I hope that everyone has had a wonderful winter holiday and Happy New Year to all!!!  It's hard to believe that it is 2009 and we still have lots of work/skills to do before CRCT test in April.  We will begin all of this on Tuesday, Jan. 6th and also Heroes Essays begin that day, too. Other dates to mark on your calendar:

                Jan. 9th - Spirit Day/wear your GM shirt.  Relay for Life Hat Day.

                Jan. 19th - No School/MLK Day

                Jan. 22nd - Munch and Learn at 10am/100th Day of School!!!

                Jan. 23rd - School Dance  6:30 - 8:30.

                Jan. 26th - Jan. 30th  Conference Week - 12:20 Dismissal daily.

About conference week - The second report card will be kept and given out to you during conference week starting Jan. 26th. This will allow the teachers to talk to you more about it at that time. We try to put sibling conferences on the same day.  I will be sending home on Tuesday a note for you to tell me any day(s) during conference week that YOU CANNOT COME.  If you already know this information, please send it into to me on Tuesday as teachers are getting together that afternoon to arrange sibling conference days.....thanks, that will help.  Conference notes will be sent home later this week.

Here are some overviews of what we'll be studying in January and the third grading period which starts on January 6th:

READING

**Continue working on reading orally with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression.  For reading this 3rd nine weeks, a student needs to be reading at a level G (12) to be considered "on grade level". By the end of the year level H (14) or higher will be considered on level. There also needs to be appropriate expression at a 90% accuracy rate or higher.  Your child will need to be able to read at least 150 or more high frequency words.  They will need to identify a main idea of a story and be able to know/pick out details of that story.  Start doing this during your nightly reading at home.

WRITING

**Consistently write sentences to describe an experience, revise, and begin to use resources such as picture dictionaries, Internet, books, etc. to gather information. Your child will consistently print legibly with correct spacing and using a variety of sentence types with correct subject/verb agreement.  Also, your child will use correct capitalization, correct ending punctuation, and begin to use commas in a series.  I will also want to see your child using appropriate spelling rules in their writing that we have been studying.

PHONICS

**Applies phonics skills that have been taught such as spelling pattern, long and short vowels, using the digraphs th, sh, wh, and ch, and two and three letter blends.  We will continue working on compound words, contraction, and homophones.  We will work more on antonyms, synonyms, and r-controlled vowels.

Math

**Independently uses the terms greater than, less than, and equal to and correctly represents numbers up to 100.  We will be working with addition and subtraction facts up to 18, so start practicing now with your child.  Money will be introduced up to $1.00 by making many different combinations to make one dollar.  They will also need to know combinations of bills up to $20.00.  We will also study fractions of 1/2, 1/4, and 1/3 and telling time to the hour and half hour---one hard part of time will be elapse time.

Another important part of Math will be their problem solving skills in a word problem.  We work on Exemplars regularly in class and there are certain steps your child needs to follow--1) underline the question that is being asked in the problem, 2) circle important information in the problem, 3) draw a picture, graph, or table to decide on a strategy, 4) make a number sentence to show your answer such as 7 + 5 = 12, and 5) write a sentence explaining how you got your answer such as "There are 12 boats all together".

Social Studies

**We will once again be studying character traits and contributions of such people as Harriet Tubman, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington Carver.

Science

**We will study recognizing sources of light and how shadows are made.  This will be introduced around Groundhog Day.  Also, we will study the basic needs and parts of a plant---air, light, water and nutrients along with the root, leaf, stem and flower of a plant.

Also, in January we will begin a study of Arctic and Antarctic animals with an  emphasis on the polar bear and penguins.  They will enjoy learning about foods that they eat, their habitats, enemies, and where they live.  Look for a project to come home in January!           

Well, I hope that I have shared enough information with you to let you know how busy we will be in school.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at school or write me a note. 

