Triangles Everywhere

We started out the year making a mess...on paper.  The girls used crayons, oil pastels, colored pencils, markers, and water colors to "cover the page". They covered three pages - different sizes and different textured papers.  Then, inspired by the work of Lecia Dole-Recio, they made triangle compositions.  All the girls in the Lower School did this unit... each student's individual style, perspective, and problem solving strategies are unique and the whole body of work demonstrates our creative diversity!

Technology: We have an app for that!

The girls have been very busy learning a variety of new apps, both in the classroom, during art, french and technology. Here is a list of the apps they have been using:

Mystery Number
Line Em Up
Teach Me First Grade
Doodle Buddy
Magnabet
Montessori Numbers
Montessori Crosswords                       
Alphabet Board
Number Sense
Pic Collage
Art Set
Draw Free

Life cycle of an ant

The girls learned about the life cycle of an ant today during science.  Using a magnifying glass, the girls had to record their observations of the four different stages in step books.  

We also read a wonderful book called, It's Fall, and the girls brainstormed their favorite things about fall.

They then created their own poem about their favorite things about the fall season.

Ordinal numbers

In math we have been focusing on ordinal numbers.  The girls are getting comfortable recognizing and writing the ordinal numbers for 1-10.  

Here they are playing a game based on their place in line.

The girls lined up shapes and recorded the ordinal numbers of the shapes.

We also started our word study this week.  Every Monday the girls will get a new group of words focusing on a certain feature.  This week our feature was beginning consonants (b, r, s, m).  Each day the girls will be completing a different activity with their words:

Monday--introduction to the focused feature and cut and sort words
Tuesday--sort and draw 6 of their words
Wednesday--sort and read words to a friend
Thursday--sort and write words
Friday--sort and glue words

Our first official mystery reader arrived this afternoon.  The girls were so excited to see who gave the clue, "if I look out to my backyard, I can see where a princess lives."

Setting dioramas

We read another story by Donald Crews, our author of the month, and discussed the setting element of a story.  As they listened to Night at the Fair, the girls had to determine what was the setting of the story.  

We then paired the girls up and told them that they would be making setting dioramas based on Night at the Fair.  The girls were given a shoebox and a table full of supplies (tissue paper, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, etc.) and told to recreate a scene from the book. They were AMAZING--without specific directions, the girls used their creativity and own initiative to work cohesively to create their own setting.   We were so impressed with their cooperation and imagination...please make sure to ask your daughter what her diorama looked like.

Parent Night Video

Here is the link to the video from Parent Night.  Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/106484658
Password: parentnight2014

Busy in Technology

The girls have been working very hard during technology.  We began the year with a discussion about the acceptable use policy and the basics of iPad.  We have learned how to use several apps like Face iMake and Alphabet Board.  We also began a digital autobiography using My Story.             

Welcome to music class!  I have heard many good musical ideas from our pre first girls already.  I look forward to more insights as the year moves along.

French: Les ballons

The girls had fun ending our color unit by playing a game with colorful balloons. As they tossed them back and forth, every time a girl caught a balloon she had to say what color it was in French. Ask your daughter if she can name any of the balloon colors she sees in the picture below. I see jaune, rouge, violet, bleu, and vert.  Next up in French: les animaux de la ferme. A la prochaine!

Fun Friday Activities

We started out our "fun Friday" by reading 10 Black Dots by our author of the month, Donald Crews.  He incorporates black dots in funny and creative ways throughout his book.  After we read the story, the girls had to create their own picture using Oreos as their black dots.  The girls had a great time creating their own unique pictures.

During our math period, the girls rotated around three different centers, all based on what we have been working on in math this week.

The girls sorted M&M's by color then added the different colors together.

We have been working on sequencing numbers.  Here the girls are sequencing foam shapes with different numbers written on them.

The girls learned a new app called Line 'Em Up, which focuses on putting numbers in order.  The girls loved how the app continued to challenge them!

Beginning Sounds and Flubber

The girls had a marvelous day and are really starting to understand the Pre-First daily routine.  We started our day today by rainbow writing our Word Wall words.  

In language arts we reviewed the beginning sounds of words and the girls went on a hunt with their iPads.  They had to find five objects and record themselves saying the beginning sounds of those items.

The most popular part of our day was when we created a class How-To book on "How-To Make Flubber."  The girls had a blast getting their hands gooey and each contributed a creative page on what they could use their flubber for to put in our class book.

Gooey flubber hands

Author of the Month

We hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather on Sunday!

Today, we added three new words to our Word Wall.  The girls used their iPads and the Magnabet app to drag letter "magnets" and spell their new Word Wall words.

The girls were introduced to their first author of the month--Donald Crews!  We gave the girls some background on Mr. Crews and showed them many of his books, including Night at the Fair,Freight Train and Flying.  Their favorite fact was that he called his beloved grandmother "Bigmama"!  We read School Bus and the girls had to describe what they see as they travel to school each day.  They drew these images onto bus windows which are hanging in our classroom.

In Math, the girls went on a Lego Hunt! After they found all of the Legos, the girls sorted them into groups by color.  Then, we discussed the various amounts of different colors and talked about the concepts of "more than" and "less than". 

French: Les Couleurs

French class is off to a fantastique start! We have kicked off the year by learning about les couleurs. Today, we sang a color song, watched a color video, played color Bingo, and spun a color wheel on the iPad (as you can see in the picture below). The girls guessed which color the wheel would land on and had a lot of fun seeing if their predictions came true. The girls also met our class tortue (turtle) puppet named Lulu. She only speaks French and will be visiting throughout the year.

Fun Friday

The girls had their first "Fun Friday" today!  It started off with a rocking assembly led by their teachers.  Please make sure you ask your daughters what crazy stunts the teachers pulled.

We went outside and printed our Word Wall words with sidewalk chalk.

We continued talking about one of Bryn Mawr's core values--respect--and what it means to be a good friend.  We read Sneaky Weasel to the girls and they used a Venn Diagram to compare the story to our class.  We also added a new word to our Vocabulary wall--boast.  

To complete our fun Friday, we made daisy sun catchers to decorate our windows.  Be on the lookout for these creative art projects!

First few days...

The girls have been extremely busy at school these past few days.  We are enjoying getting to know them while they are learning our classroom's rules and routines.  We have handed out their handwriting books and have also used several math manipulatives to write and solve simple problems.  They are currently hard at work creating a "secret" project for you for Back to School night.

Here they are making our Word Wall words out of Model Magic.

The girls were introduced to their first Bryn Mawr core value today--respect.  We read Chrysanthemum and the girls learned how important it is to consider their friend's feelings. They were given a paper girl and asked to crumble it up.  Make sure to ask your daughters what they learned from this exercise.