Mrs. Birdsong

Blue Jay News

Parents,

We’ve come to the end of your child’s kindergarten year.  It’s been awesome year!  They are amazing!!!  I can’t imagine a greater group of children with which to have spent the school year.   I think that they are well prepared for first grade.  I will miss them, but I can’t wait to watch them grow over the years.  I hope they will come back often to visit me.  I will love them always.  

Thank you for all of your help in making this phenomenal year.   It’s been a pleasure working with such wonderful and supportive parents as well.  Have a great summer!

 

SUMMER SKILL PRACTICE

 

Please go to our Nicholson Web Page and click on the Computer Lab tab.  There are many web sites that we have recommended for practice of Kindergarten and First Grade skills.   I highly recommend www.starfall.com.  

 

Also while on vacation:   have children identify and count coins,  numbers 1 - 100, by 5's, 10's, and 2's, read signs, sound out words, explore the daytime and nighttime sky, observe animals and their babies,  explore lakes, rivers, oceans.  There are a lot of opportunities for learning and teaching in our natural environment.  Please take advantage of  these opportunities this summer.  

 

 

BIRTHDAYS

 

MAY 

 

Murphy C.  May 21st

 

 

 

JULY

 

Charlie M.  July 16th

 

Mrs. Birdsong     July 16th

 

 

AUGUST 

 

Abigail A.   August 28th  

 

 

 

 

Finally thank you all for the end of the year gifts.  You all are always so kind and generous. 

 

Love,

 

 

Mrs. Birdsong

Blue Jay News

We are done introducing our individual letters/sounds for the year.  Now we will focus on blends and diagraphs.  This week our focus is the “ch” sound as in church, cheese, chicken, beach, etc.  Thank you for the pictures sent in with this sound.  Next week our focus will be the “th” sound as in think, the, thing, etc.  Please remember to send in pictures that correspond with this sound on next Monday.

Wow! we’re almost in the month of May and there are only 20 more days of school!

There is a lot to be done and only a little time to do it.  We will be busy!

 

 

Curricula Updates:

 

 

Guided Reading

We will continue to read Guided Reading books in class and I will send them home for additional practice until May 15th.   Please ask your child questions when reaeding to check for comprehension.  Please ask questions such as what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.   Also, make sure that your child can retell the story; name characters, setting, and plot and make connection between  the text and  their own experiences.   

 

 

Writing

 

Our focus will continue to be Simple Directions.  Students will write to give directions on how to do many different things.  We will continue to work on the correct use of    capital letters & ending punctuation marks.  Students will continue to practice writing correctly on the lines and using proper spacing.   The students are making very good progress with writing content and presentation, as I am sure you can tell by looking at the papers sent home.   

 

Math

 

We will play many games and do other activities in order to understand subtraction.

 

Social Studies

 

We are learning about national symbols and Spring/Summer holidays: Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the Fourth of July.  We will also learn about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.   

 

 

Science

 

Our focus is Plants.  We will be learning about the parts of plants.  We will be planting sunflower seeds and we will be making a green haired creature! 

 

 

Birthdays:

 

May 22^nd   Murphy C.

 

We will also celebrate birthdays early for:

 

Charlie M.            July 16^th

 

Mrs. Birdsong        July 16th

 

(We are birthday twins!)

 

 

 

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

 

 

May 1     Last day to check out books

 

May 8^th    All Library Books Due

 

May 13     Preview Day 

             Students will get to check out first grade!

 

May 14^th    Field Day

 

May 15^th    Field Day rescheduled (in case of rain)

 

May 22     Last Day of school   (No book bags or lunch boxes)

 

We will celebrate the last five fabulous days of school with many fun activities.

Details will be sent home soon.

 

Have a Marvelous May!

Blue Jay News

 

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break.  Gee, I can almost see the finish line for this school year.  We have less than 30 days left before the end of the school year, whew!   Time flies when you have a great group of students!   However, there is still a lot of work left to do. 

 

Curriculum News:

 

 

GUIDED READING

 

We continue to focus on sounding out unknown words and instant recognition of sight words.  We are also working on story comprehension, sequencing, recall, and students connecting the text with their own experiences.  Students continue to read at their reading level. 

 

WRITING

 

We are writing simple directions.  Students will write to tell how to make a cake (their own way).  How they get ready for school in the morning.  How they get ready for bed at night and numerous other topics that give them practice giving directions.

