Ms. Henson's Busy Bees

A Wonderful Year Together!

I still can't believe our wonderful year together is drawing to a close.  I am so proud of each and every busy bee this year!   Ms. Cannon and I have watched your child grow so much, both academically and socially, and we are both extremely honored to be a part of this process.  This will be our final week of preparation for first grade.  This week we will review many standards during literacy centers, guided math, and during our developmental center time.  I have almost completed our summer activity packets for you to enjoy this summer.  I will include a list of the websites I have chosen for both skill review and enrichment.  Here is a link to a list of our summer websites for my busy bees who would like to get an early start.  :)

Download Summer K Websites

This week we will have our literacy centers and guided math groups as usual.  We will have a new addition game that addresses our math standard of number combinations to ten called "Crawling Ladybug Number Combos".   We will be writing about important holidays: Memorial Day, Flag Day, and the Fourth of July.  Tuesday we will have a special art performance by the Woodruff Arts Center.  We are going to be composing memory books this week to take home (you will love them :)  On Wednesday, we will have our own reading tent day in our room.  Please feel free to send in a flashlight and favorite book for Wednesday afternoon.  Friday we will have a special time at our outdoor picnic tables and will share our memory books with one another. 

On Friday please remember that children may not bring lunch boxes, bookbags, water bottles, or any other personal items.  I will send home a reminder regarding this on Wednesday.  This is a county policy that we follow that helps keep everyone safe on the last day.

I am going to miss my sweeties so much :(  Remember to read, read, read and write over the summer!!!  You will receive great reading and writing ideas for summer this week in your packets.  Summer journeys are great writing topics!  Remember to visit Saturday storytime at the Mountain View Cobb County Library and check out some great books too. They have a book of AR levels if you would like to check out books on your child's current level. 

Please know I am available over the summer via email should you have any questions about our summer packets.  I have absolutely loved being a part of your child's growth this year, and can't wait to see you again in the fall!

Love, Ms. Henson

 

Weekly Buzz for May 11th

 I hope all moms have had a wonderful Mother's Day.  We enjoyed seeing you at Muffins for Mom on Friday!!!! Thanks so much to Ms. Story for being our Mystery Reader on Friday.  We love our mystery readers and appreciate the time they spend with us! 

This week we will be engaged in our regular schedule.  We are going to have fun engaging in some readers' theater scripts and will make puppets to match our parts.  We will continue to engage in number combinations to ten and will learn more about the concept of subtraction and how it relates to addition.  We will continue our study of plants, and will continue to discuss the importance/uses of their parts.  We are going to be reviewing lots of standards each day,  and our classroom store is helping out greatly with fair trades.

Summer activity idea packets will be sent home next week with lots of websites and activity suggestions to keep our reading, writing, and math skills strong over the summer.  Continue your great job of reading at home each evening, and continue to practice the new sight word lists sent last week.  :)  Enjoy the wonderful weather in the afternoons when you can.  I can't believe we are almost ready for the end of our wonderful year together.  I am looking forward to enjoying my last ten days with my very special, sweet group of students whom I love dearly.  Have a wonderful week!

Love, Ms. Henson

Lots Happening in The Hive for Week of April 4th!!

Thank you Ms. Glawatz for reading to our class on Friday!! :)  We love our mystery readers, and appreciate the time they take to visit and share their love for reading!

Important Upcoming Dates:

This Tuesday, May5th, is our End-Of-Year Kindergarten Musical Performance!  Please try to attend and remember your child needs to wear their GREEN tie-dye shirt and jeans (pants or skirts are fine).   Please drop your child off at Ms. Henson's classroom at 6:15 and then make your way to the cafeteria.  Don't forget those cameras because our busy bees have been really practicing!  (You may also want to bring a few tissues as this is such a special, memorable time for all. :)

Thursday, May7th, is our annual Field Day and Reading Celebration. Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers for your help! Please remember the following on this day:

• Dress your child in accordance with the current temperature for the day.
• Be sure to send a water bottle.
• Apply sunscreen before leaving for school.
• Remember socks and tennis shoes.
• Some games involve playing in water; you might want to send a change of clothes.

Friday, May 8th, is Muffins for M'Lady :)  We will celebrate all of our wonderful mothers whom we love dearly and appreciate so much! Please try to attend if you can and I look forward to seeing our fantastic moms!

Library books are due this week. Please remember to send any take-home readers in as well.

 Please remember to get plenty of rest this week as we have many special events, and we will also be working hard on academics as well.  Please continue your wonderful job of reading at home each evening!  I look forward to a wonderful remainder of the year together!

See You Soon!    Love, Ms. Henson

Weekly Buzz for April 27th

 We are going to have a great time tomorrow at the nature center.  When your child arrives home tomorrow, ask them if their predictions about the nature center were correct.  Ask them what standards we were able to review and learn more about while on our trip.

Important Field Trip Reminders:

• Remember to put sunscreen on your child.
• Remember green tie dye shirt!
• Remind your child that we will have a sack lunch.
• Wear good walking shoes!

