If you need to schedule a large item pick-up to be donated to the Foundation Garage Sale,
Please call Patti Lavender: 770-552-1162
We are planning to schedule pick-ups for Sunday afternoon, April 27th, but we may be able to make other arrangements.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful and restful spring break! The school year is coming to an end but we will be busy as bees in the next few weeks! This week we started our ocean unit and today each child was assigned an ocean animal to study. You will find the details about the project in your child's folder today. The project will be due next Friday, April 25th.
On Friday, May 2nd, we will be having our "Mother's Tea." This will start at 8:30 a.m. and it will be very similar to the "Donuts for Dad." Please make sure that someone is able to come and be with your child, so that no one feels left out.
I would like to thank all of you who volunteered this year in the classroom. This includes reading parents, center volunteers, or classroom helpers. Your work is greatly appreciated and we would like to invite you to come to the Volunteers Brunch on Friday May 9th at 8:30 a.m. You all have been so wonderful this year and I feel blessed to have had such a kind, caring, and supportive group of parents!
We will be having our kindergarten "Under the Sea" production on Tuesday, May 13th at 8:30 a.m. This play is a very big deal, so please make plans to attend.
We will also be having Field Day on Wednesday, May 14th. This will be a day full of games and competitions for our class. I am sure it will be tons of fun!
The book order sent home on Monday will be the last order taken for the year. Please return all orders by Friday, April 25th.
Thanks for your support,
Jill Rodgers
Garrison Mill has recently established a Foundation whose purpose is to provide resources above and beyond what the County and the Garrison Mill PTA is able to provide. Please visit their web page to find out more about who they are, what they do, and help support their first fundraising event. You can visit them at: GME Foundation.
I hope that everyone is able to get outside today and enjoy the gorgeous weather we are having. Please remember that we are going to Cagle Dairy tomorrow and all students need to wear their green GM t-shirts, tennis shoes, and comfortable pants. This field trip will wrap up our farm unit and everyone is very excited about going to a real farm after we have studied farms for two weeks.
Next week we will have our last alphabet letter Zz. We will also begin studying bunnies, eggs, and chicks.
The new weekly reading logs have been going very well. Please let me know if you think the book sent home is too easy for your child or if you think your child needs more than one book a week. I cannot send more than one book home at a time, but we can work out a mid-week check out if needed. Also please remember that the purpose of this check out is to build your child reading skills and to make them more confident readers. In some cases children may be able to read all the words in the book, but they may also need to work on reading the book fluently.
Things to remember:
Friday March 14th - GM Family Bingo Night from 6:00-8:00
Thursday March 20th - Report Cards Issued
Thursday March 20th - Backyard Burger Night
Friday March 21st - Picture Retakes, Egg Drop, and Egg Hunt
Thanks for your support,
Jill Rodgers 
I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!! We started our unit on dinosaurs today and the kids are loving it! The letter for the week is Qq. We are finishing up our math chapter on money this week and we will be moving on to sequencing events and telling time. Today we started having children individually count to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's. This is great practice and we have a poster for each child to have a certificate on when they are able to master this task.
Everyone is doing a great job with the new homework but please remember to send the books and the reading log back each Friday. The bear and national symbols projects were fantastic!! We have really started to stress handwriting, so for the dinosaur project please allow your child to write the dinosaur facts in their own handwriting. This will be great practice for them.
Friday we will be having "Donuts for Dad." If Dad is unable to attend, please try and have someone (male or female) else come in his place.
Reminders:
*Spring and class pictures are tomorrow.
*Garrison Mill Talent Show is Friday night starting at 6:30.
*Monday, March 3rd is Read Across America and all children may wear pajamas to school.
Thanks for all you do!!
Mrs. Rodgers
This week we are studying the letter Ll and we are also learning about bears. Please remember that the bear projects are due on Friday the 8th. Next week we will be studying the letter Vv. We will also be learning about the presidents, money, and celebrating Valentine's Day.
