Thank you so much for coming to Back-to-School-Night even with the wild weather! The first 8 days of school have been wonderful and this week has started out with a bang! Today we enjoyed some of our wonderful "specials" that we are so lucky to have at Shorecrest! The children enjoy Spanish with Senora Bockman-Pederson, Art with Mrs. Rowe, Music with Ms. Diaz-Leroy, and Computer Lab with Mrs. Baralt.

Today we had our first visit to the beautiful, remodeled Computer Lab and worked in Kidspiration 3. If you haven't seen the lab, stop by!


In our classroom:

We have launched Writer's Workshop, worked on establishing the rules and routines, the process of choosing a topic, sketching it, and then writing about it. We are "stretching" our words and spelling the best we can. We are in the midst of a study of one of my favorite authors, Kevin Henkes, and many of his books are being used during our Writer's Workshop time.

In language arts, we will continue focusing on short vowel /a/ words. The children enjoyed their "practice" spelling test last Friday. This Friday will be for real! We will also be working on word order so that our sentences make sense. During reading, we are talking about the comprehension strategies of making predictions and asking ourselves questions while we read. We also have begun to talk about genres. Last week our anthology story was a nonfiction story and this week is a fantasy story. I am also working on individual reading assessments with the children so that we will be ready to begin our small guided reading groups.

We have begun our new handwriting program. Ask your child about "Frog Jump Capitals" and "Center Starting Capitals".

Last week we began Unit 1 in Math which focuses on establishing routines such as calendar and small group work. We played math games such as "Bunny Hop" and "Top-it". The math family letters that come home will also provide directions for many of the math games that we play so you can play them at home with your child! The children received their math tool kit bags and their first math tool, the pattern block template. We also began working in our Math Journals and Skills Link books. This week we will work with weather and temperature routines, number stories, and have our first progress check with both oral and written assessments.

Things to remember:

Word cards (on ring) will come home on Monday and need to be returned on Thursday.

Our Homework Calendar begins this week! Look for it in your child's folder today! As we discussed at BTSN, please have your child turn in only the homework that is due each day. All homework should be done in pencil only, no ink. Please be sure to always note the reminders on the right-hand side!

We will begin our Parent Volunteers this week on Friday. Sarah Bernstein will come play a math game with us Friday morning from 9:00 - 10:00. Then Kelly Eckert will be our first parent reader Friday afternoon at 2:20. Next week we will add our art parent and library volunteers!

If you have not turned in the signed Parent/Student handbook form from page 3 of the handbook, please do so now. They must be in this week!

Picture Day is around the corner! Tuesday, September 14th will be Picture Day in the LD and ECC. Photo packages will be available for purchase. More information will be coming soon.

Calling for Summer Vacation Photos! The yearbook staff is collecting photos of the student's summer vacation experiences both in and out of the country. If you have a photo that you would like to share for the yearbook, please send or e-mail your photos to Tony Napodano at nap@shorecrest.org. They will be collecting photos until September 30.

Happy New School Year!

We are having a great beginning to first grade! It has been fun to see "old" friends and to make "new" ones. The children are learning the routines of first grade and are "thinking" and "acting" like first graders. They have brought many smiles to my face in just three days!:)

We have been busy! We launched our writer's workshop, worked in our math books, played math games, read many great books together, began our author study of Kevin Henkes, practiced fire and severe weather drills, and went to PE, Spanish, and music class. Whew! That was just in three days! The rest of this week will be even busier. No time for "rest" in first grade!

Don't forget! Back-to-School-Night tomorrow night begins in the Janet Root Theater at 7:00 p.m. Don't forget to get your raffle ticket at the theater! You just might win a gift card from Sage Dining or front row seats at the best program at Shorecrest - "Commotion in the Ocean" taking place in May! Bring your completed raffle ticket to our classroom where you will learn the ins and outs of first grade!

Our first Spirit Day will be this Friday!

I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow night! Thank you so much for sharing your precious children with me!

Susan Owen

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