse methods of energy transfer, distinguishing between those facilitated by fossil fuels and renewable sources. Furthermore, they've acquired knowledge about kinetic and potential energy, recognizing that the velocity of an object correlates with its kinetic energy. Lastly, students have learned about the intriguing phenomenon of energy transfer during collisions, acknowledging its role in altering the motion of objects involved.

  Spanish

  • Since our last Specialist Newsletter, the Fourth Grade has been working on an exciting project for the Steam Fair. Students have been following a guided writing prompt which has led them through a series of questions designed to help them create and write about a robot. The project targets many high-frequency verbs and has allowed students to connect Spanish to material they are learning in other classes. It has been a highlight of my school year to see them respond to the questions, in writing, with such enthusiasm and ease. Students wrote about their robot’s abilities and mission as well as the physical description. Here are a few sample questions: ¿Cómo está programado el robot?, ¿Cómo se mueve el robot?, ¿Cómo puede comunicarse?, ¿Qué puede hacer el robot?, ¿Adónde va a ir?, ¿Cúal es su misión?, ¿Qué va a hacer? and more! We are all looking forward to you seeing and reading about their Spanish robots at the Steam Fair!

• 5th Grade

  Art

  • Fifth graders are still working on the highly-complex process of creating a two-color (or three-color) linocut using traditional techniques. Despite the challenge of this project, I’ve been very impressed with the students’ work and how many have tried out ideas that pose even greater difficulty. I can’t wait to see these on display at the spring art show!

  Cooking/Garden

  • A mama Dark-Eyed Junko (bird) has made her home in the mint plant. Students have been learning about the life cycle of this special bird from egg to brand new baby, and they look forward to watching the four chicks grow (from a careful distance). 

  Library

  • This month in the library students prepared for an author visit by learning more a

  Mandarin

  • Fifth graders will be learning 12 main action verbs in Chinese Verbs and 16 sports names in daily practice. They will practice these action verbs with fun games. They will learn how to say “你会什么运动？What sports do you play? 我会I can play.../我不会...I can’t play…?” in Mandarin. We will be learning some new characters (只，有，牛，水，中) in stroke order, and practice with flashcards and Chinese calligraphy brush. We will also be learning two nursery rhymes (猴子穿新衣monkey wear the new clothes and 谁会飞？Who can fly?) and a song (春天在哪里？Where is the spring?). Students will continue to work on their Pinyin and start to learn the new 9 compound finals and 9 nasal finals by digital game-based learning apps on iPad.

   

  Music

  • Fifth graders are working on playing the 12-bar blues on ukulele. This upcoming month they will be working in small groups to arrange a 5 verse blues piece in A-A-B form. 

  Physical Education

  • Our basketball unit concludes today with a special session on wheelchair basketball, led by BORP (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program), offering our 3rd-5th graders an immersive experience in adaptive sports.
    
    Next up, get ready for one more cycle week of Big Gym fun as we play a few of our favorite games before bidding adieu to the big gym for the year. But don't fret! The PE adventure continues as we blend elements from our Rhythm and Jump, Trackless Field, Gymnastics, and Cooperative Games units into one final health and fitness hodgepodge to wrap up the school year.

  Science

  • In their Science class, fifth graders have been actively engaged in the scientific method as they investigate the Red Worm habitat. Over the past month, they have developed prototypes for their final worm bins. Students have formulated research questions regarding the behavior of the redworms and have diligently recorded their findings regarding the habitats established at the onset of the unit. Looking ahead, our next objective entails crafting display boards and rehearsing speeches in preparation for the STEAM Fair. 

  Spanish

  • Since our last newsletter, Las Tormentas Negras took their first official look at verb conjugation in Spanish. While the class has been exposed through readings, class discussions and other classroom activities to verbs in various different conjugations, they had never been exposed to the concept of verb conjugation, nor had they ever seen a verb written out with all of its conjugations in the present tense for all of the pronouns. In order to understand the concept, we started by looking at how we conjugate verbs in English. Ironically, it took a few examples of verbs in English, before the students were able to grasp the concept as it pertains to their own language. I explained that as native speakers of English, we have all acquired the patterns of how our verbs conjugate and are able to do it without even knowing we are conjugating. We quickly looked at present tense and past tense verb conjugations in English before moving on to Spanish. Although I want my students to learn and eventually memorize the many small details of verb conjugation in Spanish, I am most interested in them understanding what is meant when we talk about different conjugations of a verb. Understanding this concept and its details is essential to my students’ further success in both middle school and high school Spanish. In addition to learning about the mechanics of verb conjugation, students learned some basic terminology used to speak about verbs. They learned about the subject pronouns. In English there are seven subject pronouns: I; you; he; she; it; we; they. In Spanish we have the same set of subject pronouns to choose from, however, the selection is greater due to gender. They learned that “we” and “they” have masculine and feminine forms. They also learned that there are four words for “you” in Spanish: “You” (formal), “you” (informal), “you guys” (formal), and “you guys” (informal). We talked about the infinitive of the verb. In English, all infinitives include the word “to”: to walk; to eat; to live, etc. Students learned that in Spanish, all infinitives end in either –ar, -er, or –ir: caminar (to walk); comer(to eat); vivir (to live). They learned about the stem or root of a verb. In Spanish all infinitives end in either –ar, -er, or –ir. They learned about verb endings. In order to conjugate a verb, you add a verb ending to the stem of the verb.