What's Happening in The Hive This Week:

Math: We will continue to review number combinations and will start to engage in subtraction games and subtraction story problems.  Our classroom store is very popular and students are working hard on fair trades.

Writing: We will continue to work on writing Simple Directions for many things we know how to do and things we will learn how to do.  This week, we will write directions for planting different types of seeds and we will make a pizza!

Science/Social Studies: We are continuing our comparisons of plants.  Ask your child to name some roots we eat.  Ask them to explain the reasons we have flowers, and how they help humans and animals/insects.

Reading: We will continue to challenge with new sight word lists during guided reading groups and small group phonics/reading time.

Remember to mark your calendars for May 5th at 6:30.  This is our end-of-the-year performance and we are singing an adorable song!!!  Try to attend if you can! :) 

Have a great week!  Love, Ms. Henson

 

Happy Earth Week!

 This week we will be celebrating Earth Week!  We are officially a Green Classroom and we will be learning much more about recycling opportunities this week. 

We are going to read a special book on Wednesday entitled The Dumpster Diver. The main character of this book makes everything in his home from "used" items he finds in a dumpster.  Please choose one "used" item from home that could be used for something new.  For example, a soup can could be a pencil holder, etc.  Be creative and send in your "used" item by this Wednesday.  We will engage in a fun simple directions writing activity that will address our current 4th nine weeks writing genre as we write about our new creations.

In math this week we will continue our study of number combinations to ten as we explore number families, and we will also continue to make fair trades as we buy items in our classroom store.   In science this week we will plant two different types of seeds, and will also compare types of plants we are reading about.  We will respond during writers' workshop to the wonderful book, The Reason For A Flower, by Ruth Heller, and will compare different types of plants as we write.  Please continue your fantastic job of reading at home each evening, and remember to log book titles on our new reading logs. :)

Very Important Dates to Remember:

 

Our upcoming field trip to Wright Nature Center is scheduled for April 27th.  Please make sure you have returned the Field Trip Permission slip and donation this week. :)

End of the Year Kindergarten Performance has been scheduled for May 5th at 6:30 P.M.  We will begin practicing diligently this week for this very special evening.  As you remember from our holiday performance, our busy bees possess lots of musical talents... I can't wait for this special night. :)

May 7th is Kindergarten Field Day:  You will receive a note soon regarding parent volunteer opportunities.

May 8th will be our annual Muffins For M'Lady from 7:30 - 8:00.  Each student will choose a special lady to bring this day for muffins and special treats.  Please try to make plans to attend. :)

Have a great week!  Love, Ms. Henson

 

 

 

Weekly Buzz for Week of March 30th

Thanks so much for coming to our annual straw walk!  I had so much fun and the children did too.  Hope you enjoy many more spring walks and outside time with your child this spring!

Math This Week:   We will be building number combinations to 10, and we will also focus on making our doubles to 10 using ten grids and manipulatives.  (2 + 2 = 4, 3 + 3 = 6, etc.)   We will look at the pattern we see as we double numbers and will review five as a benchmark to 10.  Our Thinking Thursday problem this week is about bunnies at the White House and I will send home for you to see on Friday. :)

Science:  We will continue to read about and discuss baby animals and their parents.  We will also compare different baby animals according to needs and characteristics.

Writers' Workshop: We will work on writing simple directions as this is our fourth nine week genre for writing.  Writing directions can encompass any task your child does at home or at school.  We will read a great book entitled Growing Frogs and will write directions for how to raise a frog from an egg.  This will address two standards, baby animals and writing simple directions.  After modeling and interactive writing, your child will write simple directions for things they know how to do.

** Please keep sight word review lists I send home this week.  I don't expect reviewing over your break, though... just save the list for the week of April 13th. :)

Important Dates:

Funny hat day and spirit day are this Friday.

Spring Break will begin on Monday, April 6th!!  Have a happy and safe spring break and I will see you on April 13th.  :) 

Love, Ms. Henson

Kindergarten Registration is April 1st!!

Attention Parents,
Please share the following information with your neighbors and friends who may have upcoming Kindergarten and new First Grade students within our Keheley district.

April 1st is Keheley Kindergarten and New First Grader Registration.
Registration with begin at 8:30 and will end at 11:00 at Keheley Elementary School.  Kindergarten students must be 5 years old on or before September 1.  First grade students must be 6 years old on or before September 1. Parents are not required to bring their children with them on April 1st.   We look forward to meeting all of our new Keheley Kindergarten and new First Grade cougars!!!  We hope to see a very big group!!!

Keheley Kindergarten Orientation for new upcoming Kindergarten students will be May 6th from 8:45 - 10:30 am.

Thank You to Ms. Lovello and Ms. Stephens for spending time with our class on Friday, so Ms. Henson and Ms. Cannon could enjoy their yummy lunch provided by our awesome PTA.  Thank you so much too for all of the absolutely beautiful flowers.  Our bouquets were so colorful and each flower was unique... just like our sweeties who we love so dearly.   We love you bunches, Keheley parents!!!  You truly are the best :) 

We have a mystery reader this Friday!!!   Guess who...

