Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks. We are concluding our Solar System study. In the photos, we are finishing up our presentation posters that we will be sharing with third grade, during Science Week. The Oldie Goldie book sale is on Feb. 24th. Please look through your collections and send unwanted or outdated books to school. Remember your trash and overstocks could be someone elses' treasure.
Remember to choose a character from your favorite book and come dressed up to school on Tuesday, February 21st. We will share our characters at town meeting.
Our Spelling focus this week is long o silent e. _ome, _ope, _ode, _ose
Robust vocab: congregate, cheerful, asserted, offended, retorted, congenial
We will focus our social studies on America's symbols and map skills throughout the remainder of February.
In Math, we are working on equivalent names and fact families.
Writer's Workshop is focusing on writing more to the middle of stories, by adding purple strips of paper where needed.
In Reader's Workshop we are drawing conclusions from the text. We are inferring. Even though things are not said or described in the text, we can figure out what is happening.
Remember: No school for students on Friday or Monday.
Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! What a great week we had. Groundhog's Day, 100th Day of school and 7th grade English students sharing their writing with us. Check out E-bytes for the article by Mr. Collins explaining about the 7th grade stories. I can't believe we have celebrated 100 days in school. It seems like school began 2 weeks ago.
Spelling this week: long i ..._ine, _ite, _ile, _ike
Robust vocab: seek, downpour, incident, gradual, oblivious, indecisive
I look forward to meeting with everyone this week for our February Conference.
Our Valentine party is on February 14th at 2:00p.m. Please send in your child's Valentine's by Tuesday.
We have now moved to an island formation. The students have named their islands. They are Tennessee, New Yorkers, Statutes of Liberty and the Eagles. We no longer have the Love Jar. We now have island banks and are earning pennies as a group. We are learning how to work together and be responsible for each other. Ask your child about how their island is doing.
We will have a character dress up day on Tuesday February 21st. Your child can dress up as a character from a story they love. They need to bring the book to school as well. I have already gotten them to start thinking about it.
If you would like to be part of our Relay for Life hot dog lunch, please return the reservation form by Fri. Feb. 10th. Remember there is no Sage lunch on Wed, Feb. 15th. You will need to provide lunch for your child. Come and be part of this event! All are welcome!
Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! What a week. We had our Writer's Workshop celebration with kindergarten, Dr. Bianco and other first grade guests. They read our stories and commented on our writing. Please, if you have time please come and read our new stories in the hall and comment on the page provided. We will be having another celebration before Spring Break. I will again post it on my blog. Grandparents Day and special guests brought visitors to our school and allowed us to show off all of the things we have learned. What fun we had.
New Spelling: Long a with silent e
_ame, _ate, _ake practice reading and writing
Robust Vocabulary: sensitive, sympathy, devoted, alarmed, mysterious, overjoyed
In Math, I will be sending home the Unit 5 Assessment on Wednesday or Thursday. Please read through the unit 6 Family Letter.
The 100th Day of school is Friday. Please look at your Homework Calendar to see what needs to be sent to school for our special snack.

Conference Day February 9th Sign-up

20 min. conference times

7:30a.m. Beth Lastinger

7:55a.m. Debbie Allen

8:20a.m. Molly Davis

8:45a.m. Dasha Rienhoff

9:10a.m. Dolan

9:35a.m Mosesmann

10:00a.m. Satterfield

10:25a.m. DeSanto

10:50a.m. Hillary Marston

11:15a.m. Amy Thomas

12:30p.m. Leary

12:55p.m. Goldish

1:15p.m.

Other Days:

Fri 2/3 8:20 a.m. Coleman’s

Mon 2/6 1:25p.m. Kelley Matheson

Tues. 2/7 7:30 a.m. Biteau

Tues 2/7 2:45 p.m. Burkett

Wed. 2/8 5:00ish Labinger

Thanks

Gaye Whitecage

If you need to change…..please do so among yourselves or please contact me

Have a great week. We will!

