Friendship!

On Tuesday, we were part of the audience in the new Middle School as 5th grade students performed several skits on friendship. Friendship is something to be cultivated and cherished. To have a friend you have to be a friend. You would have been amazed at the level of understanding that your children displayed on the topic! We were also very excited that both Channing and Nico's sisters were 5th grade performers!

Congratulations, Jonathan!

Jonathan was named the First Grade Citizen of the Month for December! Jonathan is a terrific role model for his classmates. He is responsible, polite, cooperative, and conscientious. He takes pride in following the rules of the classroom and school. When I asked the class who they would say is always doing what they should be doing, the answer was unanimous - Jonathan! We are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday Hailey! We celebrated Hailey's 7th birthday at school on Friday.


Volunteers for the week of 1/11-15/10:

• Tuesday - Art - Darby Jung (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Jodie Gayoso (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Natalie Ames (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Frank Currie (2:20)
  

Happy New Year!

I hope that your holidays were wonderful and that you enjoyed some special family time. I know I did. My children were all home for Christmas and we had so much fun together. I was also able to go with my daughter and son-in-law to another sonogram and saw amazing pictures of my grandson - even smiling! I'm sure he did that when he heard my voice!

Before we move on to all of the wonderful things that 2010 will bring, let's enjoy a reminder of our last day at school together in 2009:

Pajama Breakfast!

We had a fantastic time at our Pajama Breakfast Party in December! A big thank you to Erin and Perry Ross for all of the great pictures! To view all the party pics, visit:

http://www.perrypixel.net/private/shorecrest/2009_holiday/2009holidayparty.pdf

Note: viewing requires latest version of Adobe Reader - file is 11MB.

Oops! It looks like we all forgot to get dressed for school!

The children enjoyed making their own pillows!
Luckily, we had many great parents and grandparents to help us!

Some quiet reading time while relaxing on our new pillows!

We also enjoyed a yummy breakfast buffet with all the trimmings!

Thank you to all who helped to make this one of our favorite days of the year!

Volunteers for the Week of 1/5/10 - 1/8-10:

• Tuesday - Art - Radha Moorthy-Clink (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Kerry Kriseman (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Perry Ross (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Gwen Baran (2:20)

Generosity!

Thank you so much for your generosity in giving to help our adoptive family have a wonderful holiday this year! The children excitedly added gifts to our bin each day for the past few weeks. It was absolutely overflowing! There were so many that we could not even carry them all to the gym. Some had to be taken by golf cart to the gym for us. The children were smiling from ear to ear as it made us all feel so good to GIVE!



Math Workshop

On Wednesday, we participated in a math workshop to share with parents a math lesson and supporting activities. This lesson focused on developing good math facts. Playing games is an important part of our Everyday Mathematics program. Dice Roll Addition, Egg-carton Addition, and Two-Fisted Penny Addition were games and activities that the children participated in to practice math facts as part of our Math morning on Wednesday.




Everyday Mathematics also has great math games that we play on the computer. Here we were playing Penny Cup to work on math facts for sums of 20.


Surprise!

In the spirit of the month of December, we have been learning to practice giving of ourselves. In addition to the wonderful gifts that the children so happily brought for our "adoptive" family, we went to watch the 8th graders perform skits about generosity on Friday morning. Instead, we found out that WE were going to be the performers! The children worked in small groups with the 8th graders, planning and performing skits to define generosity and modeling giving of ourselves, rather than monetarily. Everyone had a great time!


Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Sharon Cannella (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Fai MacDougald (2:05)

Week of 12/7 - 12/11/09

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Natalie Ames (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Anne Dowling (needs sub) (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Sheila Currie (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Sharon Cannella (2:20)

Math Parent Workshop - this Wednesday, December 9 from 8:30 - 10:00

The workshop begins in the Janet Root Theater for an overview of Everyday Math. Then you can observe and participate in math in our classroom. If you plan to attend, please let the LD office know.

Holiday Gift Drive - Ends this Friday, December 11th.

Help Children in Need to Receive 1 Million Books! Time is running out!!!!!

We only have until December 18 (Friday of next week) to read 100 books! Our class has joined Scholastic in their effort to give 1 million books to kids in need! Please help your child do their part to help. They need to complete a Reading Log after each book read at home. When the log is filled, please sign it and have your child return it to me. If you child fills up their log, please turn it in and I will send home a new log. Or you may just keep a list of the books read, sign the list, and return it to school by December 18. Visit www.scholastic.com/classroomscare to watch a personal video message from Peyton and Eli Manning who are teaming up with Scholastic to lead this effort. You may also go to www.scholastic.com/classroomscare/literacypartners to learn more about the children we're helping.

Spirit Day - Wednesday, December 16th

Save the Date! - Winter Holiday Pajama Breakfast - 8:30 a.m. December 18th! Come in your PJs and join us for breakfast! Dismissal is at noon.

Human Body Voice Thread

Please take a look at the voice thread that all first grade classes made together at the conclusion of our Human Body unit. Each class drew a picture together using the smart board and then each child recorded a fact. Our class is at the end of the voice thread with lots of great information about the brain, so please don't stop watching until the end!