Ms. Henson's Busy Bees

Reading Strategies for Busy Bees

Important Dates for the Week:

Our media center time will be this Tuesday.

Keheley food drive begins this week.  Thank you for supporting our community!

Reading In The Hive:

Our letter this week is Cc.  Cc has two sounds that we will practice in isolation and within words. Soft /c/ can be heard at the beginning of the word, circle.  Hard /c/ can be heard at the beginning of /cat/. Our snappy words are can and come. Practice rainbow writing and position clapping these words this week. :)  Remember to review our previously learned snappy words as well. During our shared and guided reading time this week, we will learn how to use what we already know and illustrations to better understand our stories and poems.  We will learn how to make inferences because sometimes an author wants us to learn things that the text or words don't tell us.  We will make connections between what we know about a topic and what we see in our illustrations.  We will visualize what we already know and will create pictures in our minds to help us understand our stories better. This week I will be sending home standards commentary in your child's reading bag.  As your child reads to you this week, ask them to tell you about the pictures we use to show we know our new reading standard!

Thankful Authors!

This week we will write about the many things we are thankful for.  This will fit in nicely with our nonfiction informational writing genre. We will read books about Thanksgiving today and long ago.  We will use our double bubble thinking map to compare and contrast similarities and differences between these two time periods. We will continue to write complete sentences that match our pictures and will continue to stretch out our sentences by using more juicy describing words.  

Social Studies: Veteran's Day

We will celebrate Veteran's Day on Wednesday.  Do you have a family member who is a veteran?? I have three World War II veterans in my family and will be bringing pictures to share.  If you have any pictures of veterans in your family and would like to share, please send on Wednesday. :) We will discuss who veterans are and why we celebrate this special day.  As we share pictures of people we know and read picture books about this special day, we will make lasting connections that will help us remember this standard.

Marvelous Math:

This week we will continue to focus on number words, the 3 dimensional shapes cube and sphere, and writing/building numbers 0-20  during our morning rap and centers.  Please add the number words one through ten to your snappy word list.  We have made great progress with reading these words and will go deeper into this standard by matching sets and number symbols to our number words.  This week you will receive a math words game that will be lots of fun for you to play at home. :)

 
Our Holiday Performance is fast approaching.  Please send in one Santa hat for your child to wear by December 1st. :)  The song we will prepare for you is a surprise, but your little one probably won't be able to resist singing some of it for you soon!

Have a fantastic week!  

 

 

 

The Buzz for our Short Week

 

Important Highlights:

• No school on Tuesday! Staff Development for Teachers.
• We will visit the media center on Wednesday.
• Firefighters will visit and talk about fire safety on Wednesday.

Thank you to our mystery readers!!!  We love you and appreciate your time on Fridays. :)  When you share your love for reading, a lasting memory is created in the minds of little ones who are establishing their love for books!

Standards This Week:

Reading Standards:
 Our busy bees will be learning new good reading habits this week:  During our shared and small group guided reading, we will learn how to use strategies to learn new vocabulary words.  Using picture clues, words or word parts we already know, and reflecting on the title of a book and its cover illustration help us to learn new vocabulary.  We can reflect on the words we know and study pictures for details.  These strategies provide us with readiness to decode new vocabulary words.  Ask your child who "Eagle Eye" and "Chunky Monkey" are.  Eagle Eye is an eagle who stays in our class and teaches us to use our "eagle eyes" when we look for picture details.  Chunky Monkey helps us look for small chunks inside of larger words. (Example: sing. /ing/ is a chunk we know inside of the word sing.) Our letter this week is Oo and our weekly sight words are one and on.  Position clap and practice rainbow writing this week. :) Remember to practice our snappy words that we have already learned.  We will begin to learn our number words zero - ten during math rap.  Add the number words one through ten to your set of snappy words this week for practice. 

 

Writing Standards:
 We will continue to work on writing complete sentences that match our illustrations.  We are working on adding details to our pictures that provide us with opportunities for interesting personal narratives.  Our writing genre is nonfiction personal narrative and we will compose a three sentence story about ourselves (by writing one sentence with an accompanying illustration each day).  We will continue to focus on good word choice...juicy describing words make our sentences much more exciting. We sing the Six Plus One Trait song for word choice each day. Ask your child to sing for you! It helps us to remember to stretch out our sentences.  Please reflect with your child using the commentary I have written on stories sent home.  We give "glows" and "grows"  (discuss our writing strengths and opportunities for growth) during our daily writing time.  I am so proud of my students for the growth they have shown in their writing! 

