Star Lab is out of this World!!!

This week at Kennedy Elementary School, we have been extremely blessed to have the Star Lab here. I want to thank Mrs. Sears for making the arrangements to have it at Kennedy, and I want to thank Mr. Frame and Ms. Hall for making the media center available to house it so the kids can have this wonderful learning experience. I also need to give a huge thank you to Mr. Thornton for agreeing to rearrange his music schedule and teach ALL 594 students about the stars, solar system, and constellations. Mr. Thornton was really a wonderful presenter and the kids (and myself) seemed to learn a lot.

The Star Lab is an inflatable planetarium. Each student was able to sit under the stars and learn about our solar system.

Here is a short list of some of the things Mr. Thornton taught them.

1) Sirius is the brightest star we see at night, but the Sun is the brightest and closest star to Earth.

2) The stars that make up the belt of Orion, the hunter, point to Sirius.

3) There will be another meteor shower that we will be able to see in December.

4) What the Milky Way is and where you can see it.

There were many other things that they learned, please ask your child about them when they get home.

The thing that I thought was the coolest to me is that I was actually able to find some of these constellations this week as I opened the gates to the school at 5:30 in the morning. Thanks Mr. Thornton for opening me up to a whole new world!

A quote from Brooke, a student in 2nd Grade, "This is AMAZING, I have never done anything like this before!"

That is what education at KES is all about. Caring enough about the students to give them educational opportunities that encourage them to go further than they want to or think that they can!

Another Exciting Week at KES

This week ahead will definitely be out of this world. KES will have Star Lab in the media center all week. During each class's music special this week, they will come to the media center and go into the planetarium where Mr. Thornton will talk about stars, planets, space, and constellations. It should be really exciting for all the students. Thank you to Mr. Thornton for teaching it, thank you Mrs. Sears for getting it to us, and thank you Mr. Frame for housing it in the media center.


How did we do on the Week 8 goals?


1) Only 37 people went online to enter KES for a chance to win $20,000. You can still go on and vote though! Please go to www.care2.org/schoolcontest and vote for KES.

2) We had 13 classes meet their math goal this week. We are almost there.

3) Balanced Scorecard was finished and turned in a day early. We are really looking forward to Dr. Saunders visit on October 14th.
4) Rise and Shine got off to a good start. We had 67 students that were served this week in Rise and Shine.
5) The new enrichment clubs got off to a good start.

Week 9 Goals
1) 15 Classes meet the math goal.
2) Star Lab to go smoothly.
3) Have 80% of the school meet their AR goal.
4) Get into every classroom.
5) Get to Friday and have a wonderful Fall Break!!

Self-Discipline!!

On Monday, we started our new after school enrichment programs at Kennedy. The four clubs are Team Sports (led by Ms. Mullis), Computers (led by Ms. Hall and Ms. Bailey), Nature (led by Mr. Anglin), and Running (led by Ms. Russell and myself).

In the running club, we talk about the benefits of making running for pleasure and exercise a part of their lifestyle. Running is an excellent source of exercise because anyone can do it and you can pretty much do it anywhere. Running is also a great form of exercise because it does not cost anything. We also talk about how to run effectively using the correct form and the importance of stretching before you run.

When we do the club, we also focus on a character trait that will help them not only when running, but anytime during their day. This week's character trait is SELF-DISCIPLINE: working hard to control your emotions, words, actions, impulses, and desires. Giving your best in all situations. This was also the character trait that we focused on during the morning announcements this week. We focus on those three "R's (Ready, Respectful, and Responsible) everyday. When you have SELF-DISCIPLINE, you will always be ready for what comes your way because you have control of yourself and can think about what to do before you do it. SELF-DISCIPLINE also shows respect for others because when you control your emotions, actions, and words you will think before you say or do things and only do those things that are right and will encourage others. When you have SELF-DISCIPLINE, you also show that you are responsible because that control of your words, actions, impulses, and desires will not allow you to do things that will get you in trouble.

We work really hard each day to encourage ALL of the Kennedy Dragons to be Ready, Respectful, and Responsible. Please talk to your child about SELF-DISCIPLINE and how it is important to work hard to control your emotions, words, actions, impulses, and desires.

Week 7 successes

We have finished 7 weeks of school. For 34 days, the students and teachers have been working really hard to cover the Georgia Performance Standards for their grade level. It is amazing how much each grade level has to master in a given year. (Please check out http://www.georgiastandards.org/ if you would like to see what standards your child will be learning this year.)

This video is a good to illustrate some of the standards that Kindergarten students are responsible for in math. It also has some vocabulary for 1st graders as well.

