Week of February 13, 2012

Dear Parents:

CALLING ALL BOOKS! We need books for the Oldie Goldie Book Sale which will take place next Friday! Please go through your bookshelves and kindly donate any that you are ready to let go of! We are in desperate need of books to make our sale a success! Oldie Goldie provides a wonderful opportunity for the children to get lots of new books to read! Boxes to collect your donated books are outside our classroom door! Thank you!

It's going to be an exciting week for us! Tomorrow we will celebrate Valentine's Day. The children are allowed to wear "valentine" attire - red, pink, ... They do not have to wear uniform bottoms. They have been chomping at the bit to open their valentines so that will definitely be the highlight of the party! As always, all parents are welcome to join us! Then Wednesday, is Purple day! The children are allowed to wear purple shirts (with uniform bottoms) in honor of Relay for Life. We will have the Relay for Life hot dog lunch so remember that there is no SAGE lunch available.

Next week is Reading Week. We kick it off on Tuesday with Character Day. The children should come to school dressed as a character from their favorite book and bring the book to school as well. We will have a special town meeting that morning with all of the characters! Then we'll read a favorite part of our books in class. Please look in your child's folder for a special note regarding Character Day.

Don't forget that at the end of this blog, there are always important reminders of special dates and events coming up!

With all of the excitement of this week, we will still be focused on learning! Here is a look at what else 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 grammar focus will be on using describing words that end with -er to compare two things and -est to compare three or more things. In reading, we will practice the comprehension strategy of drawing conclusions. Authors do not always tell readers every small detail about a story. Sometimes readers must use clues to figure things out. We will be reminding ourselves that good readers ask themselves questions as they read to help understand the story better. We'll also continue to use our post-it notes to jot down information that we learn from nonfiction texts.

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 and practicing more with name collection boxes.

Writing Workshop: In our new unit, The Craft of Revision, we are learning 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. We also talked about other reasons that writers revise, such as to show characters talking by adding dialogue.

Science: This week we will be working hard on our planet projects! Last week they worked with their partner to plan the visual presentation of their projects. It was so fun to listen in as they planned, sketched, and decided who would do what. Such great collaboration! The children are really into it! Thank you for helping to fuel their excitement at home.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Mai Nguyen
  
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Kimberly Burke
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:00 - Kimberly Burke

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Valentine's Day Tuesday - Students may wear valentine colors! They do NOT need to wear their uniform bottoms.

Purple Day/Relay for Life Cook-out: We will be having a hot dog lunch on Wednesday as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. Students may purchase a hot dog lunch or bring a bag lunch from home. 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 that day. Wednesday is also Wear Purple Day. Students may wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms. If they choose not to wear purple, they may wear their regular uniforms. 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.

Professional Development Day is this Friday 2/17. There is no school for students!

President's Day is next Monday, 2/20. There is no school for students or faculty!

Reading Week - February 21 - 24:
Tuesday - Dress up as a character from your favorite book! Bring the book ready to read and share your favorite part.
Wednesday - "Drop Everything and Read" time outside from 8:15 - 8:50.
Thursday - Buddy Reading
Friday - Oldie Goldie Book Fair -Great opportunity to buy VERY inexpensive great books! Please bring in books to donate NOW! Boxes are in the hallway to collect your donations. Thank you!

Science Week - February 27 - March 8:
We will be teaching Jill Lemon's fourth graders about the planets!

Class Picture Day - Wednesday, February 29

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, February 29

Report Cards will be online for parents to access.

Field Day - Friday, March 9

Ident-a-Kid will take place on Wednesday, March 21

I hope you all enjoy time with your special valentines this week!
Susan

Week of February 6, 2012

Dear Parents:

Can you believe we have been in school for 100 days? The days are flying by! On Friday, we celebrated the 100th day of school. After reading the books, The 100th Day of School and What is a Hundred?, the children participated in various activities, much like the children in one of the books. We counted up to 100 and back, made an inch cube snake 100 inches long, solved math facts for 100 seconds to see how many we could do, worked at finding 100 words we could read and write, hopped 100 times without holding on to anything, flipped a coin 100 times to see if it would land on heads or tails more often, keeping track with tallies, and ate our 100th day snack mix. Mmmmm! We also read 100 books as a class and kept track with tallies on the board. I've posted pictures on our shutterfly site so click the link and enjoy the great day we had!

Since Thursday was Groundhog Day, we had fun learning all about the groundhog. We then completed a web together of all that we had learned about them and the children used the information from that graphic organizer to write their own nonfiction books about the groundhog. They did a fantastic job! I hope you read the book your child wrote and celebrated his/her great writing! Miss Hawley brought in her guinea pig to visit - a cousin of the groundhog!

