Griffin

Our Final Week

Can it really be?  This past week has shown many emotions for our Grasshoppers.  One day they are excited about summer and moving up to first grade and the next day, they are to tears at the thought of not seeing their classmates for an entire summer.  I can totally relate.

I'm planning some fun activities for the last week of Kindergarten and am so happy to see so many interested in helping. 

This week we finished our study of the continents.  We have:

• named all 7 continents
• located them on  "Google Earth" using our Smartboard
• read folktales and stories from each continent
• created are own world map
• compared the amount of the Earth's surface covered by land and ocean

Next Week

Monday -Tuesday:  We will explore the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

Wednesday:  Game Day 

• We will meet with our Fifth Grade Buddies for a fun filled game playing extravaganza
• We will fill our day with Math Bingo, Spelling Bee, Guess My Word...
• Your child is invited to bring a favorite game from home (please no electronic games)  Make sure they can teach others how to play the game.  Remember small parts can be easily lost.

Thursday:  Reading Day

• We will have a read-a-thon.
• Your child can bring a favorite picture book to share with the class. 
• We will share electronic books on the Smartboard.
• If you are interested in coming to read to us, please send me a message.  We can be flexible with the schedule.

Friday:  Outdoor Centers

9:00 - 9:15   Fifth Graders walk the hallway one last time at Sope Creek

9:15 - 10:30  Outdoor Centers

• These will be set up in the bus lanes close to our door.  We will be sharing the space with P.E. but they won't be using this end of the lot. 
• We will need parents to run each center and there are more than enough activities for the kids.
•      bubbles
•      sidewalk chalk
•      scooters
•      water balloon toss
•      jump rope
•      Popsicles
•      hula hoops
•      Yes, we have a bounce house, too

I believe we have parents bringing bubbles, bottled water and water balloons.  Would anyone be able to bring Popsicles and ice.  (The class has a new rolling cooler!)  Everything else will be supplied by kindergarten.

Other important info.

Dear Parents,

1.       MODEL CLASSROOM runs June 10^th – 13^th  at Sope Creek:

8am to 12pm T, Thu, Fr

8am to 3pm Wed for field trips

K – 2nd will visit the Sope Creek pond

3rd – 5^th will visit the Solar House at Georgia Tech

                We are in need of 25 K-2^nd grade students and 25 3^rd – 5^th graders.

Please pack a lunch every day.

Contact Jessica Appleyard if you are interested in sending your student to Model Classroom Week.

Jessica Appleyard (jessica.appleyard@cobbk12.org)

               

2.       The week before school starts is extremely busy for the PTA and we need your help to ensure a smooth Meet and Greet and start of school for our Sope Creek families and children.  There are signup sheets on the door of the PTA office in the 2^nd grade hallway for everything from stuffing, delivery, teacher luncheon, meet and greet, and hospitality.  Please let your friends and other parents know about the volunteer opportunities available and how much we would appreciate the help.

3.       Our PTA Reflections Committee wants to you to put on your thinking cap this summer.  Next school year’s PTA Reflections theme is “WOW” which lets the imagination run wild!  The program is open to all students at Sope Creek.  The categories for Reflections are Literature, Musical Composition, Visual Arts, Photography, Film/Video Production, and Dance Choreography. 

4.       And speaking of themes, Sope Creek is going green next year and our theme is “WE ARE WHAT WE GROW.”   We work to help our children grow into wonderful adults.

Barbara Dyck

Phone: 404 259 5619

NEW EMAIL – barbara@thedycks.com

Attention Sope Creek Parents:
All yearbooks have been distributed for the year.  If your child failed to preorder a book, it is not too late to buy one!  Yearbooks will be on sale from 7:30 am  - 7:50 am in the cafeteria for $30.00.  This is a 104 page ALL COLOR, hard cover book!  Don't miss out on the memories.... Supplies are limited!

 

Spring Show

I hope you were able to "save the date" of our Spring Show on your busy calendars.  The show is in conjunction with the PTA meeting.  Things should get underway around 8:15.  (Hint: arrive early for prime seats)  If you could please have your grasshopper girls dressed in spring flowers.  Dresses and skirts are great but not required.  Think spring garden party.  Boys should dress in jeans, plaid shirts, overalls, boots, straw hats....think farmers.   Have them wear their outfit to school, but they can bring a change of clothes for after the performance. Hope to see you this Friday!!

