Happy Monday! Our first pictures were taken from the generous gift drive Shorecrest participated in. The amount of gifts donated far exceeded all expectations. Thank-you parents!
A reminder, even though the weather is cooling off, please do not forget sunscreen. Your child is outside daily and the sun rays do not take time off in Florida.
We will not be having our traditional spelling test this week. I sent the words home today. This week is a visual memory skill. The "er", "ir", and "ur" all make the same sound. We will study and try to remember which words are spelled with which two letters. Please do not feel you have to work on these at home. We will be working on them daily in class. If you are interested in purchasing any Marianne Burke stories, please fill out the order form mailed home. The visiting author will be here in January to talk with the students.
The students will be bringing a hard copy once a week of their morning 4 box warm up work. We do this every morning on their white boards. I think you should review the skills each week. The students are being more diligent in completing their work knowing it is going home.
I encourage you to have the students read and write over break. They should have lots of new story ideas. I will send home a blank 3 page story paper for them to use. The story must have happened to them or a family member. I am also sending home the Unit 5 Family Letter. Please review unit four and utilize the do anytime activities for unit 5. The other pictures show the students engaged in Math activities. Ask them how they get three numbers from a domino. The students are working on knowing math facts as quickly as they know their word cards. Right now we are working on +0 and +1 with any 3 digit number. I will let you know when I introduce another strategy.
Robust vocabulary: cozily, interrupted, triumphantly, admire, accomplishment, ambition
this weeks: compatible, amiable, relax, captured, mercy, struggling
Our winter Pajama party is Friday at 8:15 a.m. for breakfast and there is a noon dismissal as well.
I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! See you January 3rd 2012.

Happy Monday! We are busy working on our new Math scrolls. This is an activity that the students will only work on in class until the end of the school year. They will be given their scroll to continue adding onto as they wish. This practice of reading, and writing two and three digit numbers is very important to their place value understanding. I will also continue to correct reversals and the written order of digits. Example 16, 61 or 161, 116
In Reading Workshop, we have continued flagging important pages, in our stories, with post it notes. This strategy helps us to focus in on important parts of the story so we can share and remember what we read.
Robust Vocabulary: energetic, pace, approached, blunder, reassure, excel
In Writing Workshop, we are continuing working on writing for our readers. Please do not let your child stick uppercase letters in the middle of words or write words in all uppercase letters. This will be corrected on their spelling test.
We will be studying the moon this week. Ask your child about what they have learned each day.
Have a great week! We will.

Well clearly, I am getting back into our routine of blogging. I thought about missing our blog at 3:30am. I do not know what will happen in 2012. Maybe you will receive a new blog by March#@$^@^$!@^!
The students were wonderful at town meeting on Monday. They spoke clearly, and loudly.
We are now back in full swing with our academics. In Reader's Workshop, we are thinking about what we read. please keep reviewing parts of the stories your child is reading. They are so focused on reading the words in print that they are missing the meaning of what the author is trying to teach them. We began a new author study. We are looking at, reading and studying Tomie dePaola's style and stories. Strega Nona is a great role model and lots of fun to read adventures about. In Writer's Workshop, we begun our unit Writing for Readers. We have been discussing the word "yearning" to read a book or story. Share with your child something that you yearn to read or do.
The Solar System is our science study for 2nd trimester. I introduced the students to the word vast. We will be studying a vast area.
Please look for the email that gives you the information to preview your child's progress report. Coach Cameron is your child's P.E. coach for the trimester. Please check out his blog as well. I will link it to mine.
In Math, we have compared rulers to yardsticks, and inches to feet. Ask your child to measure things at home and which tool would be appropriate to do so.
Please continue to bring in items for our gift drive and thank-you to the families that already have.

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful vacation.....see you next week.

We are celebrating with our Cornucopia snack at 1:45 on Friday, please join us if you would like.

We are leading Town Meeting on November 28th at 8:10a.m. Please have your child practice their speaking part over the vacation, if they can. I am sending them home today. Join us if you would like.

Human Body Voice Thread & Other Stuff

Now, I can blog, we finished! Happy Tuesday....Please watch and listen to our Human Body Voice Thread project.



We are beginning unit 4 in Reader's Workshop, and are focusing in on comprehension, from now until winter break. This week the students are using the strategy to stop and think about the story they are reading, while they are reading it. In Writer's Workshop we will be taking home our small moment pieces. Please read the attached letter, and enjoy our writing.
Robust Vocabulary: reward, cruel, greedy, consequences, handsomely, regret
In Math we are studying non standard units of measure. We learned that the pilgrims, and early settlers, along with Native Americans did not always have measuring tools to use, and had to measure using their body parts.

