a new movie recommendation, JRFH details y la familia

Hola padres! This week in first grade we began a project called "el arbol de familia" or a family tree. I gave each scholar paper dolls to represent each member of their family. They are coloring them and pasting them on a piece of construction paper and we will finish the project by labeling each family member in Spanish. We will finish these projects up early next week.

Our Jump Rope for Heart unit has started! Thank you to all who have turned in donations! The scholars are doing a great job perservering in learning how to jump and we are working on jumping from one foot to another, criss crosing with our arms and legs, jumping backwards, and some are even jumping with their eyes closed! Just a few details yet to fill you in on. At the contest, both the class competition and the K-1 competition, all scholars must jump like a boxer with no hops in between and both feet at the same time. There is no time jumping. I have mentioned this in class and have shown them also what I meant. I will begin passing our prizes next week on Wednesday, March 4th. There is no need to sign the permission slip that came with the donation envelope as the class competition is just part of the normal PE class. As the classes become more proficient with jumping, we will just use jumping rope as our warm up and then add on a different activity to finish class out with. Again, please email me if you have any questions.

This last weekend, my husband took our kids to see a movie called "McFarland USA" starring Kevin Costner and said it would be a great movie to recommend to my classes, although it may be more appropriate for the older scholars. It is an underdog story about children of migrant workers who win state championships in cross country despite many odds stacked against them. Again, I haven't seen this movie myself, but I love sport movies and feel that this movie might give some of my students insight in to the Hispanic culture and what its like to grow up without the priviledges and comfort that we often take for granted. Let me know what you think if you see it!

Gracias,
Sra. Hamilton

Jump Rope for Heart, la familia, wrapping up basketball and stickers

Hola padres! in PE this week, we have continued our unit on basketball by moving from dribbling onto passing. This will be about as far as we go as next week, begins our jump rope unit in honor of our Jump Rope for Heart even that will be held on Thursday, March 12th. Following is the information from the flyer that will go home with your scholars on Monday:

February 23, 2015

Hola padres! It is time again for our Jump Rope for Heart event! Fundraising begins today and attached is the donation envelope. This envelope will give you most of the information you need in terms of monetary donations and prizes that go along with it.

For those of you who are new to the Jump Rope for Heart competition, let me fill you in. Over the next two weeks in PE, scholars will be mastering the art of jumping rope. After two weeks of practice, each class will have a competition during PE Monday March 9th- Wednesday March 11th to determine which boy and girl can jump the longest. The boy and girl from each class who jumps the longest will participate in a final jump off on Thursday March 12th at 8:45. The schedule for the class competitions is as follows:

Monday, March 9th:

Ms. Borden 8:05

Mrs. Cox 8:35

Mrs. Baird 1:50

Mrs. LaVant 2:20
Tuesday, March 10th:

Mrs. Dusard 8:05
Wednesday, March 11th:

Mrs. Mason 8:05
Kinder parents, your PE showcase for 3rd quarter will be held during your class's jump rope competition. You will be receiving additional information from your classroom parents on the details of the curriculum showcase.

Parents are welcome to come watch as their scholar competes in either their class or the K-1 competition. You do not need to be fingerprinted, but please check in at the office prior to when your scholar's class competes.

Scholars are given the opportunity to raise funds for the American Heart Association and earn prizes. This is in no way mandatory and is not required at all for their grade. Please refer to the envelope for prize details and be aware that some prizes are for online donations, some prizes the scholars will receive right away and still other prizes will need to be ordered.  Prizes will be distributed on Wednesdays and Fridays beginning Wednesday March 4th. The last day to turn in donation envelopes for prizes is Thursday March 12th. Please turn envelopes into the office.

Please let me know if you have any questions. All of this information can be found on my blog at: http://k-1triviumspanish.blogspot.com or you can email me at ahamilton@archwaytrivium.org

Thank you!

Sra. Hamilton 

I hope this answers any questions you might have. 

In terms of Spanish starting tomorrow, we will begin our unit on family, leaving behind clothing. The scholars and I have had a lot of fun so far with clothing and hope that they family unit will prove as exciting. 

Wanted also to let you know that I have been using reward stickers in Spanish just as an added incentive for the scholars in this latter part of the year. It is always nice to introduce something new to continue to keep their excitement up and their perserverance going. 

la ropa and basketball

Hola padres! I have had a fun week with the scholars starting out on our basketball skills. I know many of them already know how to play but others never have before so I rely on those that do know to help me help those who are new to the game. This week we have been working on our dribbling skills and next week we will move to passing.

In Spanish, we have continued working on our clothing vocabulary in different ways. Earlier this week, we did a hidden picture activity where the scholars worked on finding clothing that was hidden in a forest and tomorrow we will watch a short clothing video and fill in a worksheet that goes along with it. It is nice for them to have this vocabulary "under their belt" =) so that now we can do our uniform checks at the end of PE in Spanish. I love being able to apply this all in such a real way.

Thanks and have a great long restful weekend!

Sra. Hamilton

basketball unit, la ropa y Argentina

Happy jueves, padres! This has been a fun week of games in PE. We tried some relay races and did some dead ant tag and brought back an oldie, but a goodies from last year in Everybody's It!!! What fun to watch the scholars practice thier honesty and integrity as they run around tagging, rock, paper, scissoring and watching. You will have to ask them what I am talking about!

Next week in PE I plan on starting a two week unit on basketball. What I will mainly focus on is dribbling and passing which are the very basics of the game and what they will need to know as they move on from 1st grade PE. This is always fun to do with them and I am hoping we all learn a great deal.

In Spanish, we have moved on to our unit on clothing. We practiced by drawing clothes on a boy and girl earlier this week and will play a fun memory game tomorrow in order to practice our vocabulary. I have some new games I want to try with first grade and I am hoping to do that next week.

We also began our study this week of Argentina and I was able to play "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from the musical "Evita" for Ms. LaVant's class. It is such a great song and it was fun sharing with the scholars about Eva Peron and how much she was loved by her country as a leader. Please ask them what else they may have learned in class about the second largest country in South America!

Please let me know if you have any questions and have a good rest of the week!

Sra. Hamilton