Mrs. Smith's Super Stars.

Dear parents,

Can you believe the final month of school has already arrived?  This has been one fantastic year and we believe that is why it has flown by so fast!

April was a fun month kicked off with Art Enrichment Day, then Spring Break, and finally, our trip to Cagle’s Dairy.  Thank you to the many parents who helped us out on that trip!  We culminated our study of the individual letter/sound associations and had fun with our sing -to -read books, What’s All the Fuss? and Jelly Beans and Gummy Things! We worked hard at computing addition and subtraction problems and will begin mixing them up in May – make sure you look carefully at the signs that tell you what to do!

We will also have some special days in May.  We will greet the new incoming kindergarteners during Star Gazing (May 1^st)! Then, on Friday, May 2^nd we will say “good-bye” to our fantastic student teacher, Amanda Rainey.  The boys and girls will get to sneak a peek at first grade on Wednesday, May 14^th and will enjoy Field Day on Friday, May 16^th. 

The first two weeks of May we will be working in two different sing- to-read books during our guided reading time:  Down at the Pond and In the Deep Blue Sea.  We will be learning about pond life and ocean life as we continue our study of animals and living things.  The students will once again complete take home student booklets that coincide with these books. Our phonics lessons will focus on the digraphs or “partner sounds” of th, ch, sh, and wh.  Please note the homework calendar for other important dates in May concerning the library and homework assignments.  Also, check out our last “Five Fun Days” calendar on the back of this newsletter for special events during the last week of school.  Finally, and of utmost importance,  you are invited to join us for our end of year ice cream social on Thursday, May 22nd at 1:15.  We will begin in the classroom by singing a special song we have learned and then I will give the students their Nicholson Star Awards (a certificate for each child) and any attendance awards that were earned.  This will be followed by an ice cream sundae party (outside if weather permits).

One last huge thanks goes to Mrs. Tompkins and Mrs. Ditchen for heading up our room mom responsibilities.  You have done a fantastic job and we have benefited from your hard work and organization!  Thanks to those who have worked behind the scenes by sending items from home for parties and even for our prize box, etc.  You have been wonderful parents to work with and we have appreciated your encouragement and support! 

God bless,

Blenda Smith and Mary Ann Kessler and Amanda Rainey

Spring is here!

Welcome Spring!!!

March was another great month with many fun activities on top of lots of learning.  Our schedule was full with Read Across America and celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday, the book fair and “Reading Road Trip”, St. Patrick’s Day and a visit from the leprechauns, and celebrating the first day of spring with our annual Spring Egg Hunt! Wow!

During the month of April we will have some fun days, as well!  Please check your calendar for Art Enrichment Day, Spring Break, our trip to Cagle’s Dairy, Earth Day, and The Great Nicholson Clean Up!  Also, we want to show appreciation to each and every volunteer parent this year by honoring  them

with a brunch on Monday, April 21^st , from 8-10 am.  Please look for your invitation to this special event if you have volunteered at Nicholson in any capacity!

We will be covering a lot of content in the curriculum this month.  We will focus on the study of animals in science.  We will be learning about the characteristics of different animals, as well as, specific groups of animals (pond, farm, and zoo).  Our social studies focus will be on “My World” and we will be learning to locate the continents and oceans on the globe.  In math, we will continue with addition of sets and begin subtraction at the end of the month.  When adding we are stressing that the students begin with the larger number and count on (this is a great strategy to practice).  Our writing focus for this last nine weeks is ordering events.  The boys and girls are being encouraged to use the words first, then, next, and last in their writing as they write simple directions or tell about the order of events.  I am seeing wonderful growth in their writing!

 

Enjoy your Spring Break and Be Safe!

Blenda Smith, Mary Ann Kessler, and Amanda Rainey

NEWS FROM OUR CLASSROOM

Dear parents,

We have had a great February! Mrs. Kessler, Ms. Rainey, and I felt extremely appreciated on “teacher appreciation day” when honored with an extended lunchtime, a wonderful catered lunch, and Chili’s gift cards!!  You really know how to get to a teacher’s heart – good food!!!  Thank you for making us feel so loved!

