Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow! Room 1-4 was "party central" today! We began the day celebrating Dexter's birthday and finished the day with our Valentine's party! Thank you to all of the parents that came to help us party! This is always one of the favorite days of the year for the children! Enjoy some of the pictures that we took!

The ECC/Lower Division Cookout is tomorrow! This is a fundraiser put on for Relay for Life by both the Administrative Team and Team Green Eyes (Mrs. Owen's team)! We will be preparing lunch (hot dog, drink, and dessert) for all ECC/LD students. Parents are welcome to come and have lunch with your child to support this worthy cause! Suggested donation is $5.00 per person. Sage Dining will not be available so your child may bring a sack lunch from home in the alternative.

Believe it or not, we are also focused on learning in 1-4! Here is a look at what we are doing this week:

Reading/Language Arts: Our spelling strategy is again on the long vowel/silent e. This week's words will focus on the long /o/ sound with the silent e as in "rose". Our phonograms are -ose, -oke, -one, and -ole. Our word wall (or high frequency) words are brown, city, hello, loudly, love, and, pulled . Our comprehension strategies will be on learning to draw conclusions. Authors do not always tell readers every small detail about a story. Sometimes readers must use clues to figure things out. We will also be reminding ourselves that good readers ask themselves questions as they read to help understand the story better. Our grammar focus will be on using describing words that end with -er to compare two things and -est to compare three or more things.

Math: We will be introducing fact triangles which help children see the relationship between addition and subtraction. Fact triangles are a great tool for practicing math facts within the fact families. We will also be using the Facts Table for subtraction.

Writing Workshop: We are into our new unit of study this week, The Craft of Revision. In this unit, we will learn strategies for making our stories better. Last week, we introduced tools a writer can use to insert new text into the midst of a draft. We will practice using these tools as the study continues. This week we will also talk about other reasons that writers review, such as to show characters talking by adding dialogue.

Science/Social Studies: This week, in our study of America, we are learning about important people in the history of our country. We will be learning about the father of our country, George Washington, and president Abraham Lincoln. As the unit continues, we will also learn little facts about each of our great 50 states!

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Chris Chen - 12:05
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Valerie Pillot and Kristen Danielson - 2:05
  

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Hot dog lunch is tomorrow!
Science Teach-in is this Wednesday, 2/16, from 1:00 - 2:30.
Professional Development Day is this Friday 2/18. There is no school for students!
President's Day is next Monday, 2/21. There is no school for students or faculty!
Spirit Day is next Friday, 2/25 - Children may wear Shorecrest Charger Spirit wear!
Reading Week will take place Monday, 2/28 - Friday, 3/4 - More info will be coming soon!
Oldie Goldie Book Sale will be Friday, 3/4. Start collecting your books now to donate!
Field Day will be Friday, 3/11. More information will be coming soon!
Spring Break will be 3/14 - 3/18.

IMPORTANT ONLINE RE-ENROLLMENT INFORMATION:
We are excited to announce that we are moving to an online re-enrollment process! This will allow you to complete your enrollment contract online, as well as make payments online. We believe that this will save you time and effort.

You will no longer need to complete lengthy paperwork, as student information will be pre-populated on each student's individual enrollment form. Once the enrollment contract is submitted online, you will be able to print a copy of the contract for your records.

In addition, we are pleased to offer you an easy, secure online payment system to make electronic payments of tuition deposits, tuition refund plan payments, tuition, and donation payments. This convenient alternative for families will allow you to make electronic payments by e-check or credit card (Master Card, American Express or Discover only).

A convenience fee of 2.75% will be charged if you use a credit card; however, there is no fee for using e-check, which is a direct debit to your bank account.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Susan and Beth

We Love Our Grandparents and Special Friends!

Dear Parents:

We are somewhat back to a normal routine at school after a busy week of special days last week! It was wonderful meeting all of the wonderful grandparents and special friends on Friday. The children absolutely LOVE having them visit and see all that they do during their school day! Please enjoy the snapshots!

Here's a look at what we have in store for this week:

Reading/Language Arts: Our spelling strategy is again on the long vowel/silent e. This week's words will focus on the long /i/ sound with the silent e as in "line". /We will be reviewing the digraphs qu /kw/ and wh /hw/. Our word wall (or high frequency) words are because, light, right, those, and walked. Our comprehension focus will be reviewing problem/solution. Our grammar focus will be on using describing words to tell about "feelings".

Math: We will be exploring patterns in sums of two dice, introducing the Addition/Subtraction Facts Table, using name-collection boxes to help us come up with equivalent names for numbers, and introducing addition/subtraction fact families.

