Tag Archives: girlstart literacy
Parent Testamonial for GIRLStart literacy
Give Girls Inc. GIRLStart program a huge kudos. I went to Taylor’s parent teacher conference and came out in tears. Taylor’s report card was outstanding. I want to especially point out the Student Criterion reading assessments scores from last semester she advanced in all areas with a proficient in vowel clusters. Again thank you Ms. Kim, Ms. Mara, Ms. Tess as well as the Girls Inc. staff.
– Precious McKesson
Parent Sharing
The Girls Inc. staff hosted a parent sharing day on Saturday, March 12 for the girls attending the Emma Lozier Center in South Omaha. With an international theme, parents and girls were treated to a meal with foods from around the world: fried chicken for the USA, Ethiopian food and bread, and pupusas from El Salvador. Girls Inc. staff shared information about the program and the girls’ activities with Spanish and African dialect translations. Girls and families had an opportunity to create a craft project together. The turnout of parents was fabulous!
At the sharing, the GIRLStart parents and girls took over the second floor of the center to participate in a read aloud of Everybody Bakes Bread. The girls were able to sample breads mentioned in the book and to participate in accompanying craft projects. From Barbados, the girls tried coconut bread. And then they created a seashell craft project (although for many of the girls it was more of a glitter-sequin-glue project with a seashell thrown in for good measure…). The girls had challah from Italy, cornbread from the USA, and Italian bread from Italy (thank you Orsi bakery!).
Reading, Writing, & Rapping
As part of the Black History Month celebrations, the girls in the GIRLStart literacy program read a book about Rosa Parks and wrote letters of gratitude to her bravery. Symphany’s letter is below.
The 9-12 year old girls chose famous African Americans to honor with rap songs. Want to see some of the raps? For Martin Luther King, Jr. – click here: http://bit.ly/gPtMBN. For Bill Cosby, click here: http://bit.ly/h8rRt0 For Oprah, click here http://bit.ly/dENPHq.
Madeline Visit
“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived 12 little girls in 2 straight lines…the smallest one was Madeline.” She was also – by the way – the bravest! The GIRLStart literacy girls have a Saturday field trip to the Omaha Public Library to hear the book and visit with Madeline.
The girs hear a read aloud (and they have a good ear for the rhyming words!) http://bit.ly/fthNmA and then then visit with Madeline http://bit.ly/gwiwBW.
Snow Stomping
What did the girls do after they finished mixing the food coloring paint and “painting” the snow?
“We stomped the snow!” – Jada
The girls mix it up…
Just like the mice in the book MOUSE PAINT, the girls mixed food coloring to see how the colors changed when they combined primary colors.
“We used red and green to make orange.” – Talia
“My favorite color was purple when we mixed red and blue.” – Amara
“Ms. Mara always gives us fun activities.” – Taylor
Ecuadorian Bread Sculpture
In a word – messy!
Ms. Mara Explains It All to You
As part of our celebration of Hispanic Awareness Month, we made Ecuadorian bread sculptures today. It takes bread, without the crusts, and lots and lots of glue. It’s very messy. The girls kept holding up their sticky hands and saying, Ms. Mara, I want to give you a hug!
Last week we did lessons on Mexican pottery and string art. That was cool because the girls know I am Mexican and it helped them to get to know me a little bit better. But today, we all learned about something new. Half of the girls didn’t know where Ecuador is. I showed them a map of Ecuador and I had a book about Ecuador to share with them. So it was exciting to celebrate this new thing together and this unique art form.
We had volunteers in the classroom from ConAgra Foods today. One gentleman got into quite a conversation about the finer points of bread sculpture with one of our members. Another one of the volunteers asked, “Where did this art form come from again?” I was so excited when Amaya yelled out, “Ecuador!” – Ms. Mara
BUBBLE PARTY today!
Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade girls spent the morning participating in bubble-related literacy activities. The day began with a read-aloud of Bubble Trouble, written by Stephen Krensky. Girls then imagined themselves as bubbles and wrote stories about their own bubble adventures. Mali, age 6, wrote “If I were a bubble I would be floating everywhere!”
After lunch the real fun started. The girls went out to the Hitchcock Sports Field & Playground just east of the North facility and enjoyed a professional Bubble Party. Three “Bubble Masters” from Yola’s Bubble Solutions helped the girls create bubbles that were as big as the girls, themselves. Every girl got a turn with small bubble wands, big bubble wands and some girls even mastered the art of making bubbles with nothing but their own fingers. Azuree, six-years-old, said “All of the bubble were different shapes. I made one that was as big as an elephant!”
Following the Bubble Party, each girl received a miniature bottle of bubble soap and a bubble wand as a party favor to take home.The bubble-themed activities were offered in conjunction with the GIRLStart reading program at Girls Inc.
Bubble Party
Video clips from the Bubble Party:
making a hand bubble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qP12iATRM making bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUkF7_z-ruk
lathering up to make hand bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBE3HBUnh2E dipping the giant wand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJGHXrX1fb0
a big tub of bubble soap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YnBNH98WsU Girls Inc. members tries her hand at filming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFMy72H3dks
spinning to make bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHJWPyNukAU dipping wands to make bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyIMkgJmF30
