New for the Week of February 25th

Our field trip to Dr. Worman’s dentist office was not only informative, but also enjoyable. Many thanks for the invitation. The children will each being writing thank you notes that we will be sending to them.

Nicholas reclines and looks at the tv monitor above.

Dr. Worman welcomes our class in her waiting area.

The dental hygienist shares her tools that blow air, water, and suck up all the extra.

Math: We will conclude our telling time unit with each child making a clock book about different ways to tell time: second, minute, hour, week, etc. The class enjoyed bringing in their bag of coins. We will be using these to help the children learn the names and values of each coin.

Word Work: The focus vowel is the letter “o.”  We will build words with “o” such as jog and hot. We added ten new words to our Word Wall.  Copies will be coming home this week.

Reading: This week we will continue to read non-fiction books, including everything from books about the planets, animals, famous people, etc.

Writing: We are finishing our writing unit on revision. The stories will be checked to see how well each child remembered ways to make their good writing even better. In connection with reading non-fiction books, we will begin our new writing unit, on “How To” books where we will teach others how to do things that we already know how to do, such as making a sandwich and brushing our own teeth.

Social Studies: After writing information stories about Abraham Lincoln, we will resume our discussions and activities about houses by planning our dream houses.

Science:  In upcoming weeks our science investigations will include both solids and liquids. This week we will explore our collection of 20 objects checking them for their degrees of hardness.

Technology:  Integrating our study of houses and our use of Pixie software, the children used the shape tools to create a picture of their home and then the text box to write a description using color words.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce has taught us conflict resolution.  Some situations, such as who will take the first turn, might be solved with Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Other times call for a discussion.  The children have practiced using the other person’s name and telling them what the bother is.  An example…”Suzie, it hurts my feelings when you ignore me during recess.” Or, “Robert, I don’t like it when you play keep away with the ball.  I want to play too.”

Events to Calendar:

Tuesday, February 26th, is class picture day.  Weather prevailing, photos will be taken outside in the courtyard area.

Wednesday, February 27th, is our field trip to Lowry Park Zoo.  We invite each and every parent to join us on the full day of fun and learning. Each child needs a bag lunch from home unless their families have ordered a bag lunch from Sage in advance.

Thursday, February 28th, kicks off the 2013 Relay for Life with a cookout and the paper links project.  Forms and donation envelopes will be coming home soon.

Thursday, February 28th, is report card day.  Please visit Netclassroom to access your child's online report.

Thursday, February 28th, we will see the third grade performance about America.

Friday, March 1^st, we invite you and yours to join our class for a celebration of revision writing.  The class will be sharing a published piece that includes drafting, revision, and publishing with a “prettying up” with flair pens and colored pencils.  Please join us from 2:00 for readings and refreshments.

Presidents' Week Updates

Valentine's Day is always a kindergarten favorite.  The children decorated bags with hearts and glitter to hold the many Valentine treats and exchanges. We hope the long weekend was fun filled and full of love.

Math: This week we will continue with telling time and making our own clocks from lids with movable hands.  Introducing coin recognition will begin with the penny and a bank.

Word Work: We have introduced the special friendship that q has with u, now we will add q to our personal dictionaries.  The focus vowel is e.  We will build words with e  and add these new words to our word wall.

Reading: This week we will spend time reading from non-fiction, taking time to notice the photos,  captions, titles and subtitles.

Writing: Lessons this week will focus on periods and the end of sentences, capital letters at the beginning and the introduction of characters talking using speech bubbles.

Social Studies: President's week offers us an opportunity to learn about patriotic symbols, American history, and honoring those who have helped form our nation.

Duran, Lili, and Sasa make patriot collages with Mrs. van Woerkom.

Noah writes about President's Day

Jaiden types her sentence about the flag.

Fiona uses tempra paint to include a blue field and red stripes.

Science:  In upcoming weeks our science investigations will include both solids and liquids. This week we will explore our collection of 20 objects to find out which ones will roll down a ramp.

Events to Calendar:

Monday, February 25th, is a special visit to the dentist.  Our class along with Mrs. Densa's students will visit Dr. Worman's office to learn about good dental care.

Tuesday, February 26th, is class picture day.  Weather prevailing, photos will be taken outside in the courtyard area.

Wednesday, February 27th, is our field trip to Lowry Park Zoo.  We invite each and every parent to join us on the full day of fun and learning.

Thursday, February 28th, kicks off the 2013 Relay for Life with a cookout and the paper links project.  Forms and donation envelopes will be coming home soon.

Thursday, February 28th, is report card day.  Please visit Netclassroom to access your child's online report.

Thursday, February 28th, we will see the third grade performance about America.

Updates for the Week of February 11, 2013

Recording penny flips with tally marks.

Hundred's grid bingo.

Sofia chooses push ups for 100 exercises.

Last Friday's 100th Day activities and celebration was a big success. The projects were a true demonstration of the children's creativity and understanding of what 100 of something can look like.