Sincerely,

Peggy Snook

It is an exciting time of year for ALL OF US!!  For the month of December, I have decided not to have "formalized" Literacy Centers as we have had since September. What we are doing is having a fun activity daily centered around the holidays.  So far, we have put together a reindeer with brads and will write about it in an activity coming up, made a Santa face out of a "mixed up" picture of Santa where they rearranged or drew what was in each square to evidently make an adorable Santa, and we have made a Santa pyramid since we have started studying solid and plane figures/shapes in Math.  Hopefully, you saw a math page sheet that came home in your child's folder this past week explaining and naming all the solid and plane figures that we will be studying in the next two weeks.  Upcoming activities include comparing and contrasting three versions of The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Boy, and The Gingerbread Girl.  We will do a big, three-ringed Venn diagram in class seeing how they are alike and different.  As follow-up activities to that, I have a Gingerbread Man story where they will write about whichever ending they want their story to have and, then have a cute booklet they will make as a finished product.  In addition to that, each child will be making their own gingerbread house out of stickers to decorate a paper gingerbread house with lollipops, gumdrops, candy canes, etc.  Also, I have have several holiday glyphs for them to do which are good reading activities for them.  We have also watercolored a Christmas tree that they outlined in crayons and added ornaments with crayons, too.  Then, the watercolors went on nicely.  Many of these are already in the hall for you to enjoy.  More writing activities are to follow.

IMPORTANT DATES TO PUT ON YOUR CALENDAR:

Monday, 12/8, will be High Touch, High Tech, an in-school field trip on Magnets.  We have been studying them this past week with such important words as attract, repel, and poles of a magnet.  On Friday, we had a free exploration period of time where I put out all kinds of magnets, paper clips, rubber-bands, plastic and metal button, etc. to let them experiment with what a magnet would pick up.  They loved this!!!,

Tuesday, 12/9, will be Toys for Tots Drive at Chick-Fil-A.

Wednesday, 12/10, will be our library time from 8:30 - 9:00. Please send in any books that are at home so that they will be able to check out a new one.  FYI--they may go to the Media Center anytime during the week before school starts at 7:55 or during snack time to check out a book.

Friday, 12/12, should be Cafe Garrison Mill Popcorn Party---if my class has earned enough blue slips this month for good behavior at lunch, then, they will receive a Popcorn Party.

Class Holiday Party, 12/19, will be from 9:30 to 10:30.  Jodi Kean sent out an email on Friday with a great idea for a book swap for that day.  Please check your emails for that information.

Staff Open House, 12/19, will be in the Media Center with delicious foods, prepared by us, to say "THANK YOU" to all of you parents that volunteer your time and energy here at Garrison Mill that helps us in anyway!!!!   Thank you, Thank you!

Let me take this time to wish each and everyone of you a wonderful holiday season!  The 5th of January, 2009, will be a student holiday, so, I will see your children back at school on Tuesday, January 6th.  Enjoy your time with your family as I will with mine!

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook

Dear Parents,   

What beautiful weather we have had over this weekend.  Hopefully, you and your family were able to get out and enjoy some of it!

We will be very busy over the next two weeks with our Literacy Center activities, first Thanksgiving activities learning about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, the Indians, Squanto, and their first big feast day that we call Thanksgiving Day.  We also will have practice time to get ready with our songs/poems for Grandparents/Parents Day on Thursday, Nov. 20th between 10:50 - 11:15.  We will then proceed to the lunchroom for you and your guests to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with your child. You will be receiving an invitation soon. They are so excited about having guests for lunch and performing for you!!

Other dates to remember:

Veteran's Day will be recognized and talked about on Tues, Nov. 11th.

"Dress Your Turkey" projects are due by this Friday, the 14th.  Some have already been sent in and are hanging on the hall after each one describes his/her turkey and what they used to "dress it".

Parent Centers are this Friday, the 14th, instead of Nov. 21st as reported on the class calendar.  Mrs. Kean, Mrs. Fudger, and Mrs. Cerny will be coming in for those activities between 9:45 - 10:45.  Thanks to all!!!!

Administration has asked us to make our parents aware that our network system at school will be out of service during the week of Thanksgiving.  This means that you will not be able to access the Garrison Mill website as the county is making updates and improvements to our system during the holiday week.

Friday, November 14th will also be Relay for Life Ball Cap Day.  Your child can donate a dollar to RFL and have the privilege of wearing his/her ball cap during the day.  Also, picture retake day will be this day...let me know if your child needs to have the school picture done again.

***The Giving Tree permission slips need be in by Tuesday, Nov. 11th for your child to participate in this activity.  It was printed incorrectly on the forms sent home last week.  This Thursday or Friday Mrs. Ostrowski will come by our classroom to get the students to choose stars from the tree.  The items will need to be sent in by Friday, Dec. 5th.  Thanks to all of you who will be a part of this "giving" to make another child happier during the holidays!!

The Book Fair will be held the entire week of Nov. 17 - 21.  This will be the only one done this year by Mrs. Haas, our media specialist.  Hours for the book fair are as follows:  Mon., 7:30 am to 4:00 pm, Tues., 7:30 am - 6:00pm, Wed., 7:30 - 4:00pm, Thurs., 7:30 am - 4:00 pm, Fri., 7:30 am - 3:00pm.

