If you need to schedule a large item pick-up to be donated to the Foundation Garage Sale,
Please call Patti Lavender: 770-552-1162
We are planning to schedule pick-ups for Sunday afternoon, April 27th, but we may be able to make other arrangements.
Garrison Mill has recently established a Foundation whose purpose is to provide resources above and beyond what the County and the Garrison Mill PTA is able to provide. Please visit their web page to find out more about who they are, what they do, and help support their first fundraising event. You can visit them at: GME Foundation.
March 23, 2008
Dear Parents,
I have listed some general suggestions that you can do to help support the reading growth of your child. These suggestions are useful for almost any child at a beginning reading level. If you do some of them regularly in a motivating and supportive way, they will help your child make faster progress in learning to read. Many of these activities will build phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary and will ultimately help your child enjoy learning to read.
1. Create a special workspace and schedule daily quiet time for your child to do his/her homework from school. Be sure it is a time you are available to help if needed.
2. Schedule 15 minutes of special time everyday to listen to your child read.
3. Go to the school library, public library, or to the local bookstore once each week and read a new book together. Read the title then look at the cover and pictures inside. Ask your child to predict what the book is about. After reading the book, review prediction then ask about the characters, setting, problem and solution.
4. Fact or Opinion Game: The parent says a sentence to the child then asks whether it is a fact or opinion. Ex: The weather is nice. (Opinion) A dog can bark. (Fact)
5. Encourage reading fluency by having your child read and reread familiar books. It can also be helpful to have your child read a short passage over several times while you record the time it takes. Children often enjoy seeing if they can improve their time from one reading to the next, and the repeated reading helps to establish a habit of fluent reading.
6. Take every opportunity you can to help increase your child’s vocabulary. You can do this by pointing to things and asking the child to tell you what they are, or you can stop and explain the meaning of any words in your reading that the child may not understand. The more you talk to your child, the faster their vocabulary will grow.
7. Pick out a new vocabulary word from one of the books you are reading with your child. Talk about what it means then make up a sentence with the new word. Try to use the word again that week.
8. Play rhyming games. Say two words that rhyme (e.g. cat, sat) and ask your child to say a word that rhymes with your words. Take turns. Ask your child to say a word and then you respond with a rhyming word. For example, child says "cat", parent says "hat"; child says "chair", parent says "pair".
9. Take turns thinking of two words that end with the same sound. Examples: mom, some; dog, rug; fun, ran; paper, feather.
10. Play the “say the word slowly” game. Say a word at normal rate and then have your child say that same word slowly, one sound at a time. For example, say the word, “mat.” Then your child will say that same word slowly, one sound at a time, “/m/ /a/ /t/.” Play this game using about five to ten short words each day.
11. Fold a piece of paper into three parts. Let your child draw a picture of something he did in sequence. Then help your child write one sentence under each picture explaining what he did first, next and last.
12. Take frequent breaks while reading to ask “wh” questions- who, what, when, where, why.
Happy Reading,
Mrs. Druhot 
Dear Parents,
We are going to
work more with money over the next several weeks.
Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in Math state:
M1N1.e
M1N1.f
M2N1.c
Use money as a
medium of exchange. Count back change and use decimal notation and the dollar
and cent symbols to represent a collection of coins and currency.
You can help your child at school by putting the following money in the attached baggie and sending it to school on Monday, February 4th.
Your child will keep his/her baggie in my classroom and use it when we are working with various coins and money combinations.
If you are unable to send the money in, please return the baggie and I will supply your child with something to use.
Thank you for your help with this. It is so much easier for a child to learn the concepts of money if we are able to use "real" money.
The money will be returned towards the end of the year.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Druhot
25- pennies
10- nickels
10- dimes
6 -quarters
1 -one dollar bill
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the wonderful world of first and second grade! I know that you are anxious to help your child take those first steps to becoming a fluent reader. To help you do this, I will be sending home weekly reading assignments. This is a parent-child project that your child cannot do alone. Here’s how it all works:
This simple homework project can help improve two of the five reading components, fluency and comprehension. With your help, I feel that this project will bave great benefits for your child in the classroom and at home. Please click on the links and below for more information on helping your child read, the five components of reading, and fluency and comprehension. Also, there is an attachment with the reading standards addressed in the homework. Please contact me if you have any questions.
The first lesson will go home Monday, September 24th in a three ring binder. Please return the notebook with the homework by Friday. Thanks for all your help in getting your child off to a terrific start in becoming a great reader!
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first2.html
http://www.rif.org/parents/articles/5reading_components.mspx
http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101/fluency
http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101/comprehension
Download reading_standards_addressed_in_homework.doc
Sincerely,
Ferrell Druhot
This week, the children will be performing in our annual Under the Sea program. The dress rehearsal will be Wednesday at 8:30 am, and the final performance will be on Thursday at 8:30 am. Please send in your child's "summer outfit" for the performances by Tuesday. We can't wait to see you there!
