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.
Hi
I really appreciate having had the opportunity to visit all of you at the parent teacher conferences. Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.
We are all grateful for the markers and snacks that you have sent in. Thank you!
Thank you room mothers for organizing our Valentine's centers, Australian centers, Japanese centers, subtraction party, and end of the year party and thanks to all of you for supporting them all.
I will be embedding the Georgia standards numbers within my blog. You can reference these standards on the Picasso site.
Math: M2N1.c We are currently working on counting mixed change (dollars and coins) and making change. There is a link on the GM Web Link Notebook for practice. M2N2.a We are also frequently reviewing addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. M2N3 Several children have mastered their subtraction facts, so I have introduced the concept of multiplication. We are using the skip counting songs to help us with this. You heard the 2s song when you came for the Thanksgiving luncheon. There is a link on the Web Link Notebook for multiplication practice. M2M2 We will be moving on to time soon.
Reading: ELA2RA.a, c, d, e, h, and q We are continuing with our book clubs. The kids have been very responsible about filling out their response forms ELA2RAb, d, k, and o We will be working on some short passages that work on the skills of answering the "W" questions, cause and effect, sequence, main idea, inferences, and vocabulary in context.
Writing: ELA2W1 The children are enjoying writing stories. I love to watch them write, because they enjoy it so much, and I love to read their very creative stories.
Science and Social Studies: Mrs. Dess and I are going back and forth for science and social studies. S2P2 Mrs. Dess is currently teaching the class about sources of energy and how the energy is used.
SS2.5 We are wrapping up our unit on Jamestown. Embedded in this unit, we worked on locating information in text as well as from time lines and pictures. We also made a 3D model of Jamestown.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Mrs. Kantor
Happy New Year!
It was good to see your children after the winter break; they looked well rested and happy.
Thank you for supporting High Touch High Tech. The class really seems to be enjoying the lessons.
We are having four fire safety lessons (two last week and two this week.) The final lesson on Friday will be the Fire House.
We are running low on our dry erase markers. Many of them have dried out or run out of ink. Please check with your child about his or her markers. They most likely need to be replenished. We use our markers frequently during math. Thank you.
Your hungry children usually eat their snacks at about 9:30, so by 11:30 they are STARVING. I have been giving them a small snack at 11:15 and it helps keep them going until 12:07. If you would like to contribute to the 11:15 snack, that would be great! One little cookie satisfies their tummies, and then they are able to concentrate on their schoolwork. If you would contribute to the 11:15 snack with a bag of pretzels, crackers or other healthy snack that would be great.
I'm looking forward to seeing you next week at conferences.
Take care,
Mrs. Kantor
News and Notes
December 10, 2007
Debby Kramb Area 4 ALT
Applying research to instruction: Computational fluency
Computational fluency and number sense go hand in hand: they develop together and one cannot exist without the other. (Griffin and Case, 1997)
Standard: Number and Operations
Students will further develop their understanding of computation of whole numbers and compute in problem-solving situations without calculators.
Element: Know facts with understanding and fluency
Bloom: Application (Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to prior experience.)
Fluency refers to having efficient, accurate, and generalizable methods (algorithms) for computing that are based on well-understood properties and number relations (NCTM, 2000).
Computation is a particular form of mathematical problem solving. Computation engages a significant amount of problem solving skills.
Computational Capers
The activities involve a standard deck of playing cards (without the face cards) or number cards. As a bonus, these activities incorporate not only various content standards but Process Standards as well!
K-2
Hit the Target. Have your partner close his or her eyes and choose one card from the deck of cards. The number on the card is your target. Place the remaining cards face up on the playing surface. With your partner, take turns looking for two cards that you can add or subtract to get the number on your target card. Keep playing until you cannot find any more combinations that equal the target number. Repeat the game with a different target number.
Five Alive. Have your partner pick a card or call out a number between 5 and 10. You respond by saying “5 and ---“,” for example, if your partner says “9”, you respond “5 and 4.” Take turns calling out the number.