Reading Week will be the week of February 21 - 24. Monday, the 20th, is a school holiday for President's Day. We begin the week on Tuesday with Character Day! The children are to choose a character from a favorite book to come to school dressed as that day. They need to bring the book with them and be prepared to present orally to our class about the book and character. We will parade in costume with our books at Town Meeting that morning. We will be having an all lower school read in the courtyard that week as well. Friday of that week is the Oldie Goldie Book Sale. You may begin bringing in your donations of books this week! Boxes will be in the hallway.

With conference day on Thursday this week, our school week is shortened, but still packed full of learning. A look at what is happening in 1-4 this week:

The children have earned another compliment party! A big thank you to Jill Emerson for hosting it! We will celebrate Tuesday afternoon.

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/. We'll talk more about the comprehension strategy of figuring out the problem/solution in a story. In grammar, we'll work on dropping the e at the end of words before adding the inflections -ed and -ing. We'll also work on using describing words to tell about "feelings".

Reading Workshop: We have begun using our Reading Response notebooks (the yellow spiral that came home last week). We will talk more about this at our conference. We are doing a mini unit on nonfiction reading strategies to help us with our research projects in science. We're noticing the features in nonfiction texts and how they help us find and learn information about a topic. We're also learning that as readers we... warm up our minds before reading by thinking "what do I already know about this topic" and "what do I want to learn"; accumulate information by reading different books on a topic; and keep track of new information by jotting what we learn on sticky notes.

Writing Workshop: Our writing celebration last Monday was a HUGE success! Thank you for coming to celebrate with our writers and for the wonderful compliments you wrote to them. They were on cloud 9! We have begun our new unit on revision and they are now revising those same stories! That's what writers do - they work to improve and make their writing even better! I am introducing tools a writer can use to insert new text into the midst of a draft and we will practice using these tools as the study continues.

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

Science: The children are having a blast working on their planet projects! We talked about and brainstormed the project requirements together. They are working with their partners to complete their research, decide the points they want to teach about their planet, how they want to present their project, what materials they need to complete it, and will have time to work on the visual presentation in class. Some have already brought in materials and begun to work on it! The excitement is contagious! They will continue this work for the next few weeks and will practice their oral presentation together. They will be presenting their projects and teaching fourth graders during our science week the end of this month.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Natalie Ames - 12:05
• Wednesday - Math Game - Kelli Cross - 1:15
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - Susannah Malison - 2:15

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Conference Day is Thursday! No school for students!
Valentine's Party is Tuesday, 2/14, at 1:45 p.m. - All parents are welcome to join us!
Relay for Life Hot Dog Lunch - Wednesday 2/15
Professional Development Day, Friday 2/17 - No school for students!
President's Day - Monday, 2/20 - No school for students or faculty!
Reading Week - Tuesday, 2/21 - Friday, 2/24
Oldie Goldie Book Sale - Friday, 2/24 - Start collecting your books now to donate! The boxes will be in our hallway this week!
Field Trip to Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, 2/29

Until next time!
Susan

Week of January 30, 2012

Dear Parents:

Grandparents/Special Friends Day was a huge success! It was so nice to meet and chat with them and extra nice to see some again from years past. The children were so proud to show them our classroom, their work, and to tell them about their school day. Being a grandparent now, I look forward to one day visiting my grandchild's classroom! Be sure to go to our class Shutterfly site (link on the right) to see pictures from Friday. I will be posting pictures from our writing celebration in the next day or two. I will also add to the existing albums as the year goes. As always, Susannah and I would love for others to post pictures to share. At the end of the year, you will have a treasure of pictures that you can use to create an album of your child's year in first grade!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend. I spent a lot of time just sitting outside with my little dog, Cody. He loves being outside and, with his health issues, he seems to have an easier time outside. In fact, I am writing this blog as I sit on my front porch with him. What a great way to work while enjoying the weather and chatting with the neighbors as they walk and ride their bikes. I love living in Florida!

It's going to be another busy week in first grade beginning with our writing celebration Monday morning! Please take a look at what we will be doing in 1-4:

Language Arts: Our phonics focus this week is on long vowel /a/ with silent e, spelled a-e as in make. The phonograms this week are -ake, -ame, and -ate. We will continue to work on describing words (adjectives). Each Monday night's homework now requires your child to compose and write sentences using the new high frequency words from their word card ring. Please encourage your child to begin each sentence with a capital letter and end it with the correct punctuation mark. I have also challenged the children to create stronger sentences by using describing words and including more information. Ask your child if they answer these questions in their sentences... "who, what, where, when, why, and how". Our rule of thumb is if you are 6 years old, you should try to have at least 6 words in your sentence and if you are 7, you should try to write a sentence with at least 7 words.

There are links for some sites on the right side of this blog for spelling and reading practice. Try them out with your child if you haven't yet!

