Ms. Otto

November 16, 2009

 

 
Fernbank Museum

We had a great time on our Walk Through Time in Georgia. The weather was spectacular! Students walked through many galleries and dioramas depicting Georgia's main geographical regions. These scenes provided a link from the past to present day Georgia. It tied in beautifully with our Social Studies Standards. The students were in awe of the dinosaur skeletons. Thanks to the parents who accompanied us on our trip.

Math News

Thank you to Mr. Lieto, Shaun's dad, who came to talk to the class about how he uses math in his job. Mr. Lieto has an interesting job, working with computers that takes him all over the world. He was not fond of math as a child, but as he grew up, he learned to love what math could do for him! Thanks for helping us with our school math goal.

Please email me if you would like to share how you use math in your everyday life.

Math Curriculum

We have been working very hard on subtraction with and without regrouping. We have practiced in various ways using math manipulatives. Next, we transfered the work to paper and learned the algorithm. The students should be able to tell you why they are trading a ten for ten ones. Some students have it, while others still need more practice. Here are some of the common mistakes that students are making:

1. They may be using the steps for addition regrouping when they subtract.

2. Some students still don't know when to regroup. They learned a poem that should help them.

3. They are using the subtraction algorithm, but forgetting one of the key steps, such as borrowing a ten, but forgetting to cross out the ten and making it one less, or forgetting to add 10 ones to the one's place.

4. Then there are those students who have learned the concept, but do not have a good grasp of their subtraction facts, making careless errors.

What you can do at home:

We will continue to review all concepts taught. Please look over all homework, worksheets, and assessments with your child and review the content. Continue to encourage math practice on First in Math and other websites. Here are two other sites that will help with subtraction facts:

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/cathymath.html

http://www.dositey.com/addsub/Mystery4.htm

Hope to see everyone at the VIP Thanksgiving lunch,Wednesday, 11:40.

Here's the Homework/Newsletter for the week.

Download Nov 16

November 9, 2009

 

Important Dates in November

Wednesday 11th-Veteran's Celebration 1-2

Thursday 12th-Second Grade Field Trip

Monday 16th-Friday20 th-Book Fair

Tuesday 17th-Family Book Night 5:30-7:30

Friday 20th- Spirit Day/Chick-Fil-A

Monday23rd-Friday27th-THANKSGIVING BREAK ~ NO SCHOOL

Monday 30th-Back to school

Download Nov. 9 HW

Have a great week!

November 2, 2009

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR MATH TODAY?????

Recently I had a conversation with my daughter. She was complaining that she hated math, and when would she ever use the math she's learning in college? That really made me think about my own students. Do they know why math is so important? Maybe if they hear how important math is in other people's lives, they would have a better understanding of it's purpose in their own lives. That's where you come in. You could help us with our school goal. I would like you to consider coming to our class and sharing briefly how math is important in your job. If you could spare 15 minutes, we would love to have you. Just email me at pamela.otto@cobbk12.org.

Here are some ways parents can help keep math a focus at home:

1. Always be on the look out for mathematical patterns around you.

2. Think and talk about meaningful math that you encounter everyday. How much of something is needed? How many days until a birthday? Graph the Halloween candy.

3. Family board games encourage counting and strategy.

4. Build with blocks and legos to create, sort, and explore.

5. Encourage your child to count your pocket change everyday. How much more $ did you have yesterday.

6. Most importantly, let your child know that he/she is capable of learning math. Let your child know that math is all around us and a vital part of our lives.

CLASSROOM NEED

Thanks for sending in magazines for the class. We are still in need of computer paper.

Spelling

This web site has our spelling sorts loaded and ready for the student to practice.  You do not need a user name.  Click on "Find a List" and then type my name, Pam Otto, and then follow the link.

Spelling City

Changing weather!

Please remember to send a sweatshirt or jacket with your child. The weather is very unpredicable.

Here is the Homework/Newsletter for this week:

Download November%202[1]

Have a great week!

October 26, 2009

Old Magazines and Computer Paper

What do these two things have in common? We need them both for the classroom. We use pictures and words from magazines for different Learning Stations. You might want to quickly preview them for off-color ads. Just tear out those pages. We are also in need of plain white all-purpose computer paper for instruction.

Curriculum:

~Language Arts: Writing complete  sentences; each sentence has two complete  thoughts; punctuation; spelling patterns; different grammar skills: homophones, homographs, synonyms, antonyms

Reader's Workshop: making connections to what we read helps us understand the text bet

~Writers Workshop: response to reading, writing a letter

Math: We are working on telling time and subtraction with regrouping. Maintain the skill of counting back change to $1.00.

