Summer school aims to help students improve math, reading and writing skills

It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday in June, but while the halls at South Central Calhoun Elementary School are quiet, the classrooms are still abuzz with activity.
In Kris Nicholson’s classroom, students sit in three groups, working with Nicholson and two associates, honing math skills in three different ways. At Nicholson’s table, students are given a brief glimpse of a paper, on which colored dots are grouped together, like the number markings on a dice. The process of knowing how many items are present without counting is called subitizing, and adults use it all the time, particularly when playing with dice or dominoes.
At another table, students work through word problems, including one in which they were told five of 15 balls were red, with the remainder being blue. They were asked to determine how many blue balls there were.
Lilly Niedowicz and Lane Anderson both solved the problem, each using a different kind of drawing to explain their answers. Niedowicz marked her circles with an R for red and a B for blue. 
Read more in the June 28 edition.