 

MATH

 

We will continue working on combining sets.  Next we will begin our unit on separating sets.

We will also continue practice with ordinal numbers, greater than & less than.

 

SCIENCE

 

We are learning about animals and their various characteristics.  Soon we will begin our unit on plants.

 

SOCIAL STUDIES

 

We are learning about spring & summer holidays:  Memorial Day, Flag Day, The Fourth of July, and more National Symbols.

 

OUR FIELD TRIP:

 

Our field trip to Cagle Farm was awesome!  The students had a wonderful time feeding baby calves & goats and learning about the milking process and other activities that occur on a Dairy Farm.   We also had a picnic and the children got to play outside for a while.  It was a beautiful day.  Thanks to the parents that helped chaperon the trip.

 

ART ENRICHMENT DAY

 

The Friday before Spring Break was Art Enrichment Day at Nicholson.  The children might have told you we weren’t in our classroom much.  We got to go to different classrooms and our Starlite Café to experience various artists and to learn about their work.  It was a fun day!

We plan a small “Welcome spring” celebration in the near future.  Check your child’s book bag for more information.

 

April Birthdays:

 

Mrs. Grifenhagen 4/11

Cameron T.  4/11

Camryn B. 4/22

Gabriel S. 4/25

 

 

As always if you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send a note to school in your child’s book bag or email me at shearon.farmer@cobbk12.org or go to our school’s web site and click on my name. 

 

Also, please check our April Calendar for more Kindergarten News and for our homework Schedule.

 

Thanks for all of your help and support.

Happy Spring!

****A great website to use at home is:  www.starfall.com.  Also for more great web sites go to our Nicholson web page, click on computer lab, then click on Kindergarten for al list of grade appropriate web sites that will provide a wealth of practice with Kindergarten skills.    

Birdsong Blue Jays

The Merry Month of March is here!  We're excited because Spring is in the air!

First let me say thanks for your participation in the Boosterthon.  It was a huge success!  We had an incredible time doing the fun run and we earned money for our school to increase our technology resources.  We were also able to earn a percentage of our class pledges to purchase resources directly for our classroom.  We are very excited! 

  I'd also like to thank everyone for the flowers and necklace I received for Teacher Appreciation Day!  I love sunflowers and I love the necklace.

As I always say, though, my students and their parents make me feel appreciated everyday.  Thanks also to Mrs. Marinho for staying with the class to give Mrs. G and I more time to enjoy the luncheon.  Thanks also to Mrs. Fulmer for volunteering to serve during the luncheon.  And to anyone else who in any even small way helped to make Teacher Appreciation Day wonderful for us, we say a sincere and humble thanks!

Curriculum Updates:

Our letter of the week is "Uu". 

Guided Reading -  we are continuing to read books at the the student's reading level.  We've been learning about contractions, compound words, quotation marks, possessives, and of course comphrension skills. 

Math -  We're learning about measuring time.  Our standards require the students to know the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, today, tomorrow, & yesterday.  Please use opportunities at home to reinforce these skills. 

Science -  We're learning about living and non-living things.  If you have old magazines with good pictures of living and non-living things, please send them to school for us to use during this unit.  

Social Studies - we're learning about national symbols.  We learned about the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Bald Eagle.

Our standards also require us to learn about President Lincoln, Washington, and the current President.  The students enjoy learning about the Presidents.  If you have any interesting artifacts related to national symbols.  Please share them with us. 

Writing -   We are writing personal narratives and stories.  Students are expected to use capital letters correctly, ending punctuation, and to use sound spelling.  We are also working to develop:  voice, ideas, sentence fluency, conventions, organization, and word choice.  The students are making wonderful progress!

March Birthdays

William 3/22

Ethan 3/28

DATES TO REMEMBER ....

Report Cards home 3/19

Field Trip to Cagel Farm  3/20

Parents please be sure to send a snack to school each day for your child.  Thanks to those parents who have donated snacks for our class! 

Have a marvelous March!!