Math Standards:

We will continue to compare and contrast 2 and 3 dimensional shapes.  Our math centers this week will continue to focus on number sense.  We are building teen numbers using base ten blocks and will continue to practice writing these numbers correctly.  Continue to practice writing numbers 11-20 using your number cards. :)  We are still reversing a few of our numbers and we will practice each day.

Social Studies/Science:

We will continue to review our county, city, state, country, and continent. We will begin our study of gravity.  We will compare different sizes of objects and discuss why some fall down faster than others.  We will learn that our earth is a giant magnet!

Have a wonderful week and remember to read, read, read!! New book bags will come home this week. :)

Love, Ms. Henson and Ms. Caldararo

 

Weekly Buzz for Week of October 26th

Weekly Reminders:

Please return media center books by Wednesday :)

Remember to send in a water bottle and healthy snack each day with your child.

Reading Standards in the Hive:

Our unit this week focuses on identifying details in shared reading and guided reading texts.  We will also continue to practice identifying our story elements: Setting, Main Character, Beginning, Middle, and End.  As you read at home, ask your child to tell you details that describe a character or details that describe an event in the story you are reading.  Also ask them to tell you the setting (where the story takes place), who is the main character, and ask them to tell you the beginning, middle, and end orally. Our sight words this week are in, is, it, and I.  Practice rainbow writing at home and ask your child to position clap for you.  Play "I Spy" with a familiar book or use a magnifying glass with a magazine.  Ask your child to discover their new weekly words. :) Our letter this week is Ii.  Ii is one of our five vowels we learn this year, and it has two sounds.  /i/ as in igloo and /i/ as in ice cream.  We will be building words with both sounds.  Ask your child to tell you about the magic /e/ rule... a final /e/ can pinch the /i/ that comes before him and make him say his name. An example would be the word "dime". 

Writing in the Hive:

We will be writing about our class this week and will compose detail sentences that describe objects in our classroom and our friends.  We call this type of writing nonfiction, informational writing.  We will learn the 6 + 1 trait song for organization this week to help us remember the importance of organizing our sentences to provide information.  Ask your child to sing our new song to you. We will continue to write complete five star sentences that match our illustrations.  Ask your child to tell you the parts of a five star sentence.  I will have a bonus box included on our homework this week, and if your child can name all five parts they will receive a special treat! :)

Math in the Hive:

Our new math center this week will be "build a dime".  Continue to ask your child to make fair trades using pennies and nickels and pennies and dimes. For example, how could we use pennies and a nickel to make a fair trade for one dime?  We will compare and contrast shapes using our double bubble thinking map.  What is a similarity between a sphere and cube?  They are both 3 dimensional shapes.  What is a difference between the two?  A sphere can roll and a cube cannot.  We will be counting and comparing corners and sides for our 2 dimensional shapes: triangle, rectangle, square, and circle.  (the circle has neither :)

Science and Social Studies: We will be reviewing where we live this week and will be learning the city and county in which we live.  The best way to teach that we live in the county of Cobb is to ask your child what county is shown on the side of our school buses.  Please review that we live in the city of Marietta, state of Georgia, country:United States, and continent of North America.  Our little ones have spatial skills that are still developing and it is much harder for them to recognize size differences on maps.  Talking about the places in which we live and providing examples through pictures makes it much easier for five and six year olds to make connections and retain in long term memory.

Have a great week!

Love, Ms. Henson

Special Buzz for the Week:

• We will visit the media center this Friday.
• Early Release is this Wednesday: Our lunch will be at a different time.
• This week is "Red Ribbon Week" and we have fun activities planned:  Wednesday is "wear red day".  On Thursday, we will wear the colors of our favorite sports team as a reminder that sports and exercise keep us healthy. Friday will be Keheley spirit day. "Drug Free Is The Healthy Way To Be".
• Our second nine week period begins this week!
• Remember to return guided reading books so I can send a new one home.