This year for Valentine's Day each child is to decorate a shoe box to use for our Valentine's mail boxes. Please decorate the boxes at home and make sure that the lid can still be opened. We will send home a list of names for each child in the class. Please make sure that your child has a Valentine for every child in the class.
Next week we will begin allowing the students check out classroom books based on the students' reading levels. The child will check the book out on Mondays and return the book on Fridays. The children will need to read the book and have a parent signature on the reading log each day. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, February 6th Early Release Day
Thursday, February 7th Media Center
Friday, February 8th Last day to turn in Jump Rope/Hoop for Heart money
Thursday, February 14th Special Valentine Centers
Friday, February 15th Box Tops for Education due
Monday, February 18th Presidents Day (No School)
Tuesday, February 19th Teacher Inservice Day (No School)
Wednesday, February 20th 6 hour reading club certificates due
Thursday, February 21st High Touch High Tech
Monday, February 25th Monies due to order Chick Fil A biscuits to benefit the American Cancer Society
(anyone may order one to pick up at the end of the week-more details coming home this week)
Friday, February 29th Doughnuts for Dads early AM-8:15 AM SHARP
Friday, February 29th Talent Show (includes teacher song performance) evening
Thanks for your support,
Jill Rodgers
I hope that 2008 has started off great for all of you! I can't believe it is almost February!! This week we are studying the letter Rr and continuing to learn about winter. Since our days are so short this week, we will only have one snack per day and it will be at the end of the day.
Please continue to work with your child on all forty sight words and all coins. We have also been working a great deal on our writing. Please try to have your child practice writing at home as well. We like for the children to sound out each word and write the letters/sounds they hear in the words. We have also been working on starting sentences with a capital and ending with punctuation.
Mrs. Bramlett and I were very impressed by all of the 100th day projects. Wednesday we will go to each kindergarten classroom and work on different 100th day activities.
Thanks for your support,
Jill Rodgers
We have been having a wonderful time this week visiting other countries for our "Holidays Around the World" unit. The children have been having a wonderful time learning about how other countries celebrate this time of year! So far the children have visited China, Mexico, France, and Holland. Tomorrow they will get to travel to Sweden, Israel, and Germany!
On Thursday we will have our class holiday celebration. The celebration will begin at 9:20!
This Friday the children will be allowed to wear their pajamas to school. We will be watching "The Polar Express" and drinking hot chocolate. Please have children wear appropriate footwear to school since we do have P.E.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!!
Sincerely,
Jill Rodgers 
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed time with family and friends. Last week we studied transportation and the letter Gg. We also talked about where we live now and we mapped where each child was born. This week we are studying the letter Ee and reindeers.
We will be sending home Scholastic Book order forms today. In order to try and get it back by Christmas we are asking that all orders be turned in by this Friday December 7th. Sorry for the turn around to be so quick, but we are hoping to get it in before the holiday break.
I am in need of used basic light bulbs. We need one for each child in order to do an art project for the holidays. Please check at work or at home to see if you have any burnt out bulbs that could be donated to our classroom.
Things to remember:
*PTA meeting followed by choral performance at 6:30p.m. on Thursday December 6th.
*Spirit Day is this Friday December 7th.
*Giving Drive ends Friday December 7th.
* Please remember to have your child bring a healthy snack for our morning snack time.
Thank you,
Jill Rodgers
We had a wonderful field trip to the Pumpkin Patch on Monday. I would like to thank the chaperones, you all were very helpful! The kids had a great time and I think the adults did too!
We are going to be making special shirts for Thanksgiving. I need for each child to bring in a plain white t-shirt. It does not matter if the shirts are old and stained because we will be staining and painting them. I need all shirts to be in by next Wednesday the 7th. If you happen to have an extra old white t-shirt, we would greatly appreciate any extras.
The administration would like for us to remind you that if your child arrives after 7:55 a.m., you must sign the child in at the P.T.A. desk in the lobby. There should also be no transportation or dismissal changes after 1:45.
Thanks for your support,
Jill Rodgers