Math: We will continue our introduction of addition with adding sets and numbers together to total six and seven. I have assessed each child last week to see who is ready to procede to adding higher numbers and who will benefit from reviewing numbers for adding sums to four, five, and six. Children will begin to work with range cards. I have recorded on these cards the range of numbers that are appropriate for each child to work with on addition facts. The low number is their easy number, the middle number their working number, and the higher number is their challenge number. The ranges are either 4,5,6 or 5,6,7 depending on the understanding level of each child. We will begin to talk about clocks and how to tell time by the hour this week and will be reviewing a wide range of ways objects can be sorted. 

Word Work: We are focusing on correct spelling of our 50 Word Wall words and working on putting them into simple sentences using correct sentence structure and with good handwriting.

Reading: We are adding 10 new words to our Word Wall, five one day and the other five the next day. Copies will go home next week. We are continuing to read "just right" books. Many of the children are moving up a level to read books with more words. The teachers are demonstrating how to change our voices to match different kinds of books and various types of characters.

Writing: We are learning to reread our three page stories and look for ways to make our good writing even better. The children use their new purple revising pens to add more detail to their stories. Today we talked about how to insert words into the body of their stories by crossing out words and changing it to a better word. "We" can become "my family and me."

Social Studies: We will find out about different kinds of homes and why all houses are not the same.

Science:  We will continue to investigate the 20 solid items in our trays. We found out that some of the items only rolled if they were round and some stacked if they were flat. We discovered that some items did both. We recorded these on a venn diagram. February is Dental Health month. As an introduction to our upcoming visit to Dr. Worman's office, the loft has been transformed into a dental office.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, February 1st through Friday, February 15th, online re-enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year is available on the Shorecrest homepage.

Tuesday, February 12th, the Picture Lady/Gentleman will visit our classrooms with fine art to discuss and display.

Wednesday, February 13th, a production of The Little Engine that Could, will take place in the Janet Root Theater for JK and Kindergarten students.

Thursday, February 14th, we will exchange Valentines and rotate through the kindergarten rooms for an activity in each.

Monday, February 18th, school is closed in honor of President's Day.

Monday, February 25th, we will visit Dr. Worman's Dental Office.

Tuesday, February 26th, is class picture day.  Weather prevailing, photos will be taken outside in the courtyard area. Please access order forms at https://www.shorecrest.org/?page=ParentsPage

Thursday, February 28th, kicks off the 2013 Relay for Life with a cookout and the paper links project.  Forms and donation envelopes will be coming home soon.

Friday, March 1st, the annual fundraising gala will take place in the Athletic Center. Tickets are available at http://shorecrestgala.com/

Updates for the Week of February 4, 2013

Last Friday we had a great time at Heritage Village. The weather was perfect, and the class learned a lot about how life was in Florida over 100 years ago. This tied in nicely with our study in math of time lines and with our Day 100 celebration this coming Friday. 

Math: We will continue our introduction of addition with adding sets and numbers together to total six. I will be assessing each child this week to see who is ready to procede to adding higher numbers and who will benefit from reviewing numbers for adding sums to four, five, and six. We will begin to talk about clocks and how to tell time by the hour.

Word Work: We will be focusing on learning the "sh" sound and will practice reading and spelling words that have this sound.

Reading: The class will be looking for the 50 words from our word wall in their "just right" reading books. We will continue to practice reading and spelling these 50 high frequency words. The list went home with the children last week.

Writing: We are learning to reread our three page stories and look for ways to make our good writing even better. The children use their new purple revising pens to add more detail to their stories. Later we will talk about how to insert words into the body of their stories.

Social Studies: We will continue our discussion this week about our families and our homes. We will have fun constructing houses out of a variety of blocks. We will add giant waffle blocks to our classroom supply of manipulatives.

Science:  We started our new unit on Solids and Liquids last week. This unit is extensive and will continue through the end of May. So far we have talked about and explored a wide variety of solid objects and have discussed that all solids have color and shape. We have compared two objects on a venn diagram to find our how they are alike and and how they are different. The children have been busy sorting the solid objects that have been provided by others attributes, as well. This week we will find out which of these can be stacked and which ones can roll.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, February 1st through Friday, February 15th, online re-enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year is available on the Shorecrest homepage.

Thursday, February 7th, is Parent Teacher Conference Day.  Reminder notices of scheduled times were sent home last week. There is no school for the children.

Tuesday, February 12th, the Picture Lady/Gentleman will visit our classrooms with fine art to discuss and display.

Wednesday, February 13th, a production of The Little Engine that Could, will take place in the Janet Root Theater for JK and Kindergarten students.

Monday, February 18th, school is closed in honor of President's Day.

Tuesday, February 26th, is class picture day.  Weather prevailing, photos will be taken outside in the courtyard area.

Thursday, February 28th, kicks off the 2013 Relay for Life with a cookout and the paper links project.  Forms and donation envelopes will be coming home soon.