As I make my walks through the classrooms, I am always impressed by how much more the students at KES are achieving this year than they did this time last year. I am so thankful for the teachers that work at Kennedy and how they work to instill a strong work ethic in the students.

So how did we do on the goals for week 7?

1) Rise and Shine is ready to start on Tuesday. We have 20 teachers working with 85 students to provide some additional support in reading and math. If your child is participating in the program, you should have gotten a phone call to remind you to have your child at school by 7:30 each day.

2) We had 12 classes make their math goals. 3 short of the goal but 2 more than last week. Keep working on those facts!!

3) We once again had to cancel Hot Dogs and Homework due to lack of interest. We will try again in October.

4) I saw some amazing writing in all grade levels. Keep up the good work!

5) The CHEE beat Clarke 21-7

Goals for week 8

1) Get 300 people to tell http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest/ why Kennedy deserves $20,000.

2) Have 15 classes meet their math goal.

3) Finish up Kennedy's Balanced Scorecard and turn in to Dr. Saunders.

4) Have a successful week of Rise and Shine.

5) Get our new after school enrichment programs started off right: Running, Team Sports, Computer, and Nature clubs

Rainy Days

What do rainy days mean for an elementary school?
I am not complaining about the rain, because we REALLY need it. My yard is saying, "THANK YOU" because it needed it so much. But rain really changes an elementary school.
The first change is the sound. Usually when students come into the school each day, you hear a very excited mumbling of young people coming into the building. You hear students saying hello to their teachers and friends and are hustling to get to class to start the day. When it rains, all you hear is the squeaking of shoes on the shiny tile floor. It does not matter how hard you try to not squeak, all you get is the squeak. We try to tell the students to not squeak their shoes when they walk, but it is very difficult not to squeak. Tennis shoes, boots, even flip-flops all squeak when you have rainy days. I have to admit, when I am here all by myself in the morning on rainy days, I enjoy making the squeaking sound with my shoes. It is pretty fun.
The second big change is the amount of students who come in through carpool. When it rains, parents don't want their children standing outside at the bus stop so we always have lots of cars in the carpool line. I saw that first-hand this week because it just happened to be my week for carpool duty. Nothing starts a day off better than a white Oxford shirt soaked on both arms!!!
The final difference is that the students do not get recess. As a teacher, this is a BIG change! Students in the elementary school NEED recess! Teachers in the elementary school NEED recess! When it rains, they just can not get that physical break from instruction that they need. Even though it is only 15-20 minutes, it does really help to give the students and the teachers the break to recharge and get back into the right frame of mind for learning. As a principal, the rain helped me to see just how amazingly flexible and creative my teachers are at maximizing instructional time and making it fun. I saw plenty of classes that normally would be outside for recess playing math games and having reading or writing workshops. The students and teachers were engaged and actively learning during that time. You could tell it was normally a recess time because some kids and even some teachers had their shoes off or were laying on the floor, but boy were they learning!!!

Book Fair Success!

Last week was a very good week. Even though it was only a four day week, Kennedy Elementary was extremely busy.

Our Book Fair was a huge success. We did have over $4000 in sales last week, and we will still be open on Monday and Tuesday as well. If you have not purchased your books, please come by on Monday or Tuesday. Mr. Frame and Mrs. Hall did an amazing job promoting the book fair and had many volunteers helping out throughout the week (Thanks Mrs. Cheek, Mrs. Hardy, and Mrs. Lee). I can't wait to see Mr. Frame get hit with 5 pies for the sales.

We also had an amazing turnout for our two Grandparents Breakfasts. Over 200 Parents and Grandparents came in to enjoy a wonderful breakfast at KES. Thanks to Mrs. Evans for organizing it and to Mrs. Moubray and all the cafeteria ladies for cooking the wonderful food.

If that was not enough, we had picture day as well. The students all looked wonderful all dressed up for their school pictures. I love when the parents send their children in to school all dressed up in their best!

Our clinic was also very busy this past week as well. We have had many students visit the clinic with sickness. We have been doing everything we can to make sure that our building is clean and sanitized. Mr. Harris and his custodial staff have been working later each evening to make sure that every desk, bathroom, and even the door handles are sanitized before they go home. I also know that the teachers are taking additional hand washing trips. 2 of the 4 morning announcements this week also focused on the importance of hand washing to prevent sickness. If you have any questions about what Barrow County schools in doing to prevent flu, please check out the website: www.barrow.k12.ga.us/kes .


How did we do on last week's goals?


1) We did have over $4000 in sales, and we still have 2 more days to go!

2) We had 206 Grandparents in for the Breakfasts, and they all seemed to really enjoy their time!!

