Week of January 30, 2012

Dear Parents:

Grandparents/Special Friends Day was a huge success! It was so nice to meet and chat with them and extra nice to see some again from years past. The children were so proud to show them our classroom, their work, and to tell them about their school day. Being a grandparent now, I look forward to one day visiting my grandchild's classroom! Be sure to go to our class Shutterfly site (link on the right) to see pictures from Friday. I will be posting pictures from our writing celebration in the next day or two. I will also add to the existing albums as the year goes. As always, Susannah and I would love for others to post pictures to share. At the end of the year, you will have a treasure of pictures that you can use to create an album of your child's year in first grade!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend. I spent a lot of time just sitting outside with my little dog, Cody. He loves being outside and, with his health issues, he seems to have an easier time outside. In fact, I am writing this blog as I sit on my front porch with him. What a great way to work while enjoying the weather and chatting with the neighbors as they walk and ride their bikes. I love living in Florida!

It's going to be another busy week in first grade beginning with our writing celebration Monday morning! Please take a look at what we will be doing in 1-4:

Language Arts: Our phonics focus this week is on long vowel /a/ with silent e, spelled a-e as in make. The phonograms this week are -ake, -ame, and -ate. We will continue to work on describing words (adjectives). Each Monday night's homework now requires your child to compose and write sentences using the new high frequency words from their word card ring. Please encourage your child to begin each sentence with a capital letter and end it with the correct punctuation mark. I have also challenged the children to create stronger sentences by using describing words and including more information. Ask your child if they answer these questions in their sentences... "who, what, where, when, why, and how". Our rule of thumb is if you are 6 years old, you should try to have at least 6 words in your sentence and if you are 7, you should try to write a sentence with at least 7 words.

There are links for some sites on the right side of this blog for spelling and reading practice. Try them out with your child if you haven't yet!

Reading Workshop: We continue to work on fluency by concentrating on phrasing and voice inflection as we read. We want to sound as if we are talking when we read. We will also begin working with the genre of nonfiction. We'll learn about the features of nonfiction books and that good readers use nonfiction books to pursue an interest and learn all they can about a topic.

Writing Workshop: We have completed our unit on writing for readers and published our stories! The children have worked hard to make their writing easy to read and are so excited about our writing celebration! We hope you can join us as a reader at 10:45 Monday. Our hope is that our stories will be easy for our readers to read and understand. There will be a comment sheet at the back of each story for each reader of the story to make comments and compliments to the writer. Prepare to be amazed at your child's progress! If you are unable to join us, I will share your child's story with you at our upcoming conference. Our next unit focuses on the craft of revision.

Math: We will be completing unit 5 this week. The children will be working with the "What's My Rule?" routine - finding and applying rules, finding the output and input numbers for given rules, and using the function machine. We'll take the unit 5 assessment. Watch for it to come home later this week. We will also celebrate the 100th day of school on Friday! Can you believe we will have been in school for 100 days? Wow! Time flies! The children will be involved in several activities that revolve around the number 100. Please note on the homework calendar that your child has been assigned to bring in 100 pieces of a particular ingredient for our 100th Day Snack Mix. Please be sure to have these in by Wednesday.

Science: The children have been paired with partners and are working hard on a research project on a particular planet. They have worked both in the computer lab and in the classroom. They will soon be deciding how they would like to present their research. Then, they'll become the teachers when they present their projects and "teach" a class of older lower school students about the planets!

Special Note:

Sam's mother, Julia Wenniger, would love to be a fill-in for volunteers if you can't make it. She would need a little advance notice. Please contact me if you need her number or email address.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Debbie Boensch
  
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 (note time change) - Natalie Ames
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:00 - Kimberly Burke
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Kelli Cross
  

Other important news and reminders:

"Aesop's Fables" will be performed in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, February 7th at 1:00 p.m. You are welcome to join your child in watching the performance.

Conference Day - Thursday, February 9th - no school for students

No school on Friday, February 17th - Professional Development Day for teachers

No school on Monday, February 20th - President's Day

Class Picture Day - Wednesday, February 29th

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, February 29th

Science Week - February 27th - March 8th

Oldie Goldie Book Fair - Friday, February 24th - Begin gathering books to donate now!

Field Day - Friday, March 9th

Ident-a-Kid - Wednesday, March 21st

Whew! That's all for now! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the beautiful Florida weather!
Susan

Special News!

