It's December!

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the week together with your families. I began the Thanksgiving break visiting and taking care of our grandma in Neptune Beach (Jacksonville area). We are so thankful that we were able to spend her last few good days with her. She passed away on Thanksgiving night and we celebrated her life at her funeral service yesterday. She was an amazing woman who lived on this earth for 103 years and her mind was as sharp as a tack for all of those years!

The children have been in good hands the last 3 days while I have been with my family. I will return to school in the morning. I'm looking forward to seeing the children!

Here is what is going on in our classroom this week:

Language Arts: Our spelling focus is on the r-controlled vowel /ar/ as in "farm". We are also practicing adding the inflections -s, -ed, and -ing to words. Our focus skill in comprehension is on the author's purpose/point of view. We are also learning practicing writing the names of holidays and remembering that they begin with capital letters. Our wall words this week are again, feel, house, know, loud, Mrs., put, and say. Our robust vocabulary words include approached, energetic, pace, blunder, reassure, and excel.

Writer's Workshop: We are continuing with our poetry unit this week.

Math: We have begun to practice telling time to the quarter hour. We also are working on our math facts with domino math, number lines, and with the number grid. We also begin our number scrolls this week, so if you have not sent in the paper towel tube and clean, empty Pringles can, please do so no later than Friday. These will be used to make our number scrolls.

Science: We have begun our new unit on the Solar System this week.

Other important events:

The gift drive started this week! Last week you should have received a letter with details about the family our class is helping. Our life skill of the month is generosity. What a great way to reinforce this skill with your child by bringing in a gift for a family in need!

The Strategic Plan Symposium will take place on Saturday, December 4, from 8:30-3:00 in the Crisp Gym. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

The Lower Division Holiday Sing Along will take place on Friday, December 17, at 11:00 for grades K – 4 in the Janet Root Theatre.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Kristen Danielson (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Valerie Pillot and Kristen Danielson (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Kristen Danielson (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Leigh Harting (2:15)

Wow! This nice cool weather arrived December 1! How appropriate!
Enjoy it!
Susan

Thankful Thoughts

Dear Parents:

First of all, let me say thank you to all of you for helping your child practice our long, but fun poem for Poetry in the Park. They were OUTSTANDING! That is one of my favorite days of the year and the weather could not have been nicer! Thank you to those who shared pictures! I tried to put all of the pictures into a slideshow, but kept getting an error. If I am able to get it corrected, I will post the slideshow later this week. If anyone has a video of the children reciting our poem, please send it to me and I will post it for all to enjoy.

I am so thankful for not only your wonderful children but for the wonderful parents that you are! That is my thankful thought for this season. Now it is your child's turn to come up with a thankful thought. We will have our little Thanksgiving celebration at 1:15 on Friday. A letter went home home today asking your child to bring in a specific ingredient to add to our cornucopia snack mix. Please be sure to send it in no later than Wednesday. I would like for each child to tell us about something he/she is thankful for when adding the ingredient to our snack mix. You may have your child write the thought down to help him/her remember. It is always so special to hear the wonderful thankful thoughts of the children. As always, everyone is welcome to our Thanksgiving celebration... and we can always use the extra hands as we will also be making a fun and functional Thanksgiving decoration!

Many thanks to Dr. Brad Peckler! Last Wednesday, he visited with our class and taught us about infections and diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans and what to do to avoid them.

Mrs. Whitecage, Mrs. Vigue, and Ms. Conroy are leading a math workshop on Wednesday morning at 8:20 in the student center. Please join them and learn all the ins and outs of Everyday Math.

If you have not sent in a paper towel tube and/or Pringles can (empty and clean), please do so this week!

Now, for what's happening this week in our classroom:

Language Arts: Our phonics focus this week is on words with the digraph sound /ch/, spelled either ch or tch. This week's wall words are air, fly, friends, grew, need, play, rain, and watch. These words are always included in my lists on spellingcity.com. The comprehension focus this week is on sequencing the events in a story. When you read with your child, talk about the sequence (or order) of events in the story. We will also be practicing capitalizing the names of days and months, working with compound words, and begin talking about the inflection -es (adding es to the root word to show the plural, as in matches). The robust vocabulary words this week are astonishing, continue, doubt, transform, examine, and devour.

Writing Workshop: We are continuing with our poetry unit.

Math: We are working on nonstandard and standard units of measure. The children will be having fun measuring with different parts of their bodies, rulers, tape measures, and even candy corn! M-m-m sweet math!

Science/Social Studies: Our human body pocket books went home today. Take a look with your child! We are reviewing and learning a little about the first Thanksgiving and how pilgrim children were alike/different than we are today.