Curriculum News:

Reading - With Mrs. Whitson's student teacher leaving soon, we have had to readjust our reading groups.  Most students have a different teacher than last time -- they will either be with Mrs. Whitson's, Mrs. Druhot or myself.  All of us continue to choose books at their group's level and work on skills and writing.

Math - We will finish up Chapter 6 by Wed., on more math strategies for subtraction.  I have increased their facts to include 11 and 12 in both addition and subtraction timed tests.  We continue to practice the subtraction timed tests, but I will be returning to addition timed test before Winter Break.  By the end of the year, your child will be expected to do 50 addition problems in 5 minutes---continue practicing at home using flashcards or practice tests made using mathfactcafe website.  Our next two areas in math will be graphing for data collection and studying 2 and 3 dimensional geometric shapes.  Please continue to work on fact families and related facts as well as money.  Assessment for this nine weeks will include making fair trades up to 75 cents and knowing fair trades using $1.00, $5.00, $10.00 and $20.00 bills.

Phonics - we continue to work on making plurals with s and es, vowels/long and short, and we will concentrate more on working with the digraphs sh, ch, th, and wh.  These will be a part of this nine weeks assessment along with subject - verb agreement, ed, s, and ing endings.

Writing - narrative writing continues as we work on stories having a beginning, middle, and end.  We also are working on the writing process where they start with a sloppy copy, edit with help, revise, and rewrite.  This week your child will write a Thanksgiving story from a digital picture that they took around the school.  All of them have something to do with Thanksgiving and this will give each of them an opportunity to improve their writing skills....we will revise, edit, and produce a story to be in the hall for the grandparents/parents visiting on Nov. 20th.  Check out the turkeys at the same time!!!

Science - in October, High Touch, High Tech was a great success with the students working on Sound and bring home their instrument made with rubber bands. Our next HTHT will be in early December on Magnets and their properties - attract, repel, north and south poles, etc.

Social Studies - we have just completed our book on Thomas Jefferson and why he was an American hero.  This leads us into starting Lewis and Clark with the study of Sacagawea as well.  We will also talk about and learn about the Pilgrims and why they left England, the Mayflower and their difficult journey across the Atlantic and a very difficult first winter spent in America, meeting the Native American and what they learned from them as well as Squanto who helped the Pilgrims learn so many things to help them in their daily lives.  And, of course, we'll talk about the first Thanksgiving and why it was celebrated with the Indians.   Lots to learn!!

I'd like to thank all of you that have sent in extra snacks this past week.  Our basket is quite full for those that forget a snack every once in awhile.

Here is hoping that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving and, if you are traveling, be safe and carefully on your journey.   Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook      

Dear Parents,      

What beautiful weather we had over the weekend!  This will be changing some this week with very chilly mornings and highs in the 50's and 60's most of this week.  Please have your child dress in layers with a sweatshirt, jacket, or sweater that can be taken off inside.....thanks!   We want to keep them healthy for Halloween!!!!

These next two weeks will be exciting for your child.  Here is a list of what will be happening at Garrison Mill and in Mrs. Snook's classroom:

**Monday, Oct. 27 with be our High Touch, High Tech program on "Sound" from 12:40 - 2:10 (Dec. 8th will be HTHT on "Magnets").  Square One Art orders are due today.

**Red Ribbon Week---Say No To Drugs--- celebrated all week from Oct. 27 - Oct. 31.  Activities include on Mon. to wear favorite sports team shirt, Tues. is Silly Hair Day, Wed. is PJ Day, Thurs. is wear RED Day, and Fri. is wear Orange and Black Day--no costumes, please.

**Mon., Oct 27th will be Media Center for us from 8:30 - 9:00--please return library books.  Your child may go to the library any day of the week to return/check out another book.  I am very pleased that about 5 - 6 students have taken their first AR test in first grade!!!  Also, on Monday night will be Reading Night in the Media Center from 6 - 8 pm.  AR tests may be taken during this time, too.

**Thurs., Oct. 30th there will be a Mock Election at school.  Each class will get to go to the Media Center or the Computer Lab to cast their votes.  Results will be given on Friday. 

