Farewell, First Quarter!

How has an entire school quarter gone by? The time with these busy-bees is buzzing by too quickly! I adore this Hive so much!!! I wanted to share some things we have been doing and what is coming up in our 3-day-school-week next week.

These are the cutest bees ever! Love their enthusiasm!!!

 The bees were introduced to Work Folders this week! Woo-hoo! Now that they have the Take-Home "B.E." (Bring Everyday) folder procedure down, they are ready to start storing their work to be finished and checked in a bright red, happenin' folder they can call their own!

And...more introductions! The busy-bees met the "Cones of Excellence"! These little cones get placed on the desks of students who are demonstrating excellent behavior, work, or bucket-filling! It gets to sit on their desk for the remainder of the day after it is rewarded. We start fresh the next day and cones are handed out to bees who are stepping up to excellence! Hard-working bees need to be acknowledged! All of these students are striving towards excellence during their day and it is important to let them know that I notice it!

We did a "sweet" activity with the "fall mix" of candy corn featuring different kinds of candy corn. Each student received a handful and proceeded to sort, tally, and write the number of types they had. I won't lie, these bees love a special treat!

The bees have had some assessments this week to help sum up what they have been learning this first quarter. Due to this, and the shorter week we have next week, some studies will be extended. For example, we will continue our study of Moses during Bible time. In math, kinders will focus on numbers 10-20 and firsties will be practicing stories involving subtraction. Whenever we have an assessment, I let students know we "Don't stress about the test, but simply try to do our best!" And a test is just an opportunity to "show what you know!"

I am super excited for our "Bats and Spiders" week ahead! We will have some fun word work, writing, art and library books all about both of these fun creatures!

Our story coming up in Journeys this week is one that falls into the genre of Realistic Fiction:

Our essential question is one these little bees will be able to answer quite well, I do predict! They love music and are provided with amazing music opportunities from Mrs. Warner in chapel as well as music class!

Spelling words coming up:
on, got, fox, pop, not, hop

Sight-words coming up:
her, now, our, she, today, would

A verse we will be focusing on next week will be Phillipians 4:6. This is a busy time of year, and with the holidays fast approaching (yep, I said that), it is bound to get busier. But God doesn't want us to stress. Let us remember that we are "too blessed to be stressed"!

 I am looking forward to conferences this week to share the progress your child is making and identify a goal or two for the school year. I encourage students to attend conferences with you if it is possible. Please return the conference confirmation slips that went home today. If you cannot locate yours, please contact me so I can let you know what day and time your child's conference will be. Let's look on this time as an opportunity to slow down a bit and reflect on the wonderful things your child is doing here at Sonshine!

God has certainly blessed us here at Sonshine! Counting my blessings with these busy bees and all of the support from you, parents! You are the apples of your child's eyes, and so loved by the Lord!