Writing Workshop: We have invited Mrs. Hensler's third grade class to join us for our writing celebration tomorrow! We so enjoyed working with them on our joint Charlotte's Web project in the fall that we decided that we would love to share our published pieces with them. The third graders will be writing notes to the children about what they like about their writing. We have been talking and thinking a lot about what makes our writing easy or hard to read. Ask your child what makes their writing easy or hard to read and remind them to think about that when they are writing at home. We also begin our new unit of study this week, The Craft of Revision.

Science/Social Studies: Look for your child's pocket book and other projects on the Solar System to come home in the green bag today. Celebrate with your child all that they learned and worked hard on! This week we are getting ready for Valentine's Day. This always proves to be a favorite holiday with the children! This week, we also begin our study of America. We will be learning about important symbols, landmarks, and people in the history of our great country!

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Ailsa Hudson - 12:05
• Friday - Math Game - Emily Golden - 9:00
• Friday - Parent Reader - Mindy Artze - 2:15

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Conference Day is Thursday! No school for students!
Valentine's Party is Monday, 2/14, at 1:45 p.m. - All parents are welcome to join us!
Science Teach-in is Wednesday, 2/16, 1:00 - 2:30
Professional Development Day, Friday 2/18 - No school for students!
President's Day - Monday, 2/21 - No school for students or faculty!
Spirit Day - Friday, 2/25 - Children may wear Shorecrest Charger Spirit wear!
Reading Week - Monday, 2/28 - Friday, 3/4 - More information will be coming soon!
Oldie Goldie Book Sale - Friday, 3/4 - Start collecting your books now to donate!
Field Day - Friday, 3/11 - More information will be coming soon!
Spring Break - 3/14 - 3/18

IMPORTANT ONLINE RE-ENROLLMENT INFORMATION:
We are excited to announce that we are moving to an online re-enrollment process! This will allow you to complete your enrollment contract online, as well as make payments online. We believe that this will save you time and effort.

You will no longer need to complete lengthy paperwork, as student information will be pre-populated on each student's individual enrollment form. Once the enrollment contract is submitted online, you will be able to print a copy of the contract for your records.

In addition, we are pleased to offer you an easy, secure online payment system to make electronic payments of tuition deposits, tuition refund plan payments, tuition, and donation payments. This convenient alternative for families will allow you to make electronic payments by e-check or credit card (Master Card, American Express or Discover only).

A convenience fee of 2.75% will be charged if you use a credit card; however, there is no fee for using e-check, which is a direct debit to your bank account. You will be receiving further information the week of February 16.

Until next time!
Susan and Beth

Dear Parents:

This is going to be a busy and exciting week in our class! We will be celebrating both Charlie and Benjamin's birthdays. We will be learning about the legend of the Groundhog, Chinese New Year, celebrating the 100th day of school, and ending the week with our grandparents and special friends on Friday. That is on top of our regular curriculum! Whew! Oh, and we will be having a visiting student in our class on Tuesday and Wednesday! I know the children will welcome her and make her feel right at home.

Speaking of our "regular" curriculum, here is a little of what we will be doing:

Reading/Language Arts: The genre focus this week is a "play". The children will enjoy reading and acting the parts of a play called "Flake, the Missing Hamster". Our phonics focus is on long vowel /a/ with a silent e, spelled a-e as in Flake. Our wall words this week are found, near, hears, might, open, gone, around, and tired. The comprehension focus has us discussing the problem/solution in texts we are reading. We are also concentrating on reading with more expression in our voice. The phonograms this week are -ake, -ame, and -ate. The grammar focus is on describing words for "how many". Each Monday night's homework now requires your child to write sentences using their new word cards for the week. Please encourage your child to begin each sentence with a capital letter and end it with the correct punctuation mark. Please challenge your child to write "strong" sentences using describing words. Please check out the new links that I have posted on the right side of this blog page - Starfall, Make a Word, Spin and Spell. These are more great sites to give your child spelling and reading practice!

Thursday is Chinese New Year! Benjamin's mom will be coming in to share with the children about this special day in their culture.

Math: We will begin Unit 6 this week. In this unit your child will be working on fact families, measuring using centimeters, adding money using quarters, and telling time on digital clocks. This is a BIG unit and will last several weeks. Please take the time to work with your child while they are completing their homework. I also posted a couple of new links - Math Fact Practice and Bite Size Math - for your child to have fun practicing math facts and skills when at home. Check them out! Thursday's math will be dedicated to the 100th day of school. The students will be involved in several activities that revolve around the #100. On today's homework calendar, your child is asked to bring in 100 pieces of something for our 100th Day snack mix. If you need to, you may substitute something else in place of your assigned ingredient. Please be sure to have these in by Wednesday as we will be making the mix on Thursday morning. We will also be celebrating Benjamin's birthday that morning so you do not need to send in an additional snack for your child on Thursday!

