Blenda Smith

Our Last Several Days

What a great end to our kindergarten year!  We had fun reviewing many things we learned this year, reading some fun new books, and enjoyed a few treats along the way.  Thank you for making our year so wonderful!

          Mrs. Dillon and I wanted to thank you for the lovely hydrangea bush and gift cards you gave us.  We can't wait to plant our flower bush and watch them grown.  As the flowers bloom throughout the years, we will think of each of you and how you blossomed in kindergarten.  We are so proud of each of you and your accomplishments!  We hope that you have a super summer and enjoy being with family and friends.  Don't forget to keep reading, writing, and practicing math facts.  

        Thanks again.  Love, 

                       Mrs. Dillon and Mrs. Keller

Early Release

DON’T FORGET - EARLY RELEASE

 Tuesday and Wednesday

Car Riders and ASP will be dismissed at 1:15

Bus Riders will be loaded up at 1:20

 

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!

DO NOT BRING BOOKBAGS OR LUNCH BOXES TO SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY!

Classroom News For The Week of May 23rd

WOW, the last three days of school are here.  I can't believe it!  Your children have learned so much this year.  They have experienced things they have never done before.  I am very proud of all the accomplishments each of them have made!  Even though I have only been here since the end of February, I will truly miss them.  They are little shing stars.  I am so grateful to have been here with them.  We have a few more days of learning and fun.  Read below to see some of the things we will be up to.

Language Arts:  We will be comparing fiction and non-fiction books.  Students will work on nouns and add describing words.  We will look at main characters, conflict, solution, setting, and making connections.

Books: There are SO many great books to read!  Students will select a few of their favorites to read aloud.  We will also enjoy reading some of my favorites.

     

Sight Words:  We will be reviewing the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make.  Students will also be working on the 40 sight words we have learned this year.  We will take a look at the 200 words we will work on in first grade.

Writer's Workshop:  During writing we will focus on correct writing conventions and relating experiences, feelings, and thoughts.  We will also be using words that describe.

Math: Students will be looking at some of the math strategies we have used this year.  We will concentrate on number combinations.  Students will also get to play many of the math games we have enjoyed throughout the year.  Keep playing number games at home this summer.  Use dice, license plates, cards, dominios, and popcorn.  Make it fun so they will love it for a lifetime. 

Social Studies and Science:  We will be reviewing our national symbols, exchanging money and applying the vocbulary goods and services.

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 23rd:    Ice Cream Themed Day

May 24th:     Buggie Themed Day

May 25th:      Game Themed Day

May 24th and 25th:  EARLY RELEASE

 Registration for the 2011-12 school year is July 27^th from 9am-6pm. 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

Classroom News for the Week of May 16th

I can't believe we only have 8 days left in the school year!  We have many things to finish up before we move on to the First Grade.  Our week is packed full beginning with Career Day on Monday and ending with Field Day on Friday.  Field Day is a fun day in the sun.  Don't forget to put sunscreen on your child before they come to school.  If you would like to send an extra set of clothing with your child Friday morning, please do.  We have extra water events this year.  The children will get Wet!!  Read below to see some of the things we will be up to this week. 

Language Arts: We will be reviewing many of the narrative elements we've been looking at this year.  We will enjoy reading Circular Stories by Laura Numeroff.  Students will discuss the characters in the books and how the character changes.

Books: We will be reading books by Laura Numeroff.

    

Sight Words:  We will be working on finding sight words in the books we read and saying them without hesitation.  Students will also be working with the letter "Zz".

Writer's Workshop:  Students will be working on Response to Literature and Narrative Writings.  As always students should sound out the words as they write them using each sound they hear.  They should use correct spacing, capitalization, and periods.

Math:  We will be reviewing many of the concepts we have covered this year.  Students will be playing games to reinforce the skills they have learned while working on story problems and math assessments.  Be careful, students may bring home a Math Monster : 0 )

Social Studies:  We will finish up our study in Economics.   Students will know that people have jobs.  They use income they earn on their jobs to purchase goods and services.  They will explain that people earn an income by exchanging resources.  We can't have everything we want, so people must make choices on how to use their money.  We will learn the difference between needs and wants.  Students will trade in their classroom money for something they want.

