White

March 17, 2008

Wow, what a busy month March has been. Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day and your little ones have told me that there is a little leprechaun that visits at Garison MIll. Be sure to ask your children if he came and what happened!

Thank you too to all the parents who sent in goodies for a little extra Saint Patrick's Day treat!

Monday we take our test on the United States of America. The children's buddies in Mrs. Brown's 3rd grade class were surprised by how much they new about the United States. It was fun watching them study together.

This week, Tuesday, we will begin our unit on Canada! We will make a folder and put all the information we learn in it just like we did the United States folder. If you ask your children maybe they will start sharing fun information about Canada.

The "Science Guy" is coming Tuesday for our in school field trip Science for Everyone! In the past the  children have absolutely enjoyed his program. He brings science to life and the children get very excited.

Language Arts: We are writing daily! Some days it may be on a certain topic, explaining an exemplar, or writing in our free morning journal.The children are learning to be real editors too. They are editing for spelling, needed capital leters, needed punctuation, incorrect usage of suffixes and more. I am extremely proud of how hard they are working and growing.

Go Mrs. White's Class! I'm very proud of you all!!!     Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Math... Wow, you all are learning those addition facts to 18!!! Keep up the good work!!! We are tackeling our addition to 18, working on our subraction to 18, fractions, time, money, place value and more. This is the time of year we review at school and in our ...

homework!!!!! Keep up the good work!

Character Word for the week: Respect for the Environment!

Computer Lab: The children are working on a two or three week project. They are learning to use a program called Kidspiration! It is a great program that they will use throughout Garrison Mill. They are all webbing with pictures and words about themselves. Then this Friday, I believe they will actually write about themselves.

Have Great Saint Patrick's Day and a FABULOUS Week!!!

Mrs. White

March 17, 2008

• Monday, Saint Patrick's Day
• Tuesday, Field trip Science For Everyone
• Wednesday, Guidance with Laura Miller
• Thursday, Report Cards sent home, 5pm Back Yard Burger Night
• Friday, Specials will be PE

March 10, 2008

It is hard to believe March is well on its way. We have 3 March birthdays too this month! Parents feel free to send in a treat around your child's birthday or come have lunch and bring a snack. The children really love when their parents come to school.

Math Curriculum Night was GREAT! The children really had fun playing the games with their family and friends. I had a great time watching the children with their families! The children who came Thursday night had so much fun that they wanted to do our Math Centers on Friday with the classmates who didn't make it. So be sure to ask your children about the math centers.

In math we will continue working on money, addition facts to 18, fractions and time.

United States of ...

We have had so much fun learning all about our country. We will take a multiple choice test next week. They have learned about the  past and present presidents, important symbols .... like the bald eagle, the american flag                  

 

and tons more! I will be sending a letter home with a study guide this week. Have fun reviewing with your children.

Language Arts: We will continue writing, editing, working on our grammer skills, spelling, etc. Don't forget that I will be looking for the children to be spelling the "Core List" of words correctly. This is the list that I gave out at conference. I will look at their spelling  in their writing journals, daily classwork, homework, etc. We want spellers for life not just Friday spellers!

Computer Lab: Last week we practice for the CRCT. Don't forget to go to the web site and log in to practice for the test. Remember some questions will be very easy, some average and some very hard. Do this as a way to practice and let your children get comfortable with the format. We will also be practicing in the classroom.         

Congratulations Kate!!!! She entered the "Bully Poster" contest and won!!! She designed a really cute poster! Her poster will be all over the school building! Look for the poster when you come visit. Kate, we are very proud of you!!

Character word for the week...

Dedication and Loyalty... I love the dedication that is going into many of your children's reading and reading logs.

Have a Wonderful Week!!!

March 10, 2008

Reminders...

1. This is Ability Awareness Week
2. Tuesday we have a program to hear the Atlanta percussian Trio.
3. Tuesday is Texas Road house Dinner night
4. Friday our reading parent is Mrs. Lawson
5. Friday is the end of our 3rd grading period... wow this year is almost over!
6. Friday our book buddies will help us study for our USA test next Monday
7. Friday's specials is ART
8. Friday is BINGO night at 6:00 pm
9. Friday we go to the media center for story and check out

Have a great week and enjoy every minute you can with your little ones before they grow up! Believe it or not they do that quickly!

February 25-29

I hope you all had a GREAT long weekend last week. The children seemed rested and ready to go when they returned. I really enjoy this time of the year. It is so much fun to watch them working away. Their reading , writing and spelling all seem to start coming together. My how they are growing up!!

This week...

in Language Arts...

• we will be reviewing adding suffixes on to root words (ed, er, ing, s and es)
• we will learn when to use "a" or "an" ... example a comes before a consonant in a word and an comes before a vowel in a word ( "a" box and "an" apple)
• dictionary skills will be explored ( entry, definition, pronunciation, sample sentence, guide words)

in Math...

We began our standards with our unit on "time". Ask the children about the story "The Grouchy Lady Bug". The lady bug goes through each hour of his day. A really cute story to introduce time. As a follow up the children made a lady bug and their schedule for the day. We will continue time and facts to 18 this week.

in Reading... 

We will continue reading daily, taking AR test, working on story details and drawing conclusions.

I will also be testing a few children for their spring DRA levels.

Don't forget Reading Logs are due this Friday. I will send home the March log on Friday too. :-)

Social Studies...

We have been studing some of our past presidents. This week we will dive into the USA and many of it's important symbols. After I finish teaching the standards I will send home a study guide. Please review it with your child. I will let you know the test date in plenty of time.

Computer Lab: The children just love going to the computer lab on Fridays. We had GREAT fun with some new websites on "Time". Here they are...