Reading Workshop: We continue to work on fluency by concentrating on phrasing and voice inflection as we read. We want to sound as if we are talking when we read. We will also begin working with the genre of nonfiction. We'll learn about the features of nonfiction books and that good readers use nonfiction books to pursue an interest and learn all they can about a topic.

Writing Workshop: We have completed our unit on writing for readers and published our stories! The children have worked hard to make their writing easy to read and are so excited about our writing celebration! We hope you can join us as a reader at 10:45 Monday. Our hope is that our stories will be easy for our readers to read and understand. There will be a comment sheet at the back of each story for each reader of the story to make comments and compliments to the writer. Prepare to be amazed at your child's progress! If you are unable to join us, I will share your child's story with you at our upcoming conference. Our next unit focuses on the craft of revision.

Math: We will be completing unit 5 this week. The children will be working with the "What's My Rule?" routine - finding and applying rules, finding the output and input numbers for given rules, and using the function machine. We'll take the unit 5 assessment. Watch for it to come home later this week. We will also celebrate the 100th day of school on Friday! Can you believe we will have been in school for 100 days? Wow! Time flies! The children will be involved in several activities that revolve around the number 100. Please note on the homework calendar that your child has been assigned to bring in 100 pieces of a particular ingredient for our 100th Day Snack Mix. Please be sure to have these in by Wednesday.

Science: The children have been paired with partners and are working hard on a research project on a particular planet. They have worked both in the computer lab and in the classroom. They will soon be deciding how they would like to present their research. Then, they'll become the teachers when they present their projects and "teach" a class of older lower school students about the planets!

Special Note:

Sam's mother, Julia Wenniger, would love to be a fill-in for volunteers if you can't make it. She would need a little advance notice. Please contact me if you need her number or email address.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Debbie Boensch
  
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 (note time change) - Natalie Ames
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:00 - Kimberly Burke
  
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Kelli Cross
  

Other important news and reminders:

"Aesop's Fables" will be performed in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, February 7th at 1:00 p.m. You are welcome to join your child in watching the performance.

Conference Day - Thursday, February 9th - no school for students

No school on Friday, February 17th - Professional Development Day for teachers

No school on Monday, February 20th - President's Day

Class Picture Day - Wednesday, February 29th

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, February 29th

Science Week - February 27th - March 8th

Oldie Goldie Book Fair - Friday, February 24th - Begin gathering books to donate now!

Field Day - Friday, March 9th

Ident-a-Kid - Wednesday, March 21st

Whew! That's all for now! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the beautiful Florida weather!
Susan

Special News!

Dear Parents:

Tomorrow is Grandparents/Special Friends Day. The children are to wear their uniforms rather than spirit clothes. Dismissal is at noon. If your child is leaving before noon, they will need to be signed out at the classroom by the adult they are leaving with.

Writing Celebration!

You are invited to our Writing Celebration! The children have focused this month on writing for readers. They have worked hard to make their writing easy to read and have each published a new book. If you are able to, please join us in the classroom at 10:45 on Monday. We have also invited their former and some future teachers. Be prepared to burst with pride! If you are unable to make it, I will share their story with you at our conference.

Have a great weekend!
Susan

Week of January 23, 2012

Dear Parents:

Happy National Handwriting Day! Today we read the book, Hallie's Horrible Handwriting, and talked about how our handwriting says a lot about us. We then practiced our handwriting, of course. We all made promises to always try our best.

The children were in for a real treat on Friday when our parent reader, Kimberly Burke, came to our classroom to read. The children loved the books she brought to read. But most of all, they LOVED the mad libs she did with them! They had such fun filling in the blanks and then hearing the funny and nonsensical stories they helped to write! I wonder if they realized they were learning and practicing things like nouns, verbs, and adjectives...

You received a Relay for Life Letter and Flyer in your child's folder last week. The letter explains the cook-out, class links, and donations to the American Cancer Society. The hot dog cook-out will be on Wednesday, February 15. There will be no Sage Dining offered that day. Please complete and return the form indicating whether your child will be bringing a bag lunch from home or purchasing a hot dog lunch.

What do you know about sun safety? Have your child write a winning essay and maybe win a shade structure for our school! There is a contest for Florida elementary school students. They write an essay of 500 words or less on why you should protect yourself from the sun and why your school should be awarded a shade structure. If your child would like to try writing an essay on this, the essay needs to be returned to me no later than this Friday, January 27th. You may get more information at fsdds.org or emailing sunshadecontest@fsdds.org or by calling the FSDDS office at 904-880-0023.

What else is going on in our classroom this week?

Language Arts/Reading Workshop: We are working on words with the long a sound spelled ay and ai .During reading workshop, we will be learning that readers make sure they understand what they are reading by reading tricky parts aloud. We'll also work on our reading fluency by reading in a voice that sounds like we are talking and by reading text in phrases to make our reading sound smooth.

Writing Workshop: This week we are working on stories about our grandparents or special friends that we will publish and put up to share with them on Friday!