**Fri., Oct. 31st we will have Book Buddies with Mrs. Hohn's 4th grade class from 8:30 - 9:00---we will be changing to our regular time every two weeks on Thurs. mornings at that same time.  Also, later this morning we will have Parent Centers with three activities from 9:45-10:45. HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND BE SAFE TONIGHT.

Tues., Nov. 4th will be a Student Holiday due to the national elections. 

Thurs., Nov. 6th will be PTA at 6:30 pm followed by the 3rd grade performance.

Fri., Nov. 7th will be Spirit Day, so, wear your GM t-shirts.....also Cafe GM today.

          ++++++UPCOMING DATES TO PUT ON YOUR CALENDAR NOW++++++++

Thurs., Nov. 20th will be Grandparents Luncheon--please make plans for at least one parent to eat with your child even if the grandparents won't be able to attend.  It is a special time for  your child and they do want "someone special" to be here with them. Please let me know ahead of time if this will be impossible for you to attend and I will make arrangements for someone to eat with your child. Forms have been sent home this past week for you to start RSVPing for the lunchroom to know how many Thanksgiving lunches to prepare.  Our scheduled time for lunch will be 11:15, but our class will have a special performance of poems and songs for about 20 minutes to present to you starting around 10:45-10:50.  Parking will be at a premium that day, so plan accordingly. A special invitation for you and the grandparents will be coming home in a few weeks.

Curriculum News:

Reading Groups continue with the four teachers having 2 groups daily and therefore, all students have guided reading daily.  Each group is working hard on skills taught through their reading lessons.  Groups will be changing teachers sometime this week, so, you may hear a different name for their reading group--Mrs. Whitson, Mrs. Druhot, or Mrs. Timbs.

Phonics continues with practice our singular and plural nouns by adding "s" or "es"---I want to see these rules being used in their writing as well.  We are working on different spellings of the /k/ sound as in cat, kitten, or back.  Also, digraphs will be tested during this nine weeks evaluation---sh, th, wh, and ch are part of our "trick patterns" from kindergarten that we continue to practice.  Reviewing long and short vowels continues.  All of the above skills will help your child in his/her daily writing and sounding out the parts of a word that they hear.  ABC order, contractions, homophones, compound words, nouns, adjective (describing words-I call them both), and verbs are areas we continue to work on to help your child stretch the sentences that they write.

Writing - this nine weeks we will be working on the writing process and use more editing skills with your child.  This is a hard concept for them to understand, but we will continue doing this.  Writing work that you see in the hall has had a "sloppy copy" done, edited together, and recopied for a final copy.  We do Daily Oral Language (DOL) many times a week on the board along with writing corrections they do on a printed sentence, so, many grammar rules are exposed to them during this time---capitalize beginning of sentences, names of people, special places, special things, months, days of the week, street names, cities, states, and punctuation marks at the end of a sentence.  We will be introducing the correct ways to make some of the capital letters such as E this week.  Since we will be assessing formation of both capital and lowercase letters again this nine weeks, please help this process by getting out the direction pages I sent you during the first nine weeks that tells you the correct language to use in the formation of both capital and lowercase letters----for example, to make a lowercase l---it is a top start, slant down to the bottom line, and end with a monkey's tail. Please notice their formation of letters as they write any homework papers for me......THANK YOU!!!!!!

Math - we have just begun Chapter 5 on Subtraction strategies --- using a number to count back and knowing fact families such as 3+4 =7, 4+3=7, 7-4=3, and 7-3=4. Please continue to use flashcards and mathfactcafe for both addition and subtraction problems up to 12.  Time tests will resume with subtraction facts this week, so, please practice at home as well.  Another area of math we work on is problem solving.  Mrs. Tashiro comes in every 2 weeks to do Exemplars with the class.  We practice what she does during the week in class using their whiteboards.  Here are the steps we use in a word problem:

***Underline the question that is being asked.                                                      

***Write a telling sentence that restates the question with a blank in it for an answer.

***Circle all important numbers/information needed to solve problem.

***Draw a graph, picture, or table that will help solve the problem.

***Put your answer in the blank of your telling sentence.

***Write a number sentence to represent problem.

***Write a statement that tells how you got you answer. (I counted by 2's)

Science - we have been studying spider over the last 2 weeks.  I have up in the hall information/webs about what they knew about spiders BEFORE we started our studies. On Mon., the 27th, we will return to the computer lab and we will make another web with facts they know now AFTER our studying spiders.  The class has thoroughly enjoyed these facts learning the difference in an insect and a spider and many more facts.  This week I will do a brief study of bats and how they can be helpful mammals to our environment.   