The DoubleMaker. Turn your calculator into a ‘double maker’ by pressing 2 X or x 2, depending on the calculator. Now press any digit followed by = and you will get double that number. Work with a partner to find the double before using the calculator to check the answer.
3-5
Hit the target II. Select five cards from a shuffled deck and arrange them in a row. Place a sixth card, known as the target card, below the row of cards. Can you add or subtract any combination of the five cards to equal the number on the target card? Challenge a friend to find the greatest number of combinations that equal the target card.
Face off. Start with a deck of cards facedown. You and a friend each draw one card from the deck and turn it face up so that both players can see it. The first player to call out the correct product of the two cards wins both cards. If both players call out incorrect answers, place the cards in a discard pile. When no cards remain in the deck pile, the game ends. The player with the most cards is the winner.
What’s the difference? Choose four cards and arrange them to make the least possible four digit number. Have your partner choose three cards and make the greatest possible number. If either of you draw a 10, discard the card and draw again. The player with the four cards subtracts the three the three –digit number, or subtrahend, from the four-digit number, or the minuend. If the answer is odd, the player with four cards wins the point. If the answer is even, the partner with three cards wins. Switch roles and repeat. When you have drawn all the cards in the deck, the player with the most points wins.
Fast Facts You and a partner choose two cards from a deck placed facedown. Place the two cards faceup next to each other, making a two digit number. This number is your som. Challenge each other to find two numbers, or factors, that you can add to get your sum. Take turns calling out pairs of factors. Pick two more cards and continue finding factors.
3 by 3 magic Use or draw a 3 x 3 grid. Place the numbers 1 – 9 in the squares so that none of the rows, columns, or diagonals have the same sum. Use each number only once. Compare your solution to other classmates’ solutions. Challenge yourself to try again, using a 4 x 4 square grid and the numbers 1 -16.
Those fabulous fives. Can you make five 2’s equal 5? On a piece of paper write a horizontal row of five 2s, leaving enough space between each number for one of the operational symbols (+, -, x, or ÷)
2 2 2 2 2 = 5
Insert symbols to make the equation equal 5. You do not have to use every symbol, and you may use a symbol mre than once. You may need to use parentheses to show the order of operations. Try to use five 3s, five 4s, and five 5s to write equations that equal 5.
High/Low. Do this activity with a partner or a group of three or four students. Using a deck of cards with the face cards and 10’s removed; the dealer deals six cards to each player. The remaining cards become a stockpile. Before the players look at their cards, the dealer announced where they are playing for either the high or the low sum. Players then turn their cards faceup and form two three digit numbers that add up to either the high or the low sum. Beginning with the dealer, the players draw once from the stockpile and may choose to exchange the card they draw for a card in their hand. Each player then must discard one card. The player who gets the highest or lowest sum is awarded one point. Play continues until a player has ten points. Change the game to subtraction and play for the highest or lowest difference, or deal four cards and play a multiplication version of the game.
Games provide the motivation to practice ‘facts’! Use them often and change partners often.
Teach one game at a time and then allow students to pick a game to play when they arrive in the morning, during transition times, inside recess or when they are finished with their work. Research says this format is very reliable in teaching automaticity. Do instead of or in combination with speed drills on paper and pencil and math games on the computer.
Updates:
The class is looking forward to the holiday party on December 19th at 10:30. If you have questions about the party or would like to help, please contact Mary Kathryn Trichell. Thank you for all of your help!
Next week on December 21st we are having the Polar Express party at 8:30. On Monday the 17th, I will give them instructions on creating their ticket to the party. They can wear their pajamas and slippers and bring their favorite stuffed animal to the party.
After the first of the year, we will only bring our stuffed animals or toys to show on designated, earned days.
We will have a book report due on December 20th. The directions and a rubric will be in their take home folders on Tuesday, the 11th. The book can be a holiday book or a favorite book. It does not have to be a chapter book. The reading part of this should not be hard. They are to identify the setting, characters, problem, and solution. The goal of the project is to prepare a neat project with proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation. I want to see that they took pride in their book report and followed the directions. Please review the grading rubric with your children. Each child will show and present their book report to the class.
