TURKEY TUESDAY!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that your travels are safe and your time with your family is relaxing and joyous!

If you have not had time to sign and return your child's report card, please do so on Monday when we return.

You will want to ask your child about the third grade Thanksgiving lunch today! WOW, what a feast! Thank you to all the moms that helped to made this a wonderful experience for the children. We are thankful for you!

Fabulous Friday!

First, I would like to say "bravo" to the children in our room that performed in Oliver on Thursday evening. I was so proud and impressed by their poise and stage presence. I know that it has been a long, but exciting experience and they all deserve a huge round of applause and a much needed rest. I applaud the parents as well for their dedication in helping to make this "happen" for your child. This is an experience that I am sure they will never forget!

I would like to run down a few things again prior to Monday. We leave on our field trip at 9am. I have asked the children to wear:
Girls: Shorecrest jumpers with tennis shoes or with dress shoes( they can bring a change of clothes, within uniform requirements) for the afternoon if they would like)
Boys: pants with belts and they can wear either their white or green Shorecrest polo shirt. They do not have to wear a white dress shirt and/or tie.

I told them that they could pack an extra water, but that the lunch should be a normal healthy lunch with only one dessert. We will not have time to have a snack, so I encouraged them to have a good/filling breakfast.

We should return to school by 1:00pm and the rest of the day will follow the regular schedule, including dismissal.

I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving Feasts. I am curious to see what my children perceive as an ultimate feast. The children are coming home with their work envelope. Please sign and return just the envelope to school on Monday.

The children have earned 50 stickers/1 chart. They have earned these stickers through compliments they have received in the hallway, resource classes, etc by other adults and by me. We are very excited. The reward is that we get a surprise treat in the classroom. I am going to hold off on this till we return from Thanksgiving. But, I wanted you to know so that you could praise your child.

I hope everyone will have a relaxing and fun weekend!

Whoa! It's Wednesday!

I was informed by my children that I made two mistakes in yesterday's blog. I was disappointed in myself, but did chuckle and think..... at least I know they are reading the blogs. Obviously we leave on Monday at 9AM to travel to the Tampa Bay History Museum.

Tonight's homework includes:
WORDLY WISE- page 36.. yes, that is correct page number this time.. they have already restated the question and all they need to do is answer the first 5 questions using details from the story.

Review the spelling list for this week's spelling test on Friday.

Review morning work on sequencing... I told the children that they could rewrite the sentences in order on a loose leaf sheet of paper so they wouldn't have to keep turning the paper back and forth.

MATH- Work on the Thanksgiving Feast project

On Tuesday, November 24, the children will be treated to a Thanksgiving Feast at school from noon to 1:00pm. The room moms have coordinated with Flik to cook a well balanced Thanksgiving Feast. So the children will not have to bring a lunch on that day. They will still need to bring a snack. My little pilgrims never want to miss snack time.

Again, I am looking forward to the premiere of Oliver. I hope to see many of you tomorrow night.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! It's Tuesday!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my email regarding the bag lunches for the field trip. As I told the children, if they didn't request a bag lunch prepared by the school today, they would have to bring their lunch from home. I am asking the children to please have an extra water and to keep dessert to one item. Please make sure they have a good breakfast before coming to school as they will be actively involved at the museum during their normal snack time. We will depart Shorecrest at 9:oopm so that we can arrive at the museum, get checked in and begin our tour by 10:00am. I am asking that the girls wear their dresses and the boys have belts with their pants with a nice shirt. They do not have to wear a dress tie. We are planning on returning to Shorecrest hopefully by 1:45pm. The museum has the event very organized and the children will be kept in smaller groups for better supervision. We will have our lunch on the lawn at the back of the museum, weather permitting.

Tonights homework includes:
SPELLING-activity sheet to find the misspelled spelling words
WORDLY WISE- page 31... they may also want to take the time to reread the definitions of the words at least once
SPELLING TEST- these are the words that I sent home in October with the orange pumpkin letter a few weeks ago

You may want to ask your child about our math centers.. they have used candy corn, tape measures, pattern block pieces to measure and estimate distances and area. In one center, they have traced their right foot on grid paper. Tomorrow we will learn how to figure out the amount of weight that you put on just one square inch of the foot every time you stand up. Ask your child if they know how much they weigh. It will work best if they know their exact weight.

In Science Lab we experimented with the term work. We lifted light and heavy objects (books) and even tried to move a wall to demonstrate work. The children predicted what they thought the scientific definition of work was and then tested out their theory.

Report cards will be coming home soon. I have shown the children what it will look like and have discussed the two bottom sections, work and study habits and behaviors. I will expect them to continue to be courteous to their peers and adults. But I expressed to the children that I will have an even greater expectation for listening carefully to directions and reading more carefully to help them proofread their work.

I am looking forward to the production of Oliver. I am attending on Thursday night. I am so proud of my children that are participating and how well they have handled the incredible responsibility. Bravo!

Terrific Thursday!

The children did a wonderful job with their poem at Poetry in the Park. Thank you to all of you who came and supported the children. It is such a nice tradition at Shorecrest.

I wanted to share a few items with you. First, the children are coming home with a practice math test. I would like them to study this practice test over the weekend. We will have our Unit 3 test on Monday. I also gave them a measurement conversions activity that is also due on Monday. You may want to ask your child about Pi. They now know it's more than just something yummy one eats.

