Leaving the rainforest, we need to remember a few things

Hi all,

As of today, there are no students in our class that are failing either Math, English or IPC. Yay!!! 😀 That’s excellent news! That means NOBODY has to stay today, or any other Wednesday, for extra help as long as they keep their average over 71.

Math: we’re back on multiplication! Most of the kids seem to be very comfortable with multiplication, but some seem to be still struggling a little . That’s why I want you to download these multiplication flashcards (click on the red link!) for them. The file consists of 12 sets of flashcards (one for every multiplication table). Please PRINT them, LAMINATE them and CUT them so that EACH student has the 12 sets with ALL the multiplication tables to practice at home (or anywhere else). We have already started unit 7, which will last until the end of next week, before we move to unit 8 (division). it is essential for them to know the tables before starting that unit.

IPC: congratulations to all students that completed great rainforests presentations last week! No students got less than 90, which is very good news. Thank you also for your patience and the help you provided your kids in the last weeks. We are about to start a new unit about the human body, where they will learn about the organs, bones and muscles we have. Keep up the involvement!!

English: I am a little concerned about homework completion here. While this is certainly not an issue in Math, it is in English, where homework grades are much lower. Please make sure your kid completes all English homework (and the daily reading log)! As you have probably noticed, we are now working hard to improve their reading and writing skills, and they will be getting these assignments every week. Help them review their mistakes whenever they get these worksheets back from me.

Finally, I wanted to congratulate again Camilo for his first communion. We all had fun celebrating this special day with him!! 🙂

Stay tuned and contact me should you have any questions, as usual. Have a great day everyone :).

Welcome, 2014!

Hi parents,

It’s been a week and a half since we resumed classes and the kids are alredy back to the usual school routines. After a well deserved break, I wanted to write a few lines so that you know what is happenning in Grade 4 these days.

As you know, the kids received an important assignment in the IPC class; a project consisting in a poster showing the similarities and differences between our culture and lifestyle and that of the indigenous people of the rainforests. They also have to prepare a power point presentation pointing out the differences between different tribes in the rainforests. In both cases, with enough pictures to make the project a visually attractive work. The deadline is January 30. I gave them already four different websites they can use to find information on the Internet, but they can also look for additional useful info elsewhere. Please be advised that your kids should meet no less than three to four times to research, decide what they want to include, how they want to put it and finally practice the presentation. Part of the grade will be based on the quality of the presentation they offer (they must show they are organized, they cannot read from the poster during the presentation, they have to know what they are saying and only use flashcards to make sure they don’t forget to mention anything important). That is why I gave them two weeks to complete it; please make sure they do not rush and quickly make a poster that will receive a low grade.

This week, we will start with the science part of the rainforest unit. Do not forget to ask your kid about it! 🙂

In Math, we continue working on multiplication. This week they will see how to use rounding to estimate products and will also practice multiplying by two-digit numbers.

In English, they will be improving their vocabulary, reading and speaking skills. Several short films will be the starting point for group discussions that will help them develop a critical thinking, as well as make connections to other subjects. This week we will also work on synonyms and antonyms and review the different elements in a story: characters, setting and plot.

Outside the classroom but also an important part in your children’s education, the after school clubs start tomorrow, January 20, and will be running over the next months every Monday from 2:40 to 3:40. Please remember to send lunch to school before the end of the classes so that you kid can eat before joining the different activities.

Should you be interested in after school reinforcement, remember you can email me at any time.

Have a great week!! 🙂

Christmas in the Rainforest!

Hello everybody!

It is almost Christmas time in Grade 4’s tropical rainforest!! The snow has already started covering every tree… Hold on, that’s not possible. Can it snow in a rainforest like ours? I am sure you all know the answer: of course not! Actually, you can find out more about the weather in the rainforest by simply asking your kids. They have already learnt many things about them, and we will to continue to do so throughout the second grading period.

The following Prezi presentation is important for them and contains all the essential facts about world rainforests. We have already seen it, but please have your kids sit down in front of the computer, watch the presentation again and take notes in their Geography notebook. A complete set of notes is necessary to properly study for a quiz next week (they can skip the environmental organizations).

http://prezi.com/1t7kcll6fbbf/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

In Math, we recently finished an incredibly successful multiplication unit (I am quite sure you are as thrilled as I am with their performance) and we moved into unit 4 (division meanings and facts). They are doing superb so far, so please encourage them to continue working as hard as now and support them should they get a grade lower than usual.

As you know, there are only 10 days left (only 10, time flies!) to go on holidays. Grade 4 students are also doing their best to prepare a great Christmas show for you. A play, dances and songs that we all hope will be a wonderful way to start the holiday season and celebrate together.

