Gingerbread Fun!

We have been incredibly busy in the Pre-First classroom.  The girls have enjoyed reading all of the different versions of the gingerbread man books and completing various activities. Here are some of the goings-on in Pre-First:

The girls made our Word Wall words with Model Magic.

We read The Gingerbread Boy  and the girls had to create a different character that the boy had to run by.  After, we compiled all of the girl's papers to make a class book.

The girls were busy in math as they kept working on their subtraction strategies by working with teeth.

We had a special Mystery Reader who came in on his birthday!

We ended our gingerbread unit this week, and what better way to celebrate then with lots and lots of sugar and icing!  Many thanks to all of the parents who came in to help with our sugary creations!

Here is a "before" picture.

During.

After.

The girls also put their finishing touches on their gingerbread decorations today.  They will be ready to go home tomorrow--make sure you find a great place to hang your daughter's gingerbread creation!

Gingerbread & Mem Fox

This morning we read The Gingerbread Girl.  The girls were then paired up and had to use a Venn diagram to compare this story to our big book version of the Gingerbread Man.

Later on, we read Snowmen at Christmas and the girls created their own winter snowman (using marshmallows) after we read the story.  

During our author's study time, we read Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild and the girls discussed character development.  Make sure you ask your daughter what Harriet was like in the book.

Catching Up with Pre-First

Temperatures are dropping, there's a chill in the air and everyone is starting to get holiday fever.  We are getting in the winter spirit in our classroom and last week we read The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.  After the story, the girls had to conference with a friend about a creative way their snowman would melt.  The girls headed back to their seats to make their own melted snowman.

Many thanks to the Pritchard's for being our Mystery Readers last week!

December has arrived and winter is right around the corner.  To get into the spirit, we read a fun winter story and decorated our bulletin board with one of our favorite winter things...mugs of hot chocolate!  The girls adorned their mugs with snowy images then described why they like winter.  Their own little cup of hot chocolate helped inspire their creative juices.

We started our gingerbread unit and today the girls listened to The Gingerbread Man big book for the second time.  Then they were then put into pairs and had to sequence the story with their partner.

Subtraction and New Author

The girls began a new math unit on subtraction today.  We read 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.

We have a new Author of the Month in Pre-First.  She is from the land down under, she was raised in Africa, and is one of the best known authors in Australia.....she is Mem Fox!  The girls were so excited to learn about our new author.  We read Good Night. Sleep Tight and went to Mem Fox's website to learn all about her.  In the next few weeks, we will be reading more books that Mem Fox has written and complete a variety of activities.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

We had a great day today, starting with a visit from our grandparents and special friends.  The girls put on their first Thanksgiving play, completed a Venn diagram comparing the first Thanksgiving to the one that they celebrate today, and finally put their knowledge of the french language on display.

Here is the link to their Thanksgiving play!  Enjoy!

A HUGE thank you to the parent committee--Claudia, Jawana, Mohamed, Kari, Tami, and Alycia--who organized our Thanksgiving feast.  The girls loaded up their plates with foods from all the food groups and enjoyed their Thanksgiving fare.  Many thanks to all of the parents who contributed wonderful dishes to our feast.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and we will see you all next week!

Publishing Party

The girls celebrated writing their first book by having a Publishing Party with the first grade.  We visited both Mrs. Bradley and Ms. Lacy's rooms and shared our stories with our first grade friends.

Many thanks to Brent Hilpert for being our Mystery Reader today.  The girls loved hearing all about outer space!

Thanksgiving and Nutrition

In preparation for our Thanksgiving extravaganza, the girls made a placemat for our feast.  A turkey was the main focus of the placemat, but in place of feathers, the girls used leaves.  It was a gorgeous morning for a leaf walk!

We got back inside and assembled our turkeys. 

The final product.  

In math, the girls played Addition Sentence True or False. They were able to use a number line in order to check their answers.

We continued our work with the food groups today.  First we reviewed the different food groups.

Then we displayed different foods found in the grocery store.

The girls had to choose a food, place it in the correct food group, and give one fact about that food group.

Your daughters are food group rock stars!

At the end of the lesson, the girls completed a food sort with a partner.

Dairy Time

Mooooove over, protein.  Today we read Dairy Products and talked about the dairy food group.  The girls learned that anything made from milk is considered a dairy product.  Then we decided to take a leap of faith and make butter with our girls.  After informing the girls (several times) that we have never done this before and they were the first (which got them extremely excited), we got started.

First we showed them our ingredients/supplies.

Then we poured the whipping cream into a mason jar and added two marbles (to help agitate the cream) and the girls got shaking.  And shaking.  And shaking.

And shaking.

And shaking.

Finally, we have ourselves some butter.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

The girls have been LOVING our social studies unit about the First Thanksgiving.  They have been working hard with the Scribble Press app on their iPads, creating interesting journal entries depicting different events that the pilgrims experienced.

As you know, we are getting ready for our Grandparents' Day play.  Here they are painting the setting of our play.

Many thanks to Monika Dhillon for being our Mystery Reader on Monday.

Our pilgrim women hard at work on their pilgrim journals.

Today the girls compared and contrasted the fruits and protein food groups as they filled in their first Venn Diagram.