school: Some Recent School Pictures

Yesterday morning the Goo woke me up to tell me he had made me a surprise train track. I came out and he said, "Look Mommy, I made you the cinco vocales (5 vowels) out of train tracks." That surprise made my day. I just wish I could find a train track font on the computer. He would read all day!!

Carolina and the Shapes - Cassandra has been working on shapes in math.

We have been working on Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and traditional poems (Baa Baa Black Sheep, Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, The Old Woman in the Shoe, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Bo Peep and probably a few others that I can't remember) and songs in Spanish (Allá en la fuente, Las vocales, Las mañanitas, De colores, La Gallina Dice, El gato, Cucú cucú). They each made a little book with the rhymes and songs they learned. They know most of them by memory.

We have been learning about arthropods and animals since March. We have been studying them in English and Spanish. We make a craft or an art project for each section we learn about. For insects the kids painted the butterfly and bee and for spiders the kids put together these spiders that I think are pretty scary. They can name the parts of an insect (3 body parts: head with 2 antennae, thorax with 6 legs attached and sometimes wings, abdomen) and the parts of an arachnid (2 body parts: cephalothorax with 8 legs attached, 2 pedipalps and fangs, and the abdomen with spinnerets). They know about the life cycle of spiders and insects and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly. Cassandra loved learning about spiders and insects and is constantly finding them.

For fish we made these paper plate fish. They can name the basic parts of a fish (mouth, eyes, teeth, fins, gills, tail) and they know that fish breathe with their gills. They know the life cycle of fish and that most fish lay eggs. They also learned about sharks. The Goo really liked learning about sharks and can name three types of sharks - great white, hammerhead and tiger shark.

Carolina's Fish

Cassandra's Fish

Felipe's Fish

For Reptiles and Amphibians we made paper snakes. They played with their snakes alllll day. I had to tape them up every few minutes. They know that snakes, lizards, crocodiles, alligators and turtles are reptiles. We learned how snakes use their forked tongue to smell. They also know that frogs, toads, salamanders and newts are amphibians. They know the life cycle of the frog. For fun we watched a movie about amphibians from the library and learned that they are born with gills but develop lungs when they reach adulthood. They also need to be near water. We watched a Crocodile Hunter video from the library and learned a lot about crocodiles, alligators, snakes and sharks. The most important thing we learned is not to touch snakes. We have seen snakes across the street and even in our own yard.

Cassandra's Coloring Page - The Life Cycle of the Frog (I really want to go catch some tadpoles)

Felipe's Reptile Page - He drew each reptile.

For the Fourth of July we learned about the United States. They colored maps of the United States (They can identify CA, UT, NM, TX and FL) and pictures of flags. They learned that George Washington was the first President of the United States and that Pres. Obama is the current president. (It took awhile for them to remember George Washington. I would aske them who the first president was and they would say -Georgeph Smith, George's Washington, and a few other funny combinations. We had to talk about the difference between the prophet and the president of a country.) We also read a book for kids about Thomas Jefferson. It began - When Thomas Jefferson was a boy he was very shy and liked to stay home. - After I read that part the Goo said - Just like me. So we told him about how Thomas Jefferson ended up doing a great work in writing the Declaration of Independence.

Little Felipe made this flag all by himself and hung it in our school.