Phonics- We are continuing to recognize rhyming words and expand with word families such as -at, -an, -ot, and -un.
Math- For the remainder of the year we will continue to practice addition and subtraction, as well as problem solving. The children are improving their problem solving skills by using manipulatives and strategies they have learned thus far.
*****Please continue to review letters, beginning sounds, numbers, and sight words.
I am so proud of the children. They have made tremendous progress this year!!!!
Have a great week,
Mrs. Druhot
This week in Phonics, we continue to work rhyming and the letter Qq. The new words of the week are WITH and WENT.
During Math and throughout the rest of our Farm unit, we will work on simple addition. We will work specifically on number combinations with sums of 4 - 7 and different ways to write an addition sentence.
We will complete our FARM unit this week with the field trip to Cagle’s Dairy. Next week we will begin our new unit - Spring and Plants.
This will be an exciting week!
Farmer’s Breakfast in Mrs. Nichols’ class Thursday morning
Relay For Life Bake Sale in the cafeteria on Friday morning
Farm Field Trip Friday to Cagle’s Dairy- don’t forget to wear your Kindergarten
T-shirt
Bingo Night at GM 6:00pm – Family Fun Night at Garrison Mill!!!
Have a great week!
Mrs. Druhot and Mrs. Melinda
Hello Parents,
I hope you enjoyed the Valentines from your child. We had a great time in Mrs. Nichols’ class during Valentine Centers on Wednesday. The children worked on letter recognition at the M&M Bingo game, and they also sorted and graphed conversation hearts. Best of all, we decorated and ate a Valentine cookie with lots of frosting and sprinkles! We also had a terrific morning with our DADS today! The children had a lot of fun singing some of their favorite songs, especially the “Tooty Ta” song.
Next Week:
Because the children are not in school Monday or Tuesday, we will not have a new Letter of the Week or new Words of the Week. In addition to our two student holidays, we will also be on a field trip Wednesday to the 5gPuppetry Arts Center.
*Please take time to review all letters, beginning sounds, and sight words with your child. We have learned 43 sight words so far. If you are missing some, please let us know, so we can send home new flash cards.
We are continuing our study of MONEY in Math. When the children are able to identify the coins by name and value, they will be able to buy something at the school store using their money. Our next Math unit will explore GREATER NUMBERS. The children will increase their number sense as they learn to count, write, and compare numbers to 20.
DINOSAURS will be our next Thematic Unit, and it will cover some of our Life Science state standards:
· Group animals according to their observable features such as appearance, size, motion, where it lives, etc.
· Explain similarities and differences in animals (color, size, appearance, etc.)
Dates to remember:
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs. Druhot and Mrs. Melinda
Hello Parents,
Happy New Year! We are quickly finding our way back to our routine of learning and having fun at GM.
This week we will explore and learn all about Mr. K and his sound. Our words are I and DO. A mid-year review of all letters, sounds, and sight words is a great idea for home. You can be creative, and don't forget there are many fun games, such as memory, that you can play with flashcards.
We will continue our study of Winter this week, and we will also learn more about hibernation and bears. The picture above was taken by me in October at Mt. Blanc, France, the highest peak in the Alps. Winter looks very different in Georgia, especially at 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
During the next few weeks, your child will be learning about measurement. Here are some learning ideas you can share together.
At-Home Activities:
READ ABOUT IT! To read more with your child about measurement, look for these books in the GM library or Mt. View Library.
CLASS DONATION NEEDED- Sometimes a child may forget their snack, so we need extra snacks in our cabinet. Some suggestions are Goldfish or pretzels. Thank you!
Have a great week,
Hello Parents,
Winter is here--brrrr! Can you believe 2006 is almost over? We have been very busy so far this month. Look what we are doing this week.....
Our Thematic Unit of study is Holiday Customs Around the World. As you know, we will be traveling to different countries next week and explore a variety of holiday customs. This is a wonderful time of the year to talk about differences among others in our community and our friends. This week we will work on activities leading up to our big "trip" around the world.
On Friday, we had a fun culminating Math activity that wrapped up our shape unit. We joined Mrs. Nichols' class and worked together in groups to find two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes in magazines. Then we displayed the shape pictures for our "Shape Museum". This activity assisted with math goals as well as many social and behavior goals. Now it is time to review our numbers 1-30. We will practice number recognition with flash cards and games, numeral writing with various tactile strategies, and ordering the numbers 1-30 using manipulatives.
This week in Phonics we will study letter B and Mr. B's button sound. We will also revisit the rhyme Blue Bird Blue Bird which emphasizes the B sound. A Bean Bag game will also be a fun way to learn the B sound at the beginning and end of words.
Reminders: Chick fil a Night - Thursday, December 14 @ 6:00
Have a super week!
Mrs. Druhot
