Fall Projects 2014


We have had a busy fall, and it is hard to believe that the holiday break is close at hand.  Here are some of our ELL project highlights!  We are proud of what we have to share and of what we have learned!  

Have a wonderful break and Happy Holidays!

"We made gingerbread houses!"

Pumpkins

Each fall kindergarten students get to visit a local pumpkin patch.  It is a great time to learn more about pumpkins.  We read a lot of books about the life cycle of pumpkins, our favorite was Pumpkin Cat. We created our own sequence cards to put in order and explain about how pumpkins grow.  And, lastly we wrote our own book about pumpkins to read. We love pumpkins!

"I read with my buddy.  I was happy because I was nice to my buddy."

"I was coloring pictures of pumpkins.  It was fun."

"I read to my pet.  I was happy because my pet watched."

Our ABC's
The start of kindergarten is always exciting.  We meet new friends, become a part of our school community and start to learn the alphabet, as well as how to read and write.  This fall we have worked hard learning our letter names and sounds.  We had fun putting the alphabet in order, creating our own ABC book and writing our own dictionary!

"We put the alphabet in order.  I was happy because I played."

"I'm saying the alphabet."

"I was sorting letters.  It was exciting."

Creating a dictionary.

Sight Word Bingo
Learning sight words for reading is a big job!  Why not make it fun?  That's just what we did when we made our Sight Word Bingo game.  Do you want to play?

"I am spelling words."

Squishy Circuits - Kindergarten
This fall I had the pleasure of connecting and collaborating with Mr. Davison's kindergarten class for a day of making Squishy Circuits.  After watching an in-house produced Squishy Circuit video as well as a demonstration of new vocabulary and materials, we all got a chance to explore together to make caterpillars light up with LEDs.  Click on the two links below to see more!

Caterpillar Challenge:  http://youtu.b/MWA_UctN6hg

Squishy Circuits in Kindergarten:  http://youtu.be/bZBr3oS2wOI

Squishy Circuits - Grades 1 & 2
First and second grade students were also able to get messy with a Squishy Circuit Dough Creature Challenge.  They had to make a creature that could light up, make a sound, or move.  We used the engineering design process to make our creatures and kept an engineering design notebook.  Watch the videos below of students talking about what they made.

Fish: http://youtu.be/n_rnsJWYoU0

Worm: http://youtu.be/_ES4ThY0P98

Butterfly: http://youtu.be/enpucAHuHNM

Shark: http://youtu.be/N86bAPEAGmw

Catamount: http://youtu.be/8Ss5lkaWL28

Making Squishy Circuits and keeping an engineering design journal.

WELCOME BACK ELL STUDENTS 2014-15 School Year!

We are off to a great start of another terrific new school year.  It is a tradition at Allen Brook School to have Welcome Back Lunch Bunches to reconnect and decorate the ELL classroom with world flags.  Another new exciting tradition was started this year for our new friends in Kindergarten.  I was able to visit Kindergarten classrooms as a guest at morning meeting during the first week of school to teach classes how to Say Hello in Different Languages and share a book called Hello Around the World! by Manya Stojic.  Our students have a great ear for other languages!  Don't be surprised if you hear Bonjour, Vanakkam, Zdravstvuite or Dobar dan in the hallways when you visit!

Good-bye for the Summer!
June 12, 2014

It is hard to believe that another school year is over!  We have grown and changed, and are ready to enjoy a beautiful summer in our Green Mountains.  Looking back at the school year here are some of the thoughts my students shared with me about their learning.

    

I liked everything I did during my ELL lessons.

I learned how to talk about how things are the same and different, how to write poems, and words to talk about animals.

I liked making the volcano book.  It was fun.

We liked having fun doing art and making the star book.

I liked making the star book.  

I liked having fun while learning to write.

My favorite project was making the star book and writing a color poem about using my mom's name.

Our Wishes for the World

Although it is the last day of March, it is still feeling like winter.  This past January and February we explored the big words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we talked about our dreams, set intentions and made a wish for the world together.  We made banners to share to raise awareness and wrote our own big words that we connected to in Peace Doves.  We had a Peace Celebration.  Click on the link below to watch our celebration.

Writing a Wish for the World

Our Wishes for the World Trailer:   
http://youtu.be/pEf8nvEbB6c