3) We had to cancel our Hot Dogs and Homework night on Thursday due to lack of interest. Wednesday afternoon at 3:00, we only had 6 signed up for the night. We cancelled on Wednesday afternoon, but got 5 more on Thursday morning. We had already cancelled. The goal was to have 10 here, and we did have that many but we cancelled because they came in so late. H & H can be an amazing opportunity for both students and parents, but we need to make sure that we are allowing us enough time to prepare. If you are planning on attending, it is very important for us to know the Monday before.! thanks

4) We had 9 classes meet their Math goals this past week. We came up 6 short, but we had many classes that were almost there! Keep working on those math facts each day.

5) Apalachee did not play this week. Sorry I got the wrong Friday!

Goals for week 7
1) Make sure everything is in place for Rise and Shine to start on the 21st!
2) Have 15 classes make their Math goal for the week!
3) Have 10 parents at 4th &5th Hot Dogs and Homework on Thursday!
4) Get into each classroom to see some more writing!
5) Watch AHS beat Clarke Central!

What a Great Day!

Today started out fantastic. We had over 130 grandparents at Kennedy for our first Grandparents Breakfast. It continued with just about all of those 130 buying something at our Book Fair. Mr. Frame and Ms. Hall are doing an excellent job promoting it (Even though I can't talk either of them into wearing the Clifford costume!!).

The day got even better when I went over to Haymon-Morris Middle school to see Dr. Sheila Kahrs be honored as the National Middle School Principal of the year. She is an amazing woman who puts a passion for kids and teaching as her number 1 priority. That is what it is all about. It was good to see her, the teachers at Haymon-Morris, the school, and Barrow County being recognized on a NATIONAL level. That is a goal of mine for Kennedy.

When I came back to Kennedy after the ceremony, I was able to cover some computer classes because our computer teacher was out with her sick daughter (Get better soon Miranda). We are not getting subs for computer teachers when they are out and our teachers needed to go to a math professional learning meeting. It was fun to be back in a classroom again. When I covered Mrs. Russell's kindergarten class, we used the Promethean Board to review and take a quiz on the book Nighty Night by Margaret Wild. Michael Jenkins of the Atlanta Falcons and THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (GO BUCKEYES... BEAT USC). The class was great and they really enjoyed the technology. It was a lot of fun!!

Tomorrow will be just as good! They always are at Kennedy!

Happy Labor Day!

It was very nice to have a Monday off. After 5 weeks of really bustin' it, I think the teachers deserved a day off. I hope that everyone enjoyed it and comes back ready to hit the ground running after getting a well deserved break.



We will be starting our Book Fair this week and will be very busy with Grandparents breakfasts on Wednesday and Thursday as well as Hot Dogs and Homework for 2nd and 3rd grades. I hope that we have plenty of traffic coming in and out of KES this week, because that means that we have plenty of people seeing just how hard Kennedy's teachers work to provide a quality educational experience for our kids.



We will also be wearing our RED, WHITE, and BLUE on Friday as we celebrate Patriots Day. I am so proud to live in the USA and have the freedoms that we have. I love when we get to celebrate these days that recognize the freedoms that we have in this country.

How did we do on week 5 goals?

1) Got into every classroom, but because of all the meetings I had this week, they were just quick drop ins.

2) I will let you know how we did on the Math goals on Wednesday. As of Friday, we were at 5, but some classes had not posted yet.

3) We had 12 people (5 adults and 7 kids)at Hot Dogs and Homework. It was definitely less than what I was hoping for, but it was a start and it went really well!

Goals for week 6:

1) Have at least $4000 in sales at our book fair! Mr. Frame and Ms. Hall have been doing an awesome job promoting it.

2) Have 200 grandparents come in for the breakfasts on Wednesday and Thursday.

3) Have 10 parents at 2nd & 3rd Grade Hot Dogs and Homework on Thursday.

4) Have 15 classes meet their Math Goals.

5) Watch Apalachee High School beat Clarke Central!

Hot Dogs and Homework 1

Tonight was our first Hot Dogs and Homework Night. We did it for Kindergarten and First grade parents and students. We only had a handful of students and parents, but it was a really successful night. We had great hot dogs, chips, and cookies and then split up. The kids went to work with the teachers, and the parents came with me to learn some math games. I had a blast showing the parents how they can play games with their kids at home that work on the standards that the teachers teach each day. We played Roll and Record, Blink, and War. These games help students to understand small numbers and quantities; count, compare, describe, and sort objects; as well as recognize and name basic geometric shapes and spatial relationships. They also teach students how to collect data and make picture graphs. These games are all easy to make and are fun to play. I look forward to our next one with the 2nd and 3rd graders next Thursday.