Special Needs Kindergarten

2007-05-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

What a cute class!! They are all such good friends.

"PLEASE let us take a picture by the pond Mrs. Owen!!"

Always having fun.

Thanks Mrs. Renier for helping us plant our little class Garden! The kids love to go outside to water it and watch our plants grow.

2007-05-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents,

Thank you for sending in pictures with you and your child. We are making mothers day presents using them. If you have not yet sent in a picture with mom and child please do no later than monday.

Also, please let us know if you will be able to attend the mothers day tea. The first invitation I sent home had the wrong date. The correct date is May 10th at 10:00.

Important dates:
Volunteer Tea: May 9th
Mothers Day Tea: May 10th 10:00
Field Day: May 16
Nature Day May 21
Bubble Day May 22
Beach Day May 23
Awards Day/Icecream social May 24
Last Day May 25

Language arts: We will focus on the letter Q. We will look at the sounds of Q, what Q looks like, and we will write the letter Q.

Math: We will continue working on addition and counting objects (1:1 correspondence). Please practice counting to 30, counting by 10's and 5's.

Theme: Our theme for the week Mothers. We will read about mothers, talk about why we love our mothers, and make gifts for our mothers. Happy early Mothers Day!!

Word Wall words: I, see, the, to, me, is, he, she, go, like, to, and, come, it, play, by, can, you, are, this, in, my, for, at, there, but, not, up, of, was, on, with,

2007-04-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to our Star Student Riley!!!

Riley is a hardworker and loves to please. We're proud of you Riley!

2007-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents,

You have the most precious children! They were very well behaved on the fieldtrip!! Thank you Mrs. Gunter for going on the fieldtrip with us!
Next week:

Language arts: We will focus on the letter M. We will look at the sounds of M, what M looks like, and we will write the letter M.
Math: We will begin our addition unit. Please practice counting to 30, counting by 10's and 5's.
Theme: Our theme for the week is plants. We will be studying what a plant needs to survive and parts of the plant. We will also keep watching our classroom plants and continue to water them each day.
Word Wall words: I, see, the, to, me, is, he, she, go, like, to, and, come, it, play, by, can, you, are, this, in, my, for, at, there, but, not, up, of, was, on, with,

2007-04-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

Cagles Dairy Farm

We had fun on our fieldtrip to the dairy farm!! We watched how they process milk, went on a hayride, watched a dog herd cows together, fed goats and baby calves, watched them milk a cow, and drank cagles milk! A special thanks to Mrs. Gunter for going with us.

Hanging out after lunch

This is where they process milk.

The hayride was our favorite part!!

Feeding the baby calves. These calves were 0-3 months old. So sweet!

We watched them milk a cow!

Drinking milk before heading home. Nice milk mustache!

2006-12-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

Dec. 4th 2006

Important Dates:
Dec. 6 Early Release
Dec. 20 1:00 Class Christmas Party
Dec. 22 Winter Holidays begin
Jan. 8 Students back in school
Jan. 15 MLK Holiday- No school

This week we will be learning about Earth Surface Features. We will learn how to identify land and water on a map and how to point to the seven continents.

Math: We are working with the numbers 0-10.
Phonics: We are working with the letter S. Identifying the letter and letter sound.
Sightwords: are, and, by, but, be, can, come, go, have, I, it, in, like, me, not, one, on, play, see, to, up, with, will, you.

Please remember that if you have information that you need me to know, please write it in the communication folder, email me @ kelly.owen@cobbk12.org, or call me at 678-594-8092. Please do not depend on the bus drivers to relay information to me or Mrs. Rockett. Thank you!

This is a busy time of the year in school. We have a lot we need to learn. There has been a stomach virus going around in our class. If your child is sick, please keep them at home so we do not get others in the class sick as well. It is Cobb County policy to keep your child home for 24hours after they have thrown up. Even if they appear to feel better. Thanks for understanding! Lets keep our kids healthy!

2006-11-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Play and Feast

2006-11-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

Important Dates:
11/15 Kindergarten Friends/Family Feast 10:30-11:15 am.
Meet us in the cafeteria. A photographer will be walking around and taking pictures for $10.

