Reading Comprehension Retell Ropes

Posted on February 6, 2016 by darsie.vella
When having your student read to you please use the following RE-TELL ROPES to help them Re-tell the story. It is just as important that students understand what the are reading as well as just being able to read a passage/story.
Retell: with as much detail as possible, and in your own words, to a parent, using the guidelines described below:

Non-Fiction Re-tell Rope 3      Fiction Re-Tell Rope 3
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Parent Teacher Conference Times Availible

Posted on February 6, 2016 by darsie.vella
https://www.westburyfriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/parent-teacher-conference.jpg
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 25TH PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE TIMES AVAILABLE 
Please don’t wait to schedule your conference time. It is so important to keep up on your students accomplishments and set new goals for the rest of the school year.

3:30
3:50   Zavian
4:10
4:30
4:50
5:10
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Valentines Day Activities

Posted on February 6, 2016 by darsie.vella



1. Please make ever effort to have your student to school everyday. WE will be making these super cute bags for studentsto place their valentines in Thursday, so no need to stress about making  anything at home.

2. WE are going to have our traditional 1st grade holiday rotations to celebrate Valentines Day Friday February 12th from 1:30-2:50. Please feel free to come in and help in our room during this time. 

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Permission Slip for 100th Day Celebration and Valentines Day Party

Posted on January 31, 2016 by darsie.vella
If you have not already signed the permission slip for your student to participate in the 100th Day Celebration and Valentines Day Party…PLEASE DO SO NOW OR YOUR STUDENT WILL MISS OUT ON THE FUN!
Please Sign the permission slip below:

Permission Form
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Important Reminders and Up Coming Events

Posted on January 31, 2016 by darsie.vella
Screen Shot 2015-08-21 at 3.03.32 PM
Monday is Library Day!!!

Our school library’s “Tower of Book Challenge” is still active.  Here are the latest results Tower of Booksfrom the 1st grade classes:
1st Grade: Books Stacked

Bischoff – 3
Dunmeyer – 28 (WAHOOOO!!!!!!)
Hills/Teichert – 10
Nelson – 8
Vella – 24
WAY TO GO, MRS. DUNMEYER’S CLASS!!!  However Mrs. Vella’s Stars, Let’s see if we can take back the lead this week. I encourage each of you to participate. Let’s see how high our book stack can go!!
First Step– Print the challenge form: 1st Grade Tower of Books Challenge
Second Step– Read 5 books from the listed categories
Third Step– Bring the challenge form WITH parent signature to the library (before or after school)
Fourth Step- Assemble the foldable paper book you will receive from the librarian
Fifth Step– Return assembled paper book, receive a PRIZE and begin again :)

Book Categories (choose any 5)
1 Alphabet book
1 Story that rhymes
1 Book of poems
1 Fairy tale
1 Magazine article
1 Book from a series you have not read
1 Mystery
1 Holiday
2 “Non-fiction” books on the same topic
The 100th Day of School lands on Wednesday, February 3 and we are excited to celebration
 To celebrate, we would like to have every student bring 100 items (100 of the same item).    Nothing fancy here, folks!  Please don’t stress over this – we just use the items for a small place-value activity. It’s fun to see what 100 of something looks like!  
Just a couple guidelines:  
* Please let your child only bring in a collection that they can carry and manage by themselves . (These 100 items should   be able to fit inside a quart-sized zip-lock baggie.)
* No food items (per Quest policy)
*Please no items that have been banned (like Pokemon cards)
*Have fun thinking of a creative or unique collection you want to bring :)
 
Here are some ideas for 100 items:
pom poms
grains of rice
pennies
pieces of breakfast cereal
stickers
seeds
popcorn kernels
buttons
etc.

Stores are now stocked and ready for Valentine’s Day!  To help you properly prepare for Valentineour in-class celebrations, here are the Quest guidelines for Valentines:

VALENTINES
“Per Quest’s wellness policy, all food in the classroom must be pre-approved. Furthermore, parental permission is also required for students to consume food during class parties. Due to this policy—as in years past—student Valentines cannot contain edible items. Suggestions for non-food Valentines include pencils, erasers, bubbles, stickers, etc. Please note that such items, including Valentine cards, are in no way required.”

