We are pretty busy lately.

The firemen are coming to educate us about fire safety on the 12th, 16th, 18th, and 19th at 8:30.

Tomorrow, the 12th, we are having our banana split party to celebrate mastery of addition  facts.  Thank you for sending in the supplies for our party.  Your kids are really doing an amazing job with their facts!

We have been enjoying a variety of holiday books.  Thank you Wendi Verzosa for coming in next Wednesday to share the holiday Hanukkah with us.

Next Thursday we will have our classroom holiday party.  Thank you Lee and Julie for planning that for us.

Then next Friday, we will have our Polar Express party.  Thank you Stephanie for offering to send in the hot chocolate and Lisa for volunteering to help that morning.

I sent home an orange sheet in your child's homework folder yesterday describing the process for going online and practicing for the CRCT.  Please keep it in a safe place so your child can practice at home for the test.

We have had a very busy quarter in math as we worked on counting money, telling time, recognizing plane and solid shapes, and subtraction with regrouping.

In reading, we have been working on comprehension stratagies as well as vocabulary:  definitions, synonyms, antonyms, homophones and multiple meanings.  We have also been working on using our resources, particularily our dictionary.

In writing we have been focusing on writing in complete, grammatically correct sentences.  We are learning to recognize run-on sentences.

We are learning about another important person in Georgia's history:  Mary Musgrove.

Thank you for all you do and all of your support!  Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Kantor

Greetings everyone,

I enjoyed seeing your children read their Halloween stories on Friday with their costumes on.  We kept the room dim for atmosphere.  They were precious.  Thank you Jennifer Slocumb for the cupcakes.  Many kids brought Halloween trinkets that they were eager to share throughout the month.

We will be having our 2nd grade Grandparents Luncheon on Friday, November 21st.  Our class will be putting on a little show at 10:15 for their grandparents, or other significant adults before lunch at 10:55.

Remember no school tomorrow because of voting.

Please send in a stamped envelope for your child.  They will be needing it this month.  You'll see!

I have set up the computer to record the AR points for this 9 weeks only.  I want every child to have a fresh start every nine weeks.  The AR point goal goes up each nine weeks.  This nine weeks the goal is to earn 6 points to get into the movie and receive popcorn.  Twelve points will get you into the movie, popcorn, and an additional treat.  Overall, the class is a little behind schedule this nine weeks.

      To improve our reading fluency, I am having the children take turns reading a book to the class.  Please let them read to you as practice before their turn.  I am looking for them to read fluently and with expression.  We also need to work on reading at a reasonable pace (no rushing) and speaking loudly enough. 

   In reading we are currently working on inferencing skills and syllable division.  In writing we are concentrating on punctuation sentences and recognizing run-ons.  When we wrote our Halloween stories, we chose powerful verbs and descriptive adjectives for our stories. As we recorded our process for decorating our pumpkins, we utilized transition words.  In Social Studies, we are learning about important people in Georgia's history.  We have learned about James Oglethorpe and have introduced Mary Musgrove and Tomochichi.  In math we are doubling up, as we have a lot of curriculum this 9 weeks.  We have begun subtraction with regrouping and a unit on plane shapes.  Science will begin with Mrs. Dess Thursday of next week.

Please check with your child about their snacks.  Several children have been needing snacks lately.

  Dates to Remember:

November 4th  No School/Election Day

November 6th, 6:30  PTA/3rd grade performs

November 7th  Spirit Day

November 11th  Veterans' Day

November 14th  Picture Retake Day

November 14th Relay For Life  Baseball Cap Day

November 17th-21st  Book Fair

November 21st  Grandparents' Day Luncheon/10:15  classroom performance and 10:55 lunch

November 24th through November 30th  Thanksgiving Day Holidays

Take care,

Mrs. Kantor

Quick reminder:  Early Release tomorrow, Wednesday, October 15th.

Hi-

I have just a few updates to share:

Pictures will be taken tomorrow,  Tuesday, October 14th at 11:10.  There is a preorder form in each child's folder.  We will also have our movie and treat (AR reward) tomorrow.  Everyone made it to the movie!

We switched lunch with Kindergarten on Friday. We will eat lunch at 11:54 on Friday. 

PUMPKIN FUN!

If you can, I would appreciate it if each child could bring in a 5-10 pound pumpkin by next Monday, October 20th.  We are going to do some graphing, measuring, and writing activities using pumpkins.  We are also going to decorate our pumpkins.  Please have your child decide how he or she wishes to decorate their pumpkin, and bring in the appropriate supplies.  They can bring hats, wigs, pumpkin paint, google eyes, or anything else they need to decorate their pumpkin.  This is a fun and exciting learning experience. 

