Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!  The girls celebrated their appreciation for the earth by writing their own promises about ways they can be mindful of the environment.  They brainstormed thoughtful ideas about recycling, planting gardens, and reducing waste.  They finger painted their own globes and adorned them with green glitter.  Fitting for Earth Day, they also transplanted their sunflowers which, in recent days, have really sprouted and are starting to outgrow their tiny pots.  The girls carefully unearthed the roots and transferred them to bigger pots that they had painted.  The sunflowers are enjoying their new homes and some welcome sunshine- although some springier temperatures would be nice too!

Capitalization

Today we focused on which words need to be capitalized.  We taught the girls the acronym MINTS--make sure you ask them what it stands for--to help them remember the capital rules.  The girls broke up into groups of 4 where they had to create a sentence that contained at least 1 capital.  After they created their sentence, they wrote it on a sentence strip and had to make the capital letter with their bodies. 

 

Spring Birthdays

Today we celebrated our spring birthday girls: Catelyn, Kohena and Avery!  Many thanks to Blair's mom, Karen, for the delicious cupcakes and Avery's dad, Paul, for the yummy brownies!

 

 

The girls were also thrilled to see that their sunflowers have finally begun to sprout!  They are keeping a journal of their plant's growth over the next month.  Be sure to ask your daughter if she saw her sprout today.  

This is....Jeopardy!

Today, the girls reviewed 2D and 3D shapes in a fun way...by playing Jeopardy! The girls played as a team against the computer and had to earn $3000 in order to get a treat at the end of the day.  Category titles were: 2D Shapes, 2D Real-Life Examples, 3D Shapes, 3D Real-Life Examples, and Miscellaneous.  They worked together and pulled out a big "W"!  They are prepared for tomorrow's big culmination activity!

 

The girls also began making the first animal for their rain forest tree--the morpho butterfly.  They learned where the butterfly lives in the rain forest and watched an amazing video of its colorful wings.  They painted coffee filters brilliant colors and tomorrow, when they are dry, will glue them onto their trees!

 

Cone heads

No, this is not a Saturday Night Live skit.  We have been studying 3D shapes in math and today our focus was on the cone.  The girls are able to give characteristics of cones as well as real-life examples.  The girls made cone hats today and decorated them with examples of cones that they could find while taking a walk. 

How-To books

Ever wonder how to go to swim practice?  Well, we bet your daughters can tell you!  This week, we are continuing our work with transition words and step-by-step instructions by having the girls plan and write their own How-To books.  After we made our class How-To Make Jello book last week, we gave the girls free reign to create their own books.

First we brainstormed several different ideas that the girls could use.

 

Then they expanded their ideas on their iPads using the Popplet Lite app.

 

 

 

After they planned at least 4 steps, we gave them the go-ahead to put their steps into action using super sentences. 

Jelly Bean Math

Since we do not have school tomorrow (our usual "Fun Friday"), we decided to have a "Thrilling Thursday" instead.  The girls had a scavenger hunt for eggs with different Word Wall words written on them--they had to find 4 different words and correctly spell them on their sheet.  Here is video of the start of the scavenger hunt.

Kohena writing the words she found.

After we checked the words as a group, the girls sat down at their seats to complete a math packet using the jelly beans inside the eggs as manipulatives.  Here is Blair sorting her jelly beans.

Rakeb is tallying her jelly beans.

Putting the jelly beans in the following patterns:  AB, ABB, ABC, and AAB.

 

We also had a special Mystery Reader today--Peggy Bessent!  The girls loved hearing Thomas' Snowsuit by our Author of the Month, Robert Munsch, and enjoyed our very special visitor :-)