Standards In the Hive This Week: 

Reading Standards:

This week during shared and guided reading, we will make connections between ourselves and the text we read.  We understand our stories better when we think about our own experiences and make connections to characters and events.  As you read this week, ask your child to compare themselves to a main character, and compare a setting to a place they may have visited. We will continue to use picture clues and chunking as we read.  Miss Chunk and her friend Chunky Monkey will help us find smaller chunks inside of larger words. (Examples: because, doing, ant) Ask your child to find chunks as they read each evening, and discuss how the illustrations on each page help us figure out words we might not yet know.  Our sight words this week are little, like, and look. Please continue to practice a, and, away, it, is, see, said, the, me, my, make, did, down, like, blue, red, green, yellow, orange, ever, each, brown, purple, play, black, the, and to. Ask your child to position clap and sing our sight word letter songs for our words. :)

Writing Standards:

 We will begin our third writing unit: “Writing About What We Know”. We will begin by learning how to write a personal narrative.  I will model this on the easel as students assist me with word choice, sentence order, and sounding out words together.  We will "share the pen" at our easel and write nonfiction narratives about our friends and other things we know about . During journal time, I will be conferencing with children and giving Glows (writing standards met or exceeded) and Grows (writing standards that we will water so they can grow). We will address our standard of writing complete sentences and will sing a Six Plus One Trait song about word choice.  (My cat sat. versus My fluffy,white cat sat.) We want to use describing words that provide details for our readers, and this is good word choice. We will continue to ensure that our sentences match our illustrations and will use labeled pictures to assist us with sentence writing.

Math:

We will continue to make fair trades and will add the dime to our daily fair trades.  Ask your child to “fair trade” pennies for one dime and pennies for one nickel.  We will discuss the differences in appearance between the dime and the penny, and you can reinforce this at home as well.  “Which one is thicker and bigger in size?” (Nickel)  We will count, build, and compare sets, and will practice correct numeral formation during guided math this week.  Continue to practice counting to 20  and use the number cards we sent home as a grade level (if you need another set, just let me know)  We will compare our 2 dimensional shapes this week (circle, triangle, square, & rectangle) and will transform one of our shapes into something special! Ask your child to recall the similarities and differences between a square and rectangle.

Science:

We will continue to learn about the forces that create motion.  We will focus on identifying objects that roll, those that do not roll, those that can be pushed, and those that can be pulled.

Have a wonderful week!!

Love, Ms. Henson & Ms. Caldararo

Cobb Chrismas Program

Dear Parents,

Please read the attached letter for information regarding the Cobb Christmas Program that assists families during the winter holidays.  The registration for this event will be on Tuesday, October 20th at the Cobb County Civic Center.  For directions, specific times, and items needed for registration, please read the letter attached.

Have a great weekend :)Download Cobb Christmas Program

Ms. Henson

The Buzz for Week of October 12th

Happy Columbus Day to everyone!  We will celebrate this special holiday on Monday and will make a necklace that represents the three ships!  We will read a story entitled 1492 and will write important facts about Christopher Columbus.  Ask your child this week why we celebrate this special holiday!

Language Arts Happenings in the Hive: This week during shared reading we will practice the skill of retelling and summarizing a story, and will read the book Sunflower.  This ties in nicely with our planting that we completed on Friday. :)  Good readers can better understand, review, and organize the events and information from books they read when they learn how to apply the very important skills of retelling and summarizing.  You can practice summarizing at home; ask your child to tell you what a favorite book is about in one or two sentences.  Also encourage them to retell a familiar story in correct sequence, and discuss/identify the beginning, middle, and end. This week our sight words are the and to.   Thank you for continuing to reinforce sight word recognition at home.  Remember to look for this week's sight words during your nightly reading time. :)  Remember to position clap these words and ask your busy bee to sing the sight word songs for both words.  Remember to send guided reading  books back this week so I may send home another great book for practice.   Remember to listen for fluency as your child reads their small group reading book to you:  This means that we want to read like we are talking (with fluency and expression).

During Writers' Workshop time this week we will begin our unit on Informational Writing.  When we write about what we know, such as writing details about a special friend, this is informational writing.  We will focus on word choice this week and will add juicy describing words to our sentences.  For example: "The cat is sitting." lacks appropriate word choice.  "The fluffy, white cat is sitting" has much better choice of words that makes our writing much more interesting.  We will continue to focus on writing complete sentences, and will discuss correct organization of sentences to tell an informational story.

Math Happenings in the Hive:  This week we will discuss the three dimensional shapes "cube" and "sphere".  Look for these around you... blocks, balls, globes, etc.  and ask your child to name the 3-dimensional shape.  We will also compare rectangles, squares, circles, and triangles. You can find examples of these at home, and ask your child to name the number of sides and corners of each.  Which shape has more corners, a triangle or a square? etc. We will continue to make fair trades and will look closely at the dime: How much it is worth and how many pennies we need to make a fair trade.

