Week of 6/1

It's exciting and a little sad at the same time, but we are heading into our last week together. What an unprecedented year it's been. I'd like to thank you for the fantastic support you've given me all year long, but especially during the last 10 weeks of @HomeLearning.

I hope that I will be able to see all of you and your children next week from your car windows during school pick-ups. Please let me know if you have arranged to come to school at a different time with a sibling so that I can place your child's bag with their sibling's bag. I look forward to seeing (hopefully) all of you next week!

For our final week of school, and on into the summer, we have several learning opportunities for you:

• Summer Learning Mats: These have a few ideas for things to do each week to keep your children's learning going through the summer. The most important thing is to keep reading daily!
• STEAM: Lessons will continue to be available through the USD Makerspace by going to their website, https://sites.google.com/unionsd.org/makerspace-tk
• P.E.: We have one last P.E. lesson with Mr. Thomas on Tuesday, 6/2 @ 1:45.
• Writing: Please have your children keep a summer journal, where they can write a few sentences about what they did each day.
• Union School District Summer Learning:  Go to USD's @HomeLearning website, where you can find this schedule with links to various websites. KidsA-Z, Lexia, Brainpop, and HappyNumbers will all continue to be available through most of the summer.

Continue checking your email over the summer, as I'd like to plan a few Zoom "get-togethers" before we all head off to first grade!

Thank you again for your amazing support this year, and I look forward to seeing you all through your car windows next week!

Week of 5/26

We are moving into our final 8 days together as Grasshoppers. This week's theme is Summer Fun, with a lot of ways to review our standards from this year. You won't find as many activities on SeeSaw. The review activities are on different subject mats, and you can pick & choose the activities that are most interesting to your child. Many of these same mats will be back next week, so be sure to save activities your child will enjoy for next week, too. There is no need to turn in what you are doing on SeeSaw. This is just an opportunity for fun review with choices for your child.

Zooms
Remember that the Zoom schedule has changed this week, with only one small-group meeting at 9:15 and whole-class Zooms daily at 10:00. Please check the revised Zoom schedule for links and passwords.

Grasshopper Goodbyes
Please continue signing up for these 10 minute one-on-one appointments for me to say goodbye to your child on either June 1st or June 2nd.

Language Arts
This week we will be reviewing all the sight words, using a sight word activity mat. Students will get to write about what they want to be when they grow up. Hang onto this piece of writing! You will be receiving a memory binder of your child's work from this year at your drive-by pick-up day, and you can add this piece of writing to the binder. We will also be writing about summer safety after reading and watching a video in Let's Find Out.

Math
We will continue reviewing math skills that we've learned this year by using the math review mat. 

STEAM
The district's Makerspace Specialists are again offering virtual activities through the end of the year. These activities will be easier to access this time, as they have a dedicated website with all the information and links. Please use your Clever Badge to get to the district's page, and then look for the "We Are Makers" logo:

P.E. 
P.E. with Mr. Thomas continues to be available on Zoom through the end of the year on Tuesdays at 1:45.

Week of 5/18

We are heading into our last full school week in kindergarten. This week's theme is Pond Life, with a focus on frogs. All class Zoom links can be found on the Zoom document I shared over a week ago, or in SeeSaw. Remember that if the hyperlinks aren't working in SeeSaw, you likely need to update the iPad's IOS. This is the final week of our regular Zoom schedule. The last two weeks of school are both four-day weeks, so there will be some changes to the schedule, which I will send a separate email about later this week.

Language Arts
The sight word this week is this. We will continue to have one informational writing assignment, as well as an opinion piece. There will also continue to be two stories this week in their KidsA-Z account for them to read before meeting with me in small groups. This week, I would still like kids to record themselves reading one of the stories in their assignments and send it to me in KidsA-Z. Please see the video tutorial I emailed out if you are unsure how to do this.

Math
This week, we move to reviewing math skills that we've learned this year, with a focus on number sense. Counting on, writing numbers to 20, and decomposing teen numbers will all be reviewed.

Science
Your children get to conduct an experiment this week by freezing salt water and fresh water and reflecting on how that may affect animals that live in those two habitats. Clear some space in the freezer to allow for this activity!

P.E. 
P.E. with Mr. Thomas is available both as a live Zoom on Tuesdays at 1:45, as well as a recorded follow-up activity that's available in SeeSaw.

Week of 5/11

Thank you again for the wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week last week. The Grasshopper families went above & beyond, and made it a really special week for me!