Dear Parents:

Tomorrow is Grandparents/Special Friends Day. The children are to wear their uniforms rather than spirit clothes. Dismissal is at noon. If your child is leaving before noon, they will need to be signed out at the classroom by the adult they are leaving with.

Writing Celebration!

You are invited to our Writing Celebration! The children have focused this month on writing for readers. They have worked hard to make their writing easy to read and have each published a new book. If you are able to, please join us in the classroom at 10:45 on Monday. We have also invited their former and some future teachers. Be prepared to burst with pride! If you are unable to make it, I will share their story with you at our conference.

Have a great weekend!
Susan

Week of January 23, 2012

Dear Parents:

Happy National Handwriting Day! Today we read the book, Hallie's Horrible Handwriting, and talked about how our handwriting says a lot about us. We then practiced our handwriting, of course. We all made promises to always try our best.

The children were in for a real treat on Friday when our parent reader, Kimberly Burke, came to our classroom to read. The children loved the books she brought to read. But most of all, they LOVED the mad libs she did with them! They had such fun filling in the blanks and then hearing the funny and nonsensical stories they helped to write! I wonder if they realized they were learning and practicing things like nouns, verbs, and adjectives...

You received a Relay for Life Letter and Flyer in your child's folder last week. The letter explains the cook-out, class links, and donations to the American Cancer Society. The hot dog cook-out will be on Wednesday, February 15. There will be no Sage Dining offered that day. Please complete and return the form indicating whether your child will be bringing a bag lunch from home or purchasing a hot dog lunch.

What do you know about sun safety? Have your child write a winning essay and maybe win a shade structure for our school! There is a contest for Florida elementary school students. They write an essay of 500 words or less on why you should protect yourself from the sun and why your school should be awarded a shade structure. If your child would like to try writing an essay on this, the essay needs to be returned to me no later than this Friday, January 27th. You may get more information at fsdds.org or emailing sunshadecontest@fsdds.org or by calling the FSDDS office at 904-880-0023.

What else is going on in our classroom this week?

Language Arts/Reading Workshop: We are working on words with the long a sound spelled ay and ai .During reading workshop, we will be learning that readers make sure they understand what they are reading by reading tricky parts aloud. We'll also work on our reading fluency by reading in a voice that sounds like we are talking and by reading text in phrases to make our reading sound smooth.

Writing Workshop: This week we are working on stories about our grandparents or special friends that we will publish and put up to share with them on Friday!

Math: We continue to work on turn-around facts, easy facts, and will be introducing the "What's My Rule?" routine.

Science: Gung Hay Fat Choy! Or... best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year! Today we learned how the Chinese follow a lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon. This is the Year of the Dragon and those born this year are good friends because they listen carefully to others. We also looked up our birth years. Those born in 2004 in the Year of the Monkey are very funny and are also good problem solvers! Those born in 2005 in the year of the Rooster are hard workers and deep thinkers!

We will also continue to learn more about the planets of our solar system.

Other important things to remember:

After school programs/clubs begin this week!

Grandparents/Special Friends Day is this Friday! Noon dismissal - If your child is leaving before noon, please make sure they are signed out in the classroom.

"Aesop's Fables" will be performed in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, February 7th at 1:00 p.m. You are welcome to join your child in watching the performance.

No school on Friday, Feb. 17th - Professional Development Day for teachers
No school on Monday, Feb. 20th - President's Day

Science Week: February 27 - March 8

Class Picture Day - Wednesday, February 29

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, February 29

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Jill Emerson
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Kimberly Burke
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:05 - Kimberly Burke
• Friday - Parent Reader - 11:30 - Julia Wenniger

Have a terrific week!
Susan

Week of January 17, 2012

Dear Parents:

The kids were "OUT OF THIS WORLD" at Town Meeting last week! I am so proud of them! I had several teachers comment about how much they and their students enjoyed our presentation of riddles on the solar system. It was fun! I hope you were able to be there!

Three important reminders!

First, several of the children are still forgetting to return their Word Cards on time. Word card rings are to be returned each THURSDAY. These are part of their "homework" and will be included in their homework grade on the upcoming report cards. Please held them with this responsibility!

Second, photographs of grandparents or special friends are due by Friday! Please send one in even if your child will not be having grandparents or a special friend attend on Grandparents Day. We will be spending time in Writing Workshop writing about our grandparents or special friends. Those children that do not have grandparents/special friends attending will be paired up with another child and their guests to tour the school.