Happy Monday!
Here we are at SPCA! We had a blast feeding, and seeing all of the animals. They were overwhelmed by the generosity of our students. I am finished with my travels for a while. Football has ended at Birmingham Southern with a 7-2 record. All was great this weekend, and I am glad to be home. I am going to blog either Tues. or Wed. due to needing to record three more students for our voice thread. I will try to get that finished tomorrow. Thanks for understanding, it will be worth the wait.

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a wonderful night trick or treating. They looked so great on Friday. A great big thank-you to all who helped make our Fall festival terrific.
In reading we are finishing up, looking for patterns, in the text. We will begin our Author Studies next week. I am testing the students on their reading fluency this week. I am determing by their fluency, whether they are reading above, below or on grade level. I am comparing this information, from where they were, at the beginning of the year. This information will be reflected on their report cards, at the end of this month.

Robust Vocabulary: soared, mused, ashamed, awkward, superb, athletic
In Writing, we are finishing up small moments, and identifying internal and external parts of the story. We have also practiced writing strong endings, and captivating beginnings.
In Math we are concluding unit 3 this week. Please look for the unit 3 checking progress, and the Unit 4 Family Letter.
I am also finishing up the human body unit. Please look for that material to be coming home as well.
Book fair is the week of November 8th. The Announcement is being sent home today.

Fall Festival: What's the plan if it is raining?

Lisa blogged:

If it rains on Friday -- which I hope it doesn't -- the Fall Festival will go on! The games and activities for the children will be in the new Athletic Center's recreation gym. Tables will be set up in the new weight room and in the atrium. As planned, the Fall Festival will be from ten to twelve (lunch will be served around eleven). Please bring umbrellas to use for the walk over from the lower division to the recreation gym.

If it rains on Friday -- which I hope it doesn't-- the children will not parade down Charger. (Aw!) We will make time for children in each grade level to share their costumes with their class and in front of the the third & fourth grade students (in the 3rd/4th grade hallway). At 8:30a.m kindergarten will parade through, then first grade and then second grade. I don't think there will be enough space to accommodate too many adults in the hallway. (I imagine that teachers will have children share with students and parents in the classroom.)

This is just our back-up plan. It has never rained on Fall Festival and my guess is that it won't on Friday.

PSincerely,

Lisa

Lisa Bianco
Shorecrest Preparatory School
Lower Division Head
5101 1 St. N.E.
St. Petersburg, FL 33703
(727) 522-2111 (ext. #401)

Happy Monday! The new Athletic Center is Fabulous!
Change of activities for myself and husband. This weekend, no football game, bye week...instead we went to parent weekend and spent time with my daughter.
In reading workshop our focus is on identifying the pattern in the story, predicting the words we may read, reading with rhythm, and fluency without having a robot voice.
In writing, we are going to begin publishing our stories with partners tomorrow. We have looked at story endings, without just letting our stories stop. Ending them with a new idea, feelings, or circling back to the beginning.
In Math, we have begun learning how to type, add, subtract, and read numbers on a calculator.
We will also be adding dimes to our coin combinations this week. Counting by 10's, 5's, and 1's, all mixed up is tricky. Please practice these coin combinations at home.
We are wrapping up, our human body science unit shortly. Please pay close attention to our voice threads on next week's blog. We will be completing this project, in the computer lab, on Thursday.
Robust Vocab: classify, nutritious, function, groaned, claimed, dine
See all of you "ghoulies" Friday at our Fall Festival!

WHOOOOOPS, Robust Vocab: chatty, applauded, gather, duty, envy, resent

We did it!!!!! Our Compliment Chain reached the floor and we partied. Thank-you to the room reps, for bringing in the ingredients, so we could make our own sundaes. They were great! We earned over 30 compliments as a class. The greatest accomplishment was learning how to change our behavior, in Spanish. Sen. Bockman-Pederson taught us the importance of following directions. We worked on this skill, and she was so impressed, that she gave us the very first compliment that began our 2nd Compliment Chain.
Also, the SPCA visited our classes this morning. As we gear up, for our field trip, continue to bring in donations. Make sure you ask your child, all about Rusty.
Fall Festival is right around the corner. If you have not returned the paperwork, or paid, please do so immediately. It is fun for all!
There will not be a book order sent home until January. Please come and support the book fair!
The book fair will be here Nov. 8th.
The reading focus skill, is figuring out Tricky Words. The strategies taught are, looking at the beginning sound, looking at the illustration, look at how long the word is, and does it make sense. Please practice these skills at home as well.
In writing, we are continuing our small moments work. Have your child practice telling an entire story to you, not just answer questions, or tell one part. Have them think about what happened first, next, last.
In Math this week, our lessons cover how to tell time to the half hour, rules with Frames and Arrows, continuing to add and subtract on a number line.
We will be finishing up our human body unit in the next couple of weeks. We will learn about the layers of the bone this week, and check on our really cool science experiment with the affect of vinegar on bones.
That's it! Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Thank-you to everyone for coming in on Conference Day. It was a pleasure to talk with all of you. As you can see, we dissected a cow's heart. What great information we learned about the chambers. The top chambers are tiny, and the bottom chambers are big. We also learned that the veins bring the blood to the heart while the arteries take the blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
In writing we have begun our small moments unit. In this unit, writers think of something that happened to them. They picture it in their minds. They sketch it on the paper, and THEN they write the words. Robust Vocabulary: chorus, odor, shoved, assemble, consumed, enthusiastic
In reading, we are working on fluency. Please refer to he slip of paper in their plastic bag. Fluency is very important for the students, to understand what the story is trying to tell them. We are also making book to book connections, and talking about similarities, and differences among different characters that we have read about.
We are beginning Unit 3 and learning about odd and even numbers. Yes, I have taught the lesson now. Ask your child about Even Steven and Odd Todd. Please refer to the Parent Letter for Unit 3 and the Do-Anytime activities. Have a great week. Remember there is no school for students on Friday, due to the Professional Development Day.