Dates to Remember

May 16th:  Career Day

May 20th:    FIELD DAY!!!  WHOAAA

May 24th and 25th:  EARLY RELEASE, 1:30

 

Classroom News for May 9th

                                                

    What a beautiful weekend!  I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family.  Can you believe we only have 13 days left in the school year?  Time has really flown by. We have a lot of work left to do before the last day.  Read below to see some of the things we will be up to.  

Phonics:  We will be working on _at, _et, and _ut word families. Students will write these words family words and make new words.   

Books:  We will enjoy many books by Eric Carle.  We will be discussing how he illustrates books and how he uses animals in his books.  Which books are fiction and which books are non-fiction.  We will look at some of the books he writes with people as the main characters.  Students will then select their favorite book and write about it.

Writer's Workshop:  This week we will finish up with Persausive Writing and begin Readers Response. 

Math:  The children LOVE subtraction!  We began working on subtraction story problems.  We will continue to work on subtraction and several other concepts we have covered this year.

 Science: I hope you enjoyed the seedling your children brought home. 

 DATES TO REMEMBER

Language Arts Skills:  We will be focusing on retelling and sequencing story events.  We will look at teh main events in the story and explore the characters in the stories. 

 

 May 9th:  PTA Book Swap begins

May 13th:  ALL LIBRARY BOOKS DUE

May 16th:  Career Day

May 20th:    FIELD DAY!!!  WHOAAA

May 24th and 25th:  EARLY RELEASE, 1:30

Don't forget the Book Swap at Pickett's Mill.  Beginning Monday, May 9 students can turn in books they would like to swap.  Simply bring in the books you would like to donate.  You have two days to make the donation, May 9th and May 10th.  Students will recieve a receipt when they drop off their books.  This receipt will tell how many books they can swap later that week (limit 5 for trade).  Then on Thursday, May 11th and Friday, May 12th students will take their receipt to the PTA room and choose their "new" books (limit of 5).  Summer reading will be lots of fun!

 

Mystery Question   

There were 10 bumble bees flying in their bee hive.  3 bees flew out.  How many bees are left in the hive? 

*Remember:  Draw the problem, write a number sentence and the answer.  Have Fun. 

Classroom News for the Week of May 2nd!

It is MAY! We have been busy learning many new things and reviewing the things we have learned this year.  Read below to see some of the things we will be up to in class this week.

Phonics:  We are finishing up on words ending in /t/ and /x/.  Students need to remember to sound out words as they read and put those sounds together to make words.  

 Language Arts Skills: We will be reviewing the strategies we have learned this year.  It is important that students be able to retell stories that they have read.  When you read with your child ask them questions about the story you are reading.  

Books:  We will enjoy many books this week.  We will review fiction and non-fiction books. Students will explore the different characteristics in these books.  We will talk about the beginning, middle, and end of our stories. 

Writer's Workshop: This week we will start our unit on Persausive Writing.  Students will be writing what animal they think is the best and why.  They will use a graphic organizer to organize their thoughts.  Students will state their opinion and then support that decision.  We will continue to work on sounding out words as we write, using correct spacing between our words, using capitalization correctly, and ending complete sentences with punctuation. 

Math:  We have jumped into subtraction.  Students will be using real life experiences to relate to subtraction.  We will also continue to work on money facts and number sense.

Science:  Students have planted their seeds.  What will happen next?  We will continue to observe and record the changes in our seedlings.  

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 3rd:  CiCi’s Pizza Night 5:00 – 10:00pm

May 8th:    Mother's Day

May 9th:  PTA Book Swap begins

May 13th:  ALL LIBRARY BOOKS DUE

May 16th:  Career Day

May 20th:    FIELD DAY!!!  WHOAAA

May 24th and 25th:  EARLY RELEASE, 1:30

 Happy Mother's Day to ALL our wonderful MOMS and GRANDMOTHERS!  We are very grateful for all you do to help us everyday.  Thank you and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!   