We have 22 students in our class.  Please, please, please: only write who the Valentine is from – please do not address the Valentines to specific students.  Try to imagine 22 six and seven-year-olds frantically circling the class, struggling to pass out Valentines to specific student’s desks, and likely struggling with reading the spelling of many students’ names, and imagine frazzled teachers trying to assist these 22 children in identifying specific students’ names and locating specific students’ desks!  🙂 This mental image will help you to understand why I request that you please only fill out the “from” part of the Valentine card and not the “to” part.  Thank you for your help with this! :) 
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Homework for February 1st -5th

Posted on January 31, 2016 by darsie.vella
Home Bear
All Homework is due Friday February 4th.
For this week’s homework, there are 4 components required:
1.Math, including Math Fluency Timings
2. Reading (20-30 minutes every day!) Record on February Book It Calendar
3. High Frequency Timed Reading
4. Spelling

1.MATH HOMEWORK Do one lesson per night
Monday: Lesson 5 Add Tens and Ones with Regrouping
Tuesday: Lesson 6 Subtract Tens
Wednesday: Lesson 7 Count Back by 10’s
Thursday: Lesson 8 Relate Addition and Subtraction of Tens
Complete every other problem (alternate between evens and odds) on the worksheets that will be coming home in the green folder on Monday.  Please check your child’s work for ACCURACY.

**NEW ADDITION TO WEEKLY MATH HOMEWORK**We are going to be working hard on math and reading fluency the rest of the year. Please add this short 1 1/2 minute math timing exercise into your nightly homework routine. The goal is to finish 25 problems in 1 minute and 30 seconds, with 90% accuracy (23 out of 25 problems correct).  To print the timed test click here: Timings-ALL Just do the “TWOS” for now.

If your students gets worried about all the problems, just remind them to do their best and that it’s just practice so they can get better and faster. I told them to 1st go through and answer all the problems they know then go back and work on the ones they aren’t sure about.   
*BONUS AND THANKS TO OUR TEAM FOR FINDING AND SHARING THESE ENJOY I HOPE THEY HELP *!  Addition and Subtraction Fact Memorization: in the upcoming weeks, we will be focusing on double-digit addition and subtraction.  This is a very challenging unit for kids who do not yet have their addition and subtraction facts memorized! You may memorize math facts as your math activity practice.  This will also help with our weekly math timings!  Please utilize the following links to create flashcards and work on memorization of facts up to 20: 
reading clip artI Love to Read!!!!

2. Reading 20 minutes or more per day
RECORD YOUR READING EVERY DAY YOU READ ON YOUR  “BOOK IT”  READING LOG located in your green folder.

There are several sources for reading: “Reading for all Learners” also known as”Baggy books” from school, books from home or the public library and our online reading program Raz-Kids.  Our class Raz-Kids login is: dvella0 (that’s a zero)

***REMEMBER that in order for your student to pass off a “Baggy Book”, they must have fewer than 2 mistakes per book or 3 per chapter. Please be sure to sign the “Baggy Book” log when your student has successfully mastered each book/chapter.

3- Timed fluency practice click here: Timed Reading Fluency Practice

spelling writing-clip-art
I can Spell Well With Practice!!!
High Frequency Spelling Words
 Here is the link to print our weekly spelling homework form:  New Weekly Spelling Homework **Remember if you choose  not to print off and use this form you need to make sure your student is writing each word and the sentence daily on paper, and that all the papers get turned in on Friday for credit.
High Frequency Words for this week are:
may
only
most
its
made
REVIEW WORDS:
how
or
could
SENTENCE
He has two pigs.

SPELLING SENTENCE  6 POINTS POSSIBLE ON TEST (1 point for each correctly spelled word,  1 point for beginning the sentence with an uppercase letter, and 1 point for the correct punctuation mark at the end of the sentence.)




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HIP HIP HOORAY!!! It’s Alomost the 100th Day of School

Posted on January 28, 2016 by darsie.vella

The 100th Day of School lands on Wednesday, February 3 and we are excited to celebrate!  Each child is welcome to bring a collection of 100 items that day to school (100 buttons, 100 signatures, 100 pom poms…) It’s fun to see what 100 of something looks like!  Just a couple guidelines:  
* Please let your child only bring in a collection that they can carry and manage by themselves (in fact it would be nice if it could fit in their cubbies)
* No food items (per Quest policy)
*Please no items that have been banned (like Pokemon cards)
*Have fun thinking of a creative or unique collection you want to bring :)


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Famliy Fun STEM Gala Basket Donations

Posted on January 28, 2016 by darsie.vella
Family-Fun-Night-Basket-200x300We have had some awesome parents donate two very large baskets for us for our STEM Gala Auction Basket.  BUT—we still need many donations to continue to fill it.  