Weekly Reminders:

We have super specials on Friday:  Remember to wear sneakers.

We will go to the media center on Wednesday.  Remember to bring in library books :)

If you have signed up to be a mystery reader and something comes up that prevents you from coming, just phone the school to let us know :)  We love our mystery readers!!

Have a fantastic week!!  Love, Ms. Henson & Ms. Caldararo

The Buzz for the Week of October 5th

I hope everyone had fun at our fall festival.  I can't wait to hear about all of the fun my busy bees had!!! Thank you for volunteering your time for this very special event.

Important Dates & Reminders:

Keheley will be participating in the MUST ministries diaper drive.  Any donations will be greatly appreciated. :) 

Wednesday is picture day!!!!!!!!! Remember to dress your little one for the camera!!!

Thursday is Hot Wheels Skate Night from 6:00-8:00pm

What's Happening In The Hive This Week:

Reading: During shared reading, we will learn how the patterns words make in books help us to become better readers.  If you have rhyming books at home, discuss how these books help us to predict what words we will read on each page.  This week I am enclosing a letter regarding guided reading books that will come home.  Our students are so excited about the books they are reading during reading groups; please read the enclosed note that arrives home with each book and follow activity suggestions.

Our letter this week is Pp.  We will practice correct letter formation and will learn the snappy sight word play.  Please review all previously learned sight words with your child. Remember that we position clap our snappy words (ask your child to show you), Play "I Spy" as you read together and look for our sight words we have learned.  You can also practice building snappy words with magnetic letters on a cookie sheet.

Writing: We will begin to learn what a describing word is and how we use these in our writing.  We will learn that we can "stretch out" our sentences and add a juicy describing word.  We have watermelon cards that we will write on to keep track of the new describing words we use in our writing.  We call our describing words we use "juicy describing words" and they make our writing more interesting!  We will continue to work on the conventions for writing simple complete sentences and will make sure our sentences match our illustrations.  We will continue to label our pictures because these words help us write a more detailed narrative.  I will model how to write a short narrative story that is composed of three sentences. We will add describing words as we write interactively as a class on large chart paper. The students will select the topic!!!

Math: During math we will review fair trades using nickels and pennies, writing numbers 0-10, making sets for numbers 0-10, recognizing seasons, recognizing days of week, recognizing months of year, creating/extending/transferring patterns, and comparing sets.   I will introduce the dime this week, and we will learn  how many pennies are in a dime.  We will show these on our ten grids.  You can use real coins at home to reinforce, and ask your child how many pennies they would need to make a fair trade for a dime... and how many pennies to trade for a nickel.   

Social Studies and Science:  We will review identification of the four seasons, and the changes between the seasons. We will continue to match baby animals with their mothers. We will read a book about our Pledge of Allegiance.

Have a wonderful Week! 

Love, Ms. Henson & Ms. Caldararo 

 I just want to thank all of our families for your support last week during the endless rain.  We are fortunate that Keheley was not damaged by the downpours. :) We will be writing a letter to a Kindergarten class at Compton Elementary this week.  My hopes are that we will all be safe and dry on Monday :)

Math in the Hive:  We will continue to build number sets to 10 and will continue to focus on correct numeral formation.  We will be comparing sets and using the vocabulary, "more than", "less than", and "equal".  We will play a game that will reinforce counting forwards and backwards, and will learn what it means to "count on" from a number.  When you ask your child to write a number from 1-10 at home, be sure to expect correct numeral formation. Ask your child to say our number chants as they write.  (e.g. "Number one is like a stick, a straight line down that is very quick.)

Language Arts:  Ee is our letter this week.  Ee is a vowel and has two sounds.  /e/ as in egg and /e/ as in even.  Please continue to practice our previously learned sight snappy words at home.  Remember that we don't sound these words out and we must read them in a snap.  The children will make sight word cards during one literacy center this week and will bring home for practice.  You can play "I Spy" when reading together and look for our previously learned sight words in books together. We will continue to write complete sentences and Ms. Henson will model how to write a short story about the season of af fall.  The Apple Pie Tree will be our book response selection this week.  Small reading groups are off to a great start!!!  Any small books that are sent home should just be returned in ziplock bags I have provided.

