Curriculum Talking Points

For the Week ending 10/22/10

 

Kindergarten:

• LANGUAGE ARTS: Students began a handwriting program, and talked about the “hat line, belt line, writing line, shoe line” and “two o’clock letters.” They started their joint class reading groups, worked with word building ladders, and completed October self-portraits. The class made seasonal tree books and finished writing assessments.

 

• MATH: Students were introduced to the counting jar and geometric solids. The class sorted and described attribute blocks, and played a game to reinforce their learning. Students also created a graph of the results from their apple taste test.

• SOCIAL STUDIES: Students created their apple people and labeled them with their attributes. The class went on a fall walk and discussed what they saw, smelled, heard and felt. They also conducted an apple taste test and discussed the results.

 

• ART: The class finished its unit on primary and secondary colors by making a color wheel. Students also used metal insets, along with primary and secondary colored pencils, to create designs.

• LIBRARY: The class continued working on listening skills in an October fairytale unit. Students heard Kate and the Beanstalk, by Mary Pope Osborne.

 

• MUSIC: The class sang a Yiddish folk tune, performed a circle dance with scarves to a song in mixed meter, and chanted about the Floppy Scarecrow.

• PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class worked on soccer skills. Students practiced passing, controlling the ball, dribbling, shooting and playing together as a team.

 

• RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) Students reviewed God’s gift of creation and talked about our need to care for it.

• SCIENCE: Students studied color mixing and reviewed the three primary colors and the three secondary colors. The class learned the mnemonic device ROY G BIV to identify the visible colors in a rainbow.

 

• YOGA: After a yoga warm-up, students explored haunted house postures for Halloween. They finished class with a pumpkin patch relaxation.

 

Lower Level:

• LANGUAGE ARTS: Students finalized their original stories and began to type them. They have been working on end punctuation and capitalization.

 

• MATH: First graders worked on comparing and ordering numbers, solving addition story problems, and learning how to use symbols to represent greater than, less than, and equal to. Second graders worked on identifying coins and their values, finding two addends to make ten, and identifying number patterns on the 100s chart.

• ART: Students completed Marc Chagall inspired paintings and created drawings of figures using stamps as the heads.

 

• COMPUTER: Students continued working on their October project using KidPix Deluxe 3X to type and illustrate the story they wrote in language arts class.

• LIBRARY: The class continued working on listening skills in an October fairytale unit. Students compared the two versions of a Russian fairytale: Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, by Marianna Mayer, and Vasilisa the Beautiful, by Elizabeth Winthrop.

 

• MUSIC: First Graders were introduced to reading ties, half notes, and individual eighth notes. They enjoyed creating eight-measure rhythm compositions using flash cards. Second graders used their music history journals to review and discuss Guido Monaco and the development of the do-re-mi singing scale. They were also introduced to the note: “low la,” the “home” note in a minor scale.

• PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class used beanbags to work on hand-eye coordination and body awareness.

 

• RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) First graders learned that praise is a God-centered form of prayer, and that it is good to praise God as a community. They learned to sign “sing praise to the Lord” in American Sign Language. Second graders talked about different kinds of prayer, especially thanks and praise. They noted that many of our cultural celebrations are opportunities to give thanks and learned a song of praise.

• SCIENCE: Students added background to their dinosaur timelines. They learned that the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods together make up the Mesezoic era, the time when dinosaurs were alive. The class discussed what types of plants coexisted with the dinosaurs, and focused on gingkoes, coniferous trees, and ferns. Students learned that flowering plants did not evolve until the end of the Mesezoic Era. Students added the appropriate plants to the backgrounds of their timelines in the appropriate time eras.

 

• SPANISH: Students continued to study appropriate greeting and farewell expressions. They practiced interpersonal skills by participating in interactive games and answering the questions ¿Cómo estás tú? and ¿Cómo te llamas tú? Students reviewed numbers 1-20, giving more attention to numbers 11-20.

• YOGA: After a yoga warm-up, students explored haunted house postures for Halloween. They finished class with a pumpkin patch relaxation.

 

Middle Level:

• LANGUAGE ARTS: The writer’s notebook is fully underway as a writing tool in the classroom. Students have generated enough material to give them ample choices for a piece to edit, revise, and publish––skills they continue to work on. Some students worked on stories inspired by the film, “The Red Balloon.” They finished watching the film and taking notes, and now are transforming those notes into the draft of a story. Students continued to enjoy the work of Avi in their class read-alouds. In spelling work, students focused on words with th, ch, and sh spellings, and continued their exploration of suffixes.

 

• MATH: Third graders worked in stations around the classroom, focusing on analyzing and responding to story problems; practicing multiple strategies for solving two and three-digit addition problems; becoming increasingly familiar with the uses of a number line; and finding multiple addition combinations that equal a given number. Fourth graders worked on breaking up larger multiplication problems into smaller combinations of multiplication problems. The class was introduced to a new game called “Small Array/Big Array,” which covers the same concept using arrays. Students also began multiplication and division fact practice this week, using fact families.

