Week of April 15, 2013

Dear Parents:

Wow! I don't know what to say! Teacher Appreciation Day, or week as it turned out, was absolutely the BEST ever! I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciated EVERYTHING! The breakfast each morning was such a wonderful way to begin the day. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and I am STILL enjoying them at home! The fruit and snack tub was unbelievable! I LOVE everything in it... YUM, YUM! Then, lunch each day was an absolute blessing... not to have to worry about packing a lunch each day! It was so nice to have that to look forward to! (Now, I just need to get myself in gear and exercise more!) As if all of that wasn't enough... the book made with the cards from the children was so very special. When I was able to sit down and read it, I had "happy" tears. Thank you ALL so much for such a wonderful WEEK! You went way beyond making me feel appreciated!

Last Friday, we celebrated two birthdays! Daven and Sydney both turned 7! Happy Birthday Daven and Sydney!

 

It's Celebrate the Arts Week! We began the week with a field trip to the Dali Museum today! Our class had a wonderful docent, Vanessa Reed. We learned so much from her and had so much fun! Mary Hind took some pictures so I will add some when I get them! (Mary, maybe you could add them to our Shutterfly site, too!) Tomorrow morning we have a drummer coming and on Thursday, we'll be entertained by a rock band! The Arts Teach-in will be on Friday. First, our class has a dancer/movement guest artist and then Carson's uncle, Mark Gonzalez, will be our second guest artist! At 11:00, you are invited to a musical program performed by the students. Following that we'll have a picnic lunch. Bring a blanket and pack yourself a picnic lunch to enjoy with your child! After lunch, we'll take an art walk to view artwork of students from alpha through high school!

The Upper Division musical takes place this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.  This morning at Town Meeting we had a fantastic preview of "The Music Man". Box office hours are April 15 - 19 from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children. Don't miss it! These are always amazing productions!

There is no school on Monday, April 22. 

On Sunday, April 28, Shorecrest is participating in an event called Feeding Children Everywhere. Volunteers are needed from the Shorecrest community to help pack food bags in the new Athletic Center. The event is It starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m. It's another great way for the Shorecrest community to come together to make a difference in the lives of children.

Shorecrest's Fifth Annual Daddy-Daughter Dance is just around the corner! This memorable affair ia designed for girls in kindergarten through fourth grade. It offers up a DJ, games, prizes, a photo booth, dancing, a dessert bar, and refreshments for all those who love dressing fancy and hula hooping the night away! It will be held Friday, May 3, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Shorecrest Athletic Center. You can register for this FUNdraiser (all proceeds benefit Shorecrest Parent Association initiatives) online by visiting shorecrestgala.com . Just click on the "Shop Items" link. Admission is $65 for each daddy/daughter pair and $75 for more than one daughter. Check out photos from last year by visiting http://shorecrest4dd.shutterfly.com

Friday, May 10 is our first grade program, "Commotion in the Ocean" and you don't want to miss it! It begins at 8:30 in the Janet Root Theater. This week, your child will be bringing home a speaking part to practice in addition to the poems sent home last week.  Please help your child practice these daily with lots of expression! Thank you! Please also remember to send in a new, clean, plain, white t-shirt to school by this Friday, April 19. We will be decorating these to wear in the program!

Our last field trip will be on Tuesday, May 21. We will be going to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. Parents are welcomed and encouraged to join us!

Monday, May 27,  is Memorial Day. There will be no school that day.

On Thursday, May 30, we will have our end of the year party beginning at 1:15. Parents are welcome to join us as always!

Friday, May 31, is the last day of school. Dismissal will be at noon.

Now, on to what else is happening in our classroom!

Each child has chosen an ocean animal to research and learn more about. We'll be spending time in reading workshop using what we know and will review about non-fiction to help us research and learn about these creatures. The children will be using this research over the next several weeks to help in writing an "all about" book during writing workshop on their chosen ocean animal. They will also be creating a project on the animal and then teaching the class about their animal. At the end of the unit, we'll be having a project share with other classes and inviting parents to a project share! 

We are now into our ocean unit in science! This week, we will focus on sea turtles as we learn about the different kinds of sea turtles, their life cycle, habitats, and the difference between sea and land turtles. We have several dissections coming up that the children are very excited about! On April 26, we will be dissecting squids, on April 30, we'll dissect sea urchins and starfish, and then on May 16, we'll dissect dogfish sharks! So exciting!

In math, we continue to work on place value for the 100s, 10, and 1s, counting and exchanging money, and learning to make change!

This week our word work focus will be on words with the vowel dipthong oi (as in coin)  and the variant vowel oo (as in tool). 

Volunteers this week: 

• Wednesday - Library Check-out - 2:10 - Kim Gross and Mary Hind
• Thursday - Math Game - 10:30 - David Richardson
• Friday - Art - cancelled due to the visiting artists
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Lorraine Thorpe

It's going to be a great week!

Susan