I do not want to finish this  post without acknowledging the Outstanding Students that excelled during these last two weeks:

Most Improved Student: Juliana Olmos and Santiago Cuenca.

Best Behavior: Virginia Morón and Adela Maestre.

More Consistently Bright: Camilo Lacouture and Luis Fernando Correa.

Most Participative Student: Sara Orozco.

Good Job, kids!! And keep working to appear in the next list of Outstanding Students!!! 🙂

We need your help for La Casa de la Niña

La Casa de la Niña is a non-profit foundation that has been working in Valledupar since 1970; many of you may know them already. They host, protect and educate 60 girls that do not have moms and whose extremely poor resources make them vulnerable to a very hazardous life. Thanks to la casa de la Niña, this small group of girls have access to a better life and will acquire the tools and skills they need to enjoy a decent and hopefully prosperous life.

A group of students from La Sierra, who recently attended the GIN conference in Quito, will soon start tutoring these kids once a week. I feel it is a wonderful thing to see our students make such an important commitment! However, our help does not stop there. We are now collecting school supplies for these kids: pencils, notebooks, books, erasers, games, panties, stockings… and I wanted to let you know so that you can all chip in some materials for them. Your generous donations will make very little difference to your budget but a huge difference for them. I am sure all Grade 4 parents, as well as the rest of our school community, can contribute! 🙂

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration. Please send all materials donations with your kids and I will forward them.

Have a great weekend!!

Halloween and More: End of term information

Hi all!!

Well, it finally happened. The end of the first term is here, and you will receive your children’s first report card next week. Things are slowly falling into place and I can see some real progress being made in the classroom. More than ever before, it is time for you to keep an eye on your kids, pay attention to their progress and show real interest in what is happening in school. If they feel you are involved, if they see your interest is genuine, they will be much more likely to share school stuff with you and you will enjoy seeing their growth first-hand.

Woooooahhh!! What was that? Was that a GHOST? Or maybe a tormented soul that lingers in our world after Halloween?? Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you, In fact, kids had a blast celebratiing Halloween, and it felt really great to do it in our new location. I am positive, too, that the 4th Grade classroom had the best decoration in the school!!! It was a joint effort and I was proud to see them all working as a team. Here are some of the pictures (I’m saving some for the yearbook!):

Putting up spooky spiderwebs on the windows!

IPC NEWS: As you already know, I decided to start the new IPC unit on Rainforests early. This unit will probably last until half way through the second term (mid January), and I hope the kids will learn a lot about rainforests, why they are so important and the challenges they face. I hope you found the information I sent to you useful; if you have not had time to go through it, please do it this weekend. It makes a real difference for your kid when you know what they are learning. We are now decorating the room to feature some of the many animals who live in the tropical rainforests, and today we watched a very interesting video from National Geographic. Please take some time to view it -or view it with them, as we didn’t have time to finish watching it-, learn some very interesting facts yourselves and share them with your children!!

On Friday, your kids will take a Math quiz on multiplication and an English test on some of the things they have learned so far. You can help them review the different types of sentences here, or play games to practice sequencing here or here.

This is all for now. Stay tuned and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any comments or concerns!

🙂

Racing to the end of the First Term!

Hi everybody,

First of all, let me tell you how glad I am to be posting again. My sick leave and the school trip to Quito made it very difficult for me to keep you on the loop for all the things we do in the school. Hopefully, there will be no more distractions and we will strive to make the most of what is left of 2013!! 🙂

As you know, we are approaching the end of the first term. In order to compensate the time the students have missed due to my absence, I have made some changes to the regular schedule, the most important being the amount of time we are devoting to Mathematics. Since last Wednesday, I have doubled the Math lessons they receive during the week, and reduced the IPC hours. This will not be a permanent change, and we will go back to the regular schedule at the beginning of the second term.

In Math, we are now half way through Unit 2 (addition and subtraction), and we will start unit 3 (multiplication) on Tuesday, November 5. Over the next weeks they will practice and build their Math skills on multiplication (units 3 and 5) and division (unit 4). My goal is to finish unit 5 right before Christmas break.

In IPC, we will be starting a new unit in the second half of November. A few days before, I will e-mail you all the necessary information about this unit, what your kids will be learning and some suggestions about how to help your kid.

In English, we are also increasing the reading time. Starting on Monday, October 28 they are expected to read in English for at least 20 minutes daily. They will have an ebook to read every week, so please make sure your Internet connection works properly as these books will not always be available for download. They will also receive a READING LOG for you and them to keep track of how much they read every day, and for how long. Please remember to SIGN it every day as I will check all papers daily.