Keep practicing those math facts.  First in Math has a great game for building speed.  It is called Gyms. Start with whole numbers.

Here is the Homework/Newsletter for the week:

Download October 26

Have a great week!

 

 

October 19, 2009

 

First In Math 

First in Math is a fast-pace, fun web site that will strengthen your child's math skills. I hope your child has had a chance to access this at home. Please keep your child's information card at home. I have the same information at school.What's great about this program is that it's school wide, supports our curriculum, and strengthens numerical fluency. Watch your child have fun and learn! Just don't forget to READ!

Math

We worked very hard on the concept of making change this past week. It's a difficult concept so here is a great web site to continue that practice:

    Think Math

Healthy Choices Week:

 Healthy choices week is a great time to talk about nutrition-we will look at the food pyramid Food Pyramid

Report Cards

Report cards came home on Friday. Please send the white card back, signed by a parent, as well as the brown envelope. You keep everything else.

Old Magazines and Computer Paper

What do these two things have in common? We need them both for the classroom. We use pictures and words from magazines for different Learning Stations. You might want to quickly preview them for off-color ads. Just tear out those pages. We are also in need of plain white all-purpose computer paper for instruction.

Carnival

I enjoyed seeing many of you at the Nicholson Carnival! It was a little chilly, but fun.

Speaking of chilly,please remember to have your child bring a jacket each day.  We usually go outside right after lunch at about 11:10.  It can still be very cool.

Here is the Homework/Newsletter for the week:

Download October 19 HW

Have a great week!

 

October 12, 2009

Math News

As we begin this next nine weeks I would like to remind you of some of the expectations for and math.  Practicing math facts is part of the weekly homework. The students should be practicing addition and subtractions facts.  This is so important as the students work on more complicated problems.  I hate to watch them get the difficult concept correct and then mark a problem incorrect because of a basic fact that is not right. I try to give the timed tests once a month and then chart progress.  Some students are making steady progress, while others are making little or no progress.  Flash cards are very helpful especially if you do not have a computer available. I recommend about 10 minutes of practice a night.

Students who consistently get 90% or above on their math fact tests will make the 100 Club. Consisently means atleast 3 weeks in a row.

Reading/Spelling

I have included some Dolch Word activities to help those students who need help with reading and spelling.

Dolch words, or sight words, provide an excellent base for reading at an early age. They are often called sight words because some of them can't be sounded out, and need to be learned by sight.

Note that all the Dolch words can be taught before children finish the first grade in school. Words in the second and third grade lists are more common in books for those age groups, but they do appear in books for earlier grades, just less frequently.

http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm

Science

YOU SCREAM, I SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

Have you heard???We made ice cream proving a liquid can change to a solid. Try it at home. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of whole milk

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla

1 Tablespoon of sugar

Materials:

6 Tablespoons of salt

1 pint-size zip-type plastic baggie

1 gallon-size zip-type plastic baggie

Procedure:

Fill the large baggie half full of ice. Add the salt. Seal the baggie. Put the milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small baggie. Seal it tightly. Place the small baggie inside the large one and seal it carefully. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes. Wipe off the top of small baggie, then open carefully and enjoy!

Here is the Homework/Newsletter for the week:

Download October 12

Have a great week!

 

 

 

October 5, 2009

It's hard to believe that next week is the end of this first nine weeks!  We will spend some time reviewing and assessing.  Report cards will come home the following week.

Collection for the Firemen

Thank you for your contributions to the firemen who service the station on Tricum Rd. I am so proud to be part of a generous school family.

Homework

Compliments to all of the students!  They have done a great job with getting their homework completed neatly and turned in on time.  As they year progresses, we will add  some other activities to the homework.  Note that this week they have to identify vowels and consonants and the subject of a sentence.

Spelling

Keep practicing those "no excuse" words.  A good way to practice spelling is to let the students briefly look at the word and then write it from memory.  Spelling is a visual skill that needs to be developed.  Just copying the word over and over OR spelling it orally doesn't always do the trick.  At this point in the year I need the students to try to apply spelling skills based on long or short vowel sounds.  I talk about "good mistakes" like attempting to spell "boat" "bote", rather than "bot". That shows me that they are applying the knowledge that most long vowel sounding words will have two vowels.

Here is the Homework and Newsletter for the week:

Download October 5 HW

Have a great week!

 

 

 

September 28, 2009

Continued from "What great readers do".

Do you know which strategies great readers use?

