I am SO proud of the amazing job these kids did in the Patriotic Concert! Enjoy these great photos!

We were so lucky to have a representative from the Ogden Nature Center visit!  Enjoy these photos of our classes observing a tortoise, and owl, and a falcon! 

Enjoy these great photos of us preparing for and using the Sun’s energy to melt solids!

Next year, Quest will be using a brand new Language Arts program, complete with new textbooks and supplies! Administration has asked that we dispose of our old Language Arts textbooks.  

I have great difficulty throwing away textbooks containing fun stories and illustrations that are leveled for your children!  So, I will be sending these textbooks home with your child so that you may choose to keep them for home use if you would like.  If you do not want them, feel free to donate or trash them. Thank you!

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!  

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.scholastic.com/bookwizard/
• The last link is very helpful because you can enter the title of almost any book, and the webpage will display the level of the book, so you can see if it is consistent with your child’s reading level, including Fountas and Pinnell levels. (For instance, if you enter the title Curious George Rides a Bike, you will see that this book is at the J reading level.) Your child has been told which letter he/she has been leveled at, and this information is also available on the SEP form that was sent home on the last day of school.  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.
• Also listed on the SEP form that was sent home is your child’s Lexile level.  Most libraries use Lexiles to level books, and you should be able to easily find books at the local library that are consistent with your child’s reading level. 
• You may also continue to help your child by doing reading timings at home using the Zoo Animals reading passages: CLICK HERE for Zoo Animals Reading Fluency

• #2: Write!

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 events 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! 🙂

#3: Math!

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! ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN REVIEW OVER THE SUMMER ARE THE BASIC ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION FACTS UP TO 20.  THESE WILL BE VERY HELPFUL TO KNOW FOR DOUBLE-DIGIT ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION IN SECOND GRADE!

• 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, Prodigy, and Reflex Math accounts will be available over the summer.
• 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/

 

To encourage reading throughout the summer check out these fun summer reading programs:

Barnes and Noble- 
Summer Reading Program  
Fill out the reading journal, then bring your completed journal to a Barnes and Noble store to receive a FREE book.  Click here for more information and to print your own reading journal: Barnes and Noble Summer Reading


Weber County Libraries- 
Undercover Readers Program
Register today for the summer reading program.  You can also download a summer reading packet and find monthly events here: Weber County Summer Reading 


Davis County Libraries-
Build a Better World
From reading, to inventing, to teddy bears – there’s something for everyone. For more information click here: Davis County Summer Reading


BOOK IT! Summer Reading-
We have enjoyed the free pizza coupons this year from the Pizza Hut BOOK IT reading program. Click here for fun summer reading activities: BOOK IT! Summer Reading

WEDNESDAY will be the last day that students need to bring their backpacks.  PLEASE be sure that students are in attendance and that they bring backpacks on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  We have a LOT of projects to finish, a LOT of stuff to send home with them, and it will be best if we don’t send it home all in one day! Please make every effort to be sure that your child is here for all 3 days! Thank you! 🙂 

Here is the schedule for the upcoming week:
Monday:

• On-site “field trip” with Ogden Nature Center
• Finishing projects
• Completing testing for absent students
• Bring backpacks!

Tuesday: 

• Finishing projects
• Completing testing for absent students
• Bring backpacks!

Wednesday: 

• Finishing projects
• Completing testing for absent students
• Bring backpacks!

Thursday: Field Day!

• Dress-down day!
• First grade is supposed to wear RED shirts.
• Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen, and hats
• School lunch will NOT be served and microwaves will NOT be available; please pack a cold sack lunch in a labeled disposable bag.
• Early 1:00 release.

Friday: 

• Watching Charlotte’s Web movie and final goodbyes! 🙁
• Dress-down day!
• School lunch will be served as normal.
• Early 1:00 release.

I have received Book Buddies back from the following students:

Addison
Allie
Andrew
Annabelle
Bentley
Blake
Breklyn
Devin
Dillon
Gabe
Griffin
Hailey
Holden
Kaiden
Kaylee
Madelyn
Maylee
Mollie
Noah
Raygen
Rhylan
Rylie
Taylee
Tyce

If you do not see your name on the list, please be sure to return your Book Buddy ASAP.  If you are unable to return your book, please plan on submitting $35 to the office by Friday, May 26th so that we can be prepared with books for next year’s students.  Thank you so much for your help with this!

To the WONDERFUL volunteers who have assisted our class this year: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time and dedication!  I cannot adequately express to you how grateful I am for your help and support this year.  From the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU!!

The schedule for next week is so atypical, that it will be very difficult to depend on adequate times when volunteer work would be possible, so volunteers are not needed for our final week of school.  

Once again: I am overwhelmed with gratitude for your assistance! THANK YOU!

NEWSFLASH:  The kitchen has asked that we now have the pizza lunch count completed by WEDNESDAY morning, instead of Thursday morning.

CLICK HERE to fill out the form for the PIZZA LUNCH COUNT FOR FRIDAY:
https://docs.google.com/a/questac.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOQV6ze_-p5PE6b6EiNGvOpdweWC2RB5T3AlEuo0ubhgIN7Q/viewform?usp=sf_link

Mission K9 Rescue Service Project

The entire first grade will be performing a Patriotic Concert two times on Wednesday, May 17th, once at 1:45 (for students and faculty only) and once at 6:00 in the evening (for family and friends), both in the Elementary (Q1) gym. Please have your child to the gym by 5:40 that evening, dressed in a RED SHIRT and uniform bottoms.  Any patriotic accessories, such as hairbows, pins, belts, ties, etc., are encouraged!! (Please avoid any tall accessories, such as tall hats, that could potentially block the view of other children standing behind your child.)  

We would like to honor any veterans in the audience, so we encourage you to invite any friends or family members who have served in the military to join us!  The performance will not last more than an hour.  

The first grade will be performing this same concert the afternoon of May 17th for students and faculty, so please be sure your child wears a RED SHIRT and patriotic accessories that morning, too.

PERFORMANCES WILL BE:

This is our LAST WEEK OF HOMEWORK! For this week, there is 1 component required:

1. Book Buddy Reading (20-30 minutes every day!) – PLEASE BE SURE TO PERMANENTLY TURN IN BOOK BUDDIES ON FRIDAY! THANK YOU!

No need to turn in a homework form!  Simply signing off on the Book Buddy sign-off sheet is sufficient! Thanks!






A Reading for All Learners (Book Buddy) leveled book will be sent home with your child DAILY. Please have your child read the book (or one story from the books in which there is more than one story) at least two-three times and then sign the included form. You may supplement your child’s reading using books at home, library books, etc. to fulfill the minimum requirement of 20-30 minutes of reading per day. 







NEWSFLASH:  The kitchen has asked that we now have the pizza lunch count completed by WEDNESDAY morning, instead of Thursday morning.

CLICK HERE to fill out the form for the PIZZA LUNCH COUNT FOR FRIDAY:
https://docs.google.com/a/questac.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOQV6ze_-p5PE6b6EiNGvOpdweWC2RB5T3AlEuo0ubhgIN7Q/viewform?usp=sf_link