Art: Fall Leaves

Pre-first used paint to see. They engaged in their first observational drawing work using paint. They pushed and pulled the inside color and the outside color until they found the accurate edge of the leaf. This colorful collection of leaves is "falling" in the Lower School Administration building display case! 

Skeletons and Ghost Estimating

We learned more about our skeletal system this morning.  We read Your Skeletal System and discussed the different facts in the book.  Then the girls matched facts with the correct bone.

After that, the girls grabbed their skeletons they made last week from their tubs and labeled the major bones of the body.

Next, the girls were broken into two groups.  Each group created their own skeleton out of pizza dough.  The girls had to work together and make the six major bones in the body (skull, spine, arms, legs, rib cage and hip bones).

We started our Halloween fun time today by reading The Ghost's Dinner.

After, during our math time, the girls learned about the word "estimation" and each made estimates on how many popcorn kernels would fit on Henry the ghost.  Be sure to ask your daughter how many kernels it took!

Our estimation winner!

Rubric, Short i, and Cover Up

During Writer's Workshop, the girls have been working on publishing their personal stories.  Today we created a rubric to help the girls determine if their stories were "ready for publishing."

In our language arts period, the girls reviewed the short i sound.  As a group, we matched words with corresponding pictures.

The girls then drew a pig (very similar to our beloved Wilbur) and wrote 5 short i words inside of their pigs.

In math 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.

Having a blast in PE!

Literature Centers and Spines

The girls have been learning our routine of working in centers while we meet with our reading groups.  Here is a taste of what your daughters do during Reader's Workshop.

In reading groups, we always start our session with phonics work.  Here are the girls making words with different word families.

Then while certain girls are in reading groups the rest of the class is in centers. In this center the girls are matching short a words with corresponding pictures.

Completing a short a puzzle.

Pumpkin Matching: finding the number, number word, and matching dots.

Pumpkin Addition:  Solving addition sentences by matching the problem with the answer, then copying the sentence down.

Matching short e words with their corresponding picture.

We continued learning about the skeleton today during science and we focused on the spine.  The girls took a straw and then had to thread a pipe cleaner through it.  They tried to bend the pipe cleaner and found that it was difficult to make the straw move.  We then took the straw and cut it into several pieces and re-thread the pipe cleaner back through it.  The girls discovered that the pipe cleaner now could easily bend, just as the vertebrae allow our backs to bend.

Fall birthdays and Halloween Fun

On Friday we celebrated our fall birthdays.  Many thanks to the Holtzman's, Prevas', and Salkini's who provided yummy treats for the girls.

Last week's STAR of the Week.

The girls enjoyed a great assembly today on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." 

We started our Halloween fun today with a pumpkin glyph.  We read Halloweena, then the girls had to follow certain directions and decorate their pumpkin accordingly--it is a fun and different way to collect data about our Pre-First class!  Be sure to ask your daughters how they decorated their pumpkins!

From the Library

Pre-first girls are learning their way around the library and reviewing library routines. They have caught on so quickly that we are jumping right in to checking out books. They are already expert at finding their names on the library computer screen and scanning their books out themselves. Each girl is allowed to take home one book at a time and keep it for up to four weeks. Girls are encouraged to read to their pets, their refrigerators, their grandparents and babysitters. If they choose a challenging book they should read with a more experienced reader. When the old book comes back to the library, anew one may be checked out. We have read together Kevin Henkes' Penny series. Penny and her Marble always leads to an interesting discussion. Ask your daughter why Penny felt nervous and how she resolved the problem. We have also read Aliki's Painted Words/Spoken Memories. Ask your daughter what was unusual about this book.

Addition and Skeletons

Many thanks to Cathi Hilpert for being our Mystery Reader last week.  The girls loved the books you brought in!

As you know, we have been working very hard in math on our addition sentences.  This week we sorted M&Ms by color then added the different colors together.

Today we worked with dominos.  The girls pulled a domino out of a bucket, copied the dots onto their worksheets, and added the two sides.

Our latest science unit is skeletons!  The girls are loving this unit and can't get enough information about their bones.  Today, we read Jessica's X-Ray and then the girls put together their own skeletons.  We will be labeling the different bones of these skeletons next week.

Founders' Day Celebration

We might have just had the best Fun Friday in the history of Pre-First.  In the morning, we read Freight Train by our Author of the Month, Donald Crews.  The girls then sponge painted the different train cars and practiced their labeling skills by labeling the color of the cars.

We then walked up the hill to our Founders' Day celebration.  After the celebration, we attended the all-school picnic.  The girls enjoyed hot dogs and hamburgers and the obligatory cupcake.  Our in-house faculty band provided background music that the girls danced along to.  It was a fabulous day to be a Mawrtian!

Addition and Short e sound

Hen, pet, men, peg...what do these words have in common?  They all contain the short e vowel sound.  This week we focused on this sound during our language arts period.  The girls were introduced to the sound by a fun video on the Starfall website--if you have a chance, check it out as it has a ton of great games, books, and videos that reinforce the different sounds and word families we will work on in our classroom.  After the video, we matched short e words with pictures and then the girls played a game in small groups called "Scrub the Decks".  Make sure you ask them about it!  

Here are the girls sorting short e words into "real" and "silly" categories.

Yesterday, we worked on our addition skills and number sentences by adding pumpkin teeth.  The girls had to roll the dice 2 times and place the number amount on the top and bottom.  They then had to count the teeth and write the addition sentence.  Can you tell we are inching closer to Halloween?

The girls have been working diligently on personal narratives during our Writer's Workshop period.  So far the girls have illustrated, labeled, and then turned their labels into sentences.  Today, they applied finger spacing to their stories. 

In math, the girls continue to work on their addition strategies by writing addition sentences.  Today, the girls were partnered up and played the card game War against each other.