 

MYSTERY QUESTION 

There were 5 hatching eggs in their nest.  They quickly grew up.  Two baby birds flew away.  How many birds were left in the nest?

*Remember: Draw a picture (cross out the birds that leave), write a number sentence, don't forget your answer.  Have fun!

Book Swap

Don't forget the Book Swap at Pickett's Mill.  Beginning Monday, May 9 students can turn in books they would like to swap.  Simply bring in the books you would like to donate.  You have two days to make the donation, May 9th and May 10th.  Students will recieve a receipt when they drop off their books.  This receipt will tell how many books they can swap later that week (limit 5 for trade).  Then on Thursday, May 11th and Friday, May 12th students will take their receipt to the PTA room and choose their "new" books (limit of 5).  Summer reading will be lots of fun! 

Classroom News for the Week of April 25th

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Can you believe this is the last week of April?  Time has really flown by.  We have a very busy week coming up at Pickett's Mill.  On Thursday some of our staff will play a volleyball game in the Allatoona High school gym.  Come out and support Pickett's Mill against Frey. Your $2.00 donation will go to Relay for Life. Friday is our BIG Spring Fling!  Come out and enjoy the fun. The evenings activities start at 5:30 and wrap up at 8:30.  There will be many fun activities. 

Read below to see some of the things we will be up to in class this week.

Phonics:  We continue to work on short vowel sounds and word ending in /t/ and /x/.  We need to remember to sound out words as we read and stretch out every sound as we write.  

Language Arts Skills: Students are working on narrative elements in the stories we read.  We will make sure we know that there is a beginning, middle, and an end to these stories.  Students will make predictions as well as make connections with the stories.

Books: We have some fun books to read this week.  We will enjoy fiction and non-fiction books. Students will help each other sequence the events in the stories as we read them.  We will also be looking for our favorite parts in the stories.  

  

Writer's Workshop: We are working on informational writing.  Informational writing gives the reader facts about a certain topic.  Students will write facts about butterflies and ladybugs this week.  We will use graphic organizers to organize the facts we want to write about. 

Math:  We will be working on estimation to 5 and 10.  Students will also begin working on subtraction as well as continuing to work on addition strategies.  

Science:  We will be finishing up our living things unit.  Students will become scientist and take apart lima beans and finish up by planting our very own seeds.  We will continue to observe our seed and observe how it changes and grows.

        

DATES TO REMEMBER

April 26th: Beef O'Brady's Family Night 4 - 10

April 28th: VOLLEYBALL, Allatoona High School

April 29th: Spring Fling, 5:30 - 8:30

May 3rd:     Staff Talent Show

May 20th:    FIELD DAY!!!  WHOAAA

Mystery Question 

Bob the frog was hungry.  He ate 4 large flies.  5 more flies came along.  Bob ate them up quickly too.  How many flies did bob eat in all?

*Remember: draw a picture to show your thinking, write the addition sentences and the total, and don't forget to have fun! (See if you can write a story problem for us to solve.)

Classroom News for the Week of April 18th

April is already going by too quickly for me!  Before you know it Kindergarten will be over and the children will be on their way to First Grade.  A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who came out for our P.L.A.N.K. PTA night.  The children did a great job and it was nice to see our families there. We have a busy schedule this week.  Below are a few things we will be up to. 

Phonics:  We continue to work on short vowel sounds.  We are working on locating the sounds in CVC words and words with blends.

Language Arts Skills: Working on narrative elements in the stories we read.  We are locating the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end of stories as well as identifying the problem, solution, and details in the story.

Books: We have some wonderful books to read this week.  Some of the books are by Patricia Polacco.  Her books are creative, bright, and full of wonderful traditions.  We will disucss the narrative elements in these books and make connections.  Students will use what they know to select their favorite book and then write about it.

Writer's Workshop: We will begin working on informational writing.  Students will realize that informational writing gives the reader information on a specific topic.  We will be working on finding a topic, narrowing down what we want our reader to know, using a graphic organizer to organize our thoughts, and then writing the information down we gathered. It's a big task that is very rewarding.

