Great Time at the Dance

Last night was a blast. PTO put on the 2nd dance of the year. Close to 300 came out to enjoy a wonderful DJ, good food, and lots of fun. This was the first dance the PTO has done all by themselves and it was a lot of fun. Thank you Ms. Merrill, Ms. Wingfield, Ms. Fudali, Ms.Childs, Ms. Roberts, Ms. Jones, and Ms. Bagwell for leading the rest of the PTO in this dance. I know from experience that they are a lot of work, and you cannot control everything (like having enough $1's) but the reason why we have dances is to provide our families a safe and fun night at the school. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED last night, and I thank you all for it. It was great to see our students and their families dancing and enjoying themselves. It made it even more special to see the teachers enjoying it along side of them. Thanks KES PTO for a great night!!

Wax Museum

Today our 4th Graders brought to life some of our country's history by putting on their annual Wax Museum. Students researched some of America's most influential historical figures. George Washington, Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, and Abigail Adams to name a few were represented. The students researched these historical characters, wrote a report, dressed the character, and memorized a 1-2 minute speech about their historical character. Every other student in the building were able to come and learn. It was neat to hear our 5th Graders say, "I was Betsy Ross last year!" and our kindergarten students say, "I hope that I get to be Ben Franklin!" It sure was a good project. Great Job Mrs. Ballard, Ms. Bagnasco, Mrs. Marsee, Mrs. Ouzts, and Mrs. Paramore.

2 Weeks without a post

I have gone two weeks without a post on the blog. I know that you have all missed it. Sorry, I guess I just got caught up in stuff. Over the last two weeks much has happened. We have continued with our 4 Wonderful Weeks of Writing and HAMMER Time. The kids are still working hard and doing really well to get prepared for the State Writing Test on March 2nd and the CRCT on April 4-8. Our Pre-k through 2nd graders have also been working extremely hard on mastering GPS at each grade level. It is amazing to see the fantastic writing and math being displayed outside of the classrooms each week. All of our students are also working hard to meet their Accelerated Reader goal as well. Keep reading and working hard KES students.

HAMMER TIME week 1

We started HAMMER (High Achievement Means More Enrichment and Remediation)Time last week with our 3rd-5th Graders. It really went well. I love my small group of 9 students. We worked really hard on numbers and operations especially decimals and fractions. Everyone of my students scored a 79 or higher on the Friday assessment. I was very pleased. It was also good to see the 3rd- 5th Graders really work on the OAS tests from www.georgiaoas.org . The 5th graders averaged 4 tests per student with an average score of 71% while the 4th grade averaged 3 tests per student with a 61% and the 3rd grade averaged 2.5 tests per student with a 66% average. We need to keep taking those tests because they will really help get used to the format of the CRCT. Being comfortable with the format is worth a lot. If you are a parent of a 3rd-5th grader and you are reading this, I am really asking you to make sure that you and your child carve out 30 minutes a night to do a test on www.georgiaoas.org and a section on www.brainchild.com . Taking that 30 minutes will do wonders in preparing your child for the CRCT in April. It is something that is easy to do and does not take that long. Please do it! Congratulations to Igrid U. in 5th grade for taking the most tests and having the highest average.

CRCT Information Dinner

Last night we had over 220 people come out to hear about the CRCT and how to help prepare their students for this test.
Parents and students enjoyed spaghetti, salad, and bread cooked by KES staff and then were able to hear information about the state mandated CRCT that the students will take in April. Each parent that attended received a study guide along with information from two online sites that they can use to help prepare their child for the CRCT.
Georgia Online Assessment System www.georgiaoas.org is a site that provides practice tests that are similar in format to what the students will see in April. KES has put 45 tests per grade level that are between 10-12 questions and are specific to each domain that will be tested. If students take and pass all 45, they will be able to throw a water balloon at me when we have our CRCT pep rally.
Brain Child, www.brainchild.com is the other site. This site provides pre-test, instructional lessons, study practice and post-tests. This site only tests and instructs on the domains and sub domains that will be tested on the CRCT.
Both of these sites are free and will really help your child be prepared to HAMMER the CRCT in April. We are asking that ALL parents make it a point to allow your child to do one georgiaoas test and one Brain Child activity a night. That will be around 30 minutes on the computer and will be time that is well spent. We also ask that you don't just let them do it without checking it with them. That is the part that is so important. Please take the time to sit down and see what they are doing and how you can help them. It will be time that your child will really appreciate.
Thanks for helping us HAMMER the CRCT in 41 school days.