11/16 Barnes and Noble 4:00-5:00 Kindergarteners from Ford will be singing their Thanksgiving songs.

11/17 Thanksgiving Play 8:30 am. Parents will go to the gym. We have been practicing all week for this play. Please come support your little ones!

11/17 Thanksgiving Feast Following the play, the kindergarteners will have their Thanksgiving Feast. Please remember to bring your child's favorite Thanksgiving dish. Please bring enough for the whole class.

We loved the Family Turkey Projects!! The turkeys looked great. They will be used to decorate our Thanksgiving Play on Friday. Thank you for all that you do for our class!! The kids had so much fun sharing their turkeys. They were very proud of the turkey's they helped make.

2006-11-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

Important Dates:
Nov. 15 Kindergarten Family and Friends Feast (There will be a photographer taking pictures of your family/friends for $10.)
Nov. 16 Barnes and Noble- Kindergarten will sing 4:00-5:00
Nov. 17 Thanksgiving Play 8:30 in the Gym
Nov. 17 Thanksgiving Feast- please remember to bring your dish
Nov. 21 Native American Day (We will rotate classrooms and do indian activities)
Nov. 22-24 Thanksgiving Holiday

We are starting our new unit, "What is Thanksgivng?" This week we focused on, "Who are the pilgrims?" We created a book about Pilgrims and made our own Mayflower. Next week we will learn, "Who are the Indians?" We will paint with sand paint, make indian hats, make Thanksgiving placemats, and Indian Tepees.

In Math, we will continue to explore numbers 1-5. We will practice countning to five, identifying numbers to five, and counting sets to five.

In Phonics, we will continue to work on identifying letters and letter sounds. We will learn the poem, "Blue bird, blue bird." We will focus on matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

Next week is a busy and fun week. We look forward to seeing you at the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast on Wednesday and the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Play on Friday. Have a great weekend!!

2006-11-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Joshua for being a star student!!

Star Student

2006-11-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Centers

The kids had so much fun during our Fall Pumpkin Centers. The students made patterns our of candy corn and candy pumpkins, made pattern braceletts, colored a felt Halloween board, and decorated pumpkin cookies. A special thanks to Mrs. Gunter, Mrs. Young, Mrs. Wailes, and Mrs. Renier for helping with the centers.

Jordan and Makenzie at the cookie center.

Mrs. Wailes, Hannah, and Joshua at the candy corn pattern center.

Jane, Davis, and Valhalla at the coloring center.

Mrs. Renier, Hanna, and Riley at the bracelett center.

2006-10-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch. The children played ring toss with pumpkins, went through a maze with slides, rode stick horses, rode a horse swing, and rode a hayride. On our hayride we saw scarecrow families, scarecrows at school, and Miss Scarecrow 2006. Here are a few pictures of the ring toss.

The maze had slides at the end. Here's Valhalla and Joshua going down the slide!

New Sightwords: but, by, will, and, have, up (all sight words introduced: and, be, come, can, go, have, like, one, play, see, up, you)

2006-10-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks Angie Haddad for coming in as our mystery reader!! The kids LOVED listening to spooky stories and earning spooky prizes!

Our theme for this week has

been "Community Helpers". We have learned about where we live, places in our town, and helpers in our town. Next week we will learn about transportation in our community as well.

Math: We are finishing up patterns.

Phonics: We are reading the poem, "One, two, buckle, my shoe." We are practicing singing the alphabet to Q. Please work with your kids to sing the alphabet the kindergarten way(its different now). ABCDEFG HIJK LMN OPQ RST WXYZ

This way the kids dont sing the letter "elemenop"

The pumpkin patch fieldtrip is tomorrow Oct. 26th. Please dress your child in warm clothes!

There is a PTSA meeting tomorrow night at 6:30.

OCt. 31- Pumpkin centers 9:00-10:00

Nov. 7- no school

Nov. 17 Thanksgiving Play

Nov. 21 Native American Day

Nov. 22-24 Thanksgiving Break

I appreciate you all very much and I am enjoying your children tremendously!