In math this week:
We will begin to really focus on number combinations.  For example, what are all of the ways we can make the number five?  (5 and 0, 4 and 1, 3 and 2, 2 and 3, etc.)  We will make this fun as we address our standard as we use our Leprechaun Loot, our March raindrop manipulatives, and our ladybugs hiding under leaves.  We will continue to review money concepts along with number combinations in our math tubs.

In science...
We will continue our poetry reading about baby animals and will compare baby animals with their adult parents.

In Social Studies...
We will continue to review our American Symbols, as this continues to be a standard for our fourth nine weeks... wow, I can't believe we are already there!

Important Dates Coming Up:

• Report cards will arrive home on Tuesday.  Please read the comments and discuss with your child; this copy is for you to keep, along with the report card copy you receive.  Please do not hesitate to call me if you have any questions or concerns.
• Our Annual Straw Walk will be this Friday.  Ms. Henson has been walking and enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend... we hope to see you on Friday.  Please bring grandparents, relatives, and neighbors to this fantastic, super fun event.  I have hopes for a beautiful day. :)

Have a wonderful week and I will see you on Friday... don't forget to remind all neighbors and friends about Kindergarten and 1st Grade registration on April 1st!!!!!!!

What's the Buzz for March 16th?

Thank you Mrs. Stephens for coming to read to our class on Friday and thank you so much for the adorable book and treats!   We love you and all of our busy bee parents!  Thank you Mrs. Oberbeck for donating your computer cover sheets to our class. :)
This week, we will continue to review important facts about our American Symbols.  We will complete a fun writing activity this week as we compare our own house to the White House! 
In math this week, we will begin our study of clocks and time and how these relate to our daily schedules.  Please begin to ask your little one questions about morning, afternoon, and night time activities and you may discuss time to the hour in relation to these activities.  Our standard focuses on the relationship between our daily schedules and time.  Our new math tubs this week will incorporate money into leprechaun games and leprechaun pots!  Please continue to practice making fair trades to 30 cents using pennies and nickels and pennies and dimes. 
In writing this week, we will be reviewing capitalization, stretching out our sentences, juicy describing words, phonetic spelling, and narrative story sequences. 
Thank you for doing a fantastic job of reading at home and coloring those shamrocks!!  Keep up the great reading!!  Remember to keep reviewing sight words as needed.
I will be sending home updated sight word lists this week.
Our letter this week is Zz and our shared reading will address our science standard that relates to baby and adult animals. 

What's Coming Up Soon:
March 16-20  Staff Appreciation Week
March 20-27  Book Fair
March 27  Straw Walk and Spirit Day
April 1:  Kindergarten Registration!! Tell your neighbors and friends with upcoming Kindergarteners :)
April 2  Skate Night at Hot Wheels 6:00 - 8:00
April 3   Spirit Day
April 6 - 10   Spring Break

Have A Fantastic Week and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Love, Ms. Henson

Weekly Buzz for March 2nd

I hope everyone enjoyed the snow yesterday!  I read some very descriptive stories about snow adventures during our Monday journal time, so congratulate your busy bee on their great writing.  This week during our Writer's workshop time we will be working on stretching out our sentences through the use of juicy describing words.  We will also work on correct use of /is/ and /are/ when we write sentences,  since subject-verb agreement is one of our K standards. 
Thank you for doing such a great job of reading at home. As you know, our weekly homework will be reading each evening, and we will continue to have our "We Are Writing" on Wednesday.  Please just remember to sign the reading log after you and your busy bee read the books we send.  Please know that supplemental reading in books at home that your little one enjoys is equally important.
This week our letter is Xx.  There are no sight words this week.  We will be working on making vowel conversions for CVC words ending in /x/.  For example, how do we change "fox" to "fix", etc.  This practice reinforces recognition of all those short vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, and u.   Please continue to practice sight word lists. :)
We will continue to work on our American Symbols this week through guided and shared reading.  We will discuss wants and needs and incorporate into our Writer's Workshop time. 

Upcoming Important Dates:

• Early Release Day on Tuesday
• Wear slippers on Tuesday and donate $1.00 for Relay For Life
• Be sure to log your Walking For Wellness miles each week.  Be sure to ask family members to walk with you and tally all miles walked!!!!
• Spirit Day is this Friday.

Have a wonderful week!!!        Love, Ms. Henson

Slipper Day!

Dear Busy Bees and Parents,
Tuesday, March 3rd will be "Slipper Day" at Keheley.  Children may bring their slippers with them in their bookbags and slip on after they arrive at school.  A one dollar donation to our Relay For Life school fundraiser will help benefit cancer research.  :)   Any slippers will be fine, as we can slip our shoes on when we need to during the day.  Have a great weekend!
Love, Ms. Henson