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!