Remember that our fall festival is this Friday from 5:00-7:00.  This will be a fun-filled event for the whole family!  Try to come if you can! :)

Our libary time was changed due to the weather last week, and will be on Monday. This is our first book check out!!! 

Please remember that I strive to always be available to answer any questions, address any concerns, and contact my parents when any need to do so arises. Your child's academic and emotional success is my complete focus for each day.  If you have new phone numbers, please remember to just send those to me so I can file and access when needed.

Have a terrific week!  Love, Ms. Henson and Ms. Caldararo :)

Fall Is Here!

I can't believe that fall is almost here!  Let's all hope that the rain will subside soon! :)

Important Dates This Week:

• Our first book check out is this Friday!!!
• Curriculum Coffee is tomorrow! :)
• Bruster's Night is this Tuesday from 6-8pm
• Keheley Movie night is this Friday.

What's Happening In The Hive This Week:

Reading: The children are so excited about their guided reading groups!  We will focus on tracking words, finding familiar sight words, and using picture clues during our small reading groups.  Our word families this week are the /et/ family, the /eg/ family, and the /en/ family.  Talk to your child about the rhyming sort that will come home on Friday.  Ask them to say the rhyming pictures for each group and listen closely to the ending sounds. Our shared reading this week will be about baby animals and we will write about their different needs.  Our sight words this week are "did", and "down".  Ask your child to position clap for you and to sing our sight word songs for 3 and 4 letter words.  Our letter this week is Dd.  We will read a rhyme about letter Dd as we review the sound, and we will learn the correct letter formation.

Writing: Our writer's workshop time this week will focus on writing the beginning sounds of words we want to use in our writing.  Our little authors are doing a fantastic job of labeling their pictures, and we will continue to work hard to write sentences that match our pictures. We will celebrate the first day of fall by writing a story about this beautiful season.

Math:  We will continue to count pennies and make fair trades for a nickel.  In our math centers/tubs this week we will learn how to play a game called "Race To The Bank".  We will continue to practice building sets on ten grids, and will practice correct formation of numbers.  We use ten grids to count pennies and other manipulatives. Ask your child to share some of the items they have counted on our ten grids. We will continue to work on creating, extending, and transferring patterns. Our thinking Thursday problem will be related to trading our pennies for nickels.

Social Studies: In our literacy centers this week we will make a book about our state, country, and continent.

Science: We will learn names of baby animals, how they change as they grow, and what they need to survive.

Have a wonderful week!   Love, Ms. Henson

 

Weekly Buzz for September 15th

Upcoming Events:

Remember our Kindergarten Curriculum Coffee on September 21st from 7:30 - 8:30.  Several highlights will be shared about our literacy curriculum. Try to attend if you can.

We will visit the media center this Wednesday.

Spirit Day and P.E. Fun Day:  Friday, September 18th. 

Literacy in the Hive this week:

Our snappy sight words are me, my, and make.  Remember that we don't sound these words out; we read them in a "snap".  Our letter of the week is Mm. We will practice letter formation for Mm and will build words with Mm in the initial and final positions.  We will sort words into three rhyming groups this week.  Ask your child to produce rhymes for "pot", "top", and "fog".  For example, ask your child to tell you a word that rhymes with each.  Discuss the rhyming pictures that will come home this week on our weekly sorting sheet, and listen to the ending sounds that make the words rhyme as you say them together.  Nursery rhymes and rhyming books are another great way to reinforce rhyme recognition.

During our writers' workshop time, we will continue to write sentences that begin with a capital letter at the beginning, a period at the end, and finger spaces  between each word.  We said goodbye to "I" on Friday, and discussed how we will try to write sentences that begin with words other than "I" when we write.  We will write our first book response this week to Garden Zoo and will talk about the different ways we can respond to the books we read.

In our shared reading, we will discuss how to make predictions using the cover and title of our weekly big book.  Our small group guided reading was introduced last week during literacy centers, and the children are so excited to begin reading in small groups!  Interactive writing occurs throughout our day; we love to write together!

Math: We will continue to build and write numbers 0-10 and will play a fun ordinal number game after reading Seven Blind Mice.  We will review our positional words, graphing skills, and will estimate within a range as we learn good estimation skills.

Science/Social Studies:  We will continue to learn our country, continent, and state in which we live.  Any opportunities to look at maps together and find the U.S., North America, and Georgia will help reinforce this at home.  Please continue to practice address and phone number.

Have a wonderful week!