January 29, 2009

Boosterthon Fun Run is coming to our school in February! This coming February the Nicholson PTA and Foundation have put together a wonderful fundraiser called the the Boosterthon Fun Run. This fundraiser will be used to assist with technology upgrades at our school. Please visit stersuperfan.com to get more information about this terrific activity! The following are dates to kick off the celebration. Please come and join us. February 10th- Boosterthon Pep Rally in gym at 1:15 parents invited at 12:45 February 19th- Boosterthon Fun Run for all grades 9:00-11:30 on the track LET’S ALL PARTICIPATE IN THIS EXCITING FUNRAISER TO GET THE NEEDED TOOLS FOR OUR SCHOOL!!!

Sea Star News

Happy New Year!!!

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break!  I trust the students are well rested, reenergized, and eager for lots of learning in the second half of the school year.  There is a lot of work to do and a lot of fun to be had!

 

Curricular News:

 

Letter/sound: “Gg”.  Sight words: find, six, seven

Math: Numbers to 20

Science: Day and night sky & gravity

Social Studies: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Holiday, learning addresses & phone numbers

Guided Reading:

contine to read leveled books at students’ reading levels

100’s Club

 

Students will be tested on designated skills in order to become a member of the 100’s club.  Skills list have been sent home.  If you need another copy, please let me know.

 

 

Student of the week:

 

So far we’ve had one Student of the Week:  Abigail A. 

We loved learning more about Abigail and her family.  Abigail read her favorite book to us.  She also shared a treasured item, pinky the puppy, and a favorite snack, colored gold fish crackers, yum yum! 

The week of January 12^th Camryn B. will be our Star

Student.  We can’t wait to learn more about Camryn. 

 

 

Birthdays

 

Storm Jack   12/24

 

 

Important Dates

 

1/19 

 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday!  No school!!

 

1/22 

 

100^th day of school!!!  Bring in your collections

They can be as simple as 100 thumbprints, 100 paperclips, 100 cheerios or as creative as you like.  The act of counting out 100 items with your child is very bonding, trust me. J 

 

 

Conference Week

 

1/26^th  – 30th  Early Release Days.  Students dismissed at 12:20.

Conference Times will be sent home.  Please let me know if you need a different time.  I will do my best to reschedule. .

Have a Phenomenal New Year!

 

Best Wishes,

Mrs. Birdsong

Sea Star News

Our field trip to The Cherokee YMCA on October 23rd was great!  It was a very cold day.  The children, however, enjoyed the tractor ride, picking pumpkins and playing on the playground.  They also enjoyed learning about what life was like for Colonial children.

Last week was an exciting week as well.  On Friday we had our Halloween celebration.  Many parents came in to help out with the celebration.  I'm sure everyone enjoyed the cute pumpkin picture frames that the children decorated and the Halloween Day photo that was the holiday craft.  Thanks parents for helping to make this a fun day! 

The Letter of the week was "Ss".  The students engaged in many exciting activities to solidify their letter/sound recognition.  We also had silly sock day! 

Curricular Update

Guided Reading

Students have been practicing sounding out words and reading longer and more complex text.  Please continue to have children read their guided reading book at home and return it to school the next day.

Writing

The students are learning about various topics and writing to tell what they have learned. We've learned about snakes and spiders and insects and bats and lots more.  They are doing a fabulous job remembering to use a finger space between words, to use a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.

Math

Two and three dimensional shapes:  sphere, cube, triangle, square, circle and rectangle.  Encourage your child to point out these shapes in the environment.  Note when shapes are combined to create more complex objects.

Science 

Fire safety -  Thanks for sending in the fire escape plans.  I heard from many parents that it was a valuable activity for helping children think about helping to keep themselves safe in case of a fire. 

Social Studies

Fall & Vetererns Day

November Birthdays

11/8 Gabriela M.   

11/14 Gilberto V.

Happy Birthday Sea Stars!

 

Please Remember

11/4 Election Day No School 

Don't forget to vote!

11/19 VIP Luncheon

         Join your child for Thanksgiving Lunch. 

11/21 Kindergarten Play - 8:15 a.m.

         Children will be preforming.  Plan to attend!

11/24-28 Thanksgiving Vacation

               No School!

Have a great November!

SEA STAR NEWS

Fall is here!  The leaves are changing colors.  The weather is getting cooler.  It's an exciting time of learning and discovery in Kindergarten! 

Week 7 (9/15 - 19)

Our letter of the week was "Mm".  Our sight words were:  we, go, one. 