Happy Monday! Wear a hat to protect you from the harmful sun rays. Dr. Bianco does!
Here are the Spelling Rules for this week. I was asked to include them on our blog. It is tricky now that we are working on long vowels. Remember only 10 of these words will be included on our Friday test.

Robust Vocabulary: bitterly, chided, amusement, dwelling, realized,

grumbling.

__ay

pay In Reader's Workshop we have completed working on fluency and

bay expression. Even though we will continue working on our reading

may voices, we will also be using our comprehension skills with some

say non-fiction texts.

play

stay

way

clay Friday is a Noon Dismissal on Grandparent's/Special Friend's Day.

gray Please send in a picture if you have not already do so.

__ai__

bail Look for a lunch form to come home today. It is a sign up for Sage to

sail pack a lunch, to go to the Science Center if you would like.

mail

nail I will be celebrating our Writer's Workshop on Thursday at 2:00. If you

pain would like to stop by, I am looking for comment writers. I would like

sprain for you to hear the stories the students have written and comment

stain about what was interesting to you. What did they do as a writer to

grab your attention?

strain

rain Have a good week. We will!

plain

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend.
In the above pictures, we are working in partnerships. We have begun a research project that we will complete both in the classroom and the computer lab. This is our first internet research experience at school.
In Reader's Workshop we are working on our reading voice sounding like our talking voice and not like a reading robot. We are working on reading groups of words instead of each word independently. Reading fluency is very important to our comprehension.
In Writer's Workshop, we have begun choosing a new piece to publish. We have also done partnership work that includes revising with partners. This entails hearing what your partner thinks of the story, adding suggestions, and beginning to look at possible spelling changes.
In Math, we are working on the < > = symbols with + - on either side of the symbol. For example: 2+14 _____ 18+3. The students are expected to solve the equations before choosing the appropriate symbol.
Robust Vocabulary: bulged, jostled, argue, labored, command, wary
Have a good week. We Will!

Here is an opportunity to purchase a book from National Geographic,

11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System

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!

Conference Day February 9th Sign-up

20 min. conference times

7:30a.m. Beth Lastinger

7:55a.m. Debbie Allen

8:20a.m. Molly Davis

8:45a.m. Dasha Rienhoff

9:10a.m. Dolan

9:35a.m Mosesmann

10:00a.m. Satterfield

10:25a.m. DeSanto

10:50a.m. Hillary Marston

11:15a.m.

12:30p.m. Leary

12:55p.m. Goldish

1:15p.m.

Other Days:

Fri 2/3 8:20 a.m. Coleman’s

Mon 2/6 1:25p.m. Kelley Matheson

Tues. 2/7 7:30 a.m. Biteau

Tues 2/7 2:45 p.m. Burkett

Wed. 2/8 5:00ish Labinger

Thanks

Gaye Whitecage

If you need to change…..please do so among yourselves or please contact me

Happy Monday! A great big thank-you to John Schiaparell, a shorecrest parent, for bringing in a special, super powered telescope. We looked at Fridays sunspots. To think, each spot is much larger than Earth. We also learned that sunspots change, move, and are not always there. Ask them about why the January full moon is called the Wolf Moon tonight.
Robust Vocabulary: extraordinary, unthinkable, agreement, rejoice, predicament, unnoticed
If your child needs new supplies, please replenish them. Grandparents and Special Friends Day is fast approaching.
Please send in any pictures ASAP.
In Math, we have learned about the <,>,= symbols. We are comparing 2 and 3 digit numbers using them.
We will begin keeping track of our Reader's Workshop lessons in our yellow journals. We will discuss how to do this on Conference day. Please send in your preference for an a.m. or p.m. conference on Feb. 9th.
Have a great week, we will!

Happy New Year! Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation. I would like to introduce Jack Satterfield to our class. He and his family have relocated back to the United States from Switzerland. He and his family live on St. Pete beach.
We are right back into the swing of things. Please do not forget to send in a Grandparents Day picture by January 20th. The note went home today with their Homework Calendar.
Have a great week, we will. Stay warm and please check the weather to make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Thank-you