Lastly, if you have NOT signed up for a conference with me, please do so as soon as possible. I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you!

This is a short week at school, but still jam-packed with fun and learning. This week in...

Language Arts: Our phonics focus will be on words with long vowel /e/ spelled e, ee, and ea. We will be working with contractions 've and 're and describing words for color, size, and shape. We will also talk about cause and effect.

Reading Workshop: I will be reminding the children that reading should always make sense. So this week, our focus will be on making sure we understand what we are reading. The children will learn that smart readers make sure they understand what they are reading by asking themselves, "Do I understand what I am reading?" and fix it when they don't. The children will also practice going back to look at pictures and rereading parts to understand what they are reading.

Writing Workshop: Our unit on "Writing for Readers" is ending. The children have chosen their piece for publishing and will continue working with their editing partners and then "fancy up" the piece for publishing!

Math: We will continue practicing solving number stories. This week also brings more math fact practice with dice sums, turn-around facts (3+4=7 and 4+3=7), and easy facts (+1 and +0).

Science: Our Solar System unit continues as we learn specifics about the planets. This week the children will be making their own model of Saturn!

Important Dates and Events:

The After School Programs start the week of January 23.

Grandparents Day will take on Friday, January 27. There will be a noon dismissal. The schedule for the morning is as follows: 8:30-9:00 AM, Continental Breakfast in the Student Center; 9:00-9:45 AM, program for grandparents and special friends in the Janet Root Theatre; 10:00 -11:00 AM, grandparents/friends visit classrooms and tour campus; and, noon dismissal. Please note, it is very important that grandparents or special friends sign children out in their classroom if they are taking them home before dismissal.

The Big Event is on Friday, February 3, starting at 6:30PM. Reserve your tickets at http://gala.shorecrest.org. "Totally '80s Prom" is the theme.

Aesop's Fables will be performing in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, Feb. 7th at 1 pm for grades EC - 2. Families are always welcomed.

Parent/teacher conferences are on Thursday, February 9. If you have not signed up for a conference time, please contact me! There is no school for ECC and LD students on that day.

The Relay for Life Cookout will be on Wednesday, February 15. Plan to join your child at lunch time.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:00 - Mary Harris
  
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Brian Malison
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:00 - Kimberly Burke
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Kimberly Burke
  

Have a great week!
Susan

Re-Enrollment News!

Hello Shorecrest Families:

· Good News Re-Enrollment opens on Monday, February 6, 2012

· Contracts are due by Tuesday, February 21, 2012

· Information will be sent to you by email with your user ID and password

· If you have any questions, please call the Admissions Office at 727-456-7511 or email admissions.org

Thank you!

Week of January 9, 2012

Dear Parents:

Don't forget that we are presenting our riddles at Town Meeting tomorrow (Tuesday)! Please practice with your child tonight on telling their riddle(s) with a BIG, clear, and EXPRESSIVE voice! Remind your child to pause after the riddle so we can give someone a chance to try to solve it. If they know the riddle by memory, great! They will have a copy with them at town meeting, just in case.

This week in 1-4:

Language Arts: We are working on words with the long o sound spelled oa as in "boat" and ow as in "snow". We will also be working more on those sometimes troublesome words - homophones.

Reading Workshop: This week we are reestablishing our routines of reading workshop and, over the next few weeks, I will begin assessing the students to find their new level of just right books. We are beginning a new unit in reading workshop that focuses on bringing word power to our reading. We'll learn that smart readers... use a variety of print strategies flexibly to decode; make sure they understand what they read by monitoring for meaning, questioning, visualizing, inferring, and self-correcting; and read with fluency by inferring, determining importance, and rereading their books. This week we will focus on flexibly using print strategies for decoding. This means that we will be able to use many strategies, moving from one to another with ease to find the perfect strategy for decoding a particular word. Often children tend to rely on one or two strategies they've learned and sometimes those strategies don't help decode the tricky word they are stuck on. We'll learn that readers figure out tricky words by paying attention to the endings of words and by thinking about what makes sense. When reading with your child at home, please remind them to use all the strategies from their "toolbox" that they have learned through phonics, word study, and reading workshop to help them become more accurate, fluent, and expressive readers.

Writer's Workshop: We'll continue working with our peer editors and become "word wall detectives" in making sure that we are spelling our word wall words correctly. We will soon be choosing another piece for publishing!