It’s competition time! The 1st grade team will be making a Family Fun Activity Basket. To make this happen, we need some donations from family/friends. Feel free to ask companies for donations, purchase items, or re-gift items. Nothing is too small or too great.  The baskets will be auctioned off via a Silent Auction in conjunction with our Gala!  Baskets will be on display prior to the event in the lobby area of Q1.  The basket donations are due no later than Friday, February 19th.  The STEM Gala is March 21st.  

Thank you so much for all of your support!  With a little help we can put together the best basket and win!  The ideas are endless and there is no idea that we can think of you could donate that wouldn’t fit into our basket theme.  If you know any businesses that you can ask for donations that would be great as well!  The Rush Funplex has already donated 5 VIP All Day Passes for our basket!  All it takes is a phone call.  

Below is a list of suggested items to donate: 

Games: board games, card games, electronic hand held games, wordsearch books, coloring books, etc. 
Baking items:  Cookie mixes, cake mixes, cookie decorating tools, aprons, kids cookbook
Movies/DVD’s:  Kid friendly dvd’s or gift cards to Movie theaters or Netflix, Redbox Codes, movie theater mugs 
Gift cards:  Ice cream shops, sporting events, Fat Cats Card, Sparetime or Fun Plex Gift Cards, Boondocks card, Fast Kart passes, College or Professional Sports Events, High School Sporting Events or Drama/Musical Event tickets, etc.  
Ice Cream Bar Supplies:  Ice Cream toppings, cute dessert dishes, ice cream/dessert maker, etc. 
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Weekly Reminders

Posted on January 28, 2016 by darsie.vella
Home Bear
1. For this week’s homework, there are 4 components required:
*Reading (20-30 minutes every day!)
*Spelling Words (Spelling Test on Friday)
*Math, Including Timed Math Facts
*High Frequency Word Timings

2-FRIDAY: EARLY OUT 1pm
  *$1.00 dress down or wear uniform

3- Scholastic Book Order due January 29th.  Your Scholastic orders help our classroom library earn FREE books.  Orders can be sent to school or click here for easy online ordering, our class code is JBTR2: Scholastic Book Club

4- Help us earn playground equipment by collecting Box Tops and Campbell’s soup labels.

5-  Shopping on Amazon?  You can help our school, no extra cost to you, when you make purchases through Amazon, they will donate a percentage to Quest.

Shopping on Amazon? You can help our school

amazon smile

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Homework Clarification

Posted on January 26, 2016 by darsie.vella
Home Bear
Dear Parents,
I am ssssooo sorry for not getting the MATH HOMEWORK to your students today. We got back late from the library and in the rush to get them out the door on time forgot to hand it out. It will be in their folders tomorrow. The good thing is that the kids really understood today’s math lesson so it shouldn’t take long for them to do tomorrow as well as what is assigned for Tuesday.

**NEW FLUENCY TIMINGS** I was talking with a parent who posed a great question…She wanted to know if all the fluency pages needed to be done this week OR at the same time.…YIKES NO!!!!! LOL that would be crazy for me let alone VERY overwhelming the kids…In class we will JUST START WORKING ON THE  TWO’S, THEN ONCE YOUR CHILD HAS PASSED THEM OFF IN CLASS I WILL HAVE THEM MOVE ON TO DOUBLES… AGAIN, PLEASE JUST WORK ON THE TWOS AT HOME THIS WEEK AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE OTHERS FOR NOW. Once the kids master the TWO’S THEY CAN MOVE ONTO DOUBLES, THEN NEAR DOUBLES ETC.  I appreciate the question as I can see how that may have been a little confusing.
 I want you to know that I realize homework is a growing  and sometime more than frustrating experience for both parents and students. Finding the right time and what works for each of you can be challenging. I do however want you to know that it is SSSOOO important as it helps your child develop good work habits, responsibility and the rewards of a job well done when they get paid. Thanks for all you do to help your student be successful personally and academically. YOU ROCK!!
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