Social Studies - we will begin studying Thomas Jefferson over the next week or so.  We will learn about his early childhood, early adulthood, how and why he was so important to the United States, and we will also compare life then to our lives today.  This will lead us into November with the study of Pilgrims and Indians and how their lives were different then to now.

Wow, I forget how much we do each week in class with your children!!  I apologize for the lengthiness of this newsletter, but it is a "snapshot" of what we do in class.   I truly hope this newsletter is helpful to you and gives you ideas of how you can help your child at home during the week.  Don't forget to turn in your October Reading Log this Friday, the 31st and I'll send a new one for November.  Continue to read at least 10 minutes or more nightly with your child.

Have a great week, Happy Halloween, and be safe Friday night as you are trick or treating with your child!!

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook

Dear Parents,      

Here we are almost half way through the month of October!!!  We have been busy winding up this first nine weeks of school with our summative assessments.  Report cards will be sent home on Thursday, Oct. 16th along with a cover letter giving you some of the results of your child's scores on assessments. One of the surprising facts was many children did not know the difference between long and short vowel sounds....we continue to work on strategies/rules that help them know which type vowel is in a word.  For example, a consonant, vowel, consonant pattern (CVC) usually has a short vowel as in hat, pot, and cut.  A magic "e" (silent "e") at the end of a word makes the previous vowel usually long as in note, bike, and cute; also, two vowels come together, the first one is usually long and the second one is silent as in beach, boat, and bait.

Important Dates to Mark on Your Calendar:

* Picture Day on Tues., Oct. 14th

* Early Release Day at 12:20 on Wed., Oct 15th and COMPLIMENT TREAT WILL BE GAME DAY--BRING IN A BOARD GAME, CARD GAME, ETC....NO ELECTRONIC GAMES, PLEASE.   

* Report Cards on Thurs., Oct. 16th

* Box Tops for Education due on Wed., Oct. 22nd

* Relay for Life Biscuit Sale on Thurs., Oct 23rd

* Bus Driver Appreciation Day on Fri., Oct 24th

****Upcoming Events****

High Touch High Tech on "Sound"--Mon., Oct. 27th

Reading Night at GM Media Center 6 - 8pm - Mon., Oct. 27th and Favorite Sports Team Shirt Day

Red Ribbon Week Oct. 27 - 31

Silly Hair Day on Tues., Oct. 28th

PJ Day on Wed., Oct.29th

Student Mock Election - Voting on Thurs., Oct. 30 and wear RED Day

Parent Centers 9:45 -10:45 Halloween activities - Wear ORANGE/BLACK DAY

************************

Congratulations to our first monthly reading awards for the month of September --

1st - Kate Moseley with 48 stickers (480 minutes), 2nd - Steven Blesi with 46 stickers, and a tie for 3rd place with 36 stickers - Ashleigh Martin and Charlotte Fordonski!!!  Many other did very well for the first month's nightly reading and I am very proud of them.  PLEASE read nightly with your child and get at least 240 minutes or more for the month of October.

Curriculum News:

Reading - With assessments completed for the first nine weeks, we will be returning to our normal schedule with Mrs. Whitson, Mrs. Timbs, Mrs. Druhot, and myself teaching our regular reading groups.  On last week's update sheet sent home last Monday, I listed all of the October Literacy Centers which the class is working on while reading groups are taught. Also, Christopher Columbus Day will be celebrated on Monday, Oct.13th with the class making a pop-up activity on the three ships--the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria along with making a Christopher Columbus hat.  We have learned about Queen Isabella of Spain sending these 3 ships across the Atlantic Ocean and them landing in the Bahamas in 1492.

Math - We have just finished Chapter 3 and will continue more strategies for addition.  Doubles are a new strategy for the children, so, please work on these with either flashcards or going to www.mathfactcafe.com and working on them. We will continue in Chapter 4 using the number line, drawing a picture to solve a problem, and counting on process for addition.  Subtraction facts and strategies will come back in Chapters 5 and 6.

Social Studies - we have just finished studying Benjamin Franklin and the children loved the facts they have learned.  We learned about his discoveries/inventions such as the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, glasses, the odometer, and his discovery of electricity with the lightning and the key on the kite string!!!  We talked about his character traits, comparing life then to now, Franklin as a statesman and his important role in helping write the Declaration of Independence.