Writer's Workshop: We are working on stories about our grandparents and special friends.

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

Grandparent's Day: this Friday, February 4. Below is the approximate schedule for that morning:
8:30-9:00 A.M. -Continental Breakfast - Student Center
9:00-9:45 A.M. -Program in the Janet Root Theater (Grandparents and Special Friends only. Ending time is approximate.)
10:00 -11:00A.M. - Grandparents visit classrooms and tour campus.
12:00 -Dismissal

Spring Conference Day: Spring Conference Day is on Thursday, February 10. There is no school for students. Report cards will be given out at conferences. Here is the conference schedule:

Wednesday, February 9^th

2:00 Lankford

Thursday, February 10^th

8:00 Walsh

8:30 Bernstein

9:00 Golden

9:30 Camp

10:00 Danielson

10:30 Harting

11:00

12:30

1:00 Artze

1:30

2:00 Jack/Anderson

2:30 Pillot

3:00 Peckler

3:30 Schneider

Friday, February 11

7:30 Eckert

12:30 Biondi

Monday, February 14

7:30 Jones

2:45 Chris Chen

Tuesday, February 15

2:45 Hudson

Wednesday, February 16

7:30 Piper

10:00 Lewis

2:45 Perfetto

Science Teach-In: The Science Teach-In will take place on Wednesday, February 16 from 1 -2:30.

Professional Development Day: There will be a Professional Development Day on Friday, February 18. No school for students!

Spirit Day: Spirit Day is on Friday, February 25. Students may wear green and gold colored clothing.

Reading Week: Reading Week will take place February 28 – March 4. Details to come later.

Oldie Goldie Book Fair: The Lower Division Oldie Goldie Book Fair will take place on Friday, March 4.

Field Day: Field Day will take place on Friday, March 11.

Volunteers this week:

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

Following is a letter from a Shorecrest parent regarding a fundraiser for the fallen St. Petersburg Police officers' families.

Support for Officer's Family

Dear Dr. Bianco,

As of right now we are set for our event at our car wash at 2300 MLK (9th Street) Street North across the street from Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home this Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 5pm. Our car wash is an automatic one and all you have to do is drive thru , no work involved. But ALL proceeds will go to the Suncoast Law Enforcement Memorial Fund for our fallen Heroes.

My husband is still working out the details but that is what I know as of yet. We are working closely of course with the PBA as well, so we hope to have a great turn out. I would love a "traffic jam" of people to turn out for this event. When I hear more details I will be sure to let you know.

Thanks again for all of your love and support.
Joy Culberson,
Shorecrest Parent

Until next time,
Susan and Beth

Reading/Language Arts: This week the genre focus is on nonfiction. Our comprehension focus will be on using graphic organizers to record information when reading nonfiction. We will also be reviewing "cause and effect" and using describing words for taste, smell, sound,and feel.
This week's wall words are cool, dry, four, holes, move place, and warm. The phonics focus is on words with long vowel /a/ spelled ai and ay. Our robust vocabulary words are grumbling, chided, realized, bitterly, dwelling, and amusement.

Writing Workshop: We will finish working with our partners as editors and "fancying up" our pieces for publishing!

Math: We will be completing unit 5 this week. The children will be introduced to the "What's My Rule?" routine - finding and applying rules, finding the output for given rules and input numbers, and using the function machine.

Science/SS: Our Solar System unit continues as we learn specifics about some of the many planets.

Important Reminders:

Several of the children are still forgetting to return their Word Cards and Reading Folders on time. Word cards are to be returned each THURSDAY! Reading Folders are due each Monday. These are part of their "homework" and will be included in their homework grade on their upcoming report cards. Please help them learn this responsibility!

*After school programs start this week.
*Ident-a-kid will be here tomorrow, Tuesday, January 25th, in the Student Center.
*SPIRIT DAY will be this Friday, January 28th.
*Grandparent's Day is on Friday, February 4th-Please send in a picture of your child's grandparents or special friends as soon as possible! We will be doing a writing activity with them.
*Conference Day is on Thursday, February 10. There is no school for students that day. Report cards will be given out at this time.
*Science Teach-In will take place on Wednesday, February 16 from 1-2:30.
*There is no school for the students on Friday, February 18th as it is a Professional Development Day for teachers.
*The Oldie Goldie Book Fair will take place on Friday, March 4. Start getting your books ready now.

