I sent home a picture day sheet home with your students yesterday.  Please make sure to calendar Monday August 24th for picture day. If you would like to buy pictures the money for pictures goes to the office. When your child brings it back I will send them there to pay for it.

Also just a reminder, our Field Trip coming up is on September 8th we are going to the Hogle Zoo. We are asking for a donation of $3.00 per child to pay for the buses to get there. If you would like to come and have little ones that are coming along with you, you will need to pay for their entrance fee. Volunteers are still needed and welcome! 
It has been my absolute pleasure this week to be able to get to know these adorable kiddo’s!  I adore each of them and am so excited to get to know them even better!  Thank you parents, for sharing your amazing kids with me!  


I am absolutely blessed to work with these amazing and wonderful ladies!  First grade has the best teachers ever!!! 

I just wanted to send a quick little note and thank all of you for coming out to Back to School night!  I felt it was a great success and enjoyed seeing you! My blog will be my MAIN SOURCE of communication, so please make sure that you have subscribed to the blog and check it often.  I have several documents ready for your review and signature if not done so already.  

1- Class Disclosure: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zqhLOM6RyE0I8kpwiGhbNxEB2Dsvq4L5Lrom-o2jXUs/viewform?edit_requested=true

2-  Zoo Field Trip: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tHUCY4tTiqLOhvaKQURWkykvTAcNNEKaGyuqDqmiWdk/viewform

3-  Subscribe to my blog, to complete the process you must click on a link that will be sent to your email:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Mrsnelsonsowl-standing1stGrade&loc=en_US 
4-  Volunteer Sign Up:  30 volunteer hours can seem overwhelming, but it will be super simple signing up for things using this link: 
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/20F0E4CAAA822A2F94-volunteers

5-  Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up’s:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e4caaa822a2f94-parent

Raz-Kids, an online reading program, is ready for our incoming 1st Graders. Simply click here: https://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login Teacher login: anelson74 Students new to Quest will begin on the first level AA. We will assess students at the beginning of the year and adjust reading levels as needed. We have readers in our class! I am so impressed to see so many of you already on Raz-Kids reading! If you haven’t tried it yet, here are a few things you can do: You can listen to books, record yourself reading a book, and take short quizzes. I am really enjoying listening to so many of you read through your recordings. Have fun reading and building your rocket 🙂 https://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login

I am so very excited to get to know my new students this year!  

To get a jump start on the upcoming school year, please subscribe to my blog by clicking on the right button and start searching around a bit.  Let me direct you to start by reading the class disclosure and signing the electronic version, start collecting the class supplies, familiarize yourself with the parent information tab page and homework page.  Feel free to browse and enjoy past posts.  

You can e-sign the class disclosure by clicking on the following link and entering your information or follow the link on the class disclosure page: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zqhLOM6RyE0I8kpwiGhbNxEB2Dsvq4L5Lrom-o2jXUs/edit

Help us ignite your kid’s passion for reading!

75% of parents agree: “I wish my kid read more books for fun.” Tell your kids to join the Wimpy Kid gang for the BOOK IT! Summer Reading Challenge, an online interactive reading program that encourages kids in grades K-6 to read throughout the summer. This exciting new program launches June 22 and will end on August 15.

Visit bookitsummer.com for more information.

Click here for parent flyer: Book it Summer Reading Challenge 2015

I am so very excited to welcome my new students into my first grade class!  We got to spend some time together today getting to know each other and they were so wonderful!  We are going to have an amazing year starting next fall!

To get a jump start on the upcoming school year, please subscribe to my blog by clicking on the right button and start searching around a bit.  Let me direct you to start by reading the class disclosure and signing the electronic version, start collecting the class supplies, familiarize yourself with the parent information tab page and homework page.  Feel free to browse and enjoy past posts.  

You can e-sign the class disclosure by clicking on the following link and entering your information or follow the link on the class disclosure page: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zqhLOM6RyE0I8kpwiGhbNxEB2Dsvq4L5Lrom-o2jXUs/edit

Your child has worked SO hard this year and deserves to maintain or even increase his/her skills over the summer!  Here are some ideas for keeping your child learning over the summer:

#1: READ!  

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No other skill is more important to maintain over the summer months.  Children who read regularly are shown to have higher intelligence and general knowledge, less stress, better fluency, improved analytical thinking, broader vocabulary, better memory and increased writing skills. Please use every opportunity (long car rides, waits at the dentist/doctor, before bedtime, etc.) to have your child read to you.

• Your child’s RAZ Kids account will still be available to you over the summer. https://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login 
• Visit the public library.  Your public library has excellent resources for choosing appropriate books for your child.  Or check out some great online resources, such as: 

• http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/showarticle/623
• http://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/book-lists-and-recommendations/ages-6-7
• http://www.public.asu.edu/~diann/Bibliographies/leveledbooks.htm.

• The last link is very helpful because the list shows books based upon A-Z levels.  Your child has been told what letter he/she has been leveled at.  If he/she doesn’t remember, it is a good idea to find a recognizable title that you know is within your child’s reading range and begin from there.
• You may also continue to help your child by doing reading timings at home using the following link (use Level 100 or 200 passages) http://www.haslett.k12.mi.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=11283&

#2: Write!

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Writing is “backwards reading” and not only improves your child’s writing skills, but also improves his/her reading skills as well.  Encourage your child to use best penmanship and to sound out words phonetically, and assist your child in creating complete sentences that include proper use of upper and lower-case letters, and to include proper punctuation.

• Encourage your child to keep a journal of happenings or discoveries over the summer months.  You may even have your child continue to use the extra pages in his/her first grade journal, which is in a format familiar to your child.  I strongly encourage students to write (with an actual paper and pencil!) over the summer – not just write electronically.  This helps to maintain proper penmanship and puts a greater focus on sentence structure, rather than on hunting for letters on a keyboard.
• Electronic writing is great, too, though!  It is important that your child maintain familiarity with the keys on the keyboard!  Your child will be able to access his/her Storybird account over the summer, which can be used to create poems and stories online: http://storybird.com/ 

#3: Math!

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We learned SO many different math skills this year and it is important that your child remember these skills so that he/she can build on them in 2nd grade!  Review addition, subtraction, place value, time, measurement, 2 and 3-dimensional shapes, graphing, skip-counting, etc. with your child!

• Your child’s IXL account will be available to him/her during the summer: ixl.com. Have your child review the 1st grade material, and, if you feel that your child has a good mastery, venture into some of the 2nd grade material to keep things fresh and challenging.
• Your child’s X-Tra Math account will be available over the summer: https://xtramath.org/
• Find great online games and resources for sharpening math skills, including:
• Turtle Diary: http://www.turtlediary.com/grade-1-games.html
• Umigo: http://www.umigo.com/
• Math Magician: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html
• Education.com: http://www.education.com/games/math/first-grade/