Great Beginning

We are off to a wonderful school year! As we just wrapped up week 2 I could not be more pleased.

The children are doing a great job working at centers while I have guided math or reading groups. They are diligent going through the writing process during writing workshop and are very serious about the pieces they are working on.

They can identify Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns through our study of ancient Greece's influence on our architecture. They worked in teams to create columns, write, and perform a cheer to describe their column's characteristics. The cheers---priceless! I am so enjoying your little people!

Back to School

This is always such an exciting time of year! I am writing this the night before Sneak a Peek and I am so excited to meet my new students! We will be together for a wonderful year, and I cannot wait to get started! Please stay tuned for updates, class news, and websites. We are off to the start of a terrific year!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Wow! This has been a tremendous week and I feel very appreciated! Thank you room moms for all the organizing. The kids were so excited to bring in fresh fruit for my fruit bowl, and my husband and I are really enjoying it! The goody bags were fun and today's luncheon and FANTASTIC dessert table were amazing!!! Thank you for giving me a wonderful week, and thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me every day!

Addition Regrouping Success! Can We Do It Again?

Wow! I am amazed by the children's growth in addition with regrouping! They took a pretest on Monday, January 31st and showed that they REALLY needed LOTS of practice with adding 3 digit numbers. By Friday, February 4th, most of the children demonstrated mastery, many even earning scores of 100% on the post test. Whew! I am so proud of them!

Thanks to all the parents too for encouraging extra practice at home on First in Math. I know that having the addition facts memorized really helped the children focus on the process of regrouping without having to figure out each fact.

Please help them continue their success by having the children work on First in Math at home again. This week we will attempt to conquer 3 digit subtraction!

To regroup or not to regroup? That is the question.

We will begin adding two 3 digit numbers next week. It is always a challenge for the children to analyze each problem and decide if they need to regroup or not. Previously all they had to focus on was trading 10 ones for one 10. That still remains of course, but now they also need to focus on trading 10 tens for 1 hundred. Whew! That is a lot to think about!

In light of all this critical thinking, it would be SO helpful if your child has all of the addition facts memorized. There is enough to think about without having to use fingers and toes to add each column. The First in Math site can really help with that goal in a fun way. I strongly encourage you to have your child go on First in Math for about 15 minutes each evening to work on the facts. Your child will thank you for your encouragement. While this post has been all about additon, subtraction is just around the corner!

Bullying Info from Ms. Armbruster

Jewish Family & Career Services

Bullying: A Community Response

Bullying

has reached epidemic proportions in our community. All one has to do is turn on the evening news or, even more disturbingly, listen to our children as we sit at the dinner table to understand how prevalent it has become. 66% of youth are teased at least once a month, and nearly 1/3 of youth are bullied at least once a month. 6 out of 10 American teens witness bullying at least once a day. For children in grades 6 – 10, nearly one in six — or 3.2 million — are victims of bullying

each year and 3.7 million are bullies.

(From

http://www.groundspark.org/ )

Jewish Family & Career Services, in collaboration with the Atlanta Rabbinical Association and the Anti-Defamation League is proud to present an important community program about Bullying.

The afternoon will consist of a panel of experts, moderated by

Bill Nigut, ADLSoutheast Regional Director, followed by separate break-out sessions for youth,parents and educators to speak honestly about the prevalence and impact ofbullying and how to take action against it.

January 23, 2011 from 3 - 5 pm

Congregation B’nai Torah (700 Mt. Vernon Highway Atlanta, 30328)

This session is intended for parents, educators and youth ages 10 and up.

RSVP to outreach@jfcs-atlanta.org or 770.677.9434

Free of charge and open to the community.

January Excitement

We have all enjoyed our first day back in school and excitement began bubbling for our January activities.

Today the children found out that they would be researching an animal (all to be done at school) and writing their very own hardback book about it, just like the books in the media center. The children will choose their animal on Wednesday, so be sure to ask about it tomorrow evening.

We will be visiting Safety Village on this Friday. I have everyone's permission slip, but wanted to remind you that we will be out of the building from @ 9:15-1:45. It is a wonderful field trip and I am so happy the children will get to experience it.

This is an unusual week due to the 4 day week and the field trip on Friday. We will resume spelling words/tests and homework notebooks next week. Look for the new spelling words in agendas this Friday. Meanwhile, there will be the usual Wednesday math homework and lots of free evenings for reading and writing responses as we kick off our 3rd quarter.