Author Archives: amy.nelson

Yearly Permission Slip & Zoo Permission Slip

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We appreciate all of you who have already e-signed the permission slip for the Yearly 1st Grade Activities and Zoo specific permission slip.  We are still missing 3 students that don’t have the Zoo permission slip filled out and 11 students who do not have the Yearly Permission Slip signed.

We have emailed those specific student’s parents/guardians.  If you did not receive an email you have already signed the permission slips.  For those of you that did receive the email, please e-sign the permission slips as soon as possible.  Your child will not be able to participate in any of the activities or the Zoo field trip without the permission slip signed.  Please remember also the Zoo field trip has changed dates to:  Thursday, September 22nd and your child must bring a sack lunch as there will be no microwaves or school lunch that day. You can find the permission slips below: 

Permission Slip click here:  Yearly 1st Grade Permission Slip 
Please sign the Zoo permission slip CLICK HERE 

The Halloween Party has also been changed to fall on Halloween, which is Monday, October 31st.

Parent Teacher Conferences

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ptcIt is time to sign-up for Parent Teacher Conferences either Thursday, September 29th or Thursday, October 27th.  We would love to meet with all our parents at least ONCE during these next two months.  Following these conferences we will be meeting with parents on an as-needed basis. Please click on the following link to select your desired conference date and time: 
Parent Teacher Conferences 

A BIG THANK YOU to those who have donated supplies or money for classroom supplies!  If you have not yet had the opportunity, $35.00 classroom supply donations can still be paid in the office or online: Quest Online Payments

Homework 9/6-9/9

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Homework this week is due on Friday, September 9:

1- Math Homework:  
  • Please look in your child’s blue folder for this week’s fluency timings (“Adding Three’s”) in a plastic sheet protector.  Have your child practice these facts repeatedly using a dry-erase marker.  Time how long it takes to finish and record their best time and score each day on the “Math Homework” form (included in the blue folder also) and return on Friday.  If your child frustrates too easily because it takes too long to complete, have them practice for 2-5 minutes (you can be the judge) and write down how many they finished in that time.  By the end of 1st grade, the target goal is to finish the timings in 1 minute and 15 seconds, with 90% accuracy (23 out of 25 problems correct). Encourage your child to keep improving on their own score, rather than expecting them to reach the target goal yet.  We have a whole year to reach it through consistent practice!  Click here for extra timings: Fluency Timings

Helpful Hint:  Here’s how we’re learning to “count on” in class when we’re Adding Two’s or Three’s:
Start with the bigger number and count on  (Example: 3 + 5. Snap your finger and say “5″ and count on 3 more: say “5″ (snap)…”6″…”7″…”8″)

2- Reading 20 minutes per day, record on reading log: 
Weekly Reading Log
This reading log has three weeks on one page.  Just complete one week and send the log to school on Friday in their blue homework folder.  Weekend is considered Friday-Sunday. This reading log is for Friday, September 2- Thursday, September 8. Return to school Friday, September 9.  

3- Animal Report: Students selected a zoo animal of their choice.  Please assist your child in researching their animal. We encourage you to help them find the information in various sources (books, encyclopedias, internet, etc.) rather than stating what they know or believe to be true.  Click here to learn more about your animal on the Hogle Zoo website: Meet the Hogle Zoo Animals. Here is another fun animal website: Zooborns 

Encourage your child to use their best handwriting. The reports will be shared with the class on Friday, September 16th.  Your child may find it beneficial to practice reading their report to you prior to reading it for our class.  Included in their blue homework folder on Friday was the animal report form and a scratch writing paper with the student selected animal. Click here to print additional report forms: My Animal Report

Hogle Zoo Field Trip

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zooWe finally heard back from the Hogle Zoo. We were not able to get Friday the 16th due to bus conflicts.  However, Our new field trip date is confirmed and scheduled for Thursday September 22nd! We will be leaving the school at 9am and getting on the buses at the Hogle Zoo to come back to the school at 1pm. So hopefully this still works with some of your schedules. 

