NOMA Shout Out
NOMA girls want to give a shout out to:
Ms. Emily, Ms. Kate, Ms. Angel, Jennifer & Danielle, and all of the UNO grownups [that would be Dr. Leonard, Dr. Lipschulz, Paul Sather…]. – Makayla, Denai, Jamece, Jasmine, and Ronneyce
A lucky winner!
Ariyah won one of the books raffled off at the GIRLStart parent sharing night. We raffled off 3 copies of Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse – the same book we used for the evening’s read aloud activity.
GIRLStart Parent Sharing
Last night was Parent Sharing for the GIRLStart literacy program.
Girls read poetry written in the class. Ms. Mara did a read aloud of Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3XR0XVXC4) and then each girl (and some of the moms!) decorated her own purse. Ms. Tess, GIRLStart coordinator, had a slide show of the semester’s GIRLStart activities and Ms. Kim, our evaluator, did some one-on-one parent meetings to discuss classroom progress.
Snackalicious Every Day!
If I were president….
Sister 2 Sister
I love the Sister 2 Sister peer mentoring program at Girls Inc. Teen and pre-teen girls volunteer to “mentor” our younger girls in programming, such as our GIRLStart Literacy classes, and also with to help them with life skills. A teen will be paired with a younger girl in the cafeteria to talk to her about her day and to help her with cafeteria etiquette. She might teach a younger girl how to use her utensils, how to use an ‘indoor’ voice, or encourage her to try new foods. The teens also help prepare program supplies and then help the younger girls with their craft projects when the time comes to apply glue or use scissors – new skills for our kindergarten and pre-k girls. Teens will be paired for read aloud with a younger Reading Buddy. Sister 2 Sister was a program initiated by the teens themselves and is supported by the Fund for Omaha through the Omaha Community Foundation. – Tess Larson
PS: In the photo below, Dae is helping get supplies together for a GIRLStart parent sharing night. She’ll help the younger girls decorate their own purses after reading Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse.
Mariah & Aqila Design their own house
It takes a village…
…made of refrigerator boxes to get the GIRLStart girls in a major league design mode. They LOVED creating their own neighborhood and setting the house rules themselves.
A shout out to Nebraska Furniture Mart for the great boxes.
Refrigerator Box House
The girls would do Mr. Plumbean (from The Big Orange Splot) proud!
Some sample girl rules…
No hitting was a common theme in the girls’ rules. So was “no dorks allowed.” On girl had a rule that you do jump on the bed in her house. We appreciated the girl that felt that “no hitting the teacher” was a good rule. We agree!
Big Orange Splot
The GIRLSTart girls had a read aloud of The Big Orange Splot. Then they wrote rules for their own house. Then they got to decorate their own houses and post their rules.