There is an optional Science project due on Wednesday, December 19th. The directions will be in their folder on December 11th. The project is to take a cylinder (coffee can, oatmeal cylinder, large Styrofoam cup, etc.) and poke holes in the flat side in the design of a constellation's stars. We will shine a light into the cylinder and have a constellation show. If your child chooses to do this extra credit project, he or she will need to have 4 interesting facts about their constellation to share. Please work with your child and carefully supervise if he or she chooses to poke hole with a nail into a coffee can!
Yearbook sales have been extended on line only until December 12.
Second grade is providing the baked goods for the Relay for Life bake sale for Friday, December 21. Please look for the pink flier in the Take Home Folders.
Thank you for all of your wonderful support. Your support and encouragement are evident to me. Thank you.
Happy Holidays!
Mrs. Kantor
Our Grandparents ' and special friends' luncheon is scheduled for November 14th at 10:55. Our class is planning a presentation for our guests before the luncheon. Our presentation will begin at 10:30 in our classroom.
Math: We have completed our unit on addition with regrouping. The class did a super job with this concept. Ask your child to show you the virtual manipulatives we used. The virtual manipulative link is under the math section of the web link notebook.
We are now starting the unit on subtraction.
We have scheduled our first banana split party for mastering addition facts for Thursday, November 29th.
Language Arts: Your children have written the most darling narratives featuring the adventures of their stuffed animals. We are now working on Halloween narratives. We are learning to spice up our writing with beginning hooks, juicy adjectives, powerful verbs, and sound effects. Did your children mention that they also have written and illustrated a diamonte poem?
While reading nonfiction, we have learned to recognize the organization of the text and quickly locate information by using text features: title, table of contents, index, headings, bold print, and pictures/captions.
To build our comprehension when reading fiction, we have concentrated on recognizing story features: characters, setting, problem, and the solution.
Science/Social Studies: We have completed our unit on communities. Thank you for helping your children memorize their addresses.
When we studied resources, I was blown away when your children offerred the following suggestions for compensating for our nonrenewable resources that power our cars: windturbines and solar panels for cars.
We are now learning about the Plain Indians. We will study them in terms of their shelter, food, clothing, resources, transportation, and surrounding landforms and bodies of water.
Health: Last week was Red Ribbon week, and we followed up with studying the drug unit in our Health book.
Other: I will be asking the children on Thursday if they plan to buy their sack lunch for the Wills Park field trip at school, or if they plan to bring their own sack lunch. The trip is scheduled for November 8th.
Happy Halloween!
Mrs. Kantor
Reflections and Updates:
Math: The class did a very good job with place value and comparing numbers. Currently we are working on interpreting various types of graphs and generating questions and answers from those graphs. We will be finishing up Chapter 3 on graphs early next week and moving on to Chapter 4, addition strategies.
We are also working on mastering our addition and subtraction facts via the Banana Split plan. In this plan the children are tested weekly on their facts in a sequential order. We have started with addition and have tested +1 and +2 facts. We test on Mondays, so if a child has not answered 90 facts or more in 7 minutes, I send the 2nd side of the fact test home for practice. Please practice these facts with your child. I will retest them the following Monday, before we test on the new facts.
If you want to study ahead, we will be testing:
September 17: +3
September 24: +4
October 1: +5
October 8: +6
October 15: +7
October 22: +8
October 29: +9
November 5: +10
Timed Tests: Once your child passes all of the addition ones he/she will start subtraction. The break down for the banana split celebration is:
1 bowl
2 spoon
3 napkin
4 banana
5 ice cream
6 scoop of ice cream
7 scoop of ice cream
8 chocolate syrup
9 whipped cream
10 cherry
Don't forget to help your child practice the addition and subtraction facts.
Ways To Practice Facts: 1. take timed tests 2. flash cards (drill) 3. flash card games... Almost any card game can be turned into a flashcard game to practice facts. Example: Slap Jack can be turned into Slap the Fact. 4. computer games... Check the Garrison Mill home page to link to fun games. Practice. Practice. Practice.
