Weeks of March 4 and 18, 2013

Dear Parents: 

Thank you for joining us Thursday for the hot dog lunch in support of Relay for Life! It was great to see so many families and friends  enjoying lunch together.

I 'll be spending spring break in Texas with my precious grandbabies and won't return home until late Sunday, the 17th. Therefore, I'm going to include information in this blog for this week as well as the week after spring break. I'll post pictures of Field Day and Character Day the week after Spring Break. As always, please feel free to add pictures to our class site! Thank you, Mary Hind, for adding pictures of our Town Meeting!

We have earned another compliment party! Yay!!!! Kim Gross and Charlene Hosseini have offered to host! We'll be celebrating Thursday afternoon. Thank you!

Oldie Goldie is coming up quickly! We need gently used books to sell! Please go through your bookshelves and clean them out! Boxes are in the hallway to collect your donated books. 

Thursday is Field Day. Please remember to have your child wear a shirt to school that represents their team color. The letters came home last week.

Mark your calendar and save the date for our upcoming "All Hands On @ Shorecrest" food packing event! It will take place Sunday, April 28, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. in the Crisp Gym/Athletic Center. A flyer will be going home later this week to explain and ask for volunteers, age 3 and older, to join us in mobilizing 1,000 volunteers to pack 150,000 food packages for Feeding Children Everywhere (http://www.feedingchildreneverywhere.com/). 
See the brief video to give you an idea of what we'll be doing: http://youtu.be/7r4HczdbBC8

Here's a look at what we'll be doing this week as well as the week after spring break: 

Reading Workshop: Over the next two weeks of school, we'll work on comprehension as we continue to get to know the characters in our books. We'll read, think, and develop ideas about characters, make connections with characters,  and think about whether the character changes across the story, especially their feelings. We'll learn strategies for talking with our partners about our characters/books, deepening partner conversation. Remember, as you read with your child this week and during spring break, talk with your child about the character they want to choose to dress as for Character Day on March 18! Remember, it should be a character from a favorite book so that your child can really get to know the character. The children will not only be dressing as the character on March 18, but will be sharing all they know about the character as they share the book. 

Word Work: We'll continue working on r-controlled vowels this week, focusing on er, ir, and ur.  The week after spring break we'll be reviewing all r controlled vowels.

Writing Workshop: We'll continue to work hard to make our writing easy to read, learn to work with peer editors, and work on revising our writing to make it better.

Math: The Unit 6 assessment is coming home today. The children really did a great job with it! I am so proud of them!  This week we will spend time reviewing money, telling time to the five minute interval, and with addition fact practice. Over spring break, give your child extra practice counting and exchanging coins including quarters. Counting coins with different values can be tricky for some children. We'll begin unit 7 when we return from spring break. I am sending home the unit 7 family letter this week. Read it over as it will explain the concepts we will cover in that unit as well as give you suggestions for every day activities to help your child with these concepts at home. 

Science: We have completed our study of the solar system! The children will be bringing home their "pocket" books this week. Celebrate with your child as you review the work they have done during this exciting unit! Don't forget to stop in and view the projects in our hallway! They are fantastic!

Mr. Richardson was impressed with the knowledge the children displayed as they played a Solar System game.

Kate and Kaja taught us about the planet, Venus.

Social Studies: Over the next two weeks of school (including after spring break), we'll learn about the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, the Bald Eagle, and some interesting facts about our 50 states!

Cyrus and Daven paint the first American flag.

Important Reminders: 

March 7 is Field Day.  Field Day will take place from 9:00 - 11:00. The PE coaches are assigning children to teams and will soon send home a note indicating the team your child is on. The teams are named for colors... green team, blue team, etc. The children are to wear that color shirt to school for Field Day.

March 8 will be a Professional Development Day for teachers. Spring Break for students begins Friday, March 8. School resumes for students on Monday, March 18.

Heads-up: March 18, the day the students return from Spring Break, will be Character Day during Reading Week in the Lower School! Your child will be asked to choose a character from a favorite book and come to school dressed as that character and prepared to talk about their character/book. Therefore, they should have read the book and know the character and book well.

Reading Week will be the week of March 18 - 22. The entire week will be dedicated to Mrs. Weinman. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday - Character Day! All children in the Lower School will be dressed as their favorite book character and bring their book with them to Town Meeting! We will also have a Mystery Guest Reader in the afternoon.
• Tuesday - "Drop Everything and Read" Day - Your child will need to bring a beach towel to sit on and several books to read as the Lower School will read together outside from 8:15 - 8:50. We will also be buddy reading with a kindergarten class that afternoon,
• Wednesday - We will view the Bookshelf Project with Mrs. Smay.
• Thursday - We'll have another Mystery Guest Reader and more Buddy Reading!
• Friday - Oldie Goldie Book Sale

On Monday, March 25, the lower division will gather to dedicate the new playground to Mrs. Weinman. Please send your child to school with a flowering plant that loves the sun! Some suggestions that should do well in the garden are geraniums, marigolds, petunias, snapdragons, zinnias, and periwinkle.  We will be planting that day in memory of Mrs. Weinman. The memorial will begin at 8:05a.m. Parents are welcome to join us.

Volunteers this week: 

• Wednesday - Library Checkout - 2:10 - Lorraine Thorpe and Heidi Joswig/David Richardson

Volunteers for week of March 18 - 22:

• Wednesday - Library Checkout - 2:10 - Kim Gross and Mary Hind
• Thursday - Math Game - 10:30 - Donna Main
• Friday - Art - 9:15 - Heidi Joswig/David Richardson
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Sharon Cannella

Have a wonderful spring break!

Susan