Pre first and the barred instruments

The girls have begun to play the barred instruments in class; they have used the soprano, alto and bass xylophones although the bass xylophones are the most popular. They have been learning about how to play the instruments to get the best sound and how to keep the beat when playing the instruments.

Happy Halloween!

We had so much fun with your girls today!  Their costumes did not disappoint and their excitement could not be contained!  Many thanks to all the moms and dads who helped out to make our Halloween party a true success.

We finished up our pumpkin math today by brainstorming words that best describe the inside of the pumpkin.  Some favorites were: gooey, mushy and messy.

The girls rolled up their sleeves and got a bit messy.  It was finally time to estimate how many seeds were inside our pumpkin.  Make sure you ask your daughter what was the final count!

The girls ended their day with a mystery reader.  Many thanks to Andrew Whitelaw for the awesome Halloween stories!

Halloween stories and more bones

Continuing with our Halloween theme, we read the book The Ghost's Dinner during Language Arts.  The girls really enjoyed this story as the main characters had a lot of trouble with the food served at their dinner party.

After the story, the class determined what happened in the beginning, middle and end.

Using a black bat, the girls then had to sequence and write a beginning, middle and end for their own Halloween stories.

We also took a closer look at our spine today and discussed why we are able to bend and twist instead of being stuck straight up and down.  The girls each took a straw and put a pipe cleaner through it.  They tried to bend the pipe cleaner and discovered that it took some effort to make it bend.  We then cut the straw into several pieces and again tried to bend it.  Make sure you ask your daughter what happened!

French: Joyeux Halloween!

Since Pre-First girls do not have French on Halloween this year, we celebrated today instead. We have been learning about body parts and this leant itself very nicely to a number of Halloween-related activities. First, we danced and sang to the "Hoogie Boogie", the French version of the "Hokey Pokey." Then, the girls helped me carve a pumpkin on the iPad by picking out "les yeux," "le nez," and "la bouche." Finally, we listened to a spooky French song about potions and then decided if we were "peur" or not when we were shown ghosts, witches, crocodiles, and more. Joyeux Halloween tout le monde!

The "ooooooooooooo" sound

The girls had fun yesterday in language arts learning the "oo" (spooky, broom) sound.  We read Room on the Broom and brainstormed different words containing "oo".  The girls then copied these words--or thought of more on their own-- onto spider legs.

After the girls copied their words, they made "oo" spider eyes with pasta mini wheels.

This week, we are switching gears away from addition to celebrate Halloween!  The girls are doing "pumpkin math" and all of our lessons will feature our class pumpkin.  The girls will estimate various characteristics of our pumpkin then compare and record the actual answers.  Yesterday, the girls came up with many adjectives to describe the outside of a pumpkin before estimating its height and width.

Finally, we have a new STAR in our room--Miss STAR-abella :-)  The girls loved hearing new facts about their friend and enjoyed looking at her family photos.

Catching up in Pre-First

We wanted to catch everyone up on the happenings in our classroom.  We are continuing to focus on addition and have started our skeleton unit in science.

The girls played "Cover Up," a fun game where they race each other to find the sum of two dice.  They also used manipulatives and Doodle Buddy to show addition sentences on their iPads.

The girls are very excited about our latest science unit--skeletons.  Today, we read Dem Bones and the girls used the facts they learned to complete a matching activity.

After the matching activity, the girls were each assigned a specific bone in the human body.  They used bread dough to form their assigned bone.

The girls worked together to form their skeletons and we baked them for an afternoon treat.

To celebrate Halloween, the girls used their estimation skills to guess how many popcorn kernels would fit onto a ghost.  Make sure you ask your daughter to share the correct answer!

Technology: iDiary

In our most recent lesson, French and technology combined! We worked with iDiary for the first time. The girls' accounts were set up and they were given "top secret" passwords into their diaries. For their first entry, the girls drew objects in five different colors and then labeled them in French. For example, I saw many lovely apples and hearts for "rouge." The girls did excellent jobs selecting colors and tools in order to draw and type. Furthermore, they reinforced their knowledge of the French colors. The images below give you an idea of what iDiary is like.