Phonics/Writing - we continue studying new combinations of letters like the /k/ sound being spelled as a c, k, or ck.  Also, the x and z sounds we are learning about adding "es" to make these words plural as in boxes and buzzes.  The other endings needing an "es" are ch, sh, ss, and s. New words for them are singular and plural---point these type words out in their nightly reading--thank you.  Writing practice centers around the letters that are introduced in phonics.  I certainly have seen improvement in the students writing as we practice and implement the correct ways to make each letter.

Science - Coming up in High Touch, High Tech on Oct. 27th, we will be introduced to "sound" and all the interesting facts and experiments that can be done to demonstrate it.  We will also begin studying Spiders and Bats this week and interesting facts about each of them. 

Let's hope that this beautiful weather holds out for a while!  The Fall Festival was GREAT this year and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many of you there!  Have a great week.

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook

P.S.  I am beginning to encourage students to start taking AR tests (Accelerated Reader).  On Friday, I showed several students how to get to the AR page on the computer and take a test. This will usually be 5 questions with an A,B,C, or D choice that they make independently without any help.  It is scored automatically and they may view an answer they miss/see the correct one.  Points are given, usually 0.5 for easier books, and the points accumulate after each test.  As your child starts reading more difficult books, they may receive 1.0 point or more for each test. These AR tests are excellent for comprehension skills....not every child is ready to start this and that's okay, but I will be encouraging the ones I know can do this now.

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.

What beautiful weather we have been having for the start of the fall season!  Please dress your children appropriately for the cooler mornings that we are starting to have.  Many of them go to WALK FIT on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday from 7:20 - 7:45 and they need a sweatshirt or sweater that they can take off later if needed.   

With the end of September upon us, we are finishing up our Literacy Centers and you will be receiving a stapled packet with many of the activities they have done....some of them are in the hall and others I have kept for a notebook of activities.  I will be putting a 1, 2, or 3 on some of these activities as they are formative assessments.  These are areas of the curriculum that I have taught and I will be evaluating them as a formative activity/how well are they learning what I am teaching daily/weekly?  Then, all first grade teachers will be giving/or have already started giving summative assessments over the next two weeks to evaluate your child for the report card.  All of the assessments will be the same for each child as the first grade team coordinated and prepared the summative assessments for the academic areas.  I hope this lets you understand our grading process for the first report that will be sent home on Thursday, October 16th.

Many of the papers that I send home daily are not evaluated with a 1, 2, or 3 as they are usually the introduction of an activity and I will evaluate them later on a formative assessment.  For example, on Friday I sent home the chapter 2 test in Math subtraction and they were marked with a 2 or 3.....this was a formative assessment for me to gauge how well they are doing in subtraction so far.   I can't emphasize enough how important it is for your child to practice addition or subtraction facts so that I don't see fingers being used to get the answer.  We use several methods in class to find answers....a number line to count up for addition and to count backwards for subtraction; counting on for addition by patting the side of their hips to add 5 + 3 = 8....start at five and pat the hip three times to get to eight; and we also use manipulatives (cubes) to add or subtract.  All of these are tools to help your child understand the process, but eventually I would want them to know the addition or substraction problem automatically and that is where practicing with flash cards help.    Thank you for doing that at home!

DATES TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR

Friday, October 3rd - Spirit Day/wear those new green t-shirts that you got on Friday!  Also, it will be silly socks and sneakers Day.  The FALL FESTIVAL and FUN RUN will be from 5:00 - 8:00.  Hope to see you there!!!!

Thursday, October 9th picture flyers will be sent home for you to pre-purchase a packet for Picture Day that will be on Tuesday, October 14th.  As in the past, if you do not like the pictures, there will be a retake day scheduled.

Friday, October 15th will be Cafe GM and a popcorn party at lunch for those classes which have had good behavior in the cafetaria.  Our class has done very well with their lunchroom behavior!!!

FYI - Box Tops for Education are due by October 22nd.  There is a contest, so please, keep sending them in.....thanks!  Also, Field Trip information will be coming home in your child's folder this Monday, so please check for that.

WEE DELIVER (our intraschool mail system) has already started up at Garrison Mill.  Here is our room address if you would like to write your child a note:  206 Watermelon Way, Farmville, GA 30002.

Curriculum News

Reading - our guided reading centers have been going very well over the last two weeks since my last Blog.  With four teachers teaching (Mrs. Whitson, Mrs. Timbs, Mrs. Druhot, and myself) at the same time, I hope that you have seen books and papers come home for you to review what your child is doing.  In guided reading many new and old skills are taught or reviewed during this time.  It also gives each teacher a time to hear your child read out loud and listen for fluency--reading smoothly and not word by word.  We work towards this in first grade. We also teach new vocabulary from the books, talk about a Table of Contents and an Index, if they are in your child's book, and practice skills taught by using a follow up worksheet.  Our summative assessments in reading will be over the next two weeks covering phonics, reading comprehension, decoding words, etc.

