Thank you so much for coming to Back-to-School-Night even with the wild weather! The first 8 days of school have been wonderful and this week has started out with a bang! Today we enjoyed some of our wonderful "specials" that we are so lucky to have at Shorecrest! The children enjoy Spanish with Senora Bockman-Pederson, Art with Mrs. Rowe, Music with Ms. Diaz-Leroy, and Computer Lab with Mrs. Baralt.

Today we had our first visit to the beautiful, remodeled Computer Lab and worked in Kidspiration 3. If you haven't seen the lab, stop by!


In our classroom:

We have launched Writer's Workshop, worked on establishing the rules and routines, the process of choosing a topic, sketching it, and then writing about it. We are "stretching" our words and spelling the best we can. We are in the midst of a study of one of my favorite authors, Kevin Henkes, and many of his books are being used during our Writer's Workshop time.

In language arts, we will continue focusing on short vowel /a/ words. The children enjoyed their "practice" spelling test last Friday. This Friday will be for real! We will also be working on word order so that our sentences make sense. During reading, we are talking about the comprehension strategies of making predictions and asking ourselves questions while we read. We also have begun to talk about genres. Last week our anthology story was a nonfiction story and this week is a fantasy story. I am also working on individual reading assessments with the children so that we will be ready to begin our small guided reading groups.

We have begun our new handwriting program. Ask your child about "Frog Jump Capitals" and "Center Starting Capitals".

Last week we began Unit 1 in Math which focuses on establishing routines such as calendar and small group work. We played math games such as "Bunny Hop" and "Top-it". The math family letters that come home will also provide directions for many of the math games that we play so you can play them at home with your child! The children received their math tool kit bags and their first math tool, the pattern block template. We also began working in our Math Journals and Skills Link books. This week we will work with weather and temperature routines, number stories, and have our first progress check with both oral and written assessments.

Things to remember:

Word cards (on ring) will come home on Monday and need to be returned on Thursday.

Our Homework Calendar begins this week! Look for it in your child's folder today! As we discussed at BTSN, please have your child turn in only the homework that is due each day. All homework should be done in pencil only, no ink. Please be sure to always note the reminders on the right-hand side!

We will begin our Parent Volunteers this week on Friday. Sarah Bernstein will come play a math game with us Friday morning from 9:00 - 10:00. Then Kelly Eckert will be our first parent reader Friday afternoon at 2:20. Next week we will add our art parent and library volunteers!

If you have not turned in the signed Parent/Student handbook form from page 3 of the handbook, please do so now. They must be in this week!

Picture Day is around the corner! Tuesday, September 14th will be Picture Day in the LD and ECC. Photo packages will be available for purchase. More information will be coming soon.

Calling for Summer Vacation Photos! The yearbook staff is collecting photos of the student's summer vacation experiences both in and out of the country. If you have a photo that you would like to share for the yearbook, please send or e-mail your photos to Tony Napodano at nap@shorecrest.org. They will be collecting photos until September 30.