Catching up with Pre-First

We have been extremely busy in Pre-First over the past three days.  In Reader's Workshop, the girls traveled around the room in centers while we started reading groups.  During language arts, we focused on the short o sound and the girls made mini-octopuses that had eight legs all containing short o words. 

In math, we started addition and have embraced the upcoming holiday by using different manipulatives to add together.   

Here we are, adding candy corns on Monday.

Today, we added pumpkin teeth.

Founder's Day is Friday and to help your daughters better understand the meaning of the day, we have started explaining why Bryn Mawr was founded and who the amazing five women were who started our school.

Pre-First on the Founder's Bench

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."

We had our Mystery Reader today!  The girls got a kick out of A Giraffe and a Half.

Two gentle reminders: 

1.  We have a dress down day tomorrow to celebrate the Orioles--please send your daughters to school in orange and black. 

2.  The girls will be able to check books out of our library, please make sure you check their backpack when they get home.

Art: Imaginary Worlds

The girls looked at the work of Paul Klee and noticed the shapes in his buildings, castles, and cities looked like building blocks. They built a little world with table blocks, photographed it, and then drew the shapes on the paper.  They colored each shape in with colored pencils and outlined the perimeter around the the building.  This is a lot of work with geometric shapes! Finally, they created little characters and made up a story about their little world (inspired by Dr. Seuss) that they recorded on their iPads.  

The girls have had a great time in PE so far this year.  We recently completed our parachute unit.  The girls LOVED the parachute!  With the parachute, the girls worked on upper body strength, cooperation, spatial awareness, and following directions.

French: Les Fournitures Scolaires

The girls have been learning all about school supplies in French class. This week, they walked into the classroom to discover a desk for each of them covered with real fournitures scolaires. First, I would say a vocabulary word and they would present the corresponding object. You can see them showing me des règles in the pictures below. Then, they listened to my step-by-step instructions in French and created an art project. The project included a picture of Edgar Dégas' La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans which we had talked about earlier. They did a great job listening carefully and understanding my instructions. The projects were fantastiques!

Orioles Magic!

Orioles magic...feel it happen!  We started out our fun Friday with a dance tribute to the hometown team.  The girls looked great in their orange and black and everyone was extremely excited to cheer the O's to a big win today!

The girls became fortune tellers today as they learned about prediction during our author's study.  We read Shortcut by Donald Crews and discussed why predicting what happens next in a story is important to overall understanding.  We stopped reading the book halfway through and gave the girls "crystal balls."  The girls had to draw what they predicted would happen next in the story.

When they were done, we turned off our lights and held a flashlight to the bottom of their "crystal balls" while they shared their predictions.

From the Library

Pre-first girls have just finished the Penny series by Kevin Henkes: Penny and her Doll, Penny and her Song, Penny and her Marble. This last book sparked in-depth conversation about how we feel when we take something that's not ours, how much we want it, why we might get a stomach ache when we have it. This class is a good group of problem solvers! We interspersed a couple of other books into our readings of the Penny books. The Princess and the Pizza is always a hit. We also previewed a new book, Oliver Jeffers'  Lost and Found.
Pre-first girls will begin checking out books and taking them home next week. They may keep books for up to four weeks. They will check out one book at a time. When your daughter has returned her book she will be able to check out and take home another book.

Writer's Workshop

The girls have been working diligently on personal narratives during our Writer's Workshop period.  So far the girls have illustrated, labeled (then turned their labels into sentences), and applied finger spacing to their stories.  Today, the girls learned how to revise their work by adding more detail to their writing.  Through this process, they are understanding that a writer is never truly finished with just one draft.  We are so proud of how hard they are working on their stories!

The girls love sharing their writing in our "Author's Chair!"

In language arts, the girls have been working with short e words (hen, red).  Today, they sorted short e words into real and silly categories.  We also had another Mystery Reader.  This one has a special talent...make sure you ask your daughter what it is!