Parents, we thank you for helping to make Valentine’s Day special for the children and for us!  The children enjoyed their party and opening and reading their valentines.  Mrs. Kessler and I thoroughly enjoyed being serenaded by Spice, an awesome quartet including a special group member, Mrs. Llamazales.

During the month of February, the boys and girls have celebrated and learned a lot about the presidents and important historical places, such as the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the Statue of Liberty. We also learned about community helpers and dental health.  We have been learning how to keep our teeth healthy and strong.  Did you know your child needs to brush for at least 2 minutes, 2 times a day, and visit the dentist 2 times a year! (the three 2’s)  We also had a fireman visit and he taught us many important rules for fire safety.  We even got to see him dressed in all of the gear he wears when he goes into a burning building!  He looked and sounded like Darth Vader!

In math, we have been moving forward with our study of money and identifying the coins:  penny, nickel, dime, and quarter.  Your student should be able to tell you the physical features of each coin including who and what is on each side and the values of each coin.  We will be adding nickels with pennies, dimes with pennies, and making fair trades.  Reinforcing these skills at home will be beneficial.  We have also practiced number identification and numeration to 20 including place value with tens and ones.  We will begin addition and subtraction during the last nine weeks of school.

In March, we will “Read Across America” in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We will celebrate with “Mystery Readers” from our school staff and enjoy birthday cake at lunchtime. We will also be having a book fair on the week of March 3rd with two special nights on Tues., March 4^th  (family night at the book fair), and Thur., March 6^th (Reading Road Trip).  You will soon receive further information about these two nights.  We will also be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on March 17^th, having a Spring Egg Hunt on March 21^st (the first full day of spring), and a family dance night on March 28^th.  Look for more information to come pertaining to these events.

Report cards will be sent home on Thursday, March 20^th.  Can you believe the final and fourth nine weeks begins on March 17^th? I will be rechecking for 100 and 100+ club members during the last week of March, just before Spirit Day.  In February, we had two new 100 club members and 10 new members of the 100+ club.  Please keep working toward your goals!!

Please continue to read, read, and read, at home with your child to develop the skills he/she is learning at school!

Thanks for your support,

Blenda Smith, Amanda Rainey, and Mary Ann Kessler

FEBRUARY 15, 2008

We had a fun Valentine's Day and enjoyed our party!  Thank you to all the parents who sent in supplies and treats and helped out!  Also, thank you for the "singing Valentine" delivered to myself, Mrs. Kessler, and Ms. Rainey. Mrs. Llamazales and her quartet, "Spice", did an outstanding job of serenading us!!  We felt so special!!

I hope you enjoy the long holiday weekend.  Next week, we will spend time reviewing and reinforcing skills and evaluating.  Please have the boys and girls practice their sight words and read, read, read at home. 

Thank you,

Mrs. Smith, Ms. Rainey, and Mrs. Kessler

 

February News

From Mrs. Smith’s and Mrs. Kessler’s Kindergarten Class

Dear parents,

January has been a busy month!  We have been reading and writing, learning about the “teen” numbers and place value, Martin Luther King, Jr., winter, celebrating the 100th day of school, and recognizing 100 club members. Wow!

The boys and girls have continued to practice writing informational and descriptive sentences and are being challenged to “stretch” their thinking and write at least two or three sentences about a topic.  I will be encouraging not only correct conventions in writing (capitalization, punctuation, spacing, left to right progression) but, I will also be emphasizing sticking to the main idea or topic, use of descriptive words (word choice), voice (expression) and organization.  These terms are introduced with our school wide 6+1 writing traits. 

We have been visiting the computer lab every other week and learning many new computer skills.  Please see some of our favorite kindergarten websites by checking out the Nicholson home page and clicking on Computer Lab at the left side.  One website that is listed is www.starfall.com.  If you haven’t discovered it yet, be sure to let your child visit it often at home.  It is fantastic!

 

Thank you to all parents for participating in conference week!  I believe our conference time was very productive and a great opportunity to communicate strengths, weaknesses, and goals of your children.

