Hello, super-star-K/1-parents!!! Thank you for checking out our blog! Fall is officially upon us. Today we painted beautiful fall trees and read a book about fall leaves. Bring on Autumn and all its beauty! What a busy-bee-week we have had! I want to share some things we have done and what we will be up to next week.

 

Chapel has been going great! The kids love to sing their hearts out and listen to the special message from Mrs. Warner.

 

We had a fun apple-words word-work center during Daily 5 that the students "ate right up"!

 

Speaking of eating, we had an apple-tasting and voted on our favorite apple! We compared the data on the graph and answered important math questions using what we saw. The students also made mini-graphs from the data.

 

We talked more about Tucker Turtle and thinking-like-a-turtle. We made a chart of ideas that the students had about things that could happen that could make us upset. These are the sorts of things that would make us stop, go into our shell", take three deep breaths, and think about what to do. The students love these discussions and it helps them to make really smart choices when they get upset.

 

 

Wyatt was our first Star Student! Everyone will get a chance at some point this year to be a star-student, decorate an all-about-me poster and share that with the class. On Fridays, the Star Student leads morning meeting!!!

 

 

 

Way to go, Wyatt!

 

We had music this week and it was a blast!!!

 

 

We also had library! The students LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their library time!!!

 

Our sight-words for the coming week:

                                                               Our spelling words:

First-grade parents, please practice these words with your children at home. Every night for five minutes would be ideal! For kindergarten students, always consider these words "challenge words" for the week. They are welcome to work on them at home, and will practice them in class with the first-grade students.

Something the students have been learning about are the Fruits of the Spirit as described in
Galatians 5: 22-23. Each month, a new fruit-of-the-Spirit will be discussed and that month two students from each class who exemplify that fruit will be acknowledged at our last chapel of the month. The group picture taken of these students will be posted on a Fruit-of-the-Spirit board in our hall. When you have a moment, it would be a "juicy" thing to check out! (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

 

 

This coming week, students will be learning about community helpers in Social Science, and learning how things move with the help of air, water, and magnets in Science. In reading they will be focused on the standard: RL 1.2: "Retell stories and demonstrate understanding of the message or lesson". A vocabulary strategy we have is Alphabetical order and they will be putting some fire safety words into ABC order during word-work time. In math, orange group (first grade) will be working our story problems and yellow group (kindergarten) will be working on writing and identifying numerals. Both groups will be working out addition problems with play-doh representing apples in trees and doing number-of-the-day activities. We have a big week ahead, so I wish you all a rejuvenating weekend full of rest, play, prayer, and the bounties that God brings us in the Autumn! On that note, I leave you with next week's verse. May we think about it and may it sink into our hearts. Remember, if you have a prayer-request you would like me to share with Hive-parents, I would be overjoyed to do so. I am a parent myself and I know I need the help of the Lord. Let's support one another in this journey of parenting these most precious gifts from God!

 

 

 

 

 

Hello, amazing K/1 parents!!! I hope you are enjoying the sunshine this weekend! We had such a fantastic week in The Hive and I am so proud of our Busy Bees! They worked their little hearts outs! The week started with our first Chapel session led by Mrs. Warner. They learned the behavior expectations of Chapel, sang beautiful and fun songs, and heard a special message about needs versus wants.

The students have been working on Read-to-Someone in Daily 5 and even practiced this with our Journeys reading text!

We have been working on themes of friendship and community this month and will continue this throughout September. A great resource we have been using is the "Tucker Turtle" story. "Tucker Turtle Takes Time to Tuck and Think" is a great tool for kiddos when they feel overwhelmed with a social situation and need to take time to think about a smart choice to make. This is a link that will take you to the PowerPoint slide that was presented in class, so that you can continue the conversation at home if you would like.

csefel.vanderbilt.edu/scriptedstories/tuckerturtle.ppt

Picture Day is coming up this Tuesday!!! Please return your form/payment if you plan on ordering pictures.

 

   We broke out the watercolor sets this week and had a very process-based art time in which the students chose what to paint. Ah, something about those pretty paint palettes makes me so giddy!!!

We have a new author study coming up! We will will be highlighting the works of Kevin Henkes!!!

Our Reading Focus Wall for this week from Journeys:

Sight words: do, find, funny, sing, no, they. 

Spelling: log, hot, dot, ox, top, lot. 

Phonics: short "o"(as in ox), "l" and "x"!

 

In science this week we examined our fingerprints and we continue to learn about how unique we are! We learned about our hair, eyes, and ears. This week we will be focusing in on our Five Senses! 

 

 

We worked with manipulatives to solve math problems this week...

Our Bible verse this week:

Something that is coming up in October is our Grandparents Day here at Sonshine! I wanted to let you know the date: Friday, October 15th, so all the grandparents can plan ahead to be there! More details to come!!! (:

Week of 9/14

Hello, fabulous K/1 Parents! What an amazing week we had in The Hive! We started to get more into what our normal routine will be and reading groups began! I am continually impressed with this group of students and how excited they are to learn. Specials started this week and the students thoroughly enjoyed PE!!! We have our first full week of school ahead with a Curriculum night on Tuesday at 6:30 pm. I hope to see you there!

Spanish with Ms. Monica also began this week! 

 This week's sight words from Journeys are: for, he, look, have, too, and what. These are great words to practice reading and writing at home!

 Every morning, we have a share time during our morning meeting. I am loving how students are showing their great listening skills when others are taking their turn holding the special "shell". Every day there is a new topic, and the shell is passed. All eyes and listening ears are focused on the friend who is holding the shell and speaking. When they are done, they pass it on to the next friend.

Aiden and Noah listen intently to Hadley during share time. 

 Writer's Workshop started this week as well. The students received their writing tools which included a folder, an ABC sound chart and a "What Can I Write About" page to help them get ideas for their writing. We timed our "writing stamina" (how long we were engaged in writing) and will compare it at each writing workshop.

Writers do important work. They need tools! 

Our verse for this week in Bible:

"I have chosen the way of truth:thy judgements have I laid before me," -Psalms 119:30


We also had a special lesson addressing acceptance. God made us all different and special, yet each of us is so dearly loved! We all have the same needs and God wishes for us to help one another and be kind. We finished our self-portraits and colored them in the unique colors of us!

We are all so beautiful! 

Welcome!

Hello, wonderful parents of Mrs. B's K/1 Hive at Sonshine! Happy Labor Day! The first week of school was a blast! Some highlights include a Pete the Cat tour of the school with Mrs. Lee's and Mrs. Palmer's class, learning rules and procedures, practicing routines, learning about the Daily Five, beginning our Fruits of the Spirit studies with Self-Control, and beginning our author-study of David Shannon!
Class Rules...

I was impressed with how hard our hive was working, even on the very first day!

Our Author Study has been going great! For more info on David Shannon, go here: http://www.scholastic.com/titles/nodavid/davidshannon.htm
 

We have many things planned over the next two weeks. Check out our Focus Wall!

We will be diving into our curriculum this week while we start assessing your child for the groups (math and reading) that they will be in. We will continue to practice The Daily Five procedures, especially Read-to-Self and Read-to-Someone. It will be another bright-shining week at Sonshine!