Catching up with Pre-First

Wow, so much has happened this past week with your girls, we don't even know where to begin!  We have a new STAR, our STEmma, whose STAR week was extended due to our snow days.  The girls have enjoyed looking at STEmma's box and got a big kick out of her special letter from her mom and dad today.

We were lucky to have Amy Keisel come in last Thursday and entertain your daughters as our Mystery Reader.

Our Gingerbread unit is back on track and the girls love hearing and completing various activities with the different variations of the story of the gingerbread man.  Here they are using a Venn Diagram to compare The Gingerbread Man to The Gingerbread Girl.  We also read The Gingerbread Cowboy today and the girls used gingerbread men to measure different distances around the room.

We began our latest science unit on penguins.  The girls used a world map today to highlight where in the world you can find penguins in their natural habitat.  We also did an experiment on how penguins stay warm in extremely cold climates.  Make sure you ask your daughters what penguins have that keeps them warm and how they experienced it in class!  Sorry there are no pictures, but it was a very hands-on project for the teachers :-)

Art: Finger Knitting

We started a new unit in fiber arts with a discussion about the things we've learned that seemed really hard at first.  The girls named various activities including swinging on the monkey bars, making paper chains, making fortune tellers, and teaching a dog a new trick. All the examples helped demonstrate the essential qualities of learning a new skill: observing closely, working with a master, remembering the steps in order, repetition and reward.  Then, they were introduced to the basic steps of finger knitting. Next, class they will have a long chain to show for their efforts. 

Mystery Reader

A big thank you to Catherine Dreese for coming in to be our Mystery Reader today.  The girls loved hearing
The Day the Crayons Quit and I Like You.  These silly stories were the perfect way to end our Thursday!

Starting Subtraction

The girls began a new math unit on subtraction today.  We read the girls The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? to grab their attention, then used a cookie jar and cookies to model subtraction problems as a whole class.

The girls were given their own cookie jars and cookies to help them independently solve subtraction problems.  The girls enjoyed this lesson although they were slightly disappointed there were no actual cookies handed out.

Upper School Visitors

We had some special visitors from the Upper School today.  Our class was divided in half--some stayed in our room while others got a chance to venture down to the Elementary Center--and we learned about birds migratory patterns from their Upper School friends.  The girls were given materials to make a bird feeder at home with their parents and learned why these feeders are so important to a bird's survival.