If you are able to come and volunteer please send Mrs. Nelson an email. The first 5 people to respond saying that they want to ride the bus will have the opportunity to ride with us. The rest will need to drive separately. Younger siblings can come with you as long as you drive separate and plan on paying for them. Chaperones will need to bring a backpack to carry lunches for their group and bring a sack lunch for themselves.

Please plan on students wearing red shirts and uniform pants to the zoo with good walking shoes. Let us know if you have any questions. Students will need to bring a sack lunch from home that does not require a microwave.

Thanks!

Reading Strategies

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Lips the fish
We have been practicing two more reading strategies, “Lips the Fish” and “Stretchy Snake”.

Lips the Fish teaches us to get our lips ready for the word and say the sound out loud.  

Stretchy Snake shows us how to stretch the letter sounds.  We used a slinky to practice stretching the sounds as we stretched the slinky and then saying the word all together as we push the slinky back together. Stretchy snake

Reading Strategies

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Eagle eyeThis week we introduced our first reading strategy, EAGLE EYE.  When reading if you don’t know a word, what can you do?  Look at the pictures for a clue.  
Have your student read to you. Anytime your student is reading remind them to practice their EAGLE EYE strategy when they come to a word they do not know, look at the picture for clue.  

More strategies to come…

Important: Hogle Zoo Field Trip

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We were notified this morning that the zoo will not be accepting any field trip groups for at least another week.  Unfortunately, that means we are having to reconfirm with them a different date.  We appreciate all of you who offered to chaperone and could still really use you.  We have requested that they confirm our request for our field trip to be rescheduled for Friday, September 16th.  Please mark this date down on your calendars and watch the blog for further updates.  Again, please accept our apologies, we were just notified this morning.  

Hogle Zoo Field Trip

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field trip

FIELD TRIP TIME!!
Tuesday September 6th will be our first field trip to the zoo. It will be from 9am-1pm.
 We NEED donations! We asked for $15 dollars to cover the whole years field trips. If you could please send that with your child to the office that would be appreciated. If the full $15 is not possible right now please at least pay 5 to pay for this field trip. WE WILL NOT be able to go without these donations. The cost to get a bus to go is very pricy and we will have to postpone the trip if donations are not received. Please pay the office by Friday September 2nd or online under field trips. 

 The following parents I have down for riding the bus and I have no more room for other parents unless you want to drive separate. If you can no longer ride the bus will you please email me. Your child does have to come to school and ride the bus. You can’t take your child separately with you in your car. 

Bus Riders & Chaperones:
**We would prefer having at least two more chaperones to pair up, if you would be able to chaperone and help one of the existing chaperones please email Mrs. Nelson asap****
Sami West
Chelsee Gray
Nicole Bell
Heather McTee
Cami Davis

Scholastic Book Orders

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It is the school policy that we as teachers are not able to handle money.  With this being said, just as a reminder- Scholastic book orders must be made and also paid for online.  I am not able to accept any book orders or payments.  I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.  I have extended the August deadline through this weekend and will submit the order upload on Tuesday morning due to this.  Thank you so much!

i love reading_boy3b_Happy Doodle ClassWe are excited to utilize the Scholastic Reading Club program in our classroom this year.  Ordering books for your children through this program gives our class points towards free books that your child will utilize in the classroom throughout the year.

Our first book order will be due Tuesday, September 6th.   The Scholastic Book order link is located here: Scholastic Reading Club.  Ordering online is fast and easy, our class activation code is: N8TKQ.  Online ordering allows you to shop all the books, not just the select books in the current flyer.

At Quest Academy we use Guided Reading to determine the level of our students reading ability.  Scholastic provides an option to shop by Guided Reading Level (GRL).  This is a great way to help provide your students with books that are on their reading level.  

Sign Up for Text Alerts/Notifications

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TEXT NOTIFICATIONS: We strongly encourage you to sign up for text notifications.  ThisText Cell phone copy will allow us to send reminders, last-minute updates, etc. by text to your cell phone, and parents from our past classes have LOVED this!  To participate in receiving text message reminders, follow these instructions:
  1. Simply send a text to 81010 with the message @nelsonhill
  2. To opt out at any time, simply send a text to 81010 with the messageunsubscribe@nelsonhill