Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Busy at Home-Feliz Cumpleanos
Red Belt Testing
Red Belt Testing
For some reason, this belt testing was the first time that I was visibly nervous. I noticed that I was picking the skin off of my thumb and that my hands were sweaty. The kick was challenging and took him five turns to break the board. After this red belt, he has red/white, red/black (two levels of red/black) and then black belt testing! He is about one year away from reaching black belt status!
Reading in English
He is reading in English! YEAH!!!!!
The other night, while doing our nightly reading, Jedadiah said he wanted to try and read. Of course, I said certainly and gave him to book to hold. So he read Curious George Phonic Series, books one, two and three! I am so elated that the literacy skills he is learning in Spanish are transferring to English. What a happy day for me and for Jedadiah. I could tell that being able to read in English has empowered him and given him a new level of confidence!
Kinder Parent Training: Session 2
Kinder Parent Training
This was the second in a series of three to educate parents about how to help their children in school. I found the evening to be informative and filled with lots of great ideas.
The session was broken into 4 areas:
Mathematics:
In kindergarten, students are expected to know number 1-30, sequentially and out of order. Also, pattern recognition and graphing are essential. Moreover, students will learn addition and subtraction, so Mrs. Liechty gave the parents three fun ways to play games to practice math. Using a die, the child can roll a number to see what to add/subtract from a set number. Another idea is to use dominoes to add/subtract from a set number. We will start playing the addition games tonight!
She also shared an internet source: Tito El Gatito-Sumas y restas
Sight Words:
By this point in the academic year, the students should know the spelling of listas 1, 2 & 3. Unfortunately as students progress to listas 4 & 5, they are forgetting what they had previously learned! So, 3 times a week, we are reviewing all 50 words to keep the spelling fresh in his mind. I told him to remember that 9 of the 50 words For the next round of testing, students will need to use the words in context of a sentence orally and written.
Mrs Liechty gave the parents some great ideas about reading:
1. Picture Walk- first go through the book looking only at the pictures. Of course, I knew this as Preview the book, but I like how she calls it Picture Walk. While we do the picture walk, we can point out unfamiliar words that students may need to complete the retelling of the story and later to write about the story. In addition, students need to have basic literacy skills that include recognition of the spine, title page, cover of the book, back of the book, author and illustrator.
During the second trimester, students are retelling stories, using descriptive words and complete sentences. This area may be challenging for the Dual Immersion students because of a lack of vocabulary and weak oral language skills.
Writing:
I was shocked to realize that the kindergarten students are using Webs to write a basic paragraph. The Web includes the Topic to form the topic sentence and three (3) supporting ideas to write the detailed sentences. The last sentence will be the concluding sentence. To earn the most points, students need to use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, use appropriate punctuation, use proper spacing between words, form the letters properly, spell sight words correctly, and use different types of sentences. Also, the picture that students use in the Web must match what their WOW. I don’t think I learned how to write a paragraph till junior high school.
Mother-Son Dance
Mother-Son Dance
We attended our first Mother/Son dance together on Wednesday evening. We wore matching clothes; although, Jedadiah never realized that we both had jeans and white long sleeve shirts. I thought we looked cute, but we will have to wait to see the pictures that we taken that night by a professional photographer.
At first, Jedadiah kept saying that he was only going to watch and not dance I said that’s fine, but let’s have fun. When we arrived, the multipurpose room was decorated so pretty, with winter blue table cloths, snowflake placemats and candy tray/balloon center pieces. The menu was tacos, chicken or carne asada with beans and rice. To drink we had horchata and jamica. The 2 hours was filled with dancing, bingo, a dance contest and lots of talking. Jedadiah and his friends, Emiliano, Aidan, Rylan and others showed off their hip-hop skills. I was sweating and trying to keep up with Jedadiah’s moves. At the end of the night, he told me that he had fun and when was the next dance. He also said that he thought he was going to watch a dance, like when we went to The Nutcrackers to see that performance. So to him, the evening was a blast!
Week 21: Jan. 23-27: Sra. Oliver’s Return
Sra. Oliver’s Return
It has been a packed week with many activities, but the highlight of the week was the return of Sra. Oliver. When she came to the gate on Monday morning, all of the parents clapped for her. I am happy that she is back with her pollitos. She was certainly missed. Her daughter is almost 3 months old and is a cutie.
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