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Finally, Spring has sprung. It feels so good to get some fresh air! Our campers have returned from the Spring break full of energy and ready to take on new challenges. This week we have started working on learning how to say the time in Spanish to the nearest 5 minutes, using both analog and digital clock, and we have started the pen pal letters to our friends in Srta. Hernandez's class in Memorial School. We have also had the visit of a very special Mystery Reader, our very own Curriculum Director Dr. Cohen! And we will celebrate Arbor Day today (pictures coming up next week). Here are the few pictures I took this week. Enjoy the weekend!
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As you may know, teachers and administrators at the Spanish Immersion Program have been deeply looking through the way we do things, reevaluating, and receiving wonderful professional development through conferences and coaching. One of the areas that we need to put more work is on Interpersonal Communication. Our students are really good at interpreting the language, and presenting orally on a prepared project, but how about the day to day conversations on normal topics, the ability to talk back and forth during a dialogue? For this reason in our camp, encouraging this adventurers to speak more of the language every day is one of our main goals. Fortunately these campers are all for it, and the amount of positive Class Dojo points on "communicates in Spanish" has grown significantly. Not only during our guided reading groups, but also during games and group activities without me being present, students have made an effort to practice their spoken Spanish. This week, we have been talking all about money exchange, with an activity where students had to withdraw money from the bank, purchase and object, calculate the quantities, and save money for a bigger purchase, using sentences like "es barato" (it's inexpensive), "es caro" (it's expensive), "prefiero ahorrar" (I rather save), "me gustaría comprar" (I would like to purchase). To keep them accountable when I was not in their group, students recorded their conversations on "Voice Memo". Also, as you know, the campers have started blogging in Spanish, and commenting on their friends' pieces. The editing process has tested their stamina and perseverance, what makes the final publishing even more worth it. During guided reading, the students have been retelling the stories with their own words, self-timing their words per minute to practice fluency, and recording their reading, questions and answers during partner reading. And yes, we even had time to breathe :) Take a look at this week's slide show for a small peek at our camp. Looking forward to what the Spring will bring! This week our campers have been really hands on with their learning: In Science, we have finished the unit on matter, first creating the highest structure with cards and clips, and then transforming it into a stronger structure that can hold the weight of a hard cover book. During math, we have continued our journey through numberless problems, and splitting up numbers in tens and ones. During Halloween Day, our aide Esther, presented on "El Dia de Los Santos", a November 1st celebration in Spain to honor our family members that passed away, and engaged our campers with a fun game comparing Halloween with El Dia de los Santos. In the afternoon, we ended the school day with a fantastic party organized by our volunteers, in which our campers decorated a pumpkin, frosted some cookies with some scary and yummy scenes, and played a guessing game with some horrific and mysterious objects in cauldrons. THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS! And during Language Arts, our campers have continued their practice on close reading, learning new vocabulary, and doing some summarizing with sequence of events. Take a look at this week's slideshow. What happens when we encourage each other, listen to each other, and work together to figure things out? Easy! Exponential growth in learning, plus it makes it way more fun to work with somebody else. This is what the campers have been doing a lot this week. From finding what materials are more insulating and protect us better from the heat, to match words with their pictures and write sentences that show a character, setting and a problem, and then reading those sentences to our audience, collaboration has taken a front stage in our camp. The sense of collaboration is so big, that many of my students have started to forget how to speak in English as well ;), encouraging each other to "hablar sólo en Español". Collaboration has also come in the form of a wonderful help from a mom that has made a set of "rekenreks" for our campers (you know who you are:) to work with addition and subtraction, and with the visit of our Clough Math Coach, Mrs. Berthao, that is collaborating with all the second grade classes to expand our repertoire of math fun! We love to have her come to our class! Take a look at these pictures to see some highlights of the week. Thank you! |
AuthorHello! My name is Esther Willinski, and I am a fourth grade teacher in Massachusetts. Join us in our journey through 4th grade! Archives
September 2023
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