Math:  We have been working very hard on number combinations to 10.  We are continue to work on making fair trades, knowing what numbers are more than, less than, and equal too, as well as addition story problems.  We will also enjoy some fun Jelly Bean Math.   Yum Yum!

Social Studies:  This week we will start on our Economics Unit. 

***PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO SEND IN YOUR EGGS***

NEW NEW NEW:  Mystery Question

    There are five little yellow chickens dancing in a line.  How many total feet are there?  Show me your thinking. 

*Draw a picture.

*Write a number sentence to show your idea.

  DATES TO REMEMBER

April 19th: Chick-fil-A Night, 5:30 - 7:30

April 22nd: Earth Day; Volunteer Brunch 8:30 -10:00

April 26th: Beef O'Brady's Family Night 4 - 10

April 28th: VOLLEYBALL, Allatoona High School

April 29th: Spring Fling, 5:30 - 8:30

May 3rd:     Staff Talent Show

May 20th:    FIELD DAY!!!  WHOAAA

Classroom News for April 11th

I hope you all had a fun, restful Spring Break!  It went by so quickly.  CRCTs begin for 3rd through 5th graders this Tuesday.  Our schedule will be a little different this week due to testing. Here is a little glimpse at some of the things we will be covering this week. 

Language Arts Skills:  We will be looking at the different characters in books.  We will examine how the author tells us the character acts, looks, and feels.  Students will identify the book as fiction or non-fiction.  We will  listen to what the words tell us and go further to see what the pictures show us.  Finally, we will see if we have anything in common with the character and/or make a connection to them.

    

Books: We will read lots of books this week.  Students will concentrate on making connections with the books.  We will discuss the characters and how they change through the stories. Some of the books we will read are:  Strega Nona: Her Story, The Art Lesson, Velma Gratch and The Way Cool Butterfly, The Popcorn Book, and Stagestruck. 

    

Phonics Focus:  We will focus on the  sounds of Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu.

Sight Words:  his, on, get.  Keep practicing reading sight words.  Your child will be evaluated on how many sight words they can read in 1 minute.  For the GKIDS assessment your child will need to read 30 words per minute. 

Handwriting:  Vv.  We will also be working on writing our first and last names correctly.  We will review and practice the correct formation of vowels Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu.

Writer's Workshop:  Students need to identify a letter, a word, and a sentence.  They should be listening for sounds to write in words while using correct spacing between their words.  I am stressing the use of capitalization and punctuation.  We will work on identifying complete and incomplete sentences and practiced finding and editing errors in written sentences (capitalization and punctuation). 

Math:  We will finish up making combinations to 10.  We will continue to work on addition and add some fun story problems to the mix.

Science:  We will finish up our unit on living and non-living.  We will begin our unit on seeds and plants.

Up Coming Dates

Tuesday, April 12 - 18:     CRCT testing for 3rd - 5th grades, 8:00 am

Wednesday, April 13:       Firehouse Subs night 4:00 – 9:00

Thursday, April 14:          PTA Kindergarten Program, 7:00pm Cafeteria

Friday, April 15:              PTA Chick-fil-A Biscuit Sales 7:05 – 7:45

Tuesday, April 19:           Chick-fil-A Night

Friday, April 22:            EARTH DAY;  Volunteer Brunch

Tuesday, April 26:          Beef O’Brady’s Family Night 4:00 – 10:00

Friday, April 29:            SPRING FLING, 5:30 - 8:30

Kindergarten P.L.A.N.K. Performance

It was great to see you all at the Mother Goose Party Musical Friday.  The children did a WONDERFUL job!  I am so proud of them.  Thank you for ALL you did to help make this a fun day for the children.  I hope each of you enjoy a wonderful week.  Happy Spring Break!

Don't forget to join us for the PTA meeting, Thursday, April 14th at 6:30.  Kindergarten children will be performing some of their P.L.A.N.K. active learning songs.  They can't wait to show you what they know!

Also, thank you for all the lovely flowers and gifts you sent this week.  It is a treat to be teaching your child. They are working very hard getting ready for first grade.  I appreciate all you do.  Thanks again.  See you soon.