Welcome Esther!

For the last couple of weeks we have welcomed in our camp this year's Spanish Aide, Esther Hernández, that will be assisting in our class every Wednesday and Thursday. Even though the first week Esther was just supposed to observe, she right away jumped in to help and work with the students. With her help we have been able to work safely on a science experiment that required the use of hot water, she has also worked with small groups for reading, and has been guiding individual students with their math skills. We love to have her here!
Here are a few other highlights of the week:
In math we have been diving into numberless problems, where the campers focus on the story, visualize it, and understand what it means before being given the numbers so that they can NOTICE and WONDER. Then they come up with possible questions that can be answered with the information given. After that they move on to representing the problem with a picture, and solving it with an equation. Finally, we discuss about what the pictures represent, and how they best explain our thinking. All these discussions give the students more depth into the analysis of their answers, and come to conclusions about the ACCURACY, as well as EFFICIENCY of their representations. We have also been practicing addition facts with fun games.
In Language Arts, we have been making 15 minute rotations on reading comprehension, fluency and vocabulary building, writing and partner reading. With the help of Esther and these rotations, I have been able to test all my students on fluency, what will set the stage to establish individual reading goals.
In science, we have tested the melting properties of different types of candy, and done a really cool mini research on a favorite animal for World Animal Day.
And with all this hard work, we have even had time to take mindful breaks, practice our mountain and waterfall breathing exercises, and practice some meditation on sounds and thoughts.
Take a look at the pictures to see our campers' work!