Another important date is Friday, May 2nd.  That is when the early PTA orders for next school year are due.  You received a goldenrod flier with all of the information a few weeks ago.  You can join PTA, buy all the school supplies (highly recommended), student directories, spiritwear, calendars and join the Birthday Book Club all in advance.  The items will be delivered to your child's room for you to pick up at Meet and Greet.  It is hassle free.

This is another crazy week in Kindergarten.  We will have practice for the Spring Show every morning.  Monday and Tuesday we continue to flip flop our schedule due to testing.  So, if you are a center parent for Monday or Tuesday, you get the morning off!  Friday's story parent can also take a break, because we'll all be at the Spring Show.

What's Bugging You?

Is that bug an insect, a spider or something else?  This is what we are exploring this week in the Grasshopper classroom.

We will focus on ants, spiders and butterflies.  We'll be reading about, writing about, comparing, and observing these creatures all week.  We are excited to have the opportunity to watch caterpillars become butterflies.  We hope the ants for our ant farms arrive soon.

We are practicing our problem solving strategies in math.  Our story problems are all about subtraction.

This week the upper grades are taking the CRCT.  This means schedule changes.  Mrs. Kerzie will be assisting a first grade class, and so will be out all morning.  Our specials' time has been changed to the morning.  Parents that are volunteering for centers on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week, need not come.  We will be doing our centers at a different time.

A note from Mrs. Whalen:

May 3 - Campus Clean-up

Come anytime between 9:00 and 12:00 to help "spring clean" our campus.  Everyone is invited.  Bring your rake, shovel, gloves, and brown paper trash bags.  The class with the highest participation will receive a flower for their teacher

Welcome Back

I hope everyone had a fantastic Spring Break.  Thank you for the Happy Birthday wishes. 

Unit of Study:   This week we continue are animal study. Our focus will by on animals found at the zoo.   We will be grouping animals by different traits, matching parents to babies, and finding similarities and differences between them.

Math:   We will practice using different problem solving strategies to solve addition problems.  We will be acting out, drawing pictures, and using models to find the solutions.

Reading:   We will continue to read fiction and non-fiction stories about animals.  Our focus is on sequencing and retelling events.  We will also be blending sounds to make words.

**Reminder**  Wednesday is our trip to the zoo.  Please have your child wear gym shoes.  Also, if your child is bringing a lunch from home, it must be in a disposable container.  Lunch boxes are not permitted on field trips.

Stuffed Friends:  Please have your child bring one stuffed animal friend to school on Friday. 

Animal Unit

This week we'll be continuing our study of farm animals.  We are classifying animals, identifying the male, female and baies of each species, and exploring how each animal helps us.

We are reading fiction and non-fiction stories about farm animals.  We are continuing to develop our retelling skills.  We are also identifying component sounds in words.  This is when we name the letters that make each sound in a word. 

The students are identifying all the number combinations to make a given number.  (0 and 5 are 5, 1 and 5 are 5, 2 and 3 are 5...)  We will begin creating, modeling, and acting out word problems.

Congratulations to Joshua.  He has joined the Sight Word Club!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

                                                                                                                                                                                        It was great seeing so many of you at the Fun Run.  I think about half of the class participated!!  I tried to get pictures of everyone, but some of you were just too fast.                                                                                       

Monday marks the beginning of our last grading period.  Where has the time gone?  Report Cards will be coming home on Thursday. 

We'll be doing some St. Paddy's celebrating this week.  The students will be looking for buried treasure and comparing their lode by weight and size.  They'll be painting rainbows, reading about leprechauns and other mischief.

We will begin our animal study by looking at animals that hatch from eggs. 

Addition and subtraction are the focus of our math activities.

We will continue to work on retelling stories that our read to us as a class and independently.  We are listening for retellings that are sequential, with a beginning, middle and end, and lots of detail. 

During our Morning News time we'll be practicing the ch, sh, th, and wh blends. 

Congratulations to Allie, Kyle, Alexis, Natalie and Tristan.  They have all joined our 40 sight word club!! 

Center Parents, thank you for being so flexible with the changes I've made to the center organization.  This new plan allows the students to practice skills that they've already been taught, work at their own level, practice working in a group and independently, make choices, and develop good work habits.

Here are some more pictures of Guest Readers and Career Day......

                                                                             

Go, Go, Go

Transportation is the theme for this week.  We will identify different modes of transportation, when we use them and what we use them for.

We will  read fiction and non-fiction books about transportation.  We will practice the skills of retelling, identifying rhyming words, chunking (finding smaller words inside a larger word) and decoding.

This week we'll be reviewing previous sight words.  If you need a list, please let me know.