2006-10-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Important Dates
Oct. 6th- Fall Festival 5:00-8:30
Oct. 13th- Student Holiday
Oct. 16-20 Conference Week. (If we are having an IEP within a couple of weeks of conference week, then your conferene information will be covered at the IEP.)
Oct. 26- Fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch
Oct. 31- Pumpkin Centers (See details below)
Nov. 17- Thanksgiving Play/Feast 8:00 am (Parents invited)
Nov. 21- Native American Day

Congratulations to our new star student Davis!! Davis does a great job following directions, he is friendly, and he is always happy!

Thanks Stephanie Young for helping with our class pumpkin. It looks GREAT!! The kids made turkey's using their hands.

Fall Festival

Thanks for donating items for our fall festival basket. We are still in need of items for the basket. The theme is Health. Thanks for your help!

The fall festival is this Friday at 5:00. There will be games, food, a bake sale, an auction for the fall festival baskets, etc. My family and I will be there- we hope to see you too!

Pumpkin Centers
On Oct. 31 we will have pumpkin centers in our class. We will make pumpkin necklaces, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin people, and pumpkin patterns. If you would like to help at one of our centers please send me a note in your child's folder. We would LOVE the help! Younger siblings are welcome. If you have an idea/activity that you would like to do at our pumpkin centers, just let me know.

Stampede to read
Lets read!! Stampede to read is a six week program where your child is encouraged to read each night. Each student will come home with a reading card. For every 10 minutes your child spends reading or you reading to your child, you color a star on the reading card. When the card is filled up, send it back to school and your child will get a treasure from our stampede to read treasure box. Everytime you send in a filled card, we will send a blank card home. The top two readers from each class will receive the special prize. This is a great way to encourage your child to develop good reading habits.

Our essential question for this week is "What is fall?". We will learn about the colors, smells, sights, and activities of fall. In math, we are learning about patterns. We will make rhythm patterns, color patterns, and shape patterns. On friday we will have an apple day. We will write about apples, use apples to make patterns, we will sort apples by color, have an apple taste test, and graph our favorite apples.

Sight words: one, play, you

Thank you for all your support!! Your children are a pleasure to know and teach. We truly enjoy them each day.

2006-09-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Chattahoochee Nature Center
We had fun at the chattahoochee Nature Center. We ate lunch with geese walking around, looked at a snake, and learned how to use our five senses on a nature walk. A special thanks to Stephanie Young for helping chaperone.

Eating lunch

We got to look at and feel a snake.

Joshua feeling the snake.

Riley and Mrs. Rockett

Makenzie and Joshua

Important! We need your help with the Fall festival basket! Thanks Angie Haddad for coordinating our fall festival basket. The theme is Health. Please send in items to put in the basket that relate to help and wellness. You can send the items to school with your child and we will send them to Angie. Thanks for all you do!!!!

2006-09-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Last week we were busy learning about families. Thank you all for sending in the handprints with pictures of your family. We will finish learning about families this week. We will learn about the differences between needs and wants and we will learn about the different types of homes people live in. We will also look at friends and how we are alike and different. In math, we will continue to identify shapes. In phonics, we will read the poem "One, Two buckle my shoe." We will continue to work on the letters A-G. We also introduced three sight words: one, play, and you.

Thank you for working with your kids at home. It makes such a difference in their success!!
Homework Ideas:
Practice sightwords: one, play, you (If you would like sightword cards with visual cues to use at home, please make a note in your child's folder and we'll send the cards home.)
ABC's: Identify or match ABC's, identify letter sounds
Name: recognize name, spell name, write/trace name.

*Dates to Remember*
September
27th-Chattahochee Nature Center Field Trip

October
13th-No School
16th-20th Conference Week

The field trip is on Wednesday Sept. 27th. Please make sure your child dresses
appropriately. All lunches will be provided but, if your child decides to
bring a lunch, please put it in a brown paper bag. We have the field trip
shirts here at school. We will pass them out on field trip day and then
collect and wash them at the end of the day. We will do that for every field
trip and you will receive them at the end of the school year.

YEARBOOKS! On sale now thru Sept. 29th for $24. Make checks payable to Ford PTSA.

A special thanks to Kelli Renier, our earth parent, who taught us about how to use our five senses when looking at nature. We walked through the garden using our five senses. Then we ate apples and painted apple trees. We also looked at plants that we could smell and touch.

Students standing by the pond in the garden.

