More Letters From Our Pen Pals

MORE LETTERS FROM OUR PEN PALS

Below you can take a look at a few examples of the letters we received from our pen pals in Philadelphia!

Click to see full size!

Click to see full size!

Click to see full size!

 

Racing Our Balloon Cars in 6th Grade

RACING OUR BALLOON CARS IN SIXTH GRADE

Balloon Race Car Day in 6th Grade!

BALLOON RACE CAR DAY IN SIXTH GRADE!

Our sixth graders finally had the chance to race their balloon cars last week. Everyone worked really hard on the project and we had many cars that traveled more than five meters down the track. The final race for the winners of each class will be on February 20. Videos coming soon!

Letters To Our 6th Graders Arrived From USA

Letters to Our Sixth Graders Arrived from Philadelphia, USA!

This week we recieved the first set of letters from our pen pals in Philadelphia! We look forward to responding soon!

Preparing for Race Day: 6th Graders Create Balloon Powered Cars

Preparing for Race Day:

Sixth Graders Create Balloon Powered Cars!

 

This term our sixth graders started designing and constructing balloon powered race cars in their desdoble English classes. This is a typical group project that many American students work on in primary or secondary school. Our students are working in groups of three or four to design a vehicle that is lightweight enough to move by the power produced by the deflating ballon that is attached to the top of the car. The students are encouraged to design, build, test and rebuild to create the fastest car in the their class. It reinforces our students' teamwork skills while using English and requires them to learn via trial and error. Race day will be in the beginning of February and we can't wait to find out who the winners are!

Click below to see more photos!

Thanksgiving Cornucopia in 6th Grade

THANKSGIVING CORNUCOPIA IN SIXTH GRADE

Our sixth graders learned about the American tradition of cornucopias (the horn of plenty) this Thanksgiving. They are large, horn-shaped baskets that are typically filled with fruit, vegetables, flowers and nuts. Cornucopias are an important symbol of Thanksgiving for many Americans because they represent abundance and nourishment.

Our students designed and decorated a variety of foods to include in the sixth grade cornucopia. Each piece also contained a sentence that explained what the students are thankful for, usually family or friends. :)

English Cinema in Fifth Grade

ENGLISH CINEMA IN FIFTH GRADE

"THE SANDLOT"

In May the fifth graders studied a popular children's film from the 1990s about baseball, friendship and American culture. You can watch the trailer below.

A brief summary:

Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighborhood in California with his mom and stepdad and wants to learn to play baseball. The neighborhood baseball expert Benny Rodriquez helps Smalls, and soon he's part of the neighborhood team. They have adventures involving baseball, treehouse sleepovers, the pretty lifeguard at the local pool, the posh rival ball team, and the carnival. On the other side of the fence at the back of the sandlot lives a terrifying ball-eating dog called The Beast, and the kids must eventually deal with him.

 

After viewing the movie the students had to write a movie review to practice skills of taking notes, summarizing and giving an opinion.

 

Click below to see more movie reviews from our fifth graders! 

Creating Inventions in Fifth Grade Desdoble

CREATING INVENTIONS IN FIFTH GRADE DESDOBLE

The "Saltwater Transformer" created by Pablo and Marcos in 5ºC.
(click to enlarge)

Recently the fifth graders at Alkor created their own inventions in desdoble class. After seeing a presentation about the world's newest technologies like robots, 3D printers and Google Glass the students had to brainstorm in pairs about their own ideas for the future. Finally, they completed their plan with a labeled illustation and detailed explanation. The pairs presented their ideas to the class and chose their favorite invention. Please click below take a look at more of our inventions for the future!