Math - Chapter 3 in Math will be Addition Strategies for the children to use that will hopefully make it easier to add bigger numbers.  For example, counting on as we have been doing already will continue to be a strategy for them as well as introducing doubles (3 +3 =6).  For that we will piggyback onto doubles + 1 and doubles - 1.  Something new that I have just introduced this past week has been a FACT FAMILY in math---for example: 4 + 5 = 9,  5 + 4 = 9, 9 - 5 = 4, and 9 - 4 = 5.  We have talked about "flipping" the first two numbers in the addition problem and "flipping" the last two numbers in the subtraction problem.  What they MUST remember is that the subtraction problem ALWAYS starts with the biggest number.  Another way that I will continue practicing this is to give them three numbers that are related ( 3, 5, and 8) and have them write the two addition problems and the two subtraction problems.  Practice this at home and it will help them with their facts.  A great website for your child to practice addition and subtraction is:  www.mathfactcafe.com.   Once the homepage comes up, go to Flashcards and practice the first grade ones, but I have found that once they can add the smaller numbers, go to the second grade for bigger numbers in both addition and subtraction.

Phonics and Writing - we continue with handwriting practice on letters introduced in phonics.  I am seeing great improvement in most of my class.....continue to practice as you see comments on their writing papers.  In phonics we are putting sounds together for making new words.  While this may seem too easy for your child, it is giving them an added foundation for writing and  reading more difficult words. I certainly can tell in their writing who is using a new skill in spelling an unknown word.  Two and three letter blends certainly help them with their writing and reading of new words.  Our trick patterns, such as "er" as in flower, "sh" as in ship, "tion" as in lotion, etc. should be used in their daily writing.  New skills introduced recently have been singular and plural words with "s" and "es".  Also, we have learned another contraction form with "is" as he's, she's, what's, who's, and where's.  We have already done contractions with "not" and I will be looking for both types of contractions to be used in their writing.  Point these out in their nightly reading, too.

Science - we are about to finish our chapters on weather tools and how water changes.  On Tuesday night you will be getting for homework another CRCT practice on this last science section on evaporation, melting, freezing, solid, liquid, gas, etc.  These questions will be very much like the summative assessments we will be doing in both Science and Social Studies over the next two weeks for marking report cards.

Social Studies - we will be studying about Benjamin Franklin and the great statesman that he was.  We will learn about some of his inventions and the role he played in helping the United States of America.

One added note:  I will be starting spelling tests this week.  Our first test will be Friday, Oct. 3rd.  On the homework sheet this week there are four words that I see consistently being misspelled by many and one BONUS word that will be a bit more difficult.  Please do practice spelling and writing these words at home this week as we will work with them at school.  Each week new words will be tested and I will be pulling from the list we have already been working on in August and some of September.  The bonus word this week is "Mrs. Snook".  We have been working on capitalizing peoples' names and now we introduce abbreviations in a name such as Mrs., Mr., and Dr.

Here's hoping that your fall weekends are enjoyable with your family and don't forget to send in the Sept. Reading Log by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.  I will send home a new one for October.  As always send me notes about change of transportation home AND if your child is absent, please send in an excuse...thanks for all that you do in helping your child.  WE ARE TRULY PARTNERS IN EDUCATION!!!

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook         

Dear Parents,

What wonderful Parent Centers we had today at school!!!  In one center we made caramel apples that were sent home in a baggie to enjoy over the weekend....mine came home with me, too, and it was delicious!  Another two centers worked on compound words and word families that we have been studying in class.  The arts and craft center was an adorable apple tree where the children finger-painted the treetop, hand and arm print made the branches and trunk, and dots of red paint placed the apples on the tree and ground. Check out the hall display of a Johnny Appleseed sequencing/reading activity, their apple trees from centers today, and their drawings of an apple orchard. Thanks to Mrs. Fudger, Mrs. Killackey, Mrs. Westbrook, and Mrs. DeVeau for making all of the centers special ones for your children!

Dates to put on your calendar:

Monday, Sept. 15th is our visit to the Media Center for a story and check out time.  Please have your children bring in their library books on Monday so that they may get a new one.  I allow them to go to the Media Center to check out another book anytime they return their book.