Things to Remember:

• Word card rings due on Thursday. Several of the children are forgetting to return these on time! Please help them be responsible students!
  
• There are NO READING FOLDERS this week, but please make sure that your child reads every day!
  
• Spirit Day will be this Friday, November 19.
• Our Thanksgiving celebration will be Friday at 1:15. All are welcome to join us!
  
• Thanksgiving break will be Monday, November 22 - 26.
• You should be receiving your child's report card by next week.
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday -Art - Chris Chen- 12:00
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Julie Piper and Molly Camp - 2:05
• Friday - Math Game -Jennifer Lewis - 9:00
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - Kristen Danielson- 2:15

I hope you all have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING with your loved ones!
Susan

Don't be "SICK" on Wednesday!

Dear Parents,

It was great to see some of you at Town Meeting this morning. The children did a great job performing the poem "Livin' in Skin". We continue to practice using our "big voices" when speaking or reading aloud. Luckily the microphone helped this morning! Enjoy the slide show of some pictures taken from Town Meeting.

Our poetry performance continues on Wednesday at Poetry in the Park. It begins at 8:30 in the courtyard. Our class is slated to be the sixth class to perform our poem. We will be in the first part of the day before snack. Bring your chairs or blankets and enjoy the morning!

We will be visiting the book fair tomorrow morning. The children will be able to browse and create a wish list to bring home. If you would like for your child to shop tomorrow, you may send cash placed in a zip-top bag with your child's name on it or a check made out to Shorecrest. If the amount is blank, please note on the memo line the maximum amount the check can be made out for. Please note that students will not be given more than $20 in change. If you would like to shop with your child, you may join us from 9:45 - 10:15 tomorrow at the book fair. Or you may take your child shopping during normal book fair hours.

Starting today, Jeff Diedrich will be your child’s primary teacher in physical education for the coming trimester. Each Monday, he will be posting a blog that recaps the learning that took place during the previous week. Feel free to follow along at http://shorecrestldpecoachd.blogspot.com

Although this is a short week of school due to the professional development day on Friday, it will be jam packed! Let's take a look.
Language Arts: Our spelling focus will be on words that begin and end with the digraph /sh/. This week we will be looking at myths - old stories that teach a lesson and have make-believe characters and events. We will also be talking more about the "setting" of stories - when and where the story takes place - i.e. on a farm in the morning. We are including the characters and setting in our story mapping. Please help remind your child that the special names of places begin with capital letters. This week's wall words are could, happy, cold, night, saw, came, made, and were. The robust vocabulary introduced through literature will be reward, handsomely, cruel, greedy, consequences, and regret.
Writing Workshop: We will be working on line breaks and hearing the "music" of poetry.

Math: The Math Message routine will be introduced and we will be reviewing thermometers and reading temperatures to the nearest two degrees. We will also begin practice measuring and comparing lengths. During the next two weeks, we will be using nonstandard units of measure as well as the standard foot to facilitate understanding of the need for standard units of measure.

Science: We will complete our Human Body unit this week focusing on our digestive system and keeping our bodies healthy around animals and plants. Dr. Peckler will be joining us on Wednesday for a special presentation!

Things to Remember:

• Word card rings due on Thursday. Several of the children are forgetting to return these on time!
• Reading Folders will come home on Wednesday and are to be completed and returned on Monday. Please have your child reread the book each day and work a little at a time on the comprehension activity.
  
• Book Fair this week!
• No school on Friday due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.
  
• Spirit Day will be Friday, November 19.
  
• Thanksgiving break will be Monday, November 22 - 26.

Volunteers this week:

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

See you on Wednesday!

Susan

Friday was a blast! Enjoy some wonderful pictures from our parade! After the festival, I headed to Jacksonville to spend the weekend with all of my family, including little Owen. On Friday night, we celebrated our grandmother's 103rd birthday! What a treasure she is to us! Then on Saturday, "grandpa" and I gave up our tickets to the FL/GA game so that we could babysit our precious little Owen. He wore a lucky Gator outfit and helped us cheer them on to victory - as teeth clenching as it was! I got home in time for trick-or-treating last night and was able to see many of my Shorecrest friends in the neighborhood! Now it's back to school and the beginning of the busy month of November. Let's take a look at the week ahead...

Language Arts: This week's spelling focus is on the r-controlled vowel /or/ spelled or and ore. The wall words are animals, cold, fish, from, their, under, and very. The robust vocabulary introduced through literature include nuzzled, pranced, raging, adapt, intriguing, and inhabit. We will focus on the comprehension concepts of comparing (noticing how two or more things are alike) and contrasting (noticing how they are different). Our genre study will be nonfiction. We will be learning to make inferences when looking for facts, or true information, in what we read. When your child reads nonfiction at home, ask him/her to think about what they already know about those facts to help them understand new information.

