Busy Girls

Where to begin?! These girls have been BUSY! I am going to do my best to cover anything and everything the girls have been doing for the past week, for more details please ask your daughter :)
Math:
The girls have played a lot of new fun games since returning from the break. During their first week back, the girls used popsicle sticks to explore representing numbers to 20 in tally form. A.Y. noticed that the number five in tally form looks like a fence and that both five and fence start with the letter F. Fabulous! The girls also practiced making geometric shapes on their geoboards. They then partnered up and and practiced giving directions to one another.

The girls have also been playing Beat You to Ten a math game that involves counting to 10, comparing quantities, reading numbers to 10 and adding 2 or more quantities. Today they learned how to play Hungry Caterpillar a math game that involves recognizing and naming diamonds, triangles, trapezoids and hexagons, exploring relationships between various 2-dimensional shapes, combining shapes to make other shapes and solving spatial problems. Some of the girls do not love competing or playing win/lose games so those girls work together to fill their caterpillars or make 20.

Reader's Workshop:
Ms. Hamre and I have begun assessing all of the girls to determine what their independent reading level is. During Reader's Workshop this week we have been discussing all of the ways we can "read" a story without needing to know what all of the words say. During our independent reading time one of the girls proudly showed me that she could read her book her eyes closed! And she proudly flipped from page to page and read me a story she had memorized! Too cute!

Writer's Workshop:
During Writer's Workshop the girls were introduced to writing their Weekend Reports and Weekend Predictions. On Mondays and Fridays the girls will focus on writing about their weekends, during these times the girls will be focusing on the mechanics of writing (spaces, letter/vowel sounds, punctuation, letter formation).

Integrated Learning:
In preparation for our field trip next week, the girls prepared interview questions for chef Karo. We reviewed the crops that are harvested in the fall and the girls came up with questions they had for Chef Karo regarding making a Fall Harvest Soup.

What kinds of soups are there? Do they include vegetables? Do you make stew?

"How many ingredients?"

What ingredients do you put in the soup? Do you put vegetables in the soup?

"Do(es) harvest soup have broth? I have a lot of wonders!"

During their interview, Ms. Karo showed the girls what some of the harvest vegetables look like in their whole form. She also created a soup recipe for us that we will use to make our harvest soup!

Connecting with our Hamlin Community:
To help familiarize the girls with the Hamlin campus, our Gingerbread Buddy has decided to lead us on a chase through various rooms and offices the kindergarten girls are not yet familiar with. On Monday the class made Gingerbread snowflakes, pine trees and gingerbread babies. Unfortunately, our class Gingerbuddy ran away on Tuesday! Below is a video of Mr. Lijek reading one of the Gingerbread Buddy clues to the girls.

DSC 0545 from Lisa Dutton on Vimeo.