Monday, September 22, 2014

Welcome to First Grade!

We have been very busy these first 3 weeks!!  We have been learning routines and rules among many other things.  Here are a few things that we do in first grade that your child may have told you about:

Go Noodle:  this is a website that we use to do our brain breaks.  Around 10 every morning we do a brain break.  These are dances that are put together from koo koo kangaroo, zumba, and you tube videos.  Most of them are popular songs and are from the Wii Just Dance for Kids.  We have a lot of fun doing these.

DoJo points:  We earn DoJo points in our classroom.  This is an online behavior management system. Each student has an avatar and has an opportunity to earn points for many things.  Students can also lose points for different things.  About every 2 weeks, students can spend their DoJo points on reward coupons.  These are things like show and tell, bring in your favorite music, bring a stuffed animal, switch spots with someone, etc.  You can set up a password to go on and see what your child is earning points for and they can change their avatar.  There is a sheet coming home Monday to tell you how to get to it.

Library:  We went to library this past week.  I did let students decide if they wanted to take their books home or not.  If your child brought home a book, please be sure to send it back before our next library day which is September 30.  Eventually students will be able to check out 2 books, one to bring home that can be any reading level and one that is their reading level that they can put in their book boxes.

Guest Reader:  We had a guest reader this week.  She earned a coupon to read to another class and she chose us.  Her name is Idaline Helsel.  She is a third grader.  She read a us a super great book and did a fantastic job!  We hope she comes back soon!!

Coins for Kids:  We are collecting coins for kids again this year.  We are raising money to fight world hunger.  If you have any spare change at home that you can bring in, we would greatly appreciate it.  The class with the most money earns a pizza party from Pizza Hut!!  Let's bring in what we can to help feed hungry children around the world!!