During writing workshop, the students will develop their story writing skills by adding descriptive words and including a setting in their stories.

We are reviewing double digit numbers in math this week.  This is  tricky skill and and any extra practice at home would be beneficial.

Please come and check out the baskets up for auction.  This is in conjuction with our Fun Run this Saturday.  For more info check out Download its_not_too_late_to.htm

More info

Sight Word

Six more students have mastered the 40 kindergarten sight word list.  They have worked very hard.  Congratulations to Trey, Chris, Sebastian, Denver, Makenna and Alex!

We have several other students who are close to achieving this important skill.  Keep working!

Foundation Basket

The class baskets will be on display next week in the media center.  If you would like to contribute to our basket with a donation of art materials or money, please send it with your child.  We'll make sure it gets to Makenna's mom and Allie's mom.  They deserve a big thanks for all of their hard work.

Careers

Special Thanks:

I feel doubly blessed this year to have such an amazing group of students and a wonderful group of parents.  Your volunteer work in our classroom and school is greatly appreciated.  I know it means so much to the children to see you here.  I wanted to thank all of you for the thoughtful flowers, notes, and presents I received for Teacher Appreciation.  The gift card has been put to good use with the purchase of more manipulatives, games and books for our classroom.  Thank you so much, I really do feel appreciated and hope you know that you are appreciated, too.

This week we will be learning about careers.  We will focus on community helpers and how they assist us.  We will read and discuss their responsibilities and the tools they use to complete their work. 

We will be reading fiction and non-fiction books during our study.  We are continuing to practice retelling stories.  Our goal is to retell the beginning, middle and end of a story in sequence.

Career Day is Tuesday!  We are excited to learn more about the people that serve our community.

Our sight words for this week are:  help & make

                                 

Graphing is our focus in math.  We will be creating concrete and picture graphs. 

                                       Dates to Remember

• 3/4     Early Release and Career Day   (Sack lunches will be served.)
• 4/6     Library Day  (Please return library books so that your child can check out a new book.)
• 4/15   Fun Run

                                          Student Absences

Please make sure that you send a note stating a reason for your child's absence.  This must be signed and dated and cannot be sent via email.  We have had many illnesses run through our grasshoppers.  I appreciate that you are keeping your children home when they are sick.  Hopefully the end of flu season is in sight.

Thank you to Olivia's mom for being our guest reader. Olivia just happened to be our Grand Grasshopper this week, too. 

Kyle is our new Grand Grasshopper.

February 11, 2008

Unit of Study: This week's focus is on Nutrition.  Our goal is for the children to identify healthy food choices.  You can help by talking to your child about the food they are eating.  Ask them to what food group it belongs.

Math: We are continuing to count pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  Our housekeeping area has been transformed into a cafe.  The students are using pennies to purchase items from the menu.

Language Arts:  The sight words for this week are:  me, are the

    We are practicing strategies that good readers use.   

1. Looking at the pictures
2. Looking at the first and last letters in a word
3. Does it make sense
4. Making connections

Class Basket:  March 10th - March 15th themed baskets from each class will be on display in the Media Center.  Bids can be taken at this time with the basket going to the highest bidder.  Our class basket's theme is Art.  Please help by donating art supplies, gift cards, or money.  Contact  Mrs. Alterman or Mrs. Villone if you have any questions.

Valentine's Day Boxes:  Please remember to have your child decorate a shoebox to collect their Valentine's.  We will need these boxes by Thursday.  Please have your child sign the cards they are passing out.  Do not have them write the names of their classmates on them.  We have 19 students in our room.

Career Day:  Calling all parents and friends of Sope Creek!!  Our annual career day is scheduled for March 4th from 8:30-11:30am.  Please consider being a part of this exciting day by volunteering be a speaker.  Speakers do not have to be  here the entire day and will be given an exact schedule.  No career is too big or little!

Please contact the Sope Creek Counselors at 770-916-7088 for additional information and to sign up.  Also, feel free to tell  anyone who may be interested.  Thank you.

Sherise Hartman, School Counselor

Sope Creek Elementary School (M/W)
Phone: 770-916-7088
Fax:  770-916-7087

Dowell Elementary School (T-TH)
Phone:678-594-8059

Special Dates:

• Feb. 14... Library Day    Please return books
• Feb. 18-19... Student Holiday     No School
• Feb. 21.....Sope Creek's 30th birthday    Wear your 70's clothes.

Many thanks to those who have sent in wipes, snacks, and goodies for the prize bag. 

                                  

Thank you to Tristan's mom for being our guest reader.