It smells a little fishy to me...

It has been a busy last week of first grade! We began our week with the shark dissection in the Science Resource Center. They have been waiting all year to do this! First, the children witnessed a dogfish shark dissection performed by our fantastic mom scientists. We reviewed what we have learned about sharks and more. Then we broke into small groups and the children were able to learn so much more about the internal organs as they dissected their own sharks! The wonder and excitement filled the room... along with the smell!















Enjoy the following voice thread that we made to tell you some of the things that we have learned about sharks this year!



Tuesday found us at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa! After a fun bus ride over with laughter and singing, we spent the morning touring the Aquarium and observing all the wonderful creatures of the sea. The dive show and the touch tank were two of the favorite adventures for our class. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch together with all four classes before heading back to school on the bus.
















How many people can say they touched baleen from a whale? Not many! On Wednesday, we did just that! Two of our middle school students, Jacob N. and Justin S. from Mr. Cruise’s midde school science class brought actual baleen and told us all about it as well as many other interesting specimens from the sea. It was so cool!





On Thursday afternoon, we had our final party in first grade. The children had a great time rotating through the four classrooms. We decorated picture frames for our class program photo, made underwater crayon resist pictures, played Ocean Bingo, danced the limbo, and made edible aquariums! M-m-m-m! What fun!














It has been an incredible year! Thank you for sharing your precious children with me. I will miss them so much! Give them a hug every now and then and tell them it's from me!

Thank you for always being there for us. You have helped in so many ways... parent readers, math games, library parents, party planners, science helpers, photographers, and more! We could not have made it without you! I will miss you all! Please stop in and see me next year! Have a great summer!

Susan

Commotion in the Ocean!

Thank you to Erin Ross for the pictures that I put in the following video.

Party Central!

Wow! Room 1-4 was party central last week! We celebrated 4 birthdays and had a final compliment party! In fact, the children earned 100 compliments this year! Way to go!

Happy Birthday, Channing!

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Happy Birthday, Samuel!

This year, one of our favorite times of the week have been Friday morning math explorations. This past Friday was no different.

One station involved constructing polygons with a particular number of sides and corners.
Here Molly puts the finishing touch on a six-sided hexagon.

Nico, Russ, and Julia worked on elapsed time word problems at another station.

Channing, Jonathan, Oliver, and Samuel work on equivalent fractions with Jonathan's mom.

Lauren and Hailey play math Tic-Tac-Toe.

Rachel, Lauren, Sarah, and Shannon work on fraction number stories at the computers.

It is hard to believe that we are beginning our last week together. We will still be packing in a lot of fun and learning this week! I know that it will go by too fast. On Monday morning, we will be dissecting dogfish sharks! The children have been looking forward to this all year! Many thanks to Sharon Cannella, Jodie Gayoso, and Sandy Epstein for volunteering to help! On Tuesday, we will be going to the Florida Aquarium. I look forward to seeing many of you there! Anyone can join us! If you did not send in your payment of $7.00, you can still join us. However, you will need to pay the admission of $19 at the door. On Thursday, we will have our end-of-the-year party with all four first grade classes. All parents are welcome to join in the fun from 12:30 - 2:30! Friday is our last day together. Dismissal will be at 12:00 noon. Please be sure that your child brings his/her green bag to school each day this week. The children will be bringing lots of treasures home! See you soon!

Susan

Commotion in the Ocean!

Thank you so much for joining us in the theater this morning and then at the reception. The children did a fabulous job on stage! I am so proud of them as I know you are. They worked hard to learn the songs, dances, and their speaking parts. We have spent the last four weeks learning all about the ocean and its inhabitants. This in-depth study has integrated reading, writing, science, math, technology, art, and music! We will finish up next week. It has been oceans of fun!


Don't lose track of the "Commotion in the Ocean" t-shirts that the children wore today! They will be wearing those and jeans on the field trip to the Florida Aquarium on Tuesday, May 25th and again on Thursday, May 27th, for our end-of-the-year party!

A big thank you to Erin Ross for sharing these pictures. More to follow! If anyone else has pictures to share, please e-mail them to me!

Have a great weekend!
Susan

Important News and Updates! Check it out!

Commotion in the Ocean and Splash Day on Friday!

Our first grade program, Commotion in the Ocean, is this Friday, May 14, at 8:30 in the Janet Root Theater. The reception will follow in the courtyard. You don't want to miss this! The t-shirts that the children made will come home on Thursday. They are to wear them to school on Friday with jean shorts/skirts/skorts. They also need to bring a swimsuit, watershoes, and a towel. Immediately following the reception, the children will change into their swimsuits and watershoes for "Splash Day" with the PE coaches. Afterward, they will change back into their Commotion in the Ocean t-shirts and jeans for the remainder of the day.

Please keep track of the t-shirts as they will wear them on May 25th to the Aquarium, and then again on may 27th for our End-of-the-Year party! They may wear the jean shorts/skirts/skorts those days as well.

Many thanks to Perry Ross for making it possible to post the many pictures that you will see on this blog entry. My camera has been on the blink and I have been unable to download any pictures. I was very frustrated. Perry took my camera and was able to pull the pictures and get them on a memory stick for me. Therefore, I am finally able to update you with some of the many exciting things we have been doing in first grade! Please excuse that not everything is in date order!

Earth Day was an exciting day for us! Mrs. Baralt came to our class and taught us about using digital cameras. Then Mr. and Mrs. Ross took the children around campus to take pictures of our beautiful and amazing earth. The children had already written about the earth and Mr. Ross downloaded the pictures and the writing to the ribbon on the website: www.planetfesto.com - check it out! Type in the name of our school to see the entries for Shorecrest students. Ours are among them.

Fresh calamari anyone?

The children were so excited to be able to dissect their own squid on Friday! On Thursday, Mrs. Lisa Peck, our favorite science teacher, came to teach the children all about this fascinating sea creature and dissected one to show them all the parts. Then she left a number of squid for us to be able to dissect and explore! Many thanks to Jodie Gayoso and Dr. Jay Epstein for coming in on Friday morning to help the children with this exciting scientific exploration.

We recently celebrated another compliment party by making our own
ice cream sundaes! Many thanks to our moms for such a great party!

On Thursday, April 29, Mrs. Peck brought sea urchins and starfish for us to explore.
Wow! The sea is full of amazing creatures!

Our 3rd grade reading buddies are impressed with the
fantastic readers we have become this year!

We celebrated two important birthdays recently. Happy 6 3/4 birthday, Shannon!

Happy Birthday Molly! Her big sister came to help celebrate!

Volunteers for the week of May 10 - 14, 2010:

• Tuesday - Art - Natalie Ames (12:05)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Michael White (2:20)

All library books should be returned this week. Our last check-out day at the library was last week.

Whew! I told you lots has been happening! Have a great week! See you Friday!

Volunteers for the week of May 3 - 7, 2010

• Tuesday - Art - Jill Emerson (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Kerry Kriseman (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - CANCELLED - as we are attending the Kindergarten dress rehearsal
• Friday - Parent Reader - Erin Ross - (2:20)