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Welcome to the Manheim Central Middle School Title I Blog!  When accessing this blog, please click on the category that you are looking for located on the left hand side.  This way, you will find the specific information that you are looking for within this blog.

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Literacy and Math Game Night for all students in grades 5 and 6 will take place Wednesday, February 22, 2012.  The event will be held in the Middle School Cafeteria  from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.  A brochure describing the event was sent home with your child last week.  Please return the registration form by February 8.  If you need a need registration form, you can download the following: Middle School Family Game Night (2)

 Click on link to read the attached letter.  PAC letter 2011

Click on the link to read the Spanish version. PAC_Spanish2011

Click on the link to read the Arabic version. PAC_Arabic2011

Click on the link below to see how to be a part of your child’s middle school career.

https://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/85-middle-school-finding-a-role-for-parents

Click on the link for more details! Worshop held in Maheim Library 11/19.

PowerStr-2-Cooper-library (2)

Top 10 Ways to Help Your Kids Do Well in Math

 by Peggy Gisler, Ed.S. and Marge Eberts, Ed.S.

Mastering Math
Mastering mathematics is absolutely essential for future opportunities in school and careers. Your children will need to reach a certain level of competency in math to take many advanced high-school courses, to be admitted to college, and to have a wide variety of career choices. Here’s how you can help them maximize their math-smarts.

1. Make sure your children understand mathematical concepts. 
Otherwise, math becomes a meaningless mental exercise of just memorizing rules and doing rote drills. Have your children manipulate objects to figure out basic concepts. For addition, they could add one, two, or more blocks to a pile of blocks and then tell you how many blocks are in the pile.

2. Help them master the basic facts. 
Mastery of a basic fact means that children can give an answer in less than three seconds. Considerable drill is required for children to give quick responses. Use flash cards to help your children learn the basic facts. When they don’t know an answer, have them lay out objects to solve the problem.

3. Teach them to write their numbers neatly. 
Twenty-five percent of all errors in solving math problems can be traced back to sloppy number writing. Improve your children’s number-writing skills by having them trace over numbers that you have written. Suggest they use graph paper to keep the numbers in problems neatly aligned.

4. Provide help immediately when your children need it. 
Math is one subject in which everything builds upon what has been previously learned. For example, a failure to understand the concept of percent leads to problems with decimals. If a teacher is unable to help your children, provide the help yourself or use a tutor or learning center.

5. Show them how to handle their math homework. 
Doing math homework reinforces the skills your children are learning in class. Teach them to begin every assignment by studying the textbook or worksheet examples. Then have them redo the examples before beginning the assignment to make sure they understand the lesson.

6. Encourage your children to do more than the assigned 
problems. 
Considerable practice is necessary for your children to hone their math skills. If the teacher only assigns the even problems, having them do some of the odd ones will strengthen their skills. The more time your children spend practicing their skills, the sooner they will develop confidence in their abilities.

7. Explain how to solve word problems. 
Mathematicians have an expression: To learn to solve problems, you must solve problems. Teach your children to read a word problem several times. Also, have them draw a picture or diagram to describe it. Make it easier for them to understand the steps in a problem by teaching them to substitute smaller numbers for larger ones.

8. Help your children learn the vocabulary of mathematics. 
They will never get a real feeling for math nor learn more advanced concepts without an understanding of its vocabulary. Check that your children can define new terms. If not, have them use models and simple problems to show you they understand how the term is used.

9.Teach them how to do math “in their head.”
One of the major ways to solve problems is by using mental math. Kids should use this method frequently instead of using pencil and paper or a calculator. When helping your children with a problem, help them determine when it would be appropriate to use mental math.

10. Make mathematics part of your children’s daily life. 
Mathematics will become more meaningful when your kids see how important it is in so many real-life situations. Encourage them to use math in practical ways. For example, ask them to space new plants a certain distance apart, double a recipe, and pay bills in stores.

Read more on FamilyEducation: http://school.familyeducation.com/math/parenting/38812.html#ixzz1beOozG6o

Click here to read that our middle school staff is highly qualified.Highly-Qualified-Staff

Selecting Books for Your Child: Finding ‘Just Right’ Books

By: Kathleen Rogers

How can parents help their children find books that are not “too hard” and not “too easy” but instead are “just right”? Here’s some advice.

Five finger rule

1. Choose a book that you think you will enjoy.
2. Read the second page.
3. Hold up a finger for each word you are not sure of, or do not know.
4. If there are five or more words you did not know, you should choose an easier book.

Still think it may not be too difficult? Use the five finger rule on two more pages.

Choose a book that is a good fit for you!

Read two or three pages and ask yourself these questions:

Will it be an easy, fun book to read?

• Do I understand what I am reading?
• Do I know almost every word?
• When I read it aloud, can I read it smoothly?
• Do I think the topic will interest me?

If most of your answers were “yes”, this will be an easy book to read independently by yourself.

Will this book be too hard for me?

• Are there five or more words on a page that I don’t know, or am unsure of?
• Is this book confusing and hard to understand by myself?
• When I read it aloud, does it sound choppy and slow?

If most of your answers were “yes,” this book is too hard. You should wait awhile before you read this book. Give the book another try later, or ask an adult to read the book to you.

Tips on reading with your child

When they can’t read the word, say…

• Can you sound it out?
• Fingertap it.
• Can you think of the word or movement that helps you remember that vowel sound?
• What is the first and last sound? What word would make sense?
• Does it have a pattern that you have seen in other words? (ex-an, ack)
• How does the word begin?
• You said_______. Does that make sense?
• What word would make sense that would start with these sounds?
• Put your finger under the word as you say it.

When they want to read a book that is too hard, say…

• Let’s read it together.
• This is a book you will enjoy more if you save it until you are older — or later in the year.
• [Be honest!] When people read books that are too hard for them, they often skip important parts. You will have more fun with this book if you wait until you can read it easily.

Taken from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/28279/

Students working with Mrs. Arndt and Mrs. Horst are using the Soar to Success intervention reading program.

Program features include:

• Pairs fiction and nonfiction selections together to engage, motivate, and inform your students.
• Progresses from below grade-level to on grade-level.
• Builds comprehension skills & strategies your students need to become fluent strategic readers
• Addresses all five of the critical skills needed for reading success: Phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.