Second grade goal: Your child will complete the addition and subtraction timed tests with 90% accuracy in 7 minutes. These tests will have 100 facts 0-18.
BOX TOPS: Please send in the box tops you have collected over the summer. There is a school wide competition and we would love to win!
Reading: We have worked on recognizing and reading various types of syllables. We have also used the comprehension strategy of visualization. Currently we are learning to summarize.
Many students are doing very well with AR, while others need to read more. To become a better reader, one must practice reading. It is in your child's best interest to read. AR is a method of reading and staying within a successful reading range. I have already adjusted the original reading ranges I gave your children, based on their performance. Please encourage your children to read. We have two computers in the classroom and the children can take a test any day they are ready.
Library: Our library day is Thursday, so please be sure your child has read his or her book and puts it into the book bag on Wednesday night.
Spelling: Thank you for supporting the spelling packets. I appreciate the weekly assignments coming back stapled. With your support, your students are doing very well and are coming up with ways to remember their spelling words.
Science/Social Studies: We have wrapped up our unit on matter and are moving on to a Social Studies unit on communities.
A Big Thank You Thank you for all of the supplies and treasure chest items you have sent in. Let me tell you, they love to shop for their Friday treasures! Also, thank you for checking over homework and helping your children with corrections. The spelling work looks great!
Welcome to second grade! I am enjoying this inquisitive, eager, and sweet class so much.
I appreciate all of your support. Thank you all for sending in supplies and items off of my wish list.
Things have come in so quickly that usually I have been confused as to which children brought the items. Please know that I am very grateful for your generosity. The children are very grateful for your treasure box contributions!
Vouchers for wrapping paper sales will come home on Wednesdays. There is a school competition tracking sales, so please complete and return the vouchers by Fridays. The school earned quite a bit of money last year from the box tops that were collected. Please save your box tops and send them in again this year. Thank you.
Our room is so well air conditioned that we are very often chilly. It would be great if you would send in a sweater or sweatshirt that can just stay here. We can hang it by the tag on the coat hook when it is warm. Also, please remember to send in a daily snack. We don't eat until 12:07, so the kids are hungry in the morning.
I will send home your children's work on Thursdays. There will be a form included that shows their scores for the previous week. Please sign and return the form and feel free to write me a note if you have a question for me.
Curriculum notes:
Reading: We have a goal of earning 7 AR points every nine weeks. I have individualized each child's designated reading level, per the SRI reading assessment. The SRI is a computerized reading assessment that determines an appropriate reading level for each child. I will monitor their comprehension on the AR tests and adjust their levels accordingly. We started working on our first reading comprehension strategy: visualization. Some of their illustrations are posted on the back bulletin board.
Spelling: We are using Sitton Spelling as our spelling guide. It emphasizes the correct spelling of high frequency words in context. The children are pretested on the core words for the lesson. The words they miss are chosen for their weekly word list. Extension words are provided to make a total of eight weekly words. Each child was given a menu of spelling assignment. Please check your child's spelling assignments for spelling accuracy, check to be sure assignments total up to 20 points, and sign the stapled packet. Please be sure the stapled packet and original word list are in the Friday's homework folder. We will use the original word list for the individualized test on Friday.Download weekly_spelling_options.doc Thank you.
Math: We are currently working on place value: different ways to represent numbers, standard form, expanded forms, pictures of manipulatives, rounding, even and odd, skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. The kids are always begging for "Miss Hard" to come and really challenge them! They rise to her challenges. Please let your child work on their math facts on the computer. Here are 2 sites:
addition practice
subtraction practice
Science: Your kids love science! They love experiments and are so enthusiastic! I love to watch the inquisitive natures of our budding scientists. They also extend their questioning to other areas of science, ask really great questions and bring in wonderful books to share. One day we may all be benefiting from their scientific exploration and discoveries. Check out their scientific procedures and conclusions in the hall.
If you drink coffee, please save your coffee cans as we will be needing them when we study space.
Thank you for all of your support. I can see why this class is so wonderful. You have been such wonderful and supportive parents.
Thank you,
Mrs. Kantor
