Mrs. Vella's 1st Grade Super Stars

We have been practicing logging in and out of our computers.  
You can help your student by having them practice typing their username.

Username: firstname.lastname
For example:   john.doe

WE have learned that a  URL is an address to a page,  and that each page adds a tab. WE have learned about the Quest Academy Home Page.  WE can find lots of neat apps under the “For Students” tab drop down box titled “Student Links.”

WE have also been visiting some fun web pages/sites. The following are just a few of our favorites that you may want to check out too:
Story line on line has famous people reading wonderful books. Last week we listened to ” My Monster is Missing” and today we listened to “Harry the Dirty Dog.”
http://www.storylineonline.net

WE LOVE GO NOODLE!!! I hope your student has been talking about Go Noodle. It’s so fun!!! You choose a little champ who evolves as you complete 10 activities. There are several levels. Today we completed Level 5 with Bart Reynolds. See certificate below because I told the kids I would post it to our blog! I will send home a note about it tomorrow.
certificate

Class DOJO… So far I only have 14 parents signed up for this so I will be sending home a note with more details about this tomorrow. PLEASE sign up!! This is a great way for you to track your students progress throughout the day. Some days are more active than others. Your student can/will eventually build e-student work portfolios on their dojo.

Starfall is another program that I/WE  USE A TON! You can use our free very limited version in the “Student Links” or for about $35 you can download a yearly subscription. IT IS WORTH THE MONEY TRUST ME. If you have any questions I will be more than happy to show you!!!

We will begin using computers this week.  If your child has not brought headphones to school yet we encourage you to send them as soon as possible. We use our headphones EVERY SINGLE DAY, often all at the same time, and we do not allow students to borrow other students’ headphones because of liability in case they are broken, etc.  

Thank you very much!  

IT’S PICTURE DAY SO SAY ……

• Picture Day is Monday, August 22nd
• Wear school UNIFORMS (in the Spring there will be a dress down picture day)
• Look for the picture day flyer that came home yesterday in your student’s green homework folder.
• You can pay online at: Bell Photographers  
• Online password is: questacad2016
• Print your receipt & enclose in payment envelope (attached to flyer)
• See flyer for additional payment options.  Quest Picture Day Flyer 2016

• Mark your calendars now for our  Hogle Zoo field trip on Tuesday, September 6th. If you haven’t signed the google Parent Permission Slip for this years fieldtrips, learning activities and parties PLEASE DO SO NOW.

• We are asking for a one time donation of $15 dollars help cover the cost for ALL transportation, and entrance fees for our planned yearly fiieldtrips in addition to a one time donation of  $14 to help cove the costs of food and party supplies for the year. If we don’t get enough support we may not be able to provide these activities for your student.
  

• To see what’s new at Hogel Zoo go to 
  http://www.hoglezoo.org/zoo_visit/whats_new/

• I am still missing Class Disclosures from a few students. If you haven’t read and returned a class disclosure form please do so and send it back with your student NO LATER THAN MONDAY!!! You can find the class disclosure under the parent link on our blog.

• Scholastic book orders are due Wednesday, August 31st. If you missed getting a flyer Monday at back to school night, don’t worry,  you can go simply go on line to see the great deals that are going on now.
• Buying books from scholastic is an inexpensive way to build up your home library and help our classroom library grow at the same time. Our class code is:  JBTR2    www.scholastic.com

Day 2 was another very busy day. We reviewed procedures, read the book “Juice Box Bully” then signed a contract about not being a bully, in addition too practicing  letters /Aa/ and /Bb/.
  I talked with the kids about the sounds these letters make. We had to review the right way to make the sound for letter Bb because some of the kids were saying the sound like this…buh with a strong “ah” sound which isn’t correct. LOL I also shared some fun little chants along with  silly pictures to help them remember how to write each letter. Please be aware, I am VERY, VERY picky about how the kids write their letters, and make their sounds. It’s so important that kids build good habits when reading and writing. This includes making the correct letter sounds and forming letters correctly.

• The chant for upper case letter “A” is Slant left-slant right, then across the middle. The Chant for lower case letter “a” is (starting  in the upper right corner of the middle line), left around the apple, then down the leaf.   The kids got it super fast and had a little laugh at my picture. 

• The chant for upper case letter “B” is Sky to the ground (with the sky being the top line and the ground being the bottom line), seals jumping sideways once, seals jumping sideways twice. It looks like a 3.  Ask them about the seals part they really liked it. It relates to seals at the zoo. The chant for lower case letter “b” will forever help them with reversals between “b and d”. It goes like this…Down the bat and around the ball.  I told the kids to always look for the “bat” because “b” always has the bat first.                      
• Students should NEVER EVER start any letters from the bottom!!!! NO BOTTOM DWELLERS… ALL LETTERS start in the middle (where the dotted line is ) or at the top.

Here’s some super amazing “kid pics” for your viewing pleasure!!! I can’t wait to see them tomorrow. They are already finding a special place in our hearts.

I was SO excited to see so many of you at back to school night. There are a couple of things that I forgot to mention that I wanted to make sure you are aware. 

1. PLEASE decide on a meeting spot outside for you to meet your child after school. Make sure they stay in that spot until you come and find them. The first two weeks I will walk them out and stay with them however, after that I have parking lot responsibilities in the back and won’t be able to stay with them. It gets busy at the end of the day and I want to make sure everyone is safe. 

2. Subscribing to the blog I can’t stress enough. This is my MAIN source of communication and when I update the blog you will receive an email of any and all updates. 

3. Please sign the yearly permission slip
Permission Slip  This gives your child permission to participate in all the activities and learning experiences this year. I also can’t stress enough the importance of paying the office the donations for the field trip and parties. We rely on these donations in order for those activities to take place. It is $15 for the year for our field trips and $12 for our class parties. That amount will take care of ALL the activities for the year. 

4. If you paid the office $40 for the school supplies don’t forget you still need to purchase a backpack, water bottle, and a set of headphones. I will take care of the rest! 

See you all on Wednesday!