Writing Workshop: In honor of our upcoming Poetry in the Park, we will practice seeing things with a poet's eyes. We'll work on using all of our senses, plus our hearts, minds, and imagination.

Math: In math this week, we will practice finding values of collections of pennies, nickels, and dimes and continue making exchanges. We will also explore domino-dot patterns and practice all of the basic addition facts through domino addition. We will complete unit 3 and have the assessment. Look for the Unit 4 Family Letter to come home the end of this week.

Science: Heading toward the end of our wonderful unit on the human body, we will look at our largest organ - our skin. We will also talk about ways to keep our body healthy.

Things to Remember:

• PLEASE help your child remember to bring the word card ring back to school on Thursday.
  
• The Book Fair is next week Monday through Thursday. There will be extended shopping days Wednesday afternoon after school and Thursday morning before school.
  
• Poetry in the Park begins at 8:30 on Wednesday, November 10. Bring your chairs or blankets and enjoy a delightful morning of poetry! (Keep practicing at home with your child!)
  
• There will be no school for students on Friday, November 12, due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Mai Nguyen (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Valerie Pillot and Kristen Danielson (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Ailsa Hudson (9:00)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Sarah or Nate Bernstein (2:15)
  

Another Busy Week in First Grade!

Last Friday, we made spirit posters and celebrated Homecoming with the entire school at a Pep Rally in the gym. Some of the Upper School students came to take us to the Pep Rally and sat with us. Genesis and Hannah are members of the "Little Sparks" and were even able to cheer with the cheerleaders! The gym was electrifying with spirit!

Language Arts: Due to the Fall Festival on Friday, we will be having this week's spelling and reading tests on Thursday! Try some new activities on SpellingCity.com this week to help your child prepare! Also, there will be no reading folders going home this week. Enjoy the Halloween festivities as a family, but keep reading! This week's spelling focus is on words with the dipthong /ng/ as in sing. Our wall words are: arms, every, feet, head, school, use, way, and your. The robust vocabulary words introduced through literature are ashamed, mused, soared, athletic, awkward, and superb. In reading, we will be introducing "plot" (the events that make up the main story of a text) and working on recognizing story structure.

Writing Workshop: Children often end their writing "and then I went home," or "I went to bed." We will work to write story endings that stay in the moment with the heart of the story. We will also begin work with our writing partners as "editors" to help us fix-up our writing to ready it for publishing.

Math: We will work with dimes, dollars-and-cents notation, and practice exchanging pennies, nickels, and dimes.

Science: This week we will be talking about ways to keep our bodies healthy. Don't be surprised if your child points out that YOU might be doing something that is unhealthy for your body!

Things to Remember:

• PLEASE help your child remember to bring the word card ring back to school on Thursday. Almost half the class forgot last week!
  
• Picture Retake Day is Thursday! Flyers are coming home in your child's folder today. (Personally, I thought the children's pictures came out WONDERFUL this year! I definitely have the cutest first graders!)
• Fall Festival is Friday! The parade begins at 8:30. Then we will come back to our classroom to celebrate Matthieu's birthday! If you wish to accompany your child to the festival, please be at the classroom no later than 10:00. Otherwise, they will be dismissed to the festival at 10:00.
• Poetry in the Park begins at 8:30 on Wednesday, November 10. Bring your chairs or blankets and enjoy a delightful morning of poetry! (Keep practicing at home with your child!)
  
• There will be no school for students on Friday, November 12, due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Kristen Danielson (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Julie Piper and Molly Camp (2:05)

Have a wonderful weekend and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Susan

Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around!

Science/Social Studies: Our human body unit continues. Today we learned about the human eye. Cow eyes are very similar to human eyes. Lisa Peck brought cow eyes to dissect with the children to help them see how the eye works. We learned about the different parts of the eye and their functions. One of the really interesting things we learned is that the job of the lens is to focus the light in our eye to project the image of what we see back to the optic nerve and then to our brain. Mrs. Peck removed the lenses from the cow eyes and we have them drying in our classroom. After a couple days we will be able to lay the lens on a book or newspaper and look right through the lens to see words magnified! How cool is that?


Language Arts: This week are are working on words with short vowel /u/ and reviewing words with the digraph /th/. This week's wall words are live, does, grow, many, be, and food. The robust vocabulary for this week include claimed, dine, groaned, function, nutritious, and classify. We will also introduce initial blends with r, as in truck or crack. We will continue to work on nouns, concentrating on nouns that name animals or things. This week's genre focus will be on nonfiction writing with rhyming text. As we read, we will look for details in the text and focus on adjusting our reading rate, being sure to slow down when we need to focus on important information.

