Monday, February 6, 2012
Great Weekend for KES Girls
This past Friday started a wonderful string of events for Kennedy Elementary School girls. First Beverly A. won the 2012 Barrow County Spelling Bee. Beverly is the first Kennedy student to ever win the County title. This was followed by three of our young ladies, Isabell B., Kailey W. and Shannen R., participating in the Big Hearts Pageant in Athens, GA. Shannen was the winner of her division. It just goes to show you that Kennedy Elementary students are Ready, Respectful, and Responsible and SUCCESSFUL!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Get your yearbook
Yearbooks are now on sale at school and on-line for $30.00. You may purchase through www.jostens.com or by sending $30.00 cash to school in an envelope marked for the yearbook with your child's name and your child's teacher's name. Don't miss out on your 2011-2012 yearbook! This price will not be around long, so please take advantage of the low, low price!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Reading Eggs, Study Island and Georgiaoas.org
Recently KES has purchased online materials that will help our students with Reading, Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.
Reading Eggs is a comprehensive, online supplemental literacy program for early learners ages 4 through 8. Grounded in extensive educational research, Reading Eggs builds on and reinforces the five key reading pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Reading Eggs is available to all Kindergarten through 2nd Grade.
The Study Island CRCT/GHSGT/EOCT Preparation Program is specifically designed to help students master the content specified in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). Study Island's focus on the Georgia Performance Standards enables students to improve their performance in all skill areas tested on the CRCT/GHSGT/EOCT in grades 2 through 8 and high school. Study Island also offers Math and Reading Skills for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, Fine Arts, Health, and Technology for Elementary and Middle School, and High School Algebra II Skills Mastery products. Study Island is available for all students in grades Kindergarten through Fifth.
Georgiaoas.org is provided by The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). The OAS represents a dedicated resource for schools, districts, classroom teachers, students and parents that allows for ongoing classroom instruction and student learning. This site allows educators to have access to test items aligned to the state mandated curriculum to develop assessments that inform teaching and learning. It allows students and parents transparency on the expectations placed on students relative to improving student achievement. This system is another resource available and designed to help all Georgia educators, students and parents as part of our common goal to lead the nation in improving student achievement. Georgiaoas.org is available to all students in grades 1st - 5th.
Reading Eggs is a comprehensive, online supplemental literacy program for early learners ages 4 through 8. Grounded in extensive educational research, Reading Eggs builds on and reinforces the five key reading pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Reading Eggs is available to all Kindergarten through 2nd Grade.
The Study Island CRCT/GHSGT/EOCT Preparation Program is specifically designed to help students master the content specified in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). Study Island's focus on the Georgia Performance Standards enables students to improve their performance in all skill areas tested on the CRCT/GHSGT/EOCT in grades 2 through 8 and high school. Study Island also offers Math and Reading Skills for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, Fine Arts, Health, and Technology for Elementary and Middle School, and High School Algebra II Skills Mastery products. Study Island is available for all students in grades Kindergarten through Fifth.
Georgiaoas.org is provided by The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). The OAS represents a dedicated resource for schools, districts, classroom teachers, students and parents that allows for ongoing classroom instruction and student learning. This site allows educators to have access to test items aligned to the state mandated curriculum to develop assessments that inform teaching and learning. It allows students and parents transparency on the expectations placed on students relative to improving student achievement. This system is another resource available and designed to help all Georgia educators, students and parents as part of our common goal to lead the nation in improving student achievement. Georgiaoas.org is available to all students in grades 1st - 5th.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Rockin and Rollin in 2012
As we start our first full week of school in 2012, KES has a lot to be excited about. As of today, our 3rd - 5th Graders are only 58 more school days until the Rock the CRCT and our 5th Graders are only 38 more school days until the Georgia Writing Assessment. While these tests don't define who we are as students or a school, they are extremely important in giving us feedback about how successful we have been and the potential that we have within us. These results also get publicized as they are THE MAJOR indicator in determining our school's AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) scores. As always, our teachers do an amazing job of preparing all of our students for their academic needs but as these tests come closer, we also add some additional support to assist with this preparation.
This year we will once again utilize http://www.georgiaoas.org/ as a resource to familiarize our students with the format of the questions they will be asked on the CRCT. We encourage each student to take at least one of these tests (there are 50 available for 3rd-5th graders and 30 available for 1st & 2nd Graders) each night until they have passed all 50 with at least a 70% accuracy rate (preferably 85%). These tests take around 10-20 minutes each and are extremely effective at getting students used to the format of the test.
Another resource that we will have available is http://www.studyisland.com/ . This is another online resource that is designed to give additional support for all Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in a fun interactive way. This site provides lessons, tests, and games that reinforce, remediate, and challenge students on each standard. This site is available to ALL KES students in grades Kindergarten through 5th.