Makenzie ate "Pastries with Mrs. Pepper" for being a "Terrific Kid."

2006-09-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

We had another fun week of kindergarten! This week we finished learning about our five senses. Students had fun playing the smelling game, tasting game, hearing game, and touching game.

Riley playing the tasting game. Students tasted sweet, sour, salty, and bitter foods.

Joshua playing the smelling game. Gross! Pickles!

In math, we are learning about shapes. This week students enjoyed singing the shapes song and making the Monster Shapes Book.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please remember to complete the homework that was sent home on Thursday and send it back by Monday. Good job to Riley who turned his homework in on Friday!!

Our first fieldtrip will be to the Chatahoochee Nature Center on Sept. 26. At the Chatahoochee Nature Center we will focus on using our five senses to explore nature. A special thanks to Mrs. Young for volunteering to chaperone on the field trip. If you are interested in chaperoning a field trip in the future, please let me know. We'd love the help!

Early release Day is Wednesday Sept. 20. Students will be released to go home at 12:10.

The Ford Family Fun Walk/Run will be Friday, October 6th, at 4:00 -just before the Fall Festival begins. There is no entry fee, and t-shirts are available for $10.00 each. Please make sure to check in for the race at 3:30.

Please turn in your Pike's receipts to Ford. We earn funds, based on the amount of receipts turned in, which support our Earth Parent program and keep our campus beautiful.

Special thanks to Kelli Renier for teaching Earth Parent lessons, Angie Haddad for coordinating the Fall Festival activities for our class and Stephanie Young and Kimberely Gunter for serving as the Room Moms.

2006-09-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

We had another great week of kindergarten! Everyone is getting into good routine. Last week we focused on All about me. We made All About Me books and talked about our phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, and families. On Friday of last week, we went to the library. The students did a great job selecting their books and reading them quietly. We are keeping their library books here at school.

Essential Question(EQ): What are you five senses?
This week we are learning about the five senses. Today we sang the "Five Senses Song" to help us identify our five senses. On Wednesday we will focus on touching, Thursday we will focus on smelling, and Friday we will focus on seeing. We will continue with the five senses next week.

Jordan did a great job identifying the five senses.

In math, we just started a new unit about Shapes. We will focus on identifying and sorting shapes.

Important Information:
Thank you for returning the t-shirt money in on time!
Also, thanks for checking their communication folders at night. If you ever have ANY questions/concerns/praises/advise about your child feel free to email me or call me (2:10-2:50). I'd love to talk to you!

September 18th: Joshua's birthday
September 20th: Early Release/ performance
September 28th: Hannah's birthday

Thanks for ALL you do!

2006-08-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents,

We have had a great first week of school!! We have worked hard to learn the routines of our classroom. Everyone did a great job learning about our school helpers, parts of the school, and our school rules. This week, we will be learning "All About Me." Thank you for helping your child gather their All About Me bags.

Congratulations to Makenzie!! She is our star student of the Month. She is a hard worker and does a great job following our classroom rules.

Thank you to everyone who signed up to be room mom, art mom, earth parent, etc. It is MUCH appreciated! We will have fun working together to help our little ones learn.

Important Information:
T-Shirt money is due Wednesday August 23. We need 100% participation.

upcoming events:
August 25 A magician will be performing during specials!!
Sept. 5 Parents can start coming for lunch
Sept. 20 Early Release

2006-08-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

NAME: Mrs. Owen
SCHOOL: Ford Elementary
CLASS: Kindergarten
SCHOOL PHONE: 678-594-8092

About The Teacher:
Hey! My name is Kelly Owen. This will be my fourth year teaching special needs kindergarten at Ford Elementary. I graduated from the State Univ. of West Georgia with a degree in Special Education and just recently graduated from Kennesaw State University with my masters in special education.Ford is an amazing school!! I am so fortunate to work here. I love what I do and can't imagine being anywhere else.

I have been married to my best friend going on four years. He's currently in School at Kennesaw State University and will graduate this May- yeah!! He also works at Ford partime as a custodian. In January, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl, Elle. She's the love of our lives!!!

I am so pleased to have Teresa Rocket as my parapro. She is married and has two girls. Teresa loves working with children and the children love her! We make a great team.