Writing Workshop: We are working on storytelling with our partners and the roles each play, spelling our "no excuse" words in a snap, and revealing internal stories - our "feelings and thoughts" as opposed to the external story which describes the action.

Math: We are introducing a new routine called Frames and Arrows and will be working on counting up and back on a calculator.

Things to Remember:

• Word ring comes home on Monday and is returned on Thursday.
  
• Red reading folder comes home on Wednesday and is returned on Monday.
• Spirit Day will be this Friday, October 22. This week is Homecoming week at Shorecrest! We will be attending an all school pep rally on Friday afternoon.
• Picture Retake Day will be Thursday, October 28.
• Fall Festival will be Friday, October 29. The parade will be at 8:30 and then the children will be dismissed from the classroom at 10:00 a.m. to attend the festival.
• Poetry in the Park will be Wednesday, November 10. The children listened to three different poems and were able to vote for the one they wanted our class to do. The winning poem came home in today's folder. PLEASE practice it at home with your child as often as you can!
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Chris Chen (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Checkout - Ailsa Hudson and Liz Jack (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Margaret Young
• Friday - Parent Reader - Octavia or Tom Perfetto (1:00-1:30 due to Pep Rally)

Odds and Ends:

Last Tuesday, our first Picture Lady, Esther Happle, introduced the children to Max Ernst, a German surrealist painter. He had a fascination with a particular animal and often put it in his paintings. Ask your child if they remember what animal this was!

Thank you to our wonderful parent readers for modeling such wonderful expressiveness and the love of reading when you come to read to our class! It is definitely one of the favorite parts of our week!

Celebrating the RAYS tomorrow!

Dear Parents,

Okay, so my Gators continue to head south, but the RAYS brought me back to life yesterday! Let's cheer on our beloved home team by wearing Rays shirts tomorrow (with uniform bottoms)! We'll send all our good luck their way! GO RAYS!

Social Studies/Science: Not only have the Rays brought excitement, but Lisa Peck, our favorite Upper School science teacher brought more excitement to first grade today! We have been learning about the heart and circulatory system in our human body unit, so Mrs. Peck brought cow hearts to dissect with the children! They were able to see the valves and four chambers of the heart as they learned about their important functions. Our human body unit will continue for the month of October. We love science and we love Mrs. Peck!



Language Arts: This week we are working on words with the digraph /th/ at the beginning of a word, as in that, and at the end of a word, as in path. This week's wall words are: don't her, line, Mr., new, says, and water. This week's robust vocabulary words are applauded, chatty, gather, duty, envy, and resent. We are learning that a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or animal. We read the book, "A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink" to help us learn to pick out nouns in sentences. This week we are concentrating on nouns that name people or places. As you work with your child at home this week, have him/her point out nouns to you. This week's genre focus is on realistic fiction, stories that are made up but could happen in real life. We are using a graphic organizer called a story map to help us understand and remember the beginning, middle, and ending of stories that we read. Look for a story map in your child's red reading folder this week!

I am sure you have heard that I am reading my favorite book aloud to the class - Charlotte's Web. The third graders are also reading it as a class novel so we are partnering with Mrs. Hensler's third graders for some fun activities during this time. On Friday, Mrs. Hensler's class came to visit and shared narrations they have been working on along with Wilbur paper bag puppets that both classes made. We love working with our third grade buddies!



Writing Workshop: We are learning that we always have a graphic organizer with us to help tell stories that have a beginning, middle, and ending - our five fingers! We are using our fingers to help us internalize and plan the details of our stories ("first", "next", "then", "and then", "finally"). Ask your child about this strategy! We will also be focusing on the most important part of our story and adding details to that part.

Math: In math, we are reviewing basic number-line concepts by counting, adding, and subtracting on the number line. We will also be practicing telling time to the half-hour, and will be introducing a new routine called Frames-and-Arrows.

Things to remember:

• Rays Day tomorrow! Children may wear a Tampa Bay Rays shirt with uniform bottom.
  
• Red reading folder comes home on Wednesday and is returned on Monday
• Word card ring comes home on Monday and is returned on Thursday
  
• Please complete the online parent opinion survey if you have not already done so.
• No school for students this Friday due to a Professional Development Day for teachers
• Spirit Day will be Friday, October 22
  
• Picture Retake Day will be Tuesday, October 28
  
• Fall Festival will be Friday, October 29.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Ailsa Hudson (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Valerie Pillot and Kristen Danielson

Go Rays!
Susan