In February, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day and President’s Day.  We have assigned a couple of “at home” projects so make sure you look for directions.  The first one is to decorate a box for valentines.  The second project is a “Vegetable Visitor” that will be made at home out of vegetables and will be shared at school. As you help your child create the “vegetable visitor” please verbalize and emphasize the sequence or order in which you are making it.  The boys and girls will be writing about how they made their visitor.  Also, I will be evaluating for the 100 club and the 100+ club soon.  Qualifying students will be announced at the end of the month

on Spirit Day.  Remember early release on Wednesday, Feb. 6th (also picture day!) and our student holidays on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 18th and 19th.

Amanda Rainey, our awesome student teacher, will be taking over teaching duties by mid-February.  She is already teaching some lessons and doing a fantastic job!

As always, thank you for your support and all of the reinforcement you give your child at home!

Blenda Smith, Mary Ann Kessler  and Amanda Rainey

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

We are back and running!  We’ve started the new year with a bang and had a great first week back.  I want you to know that we have a new addition to our classroom!  Miss Amanda Rainey from Kennesaw State University will be a student teacher in our classroom this semester.  She will be meeting each of you personally during our conference time in the coming weeks.  I am very excited to have Amanda!  She spent several weeks in Mrs. Bell’s second grade class before the holidays to complete required coursework.  Amanda will be taking over the entire day of teaching about mid-February and will teach full time for 8 weeks.  I am excited to be supervising Amanda and have already observed her excellent rapport with the students.

I am evaluating students for the 100 club and sending home information to let you know if skill mastery is lacking for qualification.  Please practice what is needed and I will recheck on Friday, January 18^th.  We will recognize 100 club members on Tuesday, Jan. 22^nd in a school assembly.  After that, we will provide students who don’t qualify this time a chance to qualify on each monthly Spirit Day beginning in February (names will be announced on the morning announcements).  The students will receive a cool Nicholson 100 club “dog tag” when they become 100 club members.

I am also evaluating at this time for the 2^nd nine weeks report card to be given out at individual conferences.

In reading we have started up our guided reading groups again and will be focusing on learning phonics rules for decoding words and comprehension skills such as sequencing, predicting, and analyzing.

In math, we are focusing on numbers from 11 to 20 and building those numbers on ten frames with tens and ones.  We are building a concrete foundation for the understanding of place value.  Please reinforce the instant identification of these numbers using flash cards if necessary.  We will be counting sets to 20 and reinforcing the use of counting strategies such as marking/touching objects with a one to one match as they are counted and counting top to bottom, left to right to organize our thinking.

We are having fun with winter themes this month and above all……. “Think Snow”!

See you at conferences!!

Blenda Smith

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Dear parents,

December has ended in a flurry!  I am sure you have been busy at home and we have been busy at school likewise.  We have enjoyed our travels around the world!  Ask your child to tell you about the countries he/she visited and which one was a favorite.  We have also enjoyed some holiday related activities and stories in the classroom.  We compared and contrasted the story The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett with The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone.  Our guided reading groups have not been meeting as consistently in December, but we have done a lot of whole group reading instruction.  We should get back on our regular schedule in January.  I know you are proud of your child’s reading and writing skills and so are we!  Thank you for reinforcing and celebrating these hallmarks at home!

In January, we will have fun with snowmen, penguins, and winter themes.  We will begin numeration to 30 in math. The children will be writing numerals to 20 and counting sets of objects to 30.  Many boys and girls are already counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens. We will learn about Martin Luther King, celebrate the 100^th day of school, and I will be evaluating the children for recognition in the 100 club or 100 + club.  I will also be holding individual conferences for each student during the week of Jan. 22^nd.  You will receive more information on your scheduled time in early January.  I will be reviewing your child’s progress and distributing the 2^nd nine weeks report card at each conference.  Students will be dismissed at 12:20 each day from Tues., Jan. 22^nd – Mon., Jan. 28^th. 

Mary Ann and I wish you a blessed holiday season and look forward to seeing you back at Nicholson on Tuesday, January 8^th, 2008!

Happy New Year!