Report cards go home on Thursday. Please refer to the key at the top of the report card.  Please understand that your child may earn a 2 if they are in progress, but have not quite mastered a specific skill.  The expectations per skill will increase with the school year.  I am really pleased with the progress your children have shown.

Thank you for all of your support.

Mrs.Kantor

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL $22*
Nov. 1st price increast to $25*

On-line ordering available at:  http://www.myyear.com
*Note:  cost includes taxes.  Does not include 1x $1.75 processing fee per transaction, multiple items per order allowed.  Be sure to print & keep your confirmation for proof of payment.

ORDER FORMS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE CREDENZA OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE.

The school Weblink notebook has a very cool, instructional site that is useful when learning to regroup.  To get to this site from the school website: 

1)      Click on Web Links on the blue column on the left side of the screen.

2)      Then click on the Web Link Notebook from the list of 5 choices.

3)      Scroll down to the Math section.

4)      Click on Virtual Manipulatives from the 3^rd column.

5)      Click on the upper left box (Number Operations and Pre-K-2).

6)      Click on the 3^rd choice:  Base Blocks Addition.

7)      Move the cubes in the ones’ column to form groups of ten.  Click and drag to form a box around each group of ten.  Then drag the rod to the tens’column.

8)      Move the rods in the tens’ column to form groups of ten.  Click and drag to form a box around each group of ten.  Then drag the flat to the hundreds’ column.

9)      Continue the process until problem is completed.

We all enjoyed our field trip to New Echota very much today.  We had the opportunity to see a small Cherokee settlement and have a picnic. This gave us a chance to see the differences in our lifestyles and recognize the comforts we take for granted.  The printing press for the Cherokee Phoenix was very cool, because it printed the newspaper in both Cherokee and English. 

Math:  Come and see the graphs we generated in the computer lab to illustrate the data from our individualized surveys.  They are in the hall outside of our room.  We have reviewed double digit addition without regrouping and are starting double digit addition with regrouping.  Some students know the steps of the process, but to be sure they understand those steps, we will act them out with manipulatives.  We are also working on counting coins.  You may want to ask your child to count some change for you.  I am very pleased with your children's problem solving skills.  They are independently solving their exemplars and sometimes showing 2 or 3 ways of solving the problem!

Reading:  We have worked on several comprehension strategies:  making predictions (which we confirm or alter), summarizing and making connections from our text to other texts, ourselves, or the world.  We are also working of fluency via the plays.

Language Arts:  I am really  pleased with  our narratives.  We read a lot of books about animals coming to life, which we used as models for our stories. The children are finishing their stories starring one of their stuffed animals.

Dates to remember:  October 3, Friday, 5:00-8:00  Fall Festival and Fun Run

                                  October 15, Wednesday, Early Release

                                  October 22, Wednesday, Box Tops due

                                  October 23, Thursday, RFL Biscuit Sale

                                  October 24, Friday, Bus Driver Appreciation Day

                                  October 27, Monday  6:00-8:00  Reading Night

Thank you for all your support.  No wonder your kids are so wonderful!

Mrs. Kantor

Greetings,

Updates:  We have a new classmate.  Welcome, Jenna!  We are so glad to have you in our class!

Reading:  This week we worked on identifying the setting, characters, problem and solution of a story.  Good job, class!  I have sent an AR update in your child's folder.  The expectation is to earn a minimum of 5 points by the end of the 9 weeks (October 10th) for admission to the movie and a treat.  If a child earns 10 points (an additional 5 points) they will receive an additional movie treat. Each child has an assigned reading zone that I continually adjust based on their performance. Each book has a possible number of points that can be earned; the accuracy on the comprehension questions determines how many of those points are earned.

Math:  We have been working on problem solving through our exemplars.  This week we started working on charts, graphs, tables, venn diagrams, and tallies.  Thank you so much for supporting the addition timed tests.  You could really see that the class had practiced by how they tested today.  They were so proud of themselves. It was pretty evident that practice pays off.  THANK YOU!

Language Arst:  I am taking the class through a list of capitalization and punctuation rules.  It's one thing to be able to identify a rule and another to be able to apply it.  It's getting a little less painful.

Social Studies:  This week we worked on identifying the five regions of Georgia and noting specific attributes of each region. 

Science:  Next week we start Science with Mrs. Dess.

Snacks:  Please check with your child about his/her snack.  Some kids have been telling me that they only had a very small snack...

Homework:  It is really helpful when you check over the homework with your child   Sometimes it takes that one-on-one correction for them to process the mistakes.  It is really helpful if you can help them check over their stories for spelling.  If you help them with a spelling word, you can make a list for me at the bottom.  I add words that were misspelled in their daily writing to their individualized lists.  Thank you for supporting the spelling homework.

I can already see big improvements in your children, and I believe your support has been instrumental in that progress. 

Take care and thank you,

Mrs. Kantor