Thankful Thoughts

Dear Parents:

First of all, let me say thank you to all of you for helping your child practice our long, but fun poem for Poetry in the Park. They were OUTSTANDING! That is one of my favorite days of the year and the weather could not have been nicer! Thank you to those who shared pictures! I tried to put all of the pictures into a slideshow, but kept getting an error. If I am able to get it corrected, I will post the slideshow later this week. If anyone has a video of the children reciting our poem, please send it to me and I will post it for all to enjoy.

I am so thankful for not only your wonderful children but for the wonderful parents that you are! That is my thankful thought for this season. Now it is your child's turn to come up with a thankful thought. We will have our little Thanksgiving celebration at 1:15 on Friday. A letter went home home today asking your child to bring in a specific ingredient to add to our cornucopia snack mix. Please be sure to send it in no later than Wednesday. I would like for each child to tell us about something he/she is thankful for when adding the ingredient to our snack mix. You may have your child write the thought down to help him/her remember. It is always so special to hear the wonderful thankful thoughts of the children. As always, everyone is welcome to our Thanksgiving celebration... and we can always use the extra hands as we will also be making a fun and functional Thanksgiving decoration!

Many thanks to Dr. Brad Peckler! Last Wednesday, he visited with our class and taught us about infections and diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans and what to do to avoid them.

Mrs. Whitecage, Mrs. Vigue, and Ms. Conroy are leading a math workshop on Wednesday morning at 8:20 in the student center. Please join them and learn all the ins and outs of Everyday Math.

If you have not sent in a paper towel tube and/or Pringles can (empty and clean), please do so this week!

Now, for what's happening this week in our classroom:

Language Arts: Our phonics focus this week is on words with the digraph sound /ch/, spelled either ch or tch. This week's wall words are air, fly, friends, grew, need, play, rain, and watch. These words are always included in my lists on spellingcity.com. The comprehension focus this week is on sequencing the events in a story. When you read with your child, talk about the sequence (or order) of events in the story. We will also be practicing capitalizing the names of days and months, working with compound words, and begin talking about the inflection -es (adding es to the root word to show the plural, as in matches). The robust vocabulary words this week are astonishing, continue, doubt, transform, examine, and devour.

Writing Workshop: We are continuing with our poetry unit.

Math: We are working on nonstandard and standard units of measure. The children will be having fun measuring with different parts of their bodies, rulers, tape measures, and even candy corn! M-m-m sweet math!

Science/Social Studies: Our human body pocket books went home today. Take a look with your child! We are reviewing and learning a little about the first Thanksgiving and how pilgrim children were alike/different than we are today.

Things to Remember:

• Word card rings due on Thursday. Several of the children are forgetting to return these on time! Please help them be responsible students!
  
• There are NO READING FOLDERS this week, but please make sure that your child reads every day!
  
• Spirit Day will be this Friday, November 19.
• Our Thanksgiving celebration will be Friday at 1:15. All are welcome to join us!
  
• Thanksgiving break will be Monday, November 22 - 26.
• You should be receiving your child's report card by next week.
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday -Art - Chris Chen- 12:00
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Julie Piper and Molly Camp - 2:05
• Friday - Math Game -Jennifer Lewis - 9:00
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - Kristen Danielson- 2:15

I hope you all have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING with your loved ones!
Susan

Don't be "SICK" on Wednesday!

Dear Parents,

It was great to see some of you at Town Meeting this morning. The children did a great job performing the poem "Livin' in Skin". We continue to practice using our "big voices" when speaking or reading aloud. Luckily the microphone helped this morning! Enjoy the slide show of some pictures taken from Town Meeting.

Our poetry performance continues on Wednesday at Poetry in the Park. It begins at 8:30 in the courtyard. Our class is slated to be the sixth class to perform our poem. We will be in the first part of the day before snack. Bring your chairs or blankets and enjoy the morning!

We will be visiting the book fair tomorrow morning. The children will be able to browse and create a wish list to bring home. If you would like for your child to shop tomorrow, you may send cash placed in a zip-top bag with your child's name on it or a check made out to Shorecrest. If the amount is blank, please note on the memo line the maximum amount the check can be made out for. Please note that students will not be given more than $20 in change. If you would like to shop with your child, you may join us from 9:45 - 10:15 tomorrow at the book fair. Or you may take your child shopping during normal book fair hours.