Blenda Smith and Mary Ann Kessler

Barnes and Nobles Night

Please join us at our first annual Barnes & Noble Nicholson Night!

When: 

Thursday, December 6th from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: 

Barnes & Noble at 50 Barrett Parkway, Kennesaw

click for Directions and Link to Barnes & Noble

What: 

*A Special Performance by Ms. Kneuer and students

*Nicholson teachers and Mrs. McWhorter reading holiday favorite aloud

*Nicholson teachers gift wrapping from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

*A chance to dress as your favorite storybook character

Why: 

A percentage of all purchases made by Nicholson family and friends on December 6th, 7th, and 8th will be donated to our school.

R.S.V.P.

By coming to our Nicholson Night!  Look for familiar Nicholson faces!

Click to see the official flyer

Download barnes_noble_night.doc

Posted at 11:12 PM in Important Dates | Permalink

Please join us at our first annual Barnes & Noble Nicholson Night!

When: 

Thursday, December 6th from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: 

Barnes & Noble at 50 Barrett Parkway, Kennesaw

click for Directions and Link to Barnes & Noble

What: 

*A Special Performance by Ms. Kneuer and students

*Nicholson teachers and Mrs. McWhorter reading holiday favorite aloud

*Nicholson teachers gift wrapping from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

*A chance to dress as your favorite storybook character

Why: 

A percentage of all purchases made by Nicholson family and friends on December 6th, 7th, and 8th will be donated to our school.

R.S.V.P.

By coming to our Nicholson Night!  Look for familiar Nicholson faces!

Click to see the official flyer

Download barnes_noble_night.doc

News from Smith's Super Stars

December News

From Mrs. Smith’s and Mrs. Kessler’s Class

Dear parents,

November highlights were our Veteran’s Day Assembly, Science and Math Curriculum Night, and our Thanksgiving program and feast!  We were so honored to have Sloane’s dad visit our classroom after the assembly.  He served in the army and is presently serving in the National Guard.  We are so thankful for those who serve to protect us and our country!  Thank you for the awesome support for science and math night, as well as, our program and feast.  We were so glad you could come and enjoy time with your child at school!

December is upon us and we are going to be very busy this month!  We will be going on a field trip to the Governor’s Mansion to kick off our social studies unit on Celebrations Around the World!  Please send your child’s fee and permission slip ASAP.  We will be learning about how different cultural groups are alike and different, including how they celebrate.  We will learn about the purpose and customs associated with special days in other countries.  We will also use a map and globe to find the location of specific countries.  We will identify

key geographical locations such as the North and South Poles, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the seven continents.  Wow!  I’m sharing this with you because it would be very helpful for you to reinforce these concepts at home.

We will culminate our unit on Friday, December 21^st, with our winter holiday party to be held in the classroom from 8:30-9:30 am.  The children are invited to wear pajamas to school as the Polar Express will be our brunch theme.  The children will enjoy warm cocoa and breakfast foods and make a craft.  You are welcome to join us and help out!

Please remember to send warm coats, mittens and hats for cold days.  The wind is usually strong on our playground.  I am including our “sick policy” for you to review below – I hope you find it helpful in making decisions about when a child is ready to return to school.  Illness can spread quickly through the class when a contagious child is sent to school.

As always, thank you for your support! Happy Holidays

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Kessler

NOVEMBER NOTES

                    

          

    NOVEMBER NOTES

Tonight is math and science night at Nicholson!  Please come and enjoy The Varsity hot dogs at 6pm then attend a short PTA meeting at 6:45.  The fun begins at 7pm when you and your student(s) may participate in some fun math/science activities especially designed for your child’s grade level.  We look forward to seeing you!!

Don’t forget to make reservations for our “Feast Lunch” to be held in the cafeteria on Friday, Nov. 16^th.  Our lunchtime will begin at 11:25.  It should be a special time to gather together as a class with our family members!

Most importantly, remember to set aside time to come to our kindergarten Thanksgiving program on Friday morning, Nov. 16^th at 8:15am in the cafeteria.  We are excited about this opportunity to present to a big, live audience!!