1. They make connections to the text.

2. They ask themselves questions before, during, and after reading.

3. They visualize or make pictures in their mind about what is happening in the text.

4. They summarize the text during and after they read.

5. They determine important ideas and details.

6. They use higher level thinking skills when they infer meaning (read between the lines) and synthesize the text(change their thinking about the text as they read). Adapted from Strategies That Work, S. Harvey

Public Safety Appreciation Week

 

Next week (Oct. 4-10) is public safety appreciation week.  We have Fire Station #25 (on Trickum Rd) assigned to us.  Like last year, we will be collecting non-perishable kitchen 'staples' for them.  

These items would otherwise have to be purchased at the personal expense of the firemen. They were so appreciative of what we did last year that we decided to just duplicate the effort this year.

Here are some suggestions: coffee, tea, sugar, flour, peanut butter, spices, rice, pasta, dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.

You can drop the items in the classroom.

Math

Here is a great new math site. Have fun exploring!

http://www.hbschool.com/thinkmath/index.html

Here is the Homework/Newsletter. Hope to see you at Family Game Night, Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Download September 29 HW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 21, 2009

Rescheduled!

Due to the wet weather this week, Family Movie Night has been rescheduled to Friday, Oct. 2.

Do you know what great readers do?

1. They self-select appropriately leveled texts and continue to improve as readers.

2. The sustain their reading for longer periods of time.

3. They read aloud quickly and smoothly as if they are talking.

4. They think about the text and read for meaning.

5. They discuss what they are reading with teacher, family, and friends.

Guide you child through these habits at home and you will be on your way to creating a great reader. Look for strategies to support these habits next week.

Assessments

Are you noticing some of your child's papers marked with an S3, S2, or an S1? These are Summative Assessments when you child has the opportunity to "show what they know". The numbers correspond to the report card:

3-Meeting the standard

2- Progressing toward the standard

1- Making limited progress toward the standard

Daily papers are marked with a check plus, check, or check minus, also corresponding to the above scale. These are considered Formative Assessments or practice.

Please review all papers that your child brings home.

Here is the Newsletter and Homework for the week

Download September 21 HW

Have a great week!

 

 

 

Due to the wet weather this week, Family Movie Night has been rescheduled to Friday, Oct. 2.

September 14, 2009

Download September 14 Homework/Newsletter

http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/math.html

Can you believe we are beginning our 7th week of school?  Look for a letter from me in your child's Take Home Folder.

I hope you are all feeling more comfortable with the Second Grade Curriculum and procedures.  Every year has its challenges.  Each year, students are being trained to be more responsible. You can help your child by making them responsible for getting their homework home, completing it, and then getting it back to school. Also, Second graders should be able to follow 2-3 step directions.  Praise them for following directions the first time.

Echo Reading is a great strategy to help those students reading word-by-word.You read a sentence modeling good fluency (speed, smoothness, expression). Then your child reads the same sentence. You may have to practice a few times and make sure they are not just repeating it, but reading it. You can eventually graduate to small paragraphs. Take Home Books are good to use. You want the text to be easy with familiar words.

These are the Words Their Way sorts that we have been working on so far this year.  You may dowload and print these for further work or to have extra practice.  From now on I will just put the current sort on for you.

Download Sort 1- Initial Consonant B

Download Sort 2- Consonant Digraphs

Download Sort 3- Short and Long Vowe

Download Sort 4- Short and Long Vowe

Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink

Please remember that Monday, September 14, is picture day. All students will have their picture made for the Nicholson memory book.  An extra pictures will need to be prepaid on Monday.

Friday is Movie night.  Space Buddies was the winning choice.  Everyone will enjoy this family film and night at Nicholson.

Mark you calendar now for Tuesday, September 22.  There will be a spaghetti dinner followed by math games. The dinner will be by reservation so be on the look out for those papers to come home this week.

Have a great week!

.

Spetember 8, 2009

Hope everyone enjoyed the three day weekend!

Download Sept 8 HW

Please see the Homework/Newsletter for Calendar updates.

Math Homework and AR Books

Math Facts should be practiced every night. Math Homework from your child's math teacher should be completed and returned the next day. AR books should come back to school everyday. Please help your child establish a routine where they pack their backpack the night before making sure math homework, AR books, etc. are packed up. You can also place it right by the door where they exit in the morning. Make it their responsibility. It's never to early to start.

Reading-Five Finger Rule

Our new reading series suggests that children use The Five Finger Rule when choosing a book. As your child reads, they will raise a finger for every work that they can't decode. If they reach five fingers in one page, then the book will be too difficult for them to read and they should choose another.

Here are some great ways to practice Math:

Fun Brain  Cool Math  Flash Cards    Timed Test

Have a great week!