Starting today, Jeff Diedrich will be your child’s primary teacher in physical education for the coming trimester. Each Monday, he will be posting a blog that recaps the learning that took place during the previous week. Feel free to follow along at http://shorecrestldpecoachd.blogspot.com

Although this is a short week of school due to the professional development day on Friday, it will be jam packed! Let's take a look.
Language Arts: Our spelling focus will be on words that begin and end with the digraph /sh/. This week we will be looking at myths - old stories that teach a lesson and have make-believe characters and events. We will also be talking more about the "setting" of stories - when and where the story takes place - i.e. on a farm in the morning. We are including the characters and setting in our story mapping. Please help remind your child that the special names of places begin with capital letters. This week's wall words are could, happy, cold, night, saw, came, made, and were. The robust vocabulary introduced through literature will be reward, handsomely, cruel, greedy, consequences, and regret.
Writing Workshop: We will be working on line breaks and hearing the "music" of poetry.

Math: The Math Message routine will be introduced and we will be reviewing thermometers and reading temperatures to the nearest two degrees. We will also begin practice measuring and comparing lengths. During the next two weeks, we will be using nonstandard units of measure as well as the standard foot to facilitate understanding of the need for standard units of measure.

Science: We will complete our Human Body unit this week focusing on our digestive system and keeping our bodies healthy around animals and plants. Dr. Peckler will be joining us on Wednesday for a special presentation!

Things to Remember:

• Word card rings due on Thursday. Several of the children are forgetting to return these on time!
• Reading Folders will come home on Wednesday and are to be completed and returned on Monday. Please have your child reread the book each day and work a little at a time on the comprehension activity.
  
• Book Fair this week!
• No school on Friday due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.
  
• Spirit Day will be Friday, November 19.
  
• Thanksgiving break will be Monday, November 22 - 26.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday -Art - Ailsa Hudson - 12:00
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Ailsa Hudson and Cynthia Biondi - 2:05

See you on Wednesday!

Susan

Friday was a blast! Enjoy some wonderful pictures from our parade! After the festival, I headed to Jacksonville to spend the weekend with all of my family, including little Owen. On Friday night, we celebrated our grandmother's 103rd birthday! What a treasure she is to us! Then on Saturday, "grandpa" and I gave up our tickets to the FL/GA game so that we could babysit our precious little Owen. He wore a lucky Gator outfit and helped us cheer them on to victory - as teeth clenching as it was! I got home in time for trick-or-treating last night and was able to see many of my Shorecrest friends in the neighborhood! Now it's back to school and the beginning of the busy month of November. Let's take a look at the week ahead...

Language Arts: This week's spelling focus is on the r-controlled vowel /or/ spelled or and ore. The wall words are animals, cold, fish, from, their, under, and very. The robust vocabulary introduced through literature include nuzzled, pranced, raging, adapt, intriguing, and inhabit. We will focus on the comprehension concepts of comparing (noticing how two or more things are alike) and contrasting (noticing how they are different). Our genre study will be nonfiction. We will be learning to make inferences when looking for facts, or true information, in what we read. When your child reads nonfiction at home, ask him/her to think about what they already know about those facts to help them understand new information.

Writing Workshop: In honor of our upcoming Poetry in the Park, we will practice seeing things with a poet's eyes. We'll work on using all of our senses, plus our hearts, minds, and imagination.

Math: In math this week, we will practice finding values of collections of pennies, nickels, and dimes and continue making exchanges. We will also explore domino-dot patterns and practice all of the basic addition facts through domino addition. We will complete unit 3 and have the assessment. Look for the Unit 4 Family Letter to come home the end of this week.

Science: Heading toward the end of our wonderful unit on the human body, we will look at our largest organ - our skin. We will also talk about ways to keep our body healthy.

Things to Remember:

• PLEASE help your child remember to bring the word card ring back to school on Thursday.
  
• The Book Fair is next week Monday through Thursday. There will be extended shopping days Wednesday afternoon after school and Thursday morning before school.
  
• Poetry in the Park begins at 8:30 on Wednesday, November 10. Bring your chairs or blankets and enjoy a delightful morning of poetry! (Keep practicing at home with your child!)
  
• There will be no school for students on Friday, November 12, due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Mai Nguyen (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Valerie Pillot and Kristen Danielson (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Ailsa Hudson (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Sarah or Nate Bernstein (2:15)