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here are the photos of the sheep brain dissection, with Mrs. Peck. Ask your child about how an animal's brain stem is different from theirs.
The Lower Division Brownie troop is collecting used and new eyeglasses as a service project.
The First Grade service project is benefiting the SPCA. Donations will be collected in our hall. Please check out their website for their wish list items. This service project will continue throughout October.
Robust Vocabulary: muffle, symbol, commotion, overflowing, locate, search
I will be passing out the Launching Unit in Writer's workshop as well as the unit 2 Math Checking Progress at our conferences.
Have a good week. We will!

Happy Monday! The class picture is displaying the children celebrating the end of unit 1 in Reading Workshop. They recorded themselves reading aloud on our new i pod.
The next pictures show, our Tasty Bug, we made this afternoon. Be sure to ask your child about this nutritious snack. They will be able to teach you how to make one. Today was Johnny Appleseed's birthday, and we discussed his travels, and planting many apple seeds along the way. We also completed a computer project that covered the seasons of an apple tree.

Please continue practicing nickel and penny coin combinations. We are also counting many pennies, and substituting as many nickels for the groups of five pennies, as we can.
We will be spending time with Mrs. Peck on Wednesday, while she dissects the sheep brain.
On Thursday Dr. Burke will be teaching us about the skeleton, while on Friday, Dr. Carmack will discuss the eye with us.
Robust Vocabulary: aid, sweltering, persistent, invigorated, horrible, presented
The students will be checked on all of their word cards this week. I will clear the words they know, and send them home. Please keep them in a place where the students can refer to them for spelling.
We will begin our service project on Monday October 3rd. Our service project will be with the SPCA. We have lots of fun activities planned, as well as an item drive and field trip. Our character education focus is kindness. More information will follow. Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We already had a very busy morning with Mrs. Peck. Mrs. Peck is an upper division science teacher. She has ordered many extra animal parts, to dissect and teach to our first graders. Today she dissected cow eyes. We will get the materials in our room for us to take a closer look. Really...get a closer look! We learned all about the parts of our eyes. We learned about eyebrows, eyelashes, the cornea, iris, lens, and how our eye muscles help our eyes move all around. We will be finishing up our five senses study this week. Mrs. Peck will return two more times, to dissect a heart and brain.
We will be celebrating the International Day of Peace on Wed. 9/21. Your child may wear a peace t shirt with their uniform shorts, if they have one. If you have not seen what we wrote about what peace means to us, check out our hallway windows.
In Math, I would like for everyone to review counting by 2's, 10's and 5's. I have students struggling, when I begin with 30, 50 or 75. I also would like for them to review counting by 1's up and back above the number 50.
Robust Vocab: unexpected, considerate, routine, ambled, pouted, politely
Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. In these photos, we are working on our listening skills. I am trying to get the students aware of their listening skills to everyone, not just when I am talking. The three skills I am stressing, are looking at the person in the eyes, keeping quiet while others are speaking, and keeping their bodies still. The students will become more comfortable with these expectations at school, if they practice them at home as well.
School pictures will be taken on Tuesday. Please turn in your envelope if you have not done so.
I sent home the Unit 2 Family letter in Math. Please pay close attention to the Do Anytime Activities, to help build their number sense. I am still looking for Parent Volunteers for Thursday afternoons from 1:30-2:30. If you are able to help out, please return the pink sheet and specify if you need to, what dates you can or can not help. Thank-you I will put together a schedule as soon as I can. The robust vocabulary words are: memorize, sensed, especially, capacity, proud, haul.
Our new science study we are beginning this week, is the human body. We will carry this study through the beginning of November. Our focus this week is how our body works and why. I want the children to pay attention to all of the things their bodies can do. Talk about what sense they are using, for different activities they are doing. Have a great week. We will!