The following pictures show the work your kids did before the October break, when they made their presentations on animal families. This is part of the IPC curriculum. Have a great week!! 🙂

When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth

Grade 4 got pretty excited with the velociraptors!!!

 

Quite a few things have happened since our last blog update! According to the latest reports, dinosaurs are still roaming free in our 4th Grade classroom, as powerful and dominant as they were up to 65 million years ago, when they ruled the Earth. In the picture above, you can see us after enjoying a wonderful movie experience with Jurassic Park 3D at Cinemark Guatapurí. They sure enjoyed the film!!

As part of the Geography goals in the IPC unit, kids also learnt some of the tools palaeonthologists have used throughout the years to find out many of the things we know today about dinosaurs, one of them being their footprints. In the pictures below, you can see them making footprints -luckily not from a real dinosaur, but from their own feet-:

In Math, we continue working with place value, although the progress has been delayed a little due to my unexpected absence, as it has also happened in English. However, we will soon be able to catch up, no worries!! 🙂

I also want to thank to all of you who contacted me these days to ask about my health. Staying sick at home instead of going to school is no blessing at all. I miss the kids so much!! Unfortunately, what started like a flu earlier in the week developed into a bronchoneumonia. I am to remain in Domiciliary Hospitalization (hospitalización domiciliaria) for the next five days, where I am already getting all necessary medical care. If everything goes as planned, I will (finally!) be back in school next Wednesday.

As you can imagine, my illness has been the main reason why I haven’t updated our blog lately. I will use these days to make some necessary improvements in this website so that both you and the kids can always refer to it when looking for online resources.

One last thing! Those of you interested in enrolling you kids in after school lessons, please let me know soon if you haven’t done it yet. Tutoring will start on my first day back, that is, Wednesday Sept 18.

See you soon!

Rolling into Week 2, routines are important

Juliana, Sara and Sofía learned this week about what a Sequence is!

Hello everybody!

I hope you have had time to relax this weekend, after our first full week of classes -well, kinda full, since it was just a 4-day week!-. Step by step, the school is looking better every day and the kids are also adjusting to the routines that are expected from them in every class, from English and Math to IPC, Spanish, French and Social Studies. I can feel they are enjoying the school so far and we, as teachers, will do our best to keep it that way.

In English, your children have been learning about the importance of diversity in our societies; how we can benefit from it and how everyone must be treated equally. We read a story and they learned what a “sequence” is. We are going to read a lot this year, and I would appreciate it if you encouraged your children to READ, READ and READ in English as much as possible.

Camilo, Alejandra, Adela and Efraín practice teamwork and help each other. Superb!

David and Tuto checking their answers. Be consistent, kids!

In Math, they are learning how to read numbers of different values and what the value of each digit is (place value). This week, we will also practice the Roman Numerals, before having them take their first quiz on Friday. Don’t forget to ask them frequently about their progress! You can help them too by sharing this place value game with them (click on the link).

Did you know that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years before any human walked on Earth?? Well, it is true! It’s a common misconception to think that they lived at the same time or that dinosaurs hunted and killed humans. In this week’s IPC, we will talk about this and other amazing facts as we study the prehistoric times.

I don’t want to finish this post without asking you to encourage your kids to be consistent with all the routines they have to follow at school, including homework, getting ready for class as quickly as possible (classes this year last only 45 minutes so this is of the utmost importance), etc.

Virginia and Marco, two new stars shining in La Sierra International School.

Well, this is all for now… Stay tuned for upcoming news! I look forward to seeing you all in our Open House next Thursday. And do not forget to subscribe to this blog if you haven’t done it yet (go to the left column and click on the “Follow Us / Síguenos” button). See you around!!

WELCOME TO GRADE 4 @ LA SIERRA INTERNATIONAL!

 

Hello everybody!

The young girl in this video decided to share her feelings the day before she started Grade 4. Watching it, you cannot help feeling inspired by her excitement, her plans and hopes right before a new school year starts to unfold in front of her eyes. Going back to school is definitely a big thing, something to be celebrated. Even more so in a school like ours, where it is so easy to feel you are part of a big family.

On behalf of a truly amazing group of students, I would like to welcome you to our class’ blog. We hope this site becomes a perfect place for you to check on your children’s progress throughout the year and share some of the excitement we feel while working on some of our projects. I truly believe, and I strive to act accordingly when teaching, that learning can and must be fun.

Every week, I will post information about the work your kids are doing, pictures, accomplishments and also useful information about any significant upcoming projects or dates you want to keep in mind.

Please make sure you bookmark this page and come back often!! It will be a pleasure to see you here and feel free to comment on the things you see.

This class is a doozy!!