Stop The Clock

Clockwise

Character Word: Cooperation/Sportsmanship.... Wow.... your children are really very good in cooperating and having sportsmanship! Keep up the Wonderful Job!!!!

Have a Fabulous Week!

February 25-29

Important Dates:

• Friday, Feb. 29th Book Log is Due
• Friday, Feb. 29th GM Talent Show
• Monday - Friday, March 3rd-7th Book Fair
• Monday, March 3rd Read Across America Day School Wide...pajama day, student reading pledge, visitors come to read to the class (watch for a note from me this week)
• Tuesday, March 4th Early Release Day 12:20
• Thursday, March 6th Math Curriculum Night 6:30 meet me in my room
• Friday, March 7th Spirit Day... Wear your Class T-shirt!

February 11th - 24th

It has been a very busy month so far! We had our buddy class over on February 1st. The two classes made groundhogs, worked word searches, and had fun with secret codes. The children learned the state of Georgia has it's very own groundhog named General Lee. We found out he has predicted that we will have an early spring. We will just have to sit back and watch the weather to see if he is right.

We also had fun learning about penguins. The children learned that penguins are birds that can't fly but can swim really fast. Be sure to ask them what other information they learned. It is also one of our first grade standards to write about information we have gathered. They did a fabulous job at it too!

February is a GREAT month for many of our Social Studies standards.   

We will learn about the United States of America, our past and present presidents, our flag, many landmarks and symbols. Last week we read all about "Honest Abe" and this week we will read and write about George Washington. We will continue our study with our current president and important symbols of the United States in the following weeks.

Math... We are having fun with our money unit and will be moving into telling Time next week. I expect them to do Great with the telling time for we have been working on it all year at Calendar Math.

Spelling... Keep working on those Sitton Core words with your children. They are learning to edit and proof for them in their own writitng here at school. I am very proud of their progress.

Here are 2 more websites that we did when we went to the computer lab on Friday!  The children are looking forward to me getting them to you! Have fun!!

Count Money

Pick-a-Coin

Character Word for the Week:

Acceptance... I like to teach the children to accept each other for who they are. We are all unique and wonderful individuals and need to recognize that in each other.

February 11th - 24th

LUNCH TIME CHANGE... we now go to lunch at 11:48 to 12:18. Come join us any time!

Finger printing is February 12th for all those who returned their form.

Thursday is Valentine's Day! Please remember to send your cards by Wednesday or Thursday.

Friday... BOX TOPS are due!

February 20th... The 6 hours Six Flags Reading form is due!

February 21st... Spirit Night at Chick-Fil-A at 5:00 pm

February 26th... Class Pictures

February 29th... Garrison Mill Talent Show... A GREAT family night out, The TEACHERS will be performing  too.  You wouldn't want to miss that either. :-)

********* Remember next week is a short week. Monday is President's Day and a Holiday for everyone. Tuesday is a Holiday for the students and an inservice day for the teachers.

January 28th

Brrrrrrr................ We have had a cold start to our new year! So....keep your little ones bundled up. Remember we will go outside for recess unless it is to wet or "extremely" cold. The children need to come in layers! That way we can dress appropriately for the weather. Thanks!

Conference week was GREAT!!! Thank you all for taking the time to come in and go over your child's progress. Like I said, I am proud of each and everyone of them. I look at the kindergardeners and shake my head at how little they seem. Between now and the end of the school year you will see huge growth spurts with your children. They are becoming true individuals learning to read, write, calculate along with social growth too. It is so much fun!

Please remember to send the Foundation Survey back to school as soon as you complete it.

Curriculm News:

Language Arts:

We are working on informational writing skills this 9 weeks. This week I choose penguins to be our writing topic. We will read and explore first. Then we will get our details together and finally write about them. I mentioned at conference to many of you that we begin editing our work too this 9 weeks. We will also continue identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Math:

This week we start our unit on Money! If you have not sent your childs baggie with money, could you please do so by Thursday?  It really makes a difference when the children can use real money versus play money. I will also introduce my "alien" coins this week. Later in the week ask your child about the alien coins. I will send more information home explaining how they help us count money.

Science: Weather

Groundhog Day:

This coming Saturday is February 2nd which is Groundhog Day. Friday we will learn a little more about Groundhog Day and how it came about. Check the news to see if "Punxsutawney Phil" in Pennsylvania saw his shadow and if " General Beauregard Lee" in Georgia saw his shadow. The saying goes no shadow then an early Spring. If a shadow then six more weeks of Winter.

Spelling:

Remember... Every child is a Speller! We want our children to he held accountable in their writing. Keep the Sitton Core list close by when writing or doing homework.

Computer:

Here is a GREAT site to practice addition math facts. Have Fun!!!!!!!!

Math Facts

Character Word:

Initiative/Effort......... Wow! What a super trait to teach our children. We will talk about how we can be initiative at home or school. Showing effort can also be an important character. We will try to put both of these traits into action. :-)

January 28th

January Birthdays.........

Grayson hope you had a happy birthday on the 16th!

Enrique hope you had a wonderful birthday on the 19th!

Brooke and Joey hope you have a happy birthday this week on the 31st!

Other Important Dates:

• Monday the 28th ... Early dismissal 12:20
• Tuesday the 29th... 10:00am Kindergarten and New Parent Visit
• Friday February 1st... School Spirit Day... wear GM T-shirt or Class T-shirt
• Saturday February 2nd... Groundhog Day
• Wednesday February 6th... Early Release Day 12:20
• Friday February 8th... Jump Rope for Heart ...wear class T-shirts