Night at the Far, Spirit Day and Pecos Bill

This week 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 identify the setting of the story. I 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 (sequins, mini pom-poms, construction paper, foam shapes, craft glue, 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. I was so impressed with their cooperation and imagination! Be sure to ask your daughters which setting they chose to recreate.

In Language Arts earlier this week 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 in our current class read aloud, Charlotte's Web) and wrote 5 short i words inside of their pigs.

We'd like to send a big Pre First "THANK YOU!" to our Mystery Reader that came in on Wednesday! One PF girl was especially happy to see her :)

During Spirit Day yesterday we spent some time stenciling and decorating pumpkins to add to our Fall bulletin board. Please stop into the classroom if you can to check out the finishing touches!

We had a GREAT time welcoming the Morgan State University Band to campus for the Spirit Day Parade and I think it is safe to say that this was the highlight of yesterdays festivities! GO BRYN MAWR!

In math this week we have been discussing ordinal numbers and the difference between ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers. The girls are becoming very comfortable using the correct ordinal numbers for 1-10. Today the girls made daisies with ordinal numbers as the petals to practice what they've learned.

This week's engineering project was based on the tall tale of Pecos Bill.  The girls read several versions of his story this week, including this Steven Kellogg  book. Then your daughters were challenged to make a lasso out of 5 plastic bags. Once they created their lasso, they had to rope a "steer" (i.e. chair with an attached yard stick).  Again, I emphasized the importance of planning ahead and working together. Once they developed a plan as a group, they got right to work.

The end result consisted of plenty of lasso-ing! We've got some serious cowgirls on our hands!

Finally, please be sure to ask your daughters about our awesome assembly today with Uno, Dos, Tres Andres! Even Ms. Brooks got to be apart of the singing, dancing and Spanish speaking good time. I encourage you all to visit his Youtube channel so that your daughters can share all of the songs we learned today :)

123 Andres Visits Bryn Mawr

Happy Friday!  We started today with a fabulous assembly by 123 Andres, last year's winner of the Latin Grammy for Best Children's Album.  His albums are bilingual with songs in both English and Spanish and today the girls had a blast singing, dancing, and playing instruments with this dynamic performer.  We have already learned several of his songs in Spanish class and the girls love singing along.  If your daughter wants to see more of his videos, you can find them here. 

Short "e", Math Centers, Engineering and Founder's Day!

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 worked with a partner to sort "silly" vs "real" words with the short e sound.

In math, the girls worked in math centers that focused on reviewing and improving number sense, with a fall theme of course :) One was matching numbers, number words, and corresponding shapes. In another the girls had to match a pumpkin number, number word and corresponding ten frame. The third center was playing candy corn memory, where the girls had to find a number and number word matching set.  

We also had our first Engineering Challenge this week! The tall tale we focused on was Johnny Appleseed. Throughout the week I read several books aloud to the girls to give them some background knowledge on the history of Johnny Appleseed. Then, yesterday the girls became engineers! I gave them a problem: construct a raft using sticks, yarn and duck tape that can hold the weight of an apple without sinking.  The girls worked in groups to solve this problem. Their first step was to plan and design a raft on paper. 

After that, they gathered their materials and started constructing their rafts. I emphasized that problems often do not become resolved in the first attempt and it may take many improvements and tries before one finds a solution. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their first day as engineers and I encouraged them to try and solve this problem at home over the weekend. 

Finally, we might have just had the best Fun Friday in the history of Pre-First. This morning we got to watch the 5th grade girls work the catwalk in the annual French Fashion Show. After that, we walked up the hill to our Founders' Day celebration.  After the celebration, we attended the all-school picnic. The girls enjoyed either their own lunches or hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and the obligatory cupcake.  Our in-house faculty band, Edith Jamilton, provided an amazing after lunch concert that the girls danced along to. It was a fabulous day to be a Mawrtian!