Math: We continue to work on turn-around facts, easy facts, and will be introducing the "What's My Rule?" routine.

Science: Gung Hay Fat Choy! Or... best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year! Today we learned how the Chinese follow a lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon. This is the Year of the Dragon and those born this year are good friends because they listen carefully to others. We also looked up our birth years. Those born in 2004 in the Year of the Monkey are very funny and are also good problem solvers! Those born in 2005 in the year of the Rooster are hard workers and deep thinkers!

We will also continue to learn more about the planets of our solar system.

Other important things to remember:

After school programs/clubs begin this week!

Grandparents/Special Friends Day is this Friday! Noon dismissal - If your child is leaving before noon, please make sure they are signed out in the classroom.

"Aesop's Fables" will be performed in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, February 7th at 1:00 p.m. You are welcome to join your child in watching the performance.

No school on Friday, Feb. 17th - Professional Development Day for teachers
No school on Monday, Feb. 20th - President's Day

Science Week: February 27 - March 8

Class Picture Day - Wednesday, February 29

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - Wednesday, February 29

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:05 - Jill Emerson
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Kimberly Burke
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:05 - Kimberly Burke
• Friday - Parent Reader - 11:30 - Julia Wenniger

Have a terrific week!
Susan

Week of January 17, 2012

Dear Parents:

The kids were "OUT OF THIS WORLD" at Town Meeting last week! I am so proud of them! I had several teachers comment about how much they and their students enjoyed our presentation of riddles on the solar system. It was fun! I hope you were able to be there!

Three important reminders!

First, several of the children are still forgetting to return their Word Cards on time. Word card rings are to be returned each THURSDAY. These are part of their "homework" and will be included in their homework grade on the upcoming report cards. Please held them with this responsibility!

Second, photographs of grandparents or special friends are due by Friday! Please send one in even if your child will not be having grandparents or a special friend attend on Grandparents Day. We will be spending time in Writing Workshop writing about our grandparents or special friends. Those children that do not have grandparents/special friends attending will be paired up with another child and their guests to tour the school.

Lastly, if you have NOT signed up for a conference with me, please do so as soon as possible. I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you!

This is a short week at school, but still jam-packed with fun and learning. This week in...

Language Arts: Our phonics focus will be on words with long vowel /e/ spelled e, ee, and ea. We will be working with contractions 've and 're and describing words for color, size, and shape. We will also talk about cause and effect.

Reading Workshop: I will be reminding the children that reading should always make sense. So this week, our focus will be on making sure we understand what we are reading. The children will learn that smart readers make sure they understand what they are reading by asking themselves, "Do I understand what I am reading?" and fix it when they don't. The children will also practice going back to look at pictures and rereading parts to understand what they are reading.

Writing Workshop: Our unit on "Writing for Readers" is ending. The children have chosen their piece for publishing and will continue working with their editing partners and then "fancy up" the piece for publishing!

Math: We will continue practicing solving number stories. This week also brings more math fact practice with dice sums, turn-around facts (3+4=7 and 4+3=7), and easy facts (+1 and +0).

Science: Our Solar System unit continues as we learn specifics about the planets. This week the children will be making their own model of Saturn!

Important Dates and Events:

The After School Programs start the week of January 23.

Grandparents Day will take on Friday, January 27. There will be a noon dismissal. The schedule for the morning is as follows: 8:30-9:00 AM, Continental Breakfast in the Student Center; 9:00-9:45 AM, program for grandparents and special friends in the Janet Root Theatre; 10:00 -11:00 AM, grandparents/friends visit classrooms and tour campus; and, noon dismissal. Please note, it is very important that grandparents or special friends sign children out in their classroom if they are taking them home before dismissal.

The Big Event is on Friday, February 3, starting at 6:30PM. Reserve your tickets at http://gala.shorecrest.org. "Totally '80s Prom" is the theme.

Aesop's Fables will be performing in the Recreation Gym on Tuesday, Feb. 7th at 1 pm for grades EC - 2. Families are always welcomed.

Parent/teacher conferences are on Thursday, February 9. If you have not signed up for a conference time, please contact me! There is no school for ECC and LD students on that day.

The Relay for Life Cookout will be on Wednesday, February 15. Plan to join your child at lunch time.

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - 12:00 - Mary Harris
  
• Wednesday - Math Game - 1:15 - Brian Malison
  
• Thursday - Library Check-out - 12:00 - Kimberly Burke
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Kimberly Burke
  

Have a great week!
Susan

Re-Enrollment News!

Hello Shorecrest Families:

· Good News Re-Enrollment opens on Monday, February 6, 2012

· Contracts are due by Tuesday, February 21, 2012

· Information will be sent to you by email with your user ID and password

· If you have any questions, please call the Admissions Office at 727-456-7511 or email admissions.org

Thank you!