Tuesday, Sept. 16th is an Early Release Day---dismissal at 12:20.  Mrs. Miller, our counselor, will have a lesson with the class that day from 9:15 - 9:45.  Lunch will be from 11:26 - 11:56.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday is CoGat testing from about 8:15 to 10:15.  Please have your child at school on time, good rest each night, a good breakfast, and a healthy snack to have each day.  Thank you.

Monday, Sept. 22nd will be the start up day for Wee Deliver.  For those of you new to Garrison Mill, it is an intra-school mail system where children can write other  children in different classes or you may mail something to your child by dropping it in a GM mailbox at school.

Friday, Sept. 26th there will be a Parent Workshop at 10:00 lead by our principal, Paula Huffman.  She will talk about important changes to the new report card, review Target class placement standards, and discuss on-line resources for parents.

Monday, Sept. 22nd to Monday, Sept. 29th - an Apple project will come home in a folder on the 22nd.  Your child will choose any three (3) projects of 10 choices to do on apples.  They vary in style and difficulty so that your child will choose something that he/she will enjoy doing.  These projects will be shared with the class and due back to me by Monday, Sept. 29th.  I will be assessing them on how well done they are, neatness, and did they do what was asked of them.

Curriculum News:

Reading:  Guided Reading started this week with Mrs. Whitson, Mrs. Druhot, Mrs. Timbs, and myself all having 2 groups each day.  By doing it this way, we are able to see every child every day in guided reading.  Many of us are doing books on Weather since that is an area we are studying in Science. This past week I introduced contraction (the "not" family and used the word apostrophe) to the class.  Please point them out in their nightly reading even if it is a different one than the "n't" family.  Next, we will move on to contractions with "is".

Math:  We are working on strategies to understand what subtraction is...yes, it's take away, but a child doesn't away understand the concept.  We have worked with manipulatives and numberlines to help them understand the operation.  New vocabulary words for this chapter are "minus", "difference", and "subtraction sentence".  Please continue to reinforce this at home in daily activities just as you might do with an addition sentence.  The Math Machine Wheels came home this week with more difficult problems than the first one.  Continue to practice addition as well as subtraction.  I will start giving timed math addition tests this week.  The facts are up to 10 and each time I will be looking for IMPROVEMENT in their scores.  If a child masters 25 problems in 3 minutes, then I will increase the number of problems and minutes accordingly.  Also, I will begin later subtraction timed test.  Thanks for your help at home.

Writing - Some of our writing will center around Johnny Appleseed this month.  We have read two books about John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, done a bubble map on facts we know about him, and seen a video about his life.  This week I will model a writing piece on Johnny Appleseed and then ask them to write their own story about him.  Other writing is done in our composition books telling about their weekend activities.  I have given each child a Quickword which is a paperback dictionary kept in their desk with most common spelling words used at this level.  I have just introduced ABC order this past week with their spelling words and this will help with dictionary skills throughout the year.

Science:  We have started a new chapter on weather and how water changes.  New vocabulary will include naming the seasons in order, definition of what weather is, instruments to measure weather---rain gauge, thermometer, and wind vane.  Also, as we get into water and how is changes, the vocabulary will include precipitation, sleet, hail, snow, freezing point of water, evaporation, condensation, and the water cycle.  Homework one night this week will be a CRCT practice test in Science---help them with the reading if needed, let them tell you the answer, and they bubble it in.

Phonics - We continue working on long and short vowel sounds, blending letters together to make words, and will start this week talking more about two and three letter blends such as sp, tr, gl, spr, and squ.  The digraphs wh, sh, ch, and th have been reviewed in our "trick" words from kindergarten such as ch as in chick and we continue to work on these.

Handwriting - I am seeing wonderful improvement in some of my students with handwriting.  It's hard for them to understand now how this practice will help in their daily writing, but it will.  Once we have introduced the proper way a "d", for example, should be made, I will be looking for the correct way in their daily writing.  Please practice letters at home if they need to---also, I will be sending home a sheet on the proper ways to make the numbers 0 to 10.  I am still seeing lots of number reversals in class, especially  2, 3, 5, 7, and 9.

I hope this has given you an idea of how busy we stay at school.  Your children are a pleasure to have and thank you for all of your help at home.  Keep sending in those Reading Log minutes weekly and I will update their apple with stickers on Monday.

Have a great weekend and a great week coming up.

Sincerely,   Peggy Snook