We have an additional resource for our Kindergarten through 2nd Graders as well. This resource is http://www.readingeggs.com/. This online resource is extremely successful in preparing our younger students to become more successful readers. It works on phonics, spelling, reading fluency, and comprehension. This is another fun and interactive website that our students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade can use to continue to grow as strong and effective readers.
We will be using these resources at school and encourage all students to be using them at home as well. Usage of these resources will be our basis for incentives as we get our theme of Rockin' the CRCT! The last week in January will start our drive to really make sure that we are ready to ROCK The CRCT! Each class will get earn guitars on their chart for completion with accuracy using these resources. The class with the most guitars each week will get the "Rockin' the CRCT" Golden Guitar to hold for the week, and students with the highest accuracy will get a chance to perform an air guitar concert on the morning announcements. This will continue for the 9 weeks leading up to the CRCT pep rally on April the 3rd.
Then the next day, April 4th will be when we really perform and Rock the CRCT!!!
This year we will once again utilize http://www.georgiaoas.org/ as a resource to familiarize our students with the format of the questions they will be asked on the CRCT. We encourage each student to take at least one of these tests (there are 50 available for 3rd-5th graders and 30 available for 1st & 2nd Graders) each night until they have passed all 50 with at least a 70% accuracy rate (preferably 85%). These tests take around 10-20 minutes each and are extremely effective at getting students used to the format of the test.
Another resource that we will have available is http://www.studyisland.com/ . This is another online resource that is designed to give additional support for all Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in a fun interactive way. This site provides lessons, tests, and games that reinforce, remediate, and challenge students on each standard. This site is available to ALL KES students in grades Kindergarten through 5th.
We have an additional resource for our Kindergarten through 2nd Graders as well. This resource is http://www.readingeggs.com/. This online resource is extremely successful in preparing our younger students to become more successful readers. It works on phonics, spelling, reading fluency, and comprehension. This is another fun and interactive website that our students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade can use to continue to grow as strong and effective readers.
We will be using these resources at school and encourage all students to be using them at home as well. Usage of these resources will be our basis for incentives as we get our theme of Rockin' the CRCT! The last week in January will start our drive to really make sure that we are ready to ROCK The CRCT! Each class will get earn guitars on their chart for completion with accuracy using these resources. The class with the most guitars each week will get the "Rockin' the CRCT" Golden Guitar to hold for the week, and students with the highest accuracy will get a chance to perform an air guitar concert on the morning announcements. This will continue for the 9 weeks leading up to the CRCT pep rally on April the 3rd.
Then the next day, April 4th will be when we really perform and Rock the CRCT!!!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
December Has Started
It is really hard to believe that it is December 6th. Time has gotten away from me and I have not posted since before Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week off and got right back in the swing of things. On Tuesday the 29th, we hosted a community day and our 4th Grade did their Literacy Day by performing The Legend of Slappy Hooper a tall-tale. It was a great day. This week is also filled with excitement. Sonic night is Tuesday, December 6th. The Santa Shop is open Tuesday through Friday. Our 4th Graders do their holiday performance on Thursday the 8th, and the Dragon Dollar store will deliver product this Friday. That does not even take into account what the teachers and students are doing in the classroom to prepare for the benchmark assessments and writing samples. It is a crazy, busy week and next week will be even more exciting.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Bags & Turkey Ready
The bags are all packed full of stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies and cranberry sauce, and the turkeys have all been delivered. Now it just time for them to be picked up. Thank you Ms. Bachman, PTO, teachers, students, STEPAN and Publix at Winder Crossing for working together to supply Thanksgiving Dinner to over 45 families. It was truly KES being Ready, Respectful, and Responsible!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Kennedy Gives Thanks by Giving Back
This week we have started our Thanksgiving meal drive. Our Habit from the book 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey this week is: Begin with the end in mind or have a plan. At Kennedy, we decided to look at how many families we have that will need some assistance over the Thanksgiving holiday and have identified 45 different families that will need help. By beginning with that number, we knew just what our goal was and then we took the next step. That next step was to have a plan to get to our goal. Our plan was to assign each grade level a different food to bring in to help us reach our goal.
- Pre-k brought in Gravy
- Kindergarten brought in Mashed potato mix
- 1st grade brought in Stuffing
- 2nd grade brought in Corn bread/muffin mix
- 3rd grade brought in Canned veggies (green beans or carrots)
- 4th grade brought in Canned yams
- 5th grade brought in Marshmallows
- teachers brought in cranberry sauce
- Our business partners are helping with the turkeys
With our plan in place, we have already provided enough meals for over 50 families and we have not even gotten to our November 11th deadline.
I guess beginning with the end in mind and creating a plan really works! Great Job Kennedy