Dear Parents:

This is going to be a busy and exciting week in our class! We will be celebrating both Charlie and Benjamin's birthdays. We will be learning about the legend of the Groundhog, Chinese New Year, celebrating the 100th day of school, and ending the week with our grandparents and special friends on Friday. That is on top of our regular curriculum! Whew! Oh, and we will be having a visiting student in our class on Tuesday and Wednesday! I know the children will welcome her and make her feel right at home.

Speaking of our "regular" curriculum, here is a little of what we will be doing:

Reading/Language Arts: The genre focus this week is a "play". The children will enjoy reading and acting the parts of a play called "Flake, the Missing Hamster". Our phonics focus is on long vowel /a/ with a silent e, spelled a-e as in Flake. Our wall words this week are found, near, hears, might, open, gone, around, and tired. The comprehension focus has us discussing the problem/solution in texts we are reading. We are also concentrating on reading with more expression in our voice. The phonograms this week are -ake, -ame, and -ate. The grammar focus is on describing words for "how many". Each Monday night's homework now requires your child to write sentences using their new word cards for the week. Please encourage your child to begin each sentence with a capital letter and end it with the correct punctuation mark. Please challenge your child to write "strong" sentences using describing words. Please check out the new links that I have posted on the right side of this blog page - Starfall, Make a Word, Spin and Spell. These are more great sites to give your child spelling and reading practice!

Thursday is Chinese New Year! Benjamin's mom will be coming in to share with the children about this special day in their culture.

Math: We will begin Unit 6 this week. In this unit your child will be working on fact families, measuring using centimeters, adding money using quarters, and telling time on digital clocks. This is a BIG unit and will last several weeks. Please take the time to work with your child while they are completing their homework. I also posted a couple of new links - Math Fact Practice and Bite Size Math - for your child to have fun practicing math facts and skills when at home. Check them out! Thursday's math will be dedicated to the 100th day of school. The students will be involved in several activities that revolve around the #100. On today's homework calendar, your child is asked to bring in 100 pieces of something for our 100th Day snack mix. If you need to, you may substitute something else in place of your assigned ingredient. Please be sure to have these in by Wednesday as we will be making the mix on Thursday morning. We will also be celebrating Benjamin's birthday that morning so you do not need to send in an additional snack for your child on Thursday!

Writer's Workshop: We are working on stories about our grandparents and special friends.

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

Grandparent's Day: this Friday, February 4. Below is the approximate schedule for that morning:
8:30-9:00 A.M. -Continental Breakfast - Student Center
9:00-9:45 A.M. -Program in the Janet Root Theater (Grandparents and Special Friends only. Ending time is approximate.)
10:00 -11:00A.M. - Grandparents visit classrooms and tour campus.
12:00 -Dismissal

Spring Conference Day: Spring Conference Day is on Thursday, February 10. There is no school for students. Report cards will be given out at conferences. Here is the conference schedule:

Wednesday, February 9^th

2:00 Lankford

Thursday, February 10^th

8:00 Walsh

8:30 Bernstein

9:00 Golden

9:30 Camp

10:00 Danielson

10:30 Harting

11:00

12:30

1:00 Artze

1:30

2:00 Jack/Anderson

2:30 Pillot

3:00 Peckler

3:30 Schneider

Friday, February 11

7:30 Eckert

12:30 Biondi

Monday, February 14

7:30 Jones

2:45 Chris Chen

Tuesday, February 15

2:45 Hudson

Wednesday, February 16

7:30 Piper

10:00 Lewis

2:45 Perfetto

Science Teach-In: The Science Teach-In will take place on Wednesday, February 16 from 1 -2:30.

Professional Development Day: There will be a Professional Development Day on Friday, February 18. No school for students!

Spirit Day: Spirit Day is on Friday, February 25. Students may wear green and gold colored clothing.

Reading Week: Reading Week will take place February 28 – March 4. Details to come later.

Oldie Goldie Book Fair: The Lower Division Oldie Goldie Book Fair will take place on Friday, March 4.

Field Day: Field Day will take place on Friday, March 11.

Volunteers this week:

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

Following is a letter from a Shorecrest parent regarding a fundraiser for the fallen St. Petersburg Police officers' families.

Support for Officer's Family

Dear Dr. Bianco,

As of right now we are set for our event at our car wash at 2300 MLK (9th Street) Street North across the street from Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home this Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 5pm. Our car wash is an automatic one and all you have to do is drive thru , no work involved. But ALL proceeds will go to the Suncoast Law Enforcement Memorial Fund for our fallen Heroes.

My husband is still working out the details but that is what I know as of yet. We are working closely of course with the PBA as well, so we hope to have a great turn out. I would love a "traffic jam" of people to turn out for this event. When I hear more details I will be sure to let you know.

Thanks again for all of your love and support.
Joy Culberson,
Shorecrest Parent

Until next time,
Susan and Beth