Math:  Number sense 0 - 5

Social Studies:  Labor day; Maps & globes, street addresses, city, county, nation, continent

Science:  Rocks & soil

Please help your child learn his/her address and phone number.

Also please send in egg cartons for rock collections.

Week 8  (10/6 - 10)

Review week for letters sounds and sight words

Math:  number sense 0 - 5 and review

Social Studies:  Continue above topics plus Columbus Day

Science:  Fall /  Rocks and Soil 

Week 9 (10/13 - 17)

Letter/sound  "Ii".

Sight words:  can, and, pink

Math:  Numbers 0 - 10

Writing:  Informational Writing

Social Studies: Community Helpers / Fire Prevention

Science:  Rocks & Soil / Fall

Week 10 (October 20 - 24)

Letter/sound:  "Dd"

Sight words:  big, gray

Math:  Number sense 0 - 10

Social Studies:  Community Workers, Fire Prevention

Science:  Fall

Important Dates to Remember

10/10    End of the First Marking Period

10/15    Early Release Day 

            Students dismissed at 12:20

10/17    Report cards sent home

            PTA Carnival

10/23   Field Trip to Cherokee YMCA

10/29   Picture Day Make Up

10/31   Halloween

           Spirit Day

In November, we'll begin our classroom "Star Student" activities.  Each child will be "Star Student" for a week. Each day of that week students will share something special with our class.   

Monday the student will bring in a poster with pictures of themselves at different ages.  Please include pictures of family members and maybe even friends.

Tuesday students will bring in their favorite book. 

Wednesday students will bring in their favorite toy. 

Thursday students should bring in a favorite snack/treat to share with the class. 

Friday, students have lunch with a family member or special classroom friend. 

I will select "Star Students" alphabetically.  The first "Star Student" will be Abigail A.

Special Note:

If your child cannot tie his/her shoes, please work with them on this important skill at home.  Also, please consider allowing your child to wear shoes without ties.

Have a Amazing Autumn!

SEA STAR NEWS

It's hard to believe we've already completed 5 incredible weeks of school!

It seems like we've just started.  What a wonderful time of learning we've had: 

Our curriculum focus has been:

Week 1

Welcome to School

School Routines

Nursery Rhymes

Week 2

Letter/sound: Tt

Sight words: a, I, see

Math :  Positional Words

Social Studies:  Rules

Science:  Sorting

Week 3

Letter/sound: Oo

Sight words: to, me

Math:  Patterns/Penny

Social Studies:  Labor Day/Workers

Science:  Sorting/5 Senses

Week 4

Letter/sound: Pp

Sight Words:  the, it

Math:  Patterns/Nickel

Social Studies:  Workers

Science:  5 Senses

Week 5

letter/sound: Hh

Sight Words:  my, is

Numeration:  0 - 5

Social Studies:  Where we live

Science:  5 senses

Week 6  (9/22 - 26)

Letter/sound: Aa

Sight Words:  in, up

Math:  Numeration 0 - 5

Social Studies:  Where we live

Science: 5 senses

Please see also our Kindergarten Calender for curricular and important date information.

Sea Star Birthdays: 

Abigail A.    8/28

Alicia R.      9/6

                   Harper F.    9/20

Important Dates: 

9/19  Hat day in Kindergarten

9/22  First day of Fall

9/26 Spirit Day! - Wear Nicholson spiritwear

Please send a sweater or light jacket for your child to wear in class if it becomes to cool for him/her. 

Thanks also for helping your child to do the computer homework.

Have a great week!

Ms. Farmer

SEA STAR NEWS

 

Welcome to a New School Year!

I am Ms. Shearon Farmer your child's kindergarten teacher.  Let me tell you a little about myself.  I am originally from Chicago.  I've lived in Kennesaw for over 10 years.  I have two daughters one a student at Kennesaw State University and a fifth grader at Blackwell.  I have taught many years in other School Districts and at different grade levels.  This is my third year at Nicholson.  I am excited to be your child's kindergarten teacher!

I am happy to have had the opportunity to have met so many of my student's parents at our "Meet and Greet" or "Open House"! 

Over this shool year, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me via your child's daily folder or email. 

I will be happy to schedule parent conferences as needed.  Just drop me a note and we will schedule one.

If I have concerns, I will certainly be in touch with you.   

Check back bimonthly for blog updates. 

I look forward to working with with you and to an awesome school year!