This past week, the 5th graders were sorted into their middle school Houses!  There are 5 Houses, one for each of our school values — (1) Probus: Integrity (2) Benevolus: Empathy (3) Amicus: Open-Mindedness (4) Fortis: Intellectual Curiosity (5) and Animatus: Resilience.  The 5 Houses compete throughout the year to earn points for the great House Tournament at the end of the year!  The sorting ceremony revealed which house each of our 5th graders will join in Middle School, and was complete with the sorting hat, the presence of the house prefects, and welcome notes to each student joining their new house.  Our 5th graders will be able to earn house points for the Great House Tournament throughout the remainder of the school year, each in the hopes of winning the glory of the House Tournament Championship.  This is an exciting moment for our 5th graders to begin their initiation into our Middle School!

Students’ day starts at 8:30 a.m. (3rd to 5th grade) or 8:40 a.m. (1st and 2nd grades).

Students arrive fifteen to ten minutes before class begins and take the time to settle in, take out their things, study, read or simply sit down to be ready to work.

This routine allows students to appropriate the classroom as a space in their life in which they feel good. On their own initiative, some decide to do yoga in order to better prepare for the day ahead.

The first grade students worked hard on geometric shapes. They discovered that the school had a lot of them and took pictures of them. They then worked with plasticine and constructed shapes in order to understand the different properties of polygons.

After a year of hiatus and the obligation to teach coding online, all the students of the school are once again able to work in the Innovation Lab, a room dedicated to technology.

Students reinforce concepts seen in class with their main teacher, apply concepts studied and develop new skills according to the project carried out.

The collaboration between the teachers and Alice Kong, Coordinator of the STEAM program, is essential to give meaning to the learning.

The 3rd graders went on our first field trip to the San Diego Natural History Museum located in Balboa Park yesterday. We had a wonderful time exploring the museum and receiving a private class with an instructor. The students learned about animal adaptations, as well as how to make observations and inferences about various animals.

Second and third grade students experienced their first Robotics class in Spanish & English this week! In the very special Spanish + English Robotics lessons with Profesora Yuriko and Ms. Alice, students worked in pairs to practice Spanish vocabulary and sentences to solve a number of mathematical problems through programming Bee-Bots! Muchos gracias, Profesora Yuriko!

On Wednesday morning, the 5th grade class had their Moving Up ceremony to mark their completion of elementary school!  Each student delivered a thoughtful speech reflecting on their past year and their entire elementary experience. Most importantly, they looked forward to their upcoming experiences in Middle School here at SDFAS.  Parents were invited to attend in-person or online, and the ceremony was held on the Ocean View campus behind the 5th grade classrooms.  We wish all our 5th graders the best of luck in their middle school experiences!

This week class 3B teamed up to bake bread in the classroom! Divided into small groups, they worked autonomously and used a scale to measure ingredients in grams and milliliters. A great way to apply already learned math skills! End result: delicious bread that was appreciated by all!

The ” Building Bridges” program allows 5th-graders to interact with Middle School classes. This week, our 5th-graders met their fellow students from 8th-grade.
This allowed them the opportunity to ask the 8th-graders questions about their time in Middle School. The 5th-graders also took advantage of the meeting to participate in an activity that groups students into “Houses”.
Here is what one of the 5th-graders found of the experience:
“In the beginning, we sat down in the field outside our class. We were waiting to be sorted into Houses. The 8th-graders told us about the Houses. Then, one by one we were called up to join a House. After everyone got their ticket and had been allocated a House, they were happy to answer our questions about how the Houses work.”

Graphs are visual displays of information.  It is important for students to learn how to collect, organize, and interpret information.  To make graphing more relevant and relatable, we surveyed friends and family members in and outside of the classroom.  Afterwards, we had a Graphing Museum Walk in order to share what we’ve learned.
Carrie Vo