Parent Survey

As you know, we are asking all parents to participate in an online opinion survey about Shorecrest as we approach our accreditation in the fall of 2011. The results of all of our surveys--from parents, faculty and staff as well as students--will help guide and inform the goals we set for our school for the next five years. Your participation is crucial to the success of this reflective process.

The survey window will be open beginning October 1st and close on October 17. You will receive an email with the survey link on the morning of October 1. Please let your voices be heard and complete the parent survey!

Please know:

• In a two-parent household, BOTH parents should complete the survey.
• Parents who are also graduates should complete the student survey as graduates. That link will
sent to alumni from the Director of Alumni Programs.
• The survey should take about 25 minutes to complete.
• You will be asked to consider Shorecrest as a whole as well as the Division(s) in which you have child(ren) enrolled.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this crucial component of our self-study.

"Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information."

--Paulo Freire

Jill Lemon
LD, Grade 4
Shorecrest Preparatory School

Week of September 27

Here is our week at a glance. Remember Thursday is Parent/Teacher Conference Day and no school for the students. I am looking forward to meeting and discussing your child's beginning second grade days with you.

Remember that the North America landmark project is due tomorrow (9/28) and I can't wait to read what the students have found out about these interesting places that many people from around the world visit each day.

The gardening project kicked off to a great start and last week some of the student got to plant various vegetables, which we hope to harvest in time for Thanksgiving. Many of the students were interested in the germination process and so we are watching our own lima bean seeds (soaked in water and cotton wool) change and sprout in the classroom.

Keep sending in those Boxtops and Cash for Trash items, which means money for our school.

Have a fantastic week.

Parent Reader: Jill Emerson

Library Helper: Jay Epstein

Current Events: Monday: Rylan, Zaynab; Tuesday: Hailey, Channing; Wednesday:Shaherzad, Aidan; Friday: Lauren E., Gage
Showcase Student: McIntosh

Language Arts (Theme 1 Review)

* Phonics review - short vowels (a, e, i, o, u); long vowels a, a_e, i, i_e, o, o_e, (y), oo/u_e, e/ee,ea
* Spelling review - picnic, plastic, rabbit, fabric, napkin, Spanish, giggle, candid, zigzag, habitat, helmet, puppet, rotten, contest, subject, suspect, talent, basket, dentist, bottom, mistake, bedtime, homemade, classmate, notepad, racetrack, cupcake, outside, dime, price, teapot, peanut, beehive, seaweed, mealtime, please, beach, screech, beneath, feast

* Reading - readers' theater

* Fluency (Review) - accuracy and reading rate

* Comprehension - characters, use graphic organizers, main idea and details, answer questions

* Robust Vocabulary - flutters, selected, announcement, career, penalty, location, excitable, positive

* Grammar review - sentences, statements and questions, commands and exclamations, parts of a sentence

* Writing Workshop - Small moments: Personal Narrative Writing (sketching rather than drawing, planning details, internalizing story shapes)

Mathematics - Unit 2

* Review turn-around shortcut for addition and to discover and provide practice for a shortcut for addition facts that have 9 as an addend

* Addition strategies that use doubles facts

* Subtraction from addition

* Fact families

Social Studies

* North America

* Landmark project
* Review: What is a globe? What is a map?

Science

* Gardening project and watching our lima bean seeds sprout

* Changes - Mixing and separating solids

We also will begin learning our Seven Continents Poem for our Second Grade program. The students will bring home a copy of the poem to practice. This poem will be kept in their homework folder for use at home and at school.

*

Week of September 20th

What a special week ahead with Tuesday being International Peace Day and Friday being Spirit Day. On Tuesday, the students will write about what peace is to them and decorate their own peace symbol. We will also talk about what this day is about. The day will begin with a special celebration at our Town Meeting. On Friday, the students can wear their spirit clothing or green and gold.

As you already know, the students are learning about North America and this week the students will be given a research assignment to complete. It relates to famous landmarks in North America and requires the students to read about their landmark and answer some questions relating to it. Next week they will share what they found out. We will then make a classbook of all these landmarks that will be kept in our class library for all to enjoy.

Library day is on Tuesday and books are due on this same day. This week Mrs. Smay will teach a lesson and Jay Espstein will help walk the students to and from the library.

Second Grade's gardening project kicked off to a great start last Wednesday. The soil has been prepared for planting and we will begin planting vegetables soon.

Here is the rest of our week at a glance.

Mystery Reader (Friday at 8:15) - Mrs. Counsman
Current Events - Tuesday: Jonathan, Lauren W; Wednesday: McIntosh, Brenna; Thursday: Samuel, Julia; Friday: Kendall, Abby

Language Arts
*Phonics - long e/ee/ea
* Spelling - teapot, peanut, beehive, seaweed, mealtime, please, beach, screech, beneath, feast, between, you're, teach, enough, right
* Vocabulary - disability, position, attached, assistance, depend, responsibility, frisky, affinity
* Reading - Dogs by Jennifer Gillis (nonfiction)
* Fluency - Reading Rate: Good readers vary their reading rate depending on the material they are reading. I am reminding the students to slow down to decode words or grasp the meaning of new ideas and to speed up when the text is easy and immediately understandable.
* Comprehension - Main Idea and details
* Grammar - Parts of Sentences. A sentences has two parts - a naming part and a telling part.
* Writing Workshop - Personal Narrative: Small Moments (Stretching one small moment).