 

PE--On the move!

The girls are having a great time in PE.  They began the year learning how to move safely and in different ways.  During many classes, the girls play tagging and partner games while performing a variety of loco motor movements.  In September, the girls enjoyed our parachute unit. The girls worked cooperatively, using their upper body strength, to lift and move the parachute. 


In the past couple of weeks, the girls have been working on balances and spatial awareness.  They have balanced on different body parts and with bean bags.  They learned how to hold a balance on one foot and to make different shapes with their bodies.  Recently, the girls have been working with hula hoops, balancing in them, jumping in and through them, and moving the hula hoops around their bodies

Mystery Reader

We had a special reader visit us today!  The girls loved hearing stories about Ellison the elephant and Tikki Tikki Tembo.  Many thanks to Dave Marshall for being our Mystery Reader today!

Ant Cafe and More Adding

We are finishing up our ant unit and decided to conduct an experiment.  Yesterday, the girls predicted what ants would like to eat.  Some guesses were: crumbs, cheese, jello, and picnic food.

We created a graph based on the choices the girls were given.

We prepared our Ant Cafe.

Here are the girls waiting--not so patiently :-)--for the ants to arrive.

When we investigated this morning, it seems that other animals--not only ants--enjoyed the cafe.  Overall, the girls loved predicting and graphing what would be the tastiest choice for an ant.

We also spent some time today reviewing addition.  Here are the girls playing War against each other.

We also wrote addition number sentences using dominoes. 

Pumpkin Teeth Addition

What is that bright object in the sky?  Could it really be the sun?  Both the girls and their teachers are thrilled with this weather change :-)  Today in math, we reviewed the vocabulary that the girls will most likely use and hear during our addition unit--they even know the "fancy" name for an answer.  After we reviewed the vocabulary, the girls worked on making addition number sentences.  They rolled their dice and put the respective teeth on the top and bottom parts of the jack-o-lantern smiles.  The girls copied these numbers onto a recording sheet and had to find the totals.

Our first Star of the Week brought in her box and gave her presentation this morning--the girls and her teachers loved the different pictures she put on her box--it was a great way to get to know our "Star-per" a little bit better!

Fun Friday

We are sure you have heard all about our Fun Fridays at home, so we thought we would give you a quick glimpse of what a typical "Fun Friday" looks like in our classroom.

Anne Broadus was our special guest reader in the morning.

We had a Publishing Party with the kindergarten class to celebrate the girls' first written stories.

 We began our new math unit--addition--with a bang by having the girls play candy corn addition.

Fun Friday ended with our fall birthday celebrations--happy birthday to Reed, Celia and Colette!

Reader's Workshop

We started our official Reader's Workshop today and the girls did fantastic!  Both teachers pulled small groups for phonics work and introduced their first books.  While we were working with the groups, the remaining girls worked quietly and cooperatively in centers--just as we have practiced!  All groups focused on one main strategy for reading--make sure you ask your daughter about the "sweet" strategy.

Phonics with Mrs. Fenwick

Sorting Center:  short a matching

Puzzle Center:  focusing on the short a and short e sounds

Science Center:  parts of an ant

Math Center:  matching number words with numbers

Mrs. McMahon's small reading group

Having fun with our "sweet" strategy

French: Les Couleurs

The Pre-First girls are learning about the French colors. We have read stories, described the colors of farm animals, and played games with colorful balloons. In the activity pictured below, I described the color of each animal on their handout and they colored them in appropriately. Right now we are seeing that "le canard est jaune." Their listening comprehension is very impressive and it was a lot of fun to get to color in French class!

 

Venn Diagram

We have been working our way through our author of the month (Donald Crews) books and today we read Harbor.   The girls enjoyed learning about the different boats that are found in a harbor and even discovered how Donald Crews incorporates some of the same concepts/characters into many of his books.  After we read Harbor, we reviewed what a Venn Diagram is and how it is used.  As a class, we compared both Harbor and Freight Train (which we have read several times) then the girls returned to their seats to complete their own individual Venn Diagrams.