Thank you for sharing your students with us this year. Special thanks to Miss Ferrin for the creation of this video!

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 Waterford and Imagine Learning accounts will still be available to you over the summer. 
• 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

#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!  

#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 (try some 2nd grade skills!),IXL and X-Tra Math account will be available over the summer.  Feel free to email me if you need your username and password.  See also: Math Facts Activities
• Find great online games and resources for sharpening math skills, including:
• Turtle Diary: http://www.turtlediary.com/grade-1-games.html
• Math Magician: http://coolsciencelab.com/math_magic.html
• Education.com: http://www.education.com/games/math/first-grade/

Here again are the math timing sheets I used to help with math fact fluency. 

• Addition and Subtraction Fluency Timings
• Harder Math Timings 10-20
• Addition Flash Cards (1)

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- 
Stampede to Read 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-
“Libraries Rock”
Come join the summer fun! There’s something for everyone. For more information click here: Davis County Summer Reading


Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge-
Help our school log the most summer reading minutes, beginning NOW: Scholastic Summer Reading For your student’s login click here: Student login

Utah State Fair Read & Win-
Read books and win a ticket to the Utah State Fair. Click here for details and to access the entry form: Utah State Fair Reading Program

The kids need to know these and asked I post the words. To see the motions, go to Mrs. Hills’ blog and scroll down to “Armed Forces Medley”… on the right side of the page. It will link you there. Thanks!!

US Armed Forces Lyrics

 US Army

“Over hill, over dale

We will hit the dusty trail,

And those Caissons go rolling along.

In and out, hear them shout,

Counter marching all about,

And those Caissons go rolling along.

For it’s hi! hi! hee!

In the field artillery,

Count out your numbers loud and strong (2, 3)

And where e’er you go,

You will always know

That those Caissons go rolling along.”

 

US Marines

“From the Halls of Montezuma

To the Shores of Tripoli;

We will fight our country’s battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

First we fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title

of United States Marine.”

 

US Navy

“Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh.

Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day-day-day-day.

Through our last night on shore, hail to the foam,

Until we meet once more,

Here’s wishing you a happy voyage home!”

 

US Air Force

“Off we go into the wild blue yonder,

Climbing high into the sun;

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,

At ’em boys, Give ‘er the gun!

Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,

Off with one terrible roar!

We live in fame or go down in flame.

For nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force!”

 

US Coast Guard

We’re always ready for the call

We place our trust in thee

Through howling gale and shot and shell

To win our victory

Semper Paratus is our Guide

Our Pledge, our motto too

We’re always ready do or die

Aye! Coast Guard, we fight for you!

 

 

This is the last week before Spring Break and Easter!! To have a little fun, we are doing “What’s in my Egg?” Make sure your child showed you the blue paper and their plastic egg I gave them last Friday. All the instructions are on the page… please don’t put anything perishable in the egg as we will only do a few every day. Have fun with this… I can’t wait to see what clues everyone comes up with!

Here is the link if you want to order a yearbook. Thanks!!

https://secureinstantpayments.com/sip/cart/event.php?EID=2524