• SOCIAL STUDIES: Students continued their introduction to the migration of peoples around the world, the major curriculum arc for the year. Gaining foundational knowledge for this pursuit, students studied the continents and climate, and some completed their maps of the Fertile Crescent. The class also continued to prepare for its year-long participation in the Yorkville Common Pantry program.

 

• ART: The class talked about park design and how are parks differ one from one another, discussing the role of a designer/architect. The class took a trip to Chelsea and walked the High Line Park and Chelsea Market.

• LATIN: Fourth graders completed a vocabulary unit and continued learning about correspondences between the Greek and Roman gods.

 

• LIBRARY: The class continued working on listening skills in an October fairytale unit. Students compared the two versions of a Russian fairytale: Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, by Marianna Mayer, and Vasilisa the Beautiful, by Elizabeth Winthrop.

• MUSIC: Third graders played short melodies on their recorders using the notes a, b, and g. They also reinforced their understanding of meter and time signature. Fourth graders continued their introduction to “modes,” scales used by the medieval musicians who were the first to use music notation and compose harmony.

 

• PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class worked on throwing and catching techniques as part of a team handball unit. Students learned offensive and defensive strategies. The class played games of dodgeball to improve throwing form and agility, and in anticipation of Halloween, played Spider & Flies, and Ghosts in the Graveyard.

• RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) Third graders learned that God’s love is bigger than our imagination. In the story of the paralyzed beggar (Acts 3:1-10), the class saw another example of how God answers prayer in unexpected ways. Fourth graders learned how the first three commandments have to do with our relationship to God.

 

• SCIENCE: Students continued their introduction to nutrients, focusing on protein, carbohydrates, fats and oils, calcium, iron, and Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. Students are responsible for knowing why all these nutrients are necessary and what foods are good sources of each.

• SPANISH: Third graders continued to build their vocabulary by studying appropriate greeting and farewell expressions. Students practiced interpersonal skills by answering the question ¿Cómo estás tú? andby participating in interactive games. Fourth graders continued to build their vocabulary by studying appropriate greeting and farewell expressions. Students studied the difference between familiar and formal greetings and engaged in communicative classroom activities.

 

• YOGA: Third graders began using the yoga mats, which helped them understand individual space and focus on their own practice. Students also continued working with a partner to explore different bridge poses––a correlation to the art class trip to the Highline.

 

Upper Level:

• LANGUAGE ARTS: Students had several mini lessons on how to approach and write a proposal for their first literary essay. They worked on developing a strong thesis statement, finding supporting scenes, and writing a conclusion that connects their life to the theme. The class had several discussions about themes and ideas in The Cay.

 

• MATH: The class continued its study of comparing and ordering fractions, developing a range of strategies to do so. Students learned a new game called In Between that stresses the memorization of fraction/percent equivalents. They began creating their own word problem to show their understanding of the concepts.

• SOCIAL STUDIES: Students continued delving into the world of ancient Mesopotamia through various readings, class discussions, and video watching. One video was a basic overview of Mesopotamian civilization, and another used animated Legos to illustrate various occupations in Mesopotamian society. Students finished their geographical representations of Mesopotamia, and talked about how to locate key ideas and major topics when analyzing secondary historical sources.

 

• ART: In preparation for a trip to the King Tut exhibit on Wednesday, October 27, students looked at a variety of books with Egyptian hieroglyphs, images, and sculptures, and selected pieces to study and draw.

• LATIN: Students finished a new vocabulary unit and worked on their ability to identify nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The class continued learning about the connections between Greek and Roman mythology and how the Romans modified the characteristics of their agricultural gods after being exposed to Greek religion.

 

• MUSIC: Students continued their introduction to “modes,” scales used by the medieval musicians who were the first to use music notation and compose harmony. The class’s holiday instrumental piece will feature a mode similar to one used in the Middle East.

• PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The class continued its football unit, focusing on passing and catching. Students ran precise routes, using both speed and agility before catching the ball with their hands, arms extended away from the body. Students learned proper throwing form (with fingers across the laces), and aimed to throw a spiral at the target.

 

• RELIGION: (This refers to the elective religious education that is provided upon request to Catholic families.) The class discussed humility in the context of this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 18:9-14).

• SCIENCE: The class successfully completed the inaugural Water Walk! Students walked over one mile carrying one gallon of water. The walk was in part a celebration of the class’s successful fundraising for Kiva, but it was also a way for students to experience what millions of children do around the world every day––carry drinking water for their families. Beginning next week the clas will lend the money it raised to entrepreneurs in developing countries around the world.

 

• SPANISH: The class was introduced to the geography of the Spanish-speaking world. Students identified and labeled Spanish-speaking countries on a personal map and learned how to ask and answer to the question ¿De dónde eres?