Volunteers this week:

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

See you soon!
Susan

Dear Parents:

First, thank you so much for your very kind words in the many e-mails I received. While it has been an incredibly sad time, it has also been good to be with friends and family. While I am away, be assured that your children are in excellent hands with Beth Rauman and Charlie Chiappone. Here is a look at what they are doing this week.

Reading/Language Arts: The genre focus this week is on folktales. The phonics focus is on words with long vowel /e/ spelled e, ee, and ea. The comprehension focus is on cause and effect. The children will also be working on contractions 've and 're and describing words for color, size and shape.

Math: This week brings more math fact practice including dice sums, turn around facts (3+4=7 and 4+3=7) and easy facts (+1 and +0).

Ethan, Matthieu, and Hayden work at a recent math exploration comparing weights.

Science/SS: Our Solar System unit continues.

Other Reminders:

Word Cards are due each THURSDAY!
Reading Folders are due in on Monday!

*Math Night is this Thursday, January 20, at 7:00 pm
*After school programs start the week of January 24th
*Ident-a-kid will be here on Tuesday, January 25th in the Student Center. Information will be coming home in your child's homework folder on Tuesday, January 18th.
*SPIRIT DAY will be on Friday, January 28th
*Grandparent's Day is on Friday, February 4th-Please send in a picture of your child's grandparents or special friends as soon as possible! We will be doing a writing activity with them.
*Conference Day is on Thursday, February 10. There is no school for students that day. Report cards will be given out at this time.
*Science Teach-In will take place on Wednesday, February 16 from 1-2:30.
*No school for the students on Friday, February 18th-Professional Development Day for teachers
*Oldie Goldie Book Fair will take place on Friday, March 4 (Start getting your books ready now)

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Kristen Danielson (12:00)
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Julie Piper and Molly Camp (2:05)
  
• Friday - Math Game - Leigh Harting (after Livvi's birthday celebration!)
• Friday - Parent Reader - Dean Walsh (or substitute parent??) (2:15)

Thank you again for being such wonderful parents. See you soon!
Susan

Dear Parents:

Don't forget that school begins at 8:05 now. This time change took effect last week. We have had a few stragglers and we begin our day when the bell rings at 8:05.

Last Friday, our math explorations were a lot of fun! I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you to show our class in action! In this picture, Ethan, Matthieu, and Hayden work on weighing sets of objects to make them balance.

In the next picture, Livvi, Ellie, Charlie, and Anna work on estimating and finding the area of a surface.

Here is a look at what is going on in our class this week.

Reading/Language Arts: We are working on words with the long o sound spelled oa as in "boat" and ow as in "snow". Our comprehension focus when reading will be on the author's purpose for the story and point of view - the viewpoint from which a story is told to the reader. We will also practice making inferences by using clues from what we are reading and what we already know to help us understand the story. We will be reading stories in the genres of realistic fiction and folktales. We will be working more on those sometimes troublesome words - homophones. The word wall words this week are mouse, our, over, pretty, surprise, and three. The robust vocabulary words this week are bulged, jostled, argue, command, labored, and wary.

Writer's Workshop: Ask your children about the "hamburger" we think about when writing! The top bun is the topic sentence - telling the reader what the story is about. The lettuce, ketchup, pickles, etc. are the juicy details about the topic. The bottom bun (looking similar to the top bun) finishes the story with a "close-in" closing. When your child is writing at home, remind him/her to reread the beginning of the story to help write a "close-in" closing.

Math: We will be working on addition of 2-digit numbers. We will also be introducing, making up, and solving number stories involving relations, addition, and subtraction.

Science/SS: This week our focus will be the phases of the moon, and the stars and constellations in our solar system.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Chris Chen (12:00)
• Thursday - Library Check-out - Ailsa Hudson and Liz Jack (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Michelle Clopet (9:00)
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - Meghan Schneider (2:15)

Other Reminders:

Please be sure to practice reading, spelling, and writing the vocabulary words on the word rings every day. Return the word card rings EVERY Thursday.

Please be sure to have your child work on the reading folder assignment each day and return it completed on Mondays. Some children are forgetting to return the folder on time. Don't forget that rereading helps to build fluency! Your child should reread the book each night to increase their fluency and to help work on voice inflection.

Math Night will be January 20 at 7:00 p.m. This will be a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience with our Everyday Math program. Please let the office know if you plan to attend.

There will be no school on Martin Luther King Day - January 17th.

Our next Spirit Day will be Friday, January 28th.

That's all for now!
Have a great week!
Susan