Some of the children did come home with a "baggy book". I would like those read and returned by Monday as well so that the other children may participate. As a reminder, I would like the chilren to read the story out loud and independently at least once before they begin to complete the activity. They are not to look back in the story.

Next week, we will begin Lesson 4 in Wordly Wise. We will also begin to wind down our first theme in reading. There will a little check up at the end of the theme. However, it is not something that the children can prepare for except to use their reading skills, including reading slowly.

I will be sending home a math project that is Thanksgiving related. I will review the project and send the letter home for you to read. If in doing so you have further questions that your child is not able to answer, please feel free to email me.

We will continue our study of the Tocobaga Native Americans. I will assist the children in making an outline of the most important information. We will also review the importance ad influences of the Seminole Native Americans in preparation for our field trip on November 23 to the Tampa Bay History Museum.

We will begin working on an enrichment writing activity that involves magic. You will see this little booklet coming home soon.

Thank you to all of you who came on Wednesday to Poetry in the Park. The children loved having you here! I hope everyone has a great long weekend. I am jealous! Smiles!

And We're Off!

This week may be a short week for the children, but we have a great deal going on. The Book Fair started today. I took the children over for them to take a look at the incredible display of books for purchase. They will be coming home with a wish list. If they do decide that they want to purchase any books, I will be taking them back over the library on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, we have guidance in the morning and picture lady in the afternoon. Wednesday is Poetry in the Park. We will keep our fingers crossed that the rain is long gone by then. The title of our poem is, Mad About Math. We hope you will be able to come and join us.

I completed the report cards over the weekend. I am proud of my children in many ways. They have worked hard and I feel that they are ready for new challenges and expectations . In the first reporting period, I observed the children closely in their interactions with each other on the playground and in the classroom. I was and will continue to be insistent that they treat each other with respect and kindness. My little group is courteous and is very respectful of authority. Though these areas continue to be important, I am going to focus even more closely on the effort and the quality of work that the children produce. I want them to begin to take on more responsibility for proofreading their work and independently use the tools around them while working. I have noticed the amount of misspelled words and missed questions on homework assignments. We will begin our new reading theme, Perspective Taking. The children will be introduced to higher level reading skills such as character analysis and the perspective of the writer and the reader. We will take our time and multiple practice lessons will be planned. I will begin to send home "baggy books" for the children to read over a couple of days. I would encourage them to not only read these books out loud to an active listener, but to also read the text at least once independently. Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts. I did send home the beginnings of multiplication. I will send home the remaining tables later. Please just focus on the ones I sent home for now. I will at some point begin giving little timed fact quizzes to check on the progress of this skill. I will let you know ahead of time when to expect these to begin.

Please remember to turn in the nightly book log that the children keep. Once they turn it in, I give them a new one to take home. I do keep track of these and give the children credit for their effort.

The spelling this week are words with the long i sound with various spellings of this sound. There are no rules associated with this list this week However, I will be giving them dictation sentences tomorrow to practice for the Thursday test.

I would like to thank you for your continued support. Once the report cards arrive, you may have questions and concerns. Please do to not hesitate to email me.

Wow, it's Wednesday!

I wanted to let you know about a few things that are coming home today. First, I am sending home the Poetry in the Park poem that is ironically about math and multiplication. I have asked the children to study the first stanza for tomorrow. I am also sending home a letter about the learning of multiplication with the facts sheet attached. The fact sheet only contains the tables 0-9. I will give them another fact sheet later. That is enough to get them started.

The children are coming home with their Wordly Wise workbooks. They have a few questions to answer and they should study the words and definitions as they will have a test on these words on Friday.

They also have a dictionary activity to complete. I have reviewed the directions and reminded them twice that they don't use a real dictionary. Use the picture on the sheet to help with some of the true/false statements. I am determined to make them better "dictionary users" by Thanksgiving. I can already see a difference in their ability to place words into guide word groups.

You will want to ask your child about a fruit called, Lychee.

Tune In Tuesday!

Tonight's homework is as follows:

Vocabulary Cartoon: We reviewed this again as I observed that most of the children had trouble with the sentence part. It is very natural, but they had a tendency to write a sentence that just restated the definition. I asked the children to think of a sentence that a teacher might write and put that vocabulary word in the blank.

Map Work on Interstates and Highways

Study spelling words and the poem, When Daddy Carves the Turkey.

I will be giving the children the poem for Poetry in the Park tomorrow. We will be reciting a cute poem entitled, Mad About Math. I haven't quite decided what the props should be. But for now, we will concentrating on the words. I am certainly putting their memorization to the test this month.

We will also have a lockdown drill tomorrow morning around 10:15. This is part of procedure as are fire drills and severe weather drills. I wanted to ensure you that this will be handled in a calm manner and the children will be with me in the classroom at that time.

I also wanted to remind you that the Book Fair is November 9-November 12 in the student activity center. I will take the children over once it begins to let them see the books that are there. They can they can begin to make purchases with you or at school as time allows. The proceeds really do help our school and the library. Mrs. Smay does a great job of making sure that the children have the books that they need and honors requests made by teachers as well.

Be on the lookout for a letter with the multiplication tables attached. You may begin practicing these multiplication tables. In the beginning, I would encourage them to first learn them in order. But as they progress, I would like them to practice the problems out of sequence.

By the end of the week, I will post a blog covering various topics and skills that the children have learned thus far. I will also share information in generalities as to what the expectations have been and what I see them being for the new reporting period. Tune in for more!!!!