Mrs. Griffith's Class

Spring 2008 Autism Workshop

Cobb County School District is sponsoring an Autism Workshop.

Where?  Kell High School, 4770 Lee Waters Road, Marietta, GA 30066

When?  Saturday, February 23, 2008

What time?  8:30 am - 12:30pm

Childcare will be available!!

Topics Include:  Visual Schedules, Social Skills, Toileting, Speech/Functional Communication, Sibling Issues and MORE!! 

To Register:  Call Cobb County Special Education Parent Mentor Office; Judith Steuber or Ijemoa Ajoku at (770) 529-0046

Pre-registration is required for child care.

DON'T FORGET!!

Don't forget that January 7th is a STUDENT HOLIDAY.  Please do not send your student to school that day. 

JANUARY 21ST IS ALSO A STUDENT HOLIDAY.  Do not send your student this day either!

CONFERENCES WILL BE HELD JANUARY 22ND, 23RD, 24TH, 25TH, AND 28TH.

Newspaper Club

Students worked hard on their articles for the first edition of The Blackwell Bullhorn.  We published the newspaper right before Thanksgiving break.  The winter edition will be published the first week after the winter holiday.  Students who have been told that they will be published for this edition need to get their articles finished so that we can type them into the computer when we come back from winter break. 

If you missed getting your copy of the newspaper, go to the Blackwell Elementary website for a copy. 

Second Grade Reading

Fundations is a great phonics program that we are using to help your young reader.  We have learned about vowel teams (ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oi, oy), welded sounds (all, an, am , ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk) and the different vowel sounds.  Ask your reader what a bonus letter is! 

Early Success is a reading program that has us reading books every day.  We use different strategies whe we read.  For some fun games to play, go to this website http://harcourtschool.com/menus/trophies/activities/reading_skills/gr2.html

3rd Grade Reading

Is it really okay for a girl to play basketball?  We will find out as we read Allie's Basketball Dream in our Soar to Success Program.  From there, Let's Go Rock Collecting and discover some different types of rocks and where we might find them. 

We will use our comprehension skills to do a mini-unit on Magnets, studying about the different poles of magnets and how opposites attract. 

At the end of January, we will go back to Soar to Success and see what The Outside Dog is all about.

Fourth Grade Reading

In January, 4th grade will be reading The Lost Lake, Oil Spill! (What happens when oil is spilled in the ocean?  How is it cleaned up?  What are the effects?) as part of our Soar to Success program. 

As part of social studies, we will read from America's Story studying about a new country being born, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington.

Science comprehension will be used to do a mini lesson on Sound 

Soar to Success with 3rd & 4th Grade!

Don't forget to use these strategies when you read!

• Soar to Success Strategies
• Predict: what will happen or what will we learn
• Clarify: reread or discuss words or points that you don't know
• Question: after reading, ask a question for others to answer
• Summarize: tell what you read
• Clarify/Phonics: 1) Look for the largest chunks you know.
• 2) Look at the letters and think about the sounds.
• 3) Reread the sentence.

Geometry Gurus

Third Grade just finished a unit on Geometry Buzz Words.  Ask your student what they were!  They presented these Buzz Words in PowerPoint Presentation form to the third grade classes as a review for their tests.  Every day uses were included in this presentation along with definitions and pictures.  For more geometry fun, go to www.ikeepbookmarks.com/griffith .