Math: Today we were introduced to the relation symbols <, >, and =. This week, the children will also be making up and solving number stories involving relations, addition, and subtraction. We'll also be working on addition of 2-digit numbers. Please continue to practice the basic addition and subtraction facts with your child for automaticity.

Science/SS: We continue our study of the solar system. Last week, Mrs. Schiaparelli, a Shorecrest parent and substitute, brought in his high-powered telescope to allow the children to actually look at the sun and see the sunspots! Did you know that one single sunspot is as big or bigger than our planet Earth? Click on the link for our class shutterfly site to see pictures!

http://mrsowensclass20112012.shutterfly.com/

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Kimberly Burke (12:00)
• Wednesday - Math Game - Mai Nguyen (1:15) Note time change!
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Kimberly Burke (12:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Susannah Malison (2:15)

Other Reminders:

Please send in a photograph of your child's grandparents or special friend by Friday! I have only received a couple so far! Please send it in whether or not they will be here on that special day. Grandparents/Special Friends Day is Friday, January 27th. Dismissal will be at noon!

Please send in the Conference Day form no later than Thursday! If you need a different time than is offered, please note that on the form. Conference Day is Thursday, February 9th. There will be no school for students!

There will also be no school on Martin Luther King Day, January 16th.

Please be sure to practice reading, spelling, and writing the vocabulary words on the word rings every day. Return the word card rings EVERY Thursday.

Please label all sweaters, sweatshirts, and jackets with your child's name and check that the ones you have belong to your child. They can easily get mixed up at school!

Thank you and have a great week!
Susan

Week of January 3, 2012

Dear Parents:

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones and enjoyed some special family time with your children. I definitely enjoyed time with my family as all of my children were home for Christmas! Unfortunately, I began the break with the flu. Luckily, I was able to get over it by the time my sweet little Owen and his parents arrived on Christmas day.

We have some exciting news for our class! I would like to introduce you to our wonderful new student, Sam Adebonojo. You may have heard about him as he visited our class in December. He and his family have moved here from New Jersey and we are so excited to have him join our class! Welcome Sam!

More exciting news! Susannah Malison has created a share site on Shutterfly for our class. You will be able to access pictures as well as add pictures and videos to it! It is a work-in-progress and we hope to have it completely up to date very soon! Here is the link:
http://mrsowensclass20112012.shutterfly.com/

Our class will be presenting at Town Meeting next Tuesday morning. This is a day change from the normal Monday due to the author visit on Monday morning. The children and I have decided to have a little fun with our solar system study and our love of riddles (since we are working on -le words this week)! We are working on some in class, but please feel free to send in any riddles that you and your child can come up with! We will need them no later than Thursday! Thanks for your help! Please join us next Tuesday morning if you can.

We are getting back into the swing of things at school! Here is a look at some of the things we will be doing this week in our classroom:

Reading Workshop/Language Arts: We are working on words with the syllable -le, the inflections -er and -est, and the inflections -ed, and -ing (doubling the final consonant). We are talking about the main idea (what the text is mostly about) and working to fin details in the text for that big idea. We will also review possessives. The word wall words this week are buy, carry, money, other, paint, paper, and would.

Writing Workshop: This week we continue in our Writing for Readers unit of study. We will become word wall detectives to help make sure we are spelling our word wall words correctly in our writing and work with our partners to practice peer editing.

Math: We are beginning unit 5 this week. During this unit we will work on place value concepts for tens and ones, investigate place value digit patterns, and introduce the relation symbols < and >.

Science/SS: Our Solar System study continues. We will be learning about the moon, astronauts, and then move on to the planets. We will also continue to work on map skills in Social Studies.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday, Art - Eva D'Agostino - (12:00)
• Wednesday, Math Game - Kelli Cross (1:15) Note time change!
• Thursday, Library Check-out - Kimberly Burke (12:00)
  
• Friday, Parent Reader - Susannah Malison (2:15)

Other News and Reminders:

Please don't forget to label jackets and sweaters with your child's name on the tag. Many were bought at the uniform exchange therefore the wrong child's name may be on the item.

Just because it's winter now, the Florida sun can still be damaging. Hats and sunscreen are still important.

No school on Monday, January 16 - MLK Day

Grandparents/Special Friends Day - Friday, January 27 - Noon dismissal

February 29 - Field Trip to the Science Center for the NASA Experience and Planetarium
More information will come later.

Here's to a great new year!
Susan