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.

Many thanks to Lauren Colton for being our Mystery Reader today!

Tech Time

This month the girls have been working on searching for seasons, spring, and rainforest videos within BrainPop Jr.  Using the information from the video, we have created two collages using the app PicCollage.  This week we will use an app called Skitch to create a diagram of the layers of the rainforest.

Symmetry, Jelly Bean Math and Green Thumbs!

We have been incredibly busy these past few weeks; the girls have been graphing and working on their "how-to" books.  Many thanks to all of the parents who took time out of their busy schedules to come in and teach the girls about famous women in history--the girls LOVED every visitor!

Mihoko Kai taught the girls about Rosalind Franklin who was responsible for much of the research and discovery work that led to the understanding of the structure of DNA.

We ended our unit on famous women in history by having a tea party.  The girls were able to sample small sandwiches, fruit, special desserts and--of course--tea.  As the girls we eating their lunches, we got the chance to discuss all of the famous women we learned about and how they paved the way for our young girls today. 

The girls enjoyed learning about the world of chimpanzees from Stephanie Miskiewicz who came in as Jane Goodall.

Many thanks to Phil Gilotte who taught the girls about soccer star Mia Hamm.

We spent a language arts period learning about the different punctation marks that come at the end of a sentence.  We read Punctuation Takes a Vacation, then the girls read silly sentences aloud and had to determine if they should put a question mark, period or exclamation mark at the end of the sentence.  After that, the girls partnered up and completed a packet together.

We had a math lesson that focused on determining if different shapes and objects have a line of symmetry.  The girls were given several different cut out shapes to fold and see if they were symmetric or not.  They then went back to their seats to complete a packet as a class.  After the girls completed their math packets, they worked together to create a "Symmetry City" where every object had to be symmetric.  They enjoyed cooperating and creating this unique city which is hanging in our classroom.

Many thanks to Vivica Ryn who was our Mystery Reader on Wednesday.

Since we did not have school today (our usual "Fun Friday"), we decided to have a "Thrilling Thursday" instead.  The girls had a scavenger hunt for eggs.  Here is video of the start of the scavenger hunt.

How many activities can you do with jelly beans?  Plenty!  To get ready for our long weekend, the girls completed a math packet using jelly beans as manipulatives.  They sorted, tallied, graphed and patterned jelly beans...and of course got to eat some in the process.  

Your girls are all about to grow green thumbs.  The girls were introduced to their newest science unit which will focus on seeds and plants.  We read From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons and each student was given a plain flower pot to paint and make completely "theirs."   Yesterday, we filled the pots with soil and planted sunflower seeds.  Over the next few weeks we will be observing our plants as we feed them water and let them grow in the sun.

French: Les filles de Pre-First sont très à la mode !

The girls have been learning all about clothing vocabulary in French. This week, they put their knowledge to the test when they had to tell me what clothes they would like to wear for our défilé de mode (fashion show). Each girl then struck a pose in her new outfit. Enjoy the pages from our fashion magazine below. We have some future mannequins (models) on our hands!

Tech Update

This month we have been working on creating a Pic Collage using images from the app Scribble Press.  First, the girls learned how select a layout in PicCollage based on how many images they had.  Next, the students had to take a screen shot of each page of a book in Scribble Press then import it into PicCollage.  Once the entire book was imported, students printed the PicCollage.  We have also been working in BrainPop Jr.

Annie Oakley, Chunking and Parallel Lines

We had another famous female come to visit today--Annie Oakley!  Many thanks to Mike Cogdall for the Oscar-worthy performance.

During our language arts period, the girls learned about breaking words into chunks (aka syllables).  We taught them three different ways to break apart a word: clap it out, robot speak and holding their hand under their chin.  Ask your daughter which way was her favorite.

As we broke apart all of our names into syllables, most of the girls chose robot speak.  Here are two of our robots breaking apart their names.

We finished our syllable activity by getting into partners and sorting St. Patrick's Day words by chunks.

In math the girls learned about parallel lines.  After looking at different shapes and identifying the parallel lines on the shapes, the girls broke up into partners and groups to create human parallel lines. Finally, using the Educreations app, the girls took pictures of items in our classroom that have parallel lines.  They then recorded themselves "teaching" their friends why these objects had parallel lines.

To end our day, we had a special Mystery Reader--Mrs. McMahon's father!  We think the girls were a little shocked to see that Mrs. McMahon actually has a dad :-)

Famous Females!

The girls were lucky enough to have several famous females come in to visit them this week.

Jim Lancaster presented Clara Barton.

Here's our smiling picture.

Life on the Pre-First battlefield--bandaged up by Clara Barton.

Lauren Colton as Sally Ride.

Many thanks for the space ice cream!

Rhonda Wright as Mae Jemison.

All doctor/astronauts give out lollipops.

In math today, we continued studying and identifying different shapes.

The girls played "Name That Shape" where they had to identify a shape with their eyes closed.

Next we created a class graph of the shapes we have learned.

After that, the girls returned to their seats to create bar graphs of the various shapes' vertices and sides.

Finally, the girls made the 2-D shapes on the geoboards.

During our Writer's Workshop, the girls worked diligently on their How-To books.