Mathematics - Unit 2

* Students will make up, represent, and solve addition number stories

* Review +0 and +1 addition facts and practice addition facts in which one of the addends is 0, 1, 2 or 3

* Review and practice double facts

* Review the turn-around shortcut for addition and to discover and practice a shortcut for addition facts that have 9 as an addend

Social Studies

* North America

* Landmarks of North America research project

Science - Theme: Changes (Lesson 3 - Mixing and Separating Solids)

Students will create a mixture using two solids - salt and gravel. After describing each solid, students will mix them together in a cup. As they observe, the mixture, they will recognize that the small grains of salt have dispersed in the spaces between the pieces of gravel. Students will then separate the components of their mixtures using a sieve.

Week of September 13

Here is our week at a glance. Picture day is on Tuesday (Sept. 14). All students, whether they are buying photos or not, need to have their photo taken for the yearbook. Orders and money must be returned on this same day. Also, the yearbook is currently looking for students' summer vacation photos and can be emailed to Mr. Napodano at nap@shorecrest.org or delivered in person to the office. Please continue practicing weekly spelling and vocabulary words. Try www.puzzlemaker.come or www.spellingcity.com with your child to help make this practice fun for you both.

The children will bring home the first Home Link in math this week and also sit for their first math quiz. We will be doing lots of practice in class to help build up their confidence and proficiency in telling time, adding coins, counting on a number grid and line, as well as using tally marks.

Library Helper - Mrs. Counsman
Friday's Parent Reader - Jay Epstein
Current Events - Tuesday: Hailey, Channing; Wednesday: Shaherzad, Aidan; Thursday: Rylan, Zaynab; Friday: Lauren E. , Gage

Language Arts

Phonics - long a (a_e), long i (i_e), long o (o_e), long u (oo and u_e)

Spelling - mistake, bedtime, homemade, classmate, notepad, racetrack, cupcake, outside, dime, price, where, children, because, friend, knew

Robust Vocabulary - blockades, soaked, misplaced, principles, deny, consider, opinionated, bulk

Fluency - Reading rate

Comprehension - Main Ideas (Retelling); Answer Question

Grammar - Commands and exclamations

Writing Workshop - Personal Narrative

Mathematics - Unit 1

* Counting Patterns (count and look for patterns on the calculator)

* Comparing numbers using relation symbols (greater, less, equal) and introduce Home Links

* Guide children as they read and display temperatures, combine values of ones, tens and

hundreds using base 10-blocks, and explore addition facts on dominoes

* Review and progress check

Social Studies

* North America

* Landmarks

Science - Changes
* Freezing and melting experiment
* Changes in the state of water. Like all matter, water has three states - solid, liquid, gas.

Have a fantastic week.

Ms. O'Mullane

Week of September 6th

I hope you had a fantastic three day weekend. What a treat!

Here is our week at a glance. Current Events begins this week and library checkout is on Tuesday. We still have spots to fill for Parent/Mystery Reader, so if you are interested, please let me know. The students did well on their first spelling and vocabulary quiz last Friday and all improved on their pretest scores. If your child still missed a word or two, please help them practice these at home. I included a copy of their spelling quiz in their homework folder, so you can see how they went and what words they still need to learn.

Thanks for your support and work with your children. Have a fantastic week.

Parent Reader: Diana Craig (Friday at 8:15)

Current Events: Tuesday - Jonathan, Lauren W; Wednesday - McIntosh, Brenna; Thursday - Samuel, Julia; Friday - Kendall, Abby

Language Arts
Phonics - short vowels e, o, u
Spelling - helmet, puppet, rotten, contest, subject, suspect, talent, basket, dentist, bottom, September, already, every, through, guess
Robust Vocabulary - ventured, described, edge, hesitate, anonymous, unselfish, satisfied, neighborly
Reading Fluency - Accuracy (Good readers try to read words accurately and correct themselves if they make a mistake)
Read-A-Loud - Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel (Fiction)
Comprehension - Characters and using Graphic Organizers
Grammar - Statements and Questions
Writing Workshop - Introduction to Personal Narratives (a story that a writer tells about himself/herself; events are told in the order in which they happened: first, next and last; the writer uses words I and me)

Mathematics - Unit 1
* Place value patterns on number grids and learning the number grid game

* Equivalent names for numbers and reviewing the calculator

* Counting patterns

* Relations (greater than, less than and equal to symbols) and introduce Home Links

Social Studies

* North America

* Maps and coordinates (in the computer lab)

Science - Changes
* Thinking about how things change (changes that sometimes occur in solids and liquids)
* Hands-on exploration: Students look at the changes that result when they drop an effervescent tablet in water

* Scientific Method

Some Fun Educational Websites to Try

Here are some websites to try. Let me know what you think.

www.puzzlemaker.com (you can use spelling or vocabulary words to create puzzles)

http://www.mathfactcafe.com/

http://aaamath.com

www.coolmath4kids.com

www.funbrain.com

www.playkidsgames.com