I also want to thank all the parents for the amazing support you are providing your students with the activities we have been assigning in SeeSaw. Every week, they look better and better! The children are really working hard, and it shows. I know this is definitely not easy for all of you with work commitments, other children to help, and other family members to support, but you are all really doing an incredible job with helping your children stay on target with their school work.

This week's theme is Insects & Bugs. Ladybugs, bees, snails, and flies are all in the mix! All class Zoom links can be found on the Zoom document I shared over a week ago, or in SeeSaw. Remember that if the hyperlinks aren't working in SeeSaw, you likely need to update the iPad's IOS. The schedule for Zooms will remain the same now through the end of May.

Language Arts
The sight word this week is they. We will continue to have one informational writing assignment, as well as an opinion piece. There will also continue to be two stories per week in their KidsA-Z account for them to read before meeting with me in small groups. This week, I would still like kids to record themselves reading one of the stories in their assignments and send it to me in KidsA-Z. Please see the video tutorial I emailed out last week if you are unsure how to do this.

Math
This week, we continue to work on addition & subtraction and story problems in math. Please make sure your children are showing their work in their math by following all the directions in the assignment. There will still be a digital version of the math mats that are in the "optional" section of the lesson plans. Both versions are a great way to reinforce math facts and promote speed and fluency in their addition and subtraction.

STEAM
This week, the district is launching an optional week of activities in the "Makerspace." The theme is force, motion, and simple machines. There is a kickoff Zoom meeting at three different times on Monday: 10:00, 1:00, and 3:00. If your child would like to participate, s/he should attend one of the Zoom meetings Monday (preferably not at 10:00, since that conflicts with our class Zoom), and then there will be SeeSaw activities pushed out each day by a district Makerspace Specialist named Dina Rabago. If you see her name on the activity, you will know it is one of these optional activities. If your child is interested in some STEAM enrichment, check these activities out.

P.E. 
P.E. with Mr. Thomas is available both as a live Zoom on Tuesdays at 1:45, as well as a recorded follow-up activity that's available in SeeSaw.

Week of 5/4

The work in SeeSaw looked great last week! It is so nice to hear your children reading their writing, describing their projects, or explaining their math. I am so proud of all the work they've been doing at home!

As some of you have experienced, there is a feature in SeeSaw that allows me to send back work if it needs some correcting. Please check your child's SeeSaw account and make sure that they are reading my comments and correcting things that need work. The best way to learn is through making mistakes and fixing them. The main reasons for sending work back has been not following all the steps or pages in the assignment, or not using correct capitals and punctuation. We were really working on that before class ended, so they have been exposed to this information and should be following through with it on their writing at home. Please check SeeSaw assignments as much as you can before they are submitted.

Our theme for this week's learning is butterflies. We will be doing both informational and descriptive writing this week. In science, we will be studying the life cycle of the butterfly. All class Zoom links for the week can be found on the Zoom document I shared several times last week, or in SeeSaw. Remember that if the hyperlinks aren't working in SeeSaw, you likely need to update the iPad's IOS. The schedule for Zooms will remain the same now through the end of May:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:30-9:00	XX	Grasshopper	Butterflies	Ladybugs	XX
9:15-9:45	Butterflies	Ladybugs	Bumblebees	Caterpillars	Grasshopper
10:00-10:30	Whole Class	Caterpillars	Whole Class	Bumblebees	Whole Class
3:00-4:00	XX	Office Hours by request	Office Hours by Request	XX	XX

Language Arts
The sight word this week is that. We will also be doing guided reading warm-ups again in SeeSaw this week, and a few children have a new warm-up. If they have a new warm-up, I have recorded voice directions about how to do that warm-up in SeeSaw, so be sure to have them listen to that. There will continue to be two stories per week in their KidsA-Z account for them to read before meeting with me in small groups. This week, I would also like kids to record themselves reading one of the stories in their assignments and send it to me in KidsA-Z. I will be sending out a video of how to do that this weekend.

Math
This week, we continue to work on subtraction and story problems in math. There are two parts to the subtraction assignment in SeeSaw. Please make sure your children are showing their work in their math by following all the directions in the assignment. There is now also a digital version of the math mats that are in the "optional" section of the lesson plans. Both versions are a great way to reinforce math facts and promote speed and fluency in their addition and subtraction.

Science
We have some great books and videos this week about the life cycle of a butterfly. A key vocabulary word in this unit is chrysalis. Butterfly caterpillars go into a chrysalis, not a cocoon. Moth caterpillars make a cocoon.

P.E. 
P.E. with Mr. Thomas is available both as a live Zoom on Tuesdays at 1:45, as well as a recorded follow-up activity that's available in SeeSaw.