Week of 9/28

We have now passed our 30th day of school, and the children seem to be hitting their stride. I am so impressed with the independence I am seeing as the school year continues. Thank you for encouraging your students to do as much as they can on SeeSaw on their own. They are really doing a super job, and I am hoping that it will only continue to get easier as you encourage more and more independence.

Apple Week

This week, we will be reading apple-themed books, both fiction and non-fiction. We will also have a "Let's Find Out" on apples, as well as a Mystery Doug on apples, and learn a little about Johnny Appleseed. On Friday, we will have a special Zoom at 11:00, and I need your help. I'd like the children to taste different types of apples (preferably different colors, if you can find them: red, green, and yellow). We will all taste our apple slices together, and then do a writing activity together on Zoom where we will write about which color was our favorite. If you cannot get apples for this activity, your child can just write about which type they have preferred in the past. However, it would be great if we can all do the tasting together, so thank you for purchasing apples in advance of Friday's Zoom if you can. 

Teach Monster

This week, we are introducing a new app, Teach Your Monster to Read (Teach Monster for short). This is a fun app that children have really enjoyed in the past. Please view this video to ensure that your child is ready to use this app on Monday. There may be a little setup required to get into the app if your iPad is not one that I set up in advance. Your children will have a similar video to view on SeeSaw so that they know how to sign in on their own. After Monday, Teach Monster will be on the first page's schedule in SeeSaw as the alternate activity this week to meeting with me. Those children who do not meet with me during the first block of work time will do 15 minutes on Teach Monster, in addition to their regular SeeSaw work. 

Cornerstone

We have our first Project Cornerstone lesson this week! Cornerstone is a program that helps promote a caring and inclusive environment at schools, where every child feels valued and respected. Thank you to Matt & Danielle for volunteering to be our Cornerstone parents. Cornerstone always has a great book to start a discussion with the kids. This will be available in SeeSaw as a recorded reading. Please make sure your students listen to the reading before Matt's follow-up lesson on Wednesday at the 11:00 Zoom. I am looking forward to having Cornerstone lessons back in the virtual classroom!

Goal-Setting Meetings

I am looking forward to meeting with you all beginning this Thursday, through next Friday the 9th, to discuss how we can all best support your child's progress during distance learning. Please come prepared to discuss what's been going well, what has been difficult, what you feel your child's strengths are, and what I can do to support your child in his/her learning. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with you!

This Week's Small Group Supplies

Thank you all for continuing to send me messages about what is working & not working. I truly appreciate this "village" we are all creating together. Thank you to Chris for this week's idea of having a weekly reminder about what will be needed in small groups. Typically, ELA small group supplies do not change. Children should have these items ready-to-go before meeting with me during the first block (the insect groups):

• The "warm-up pack" that has "When I Come to a Tricky Word, I Can..." on the front page.
• The sight word pack that has "a" on the front page
• The whiteboard/marker/eraser

The Math Small groups (shape names) do have varying material needs. This week, your child will actually need two different papers from the math folder. 

• Please have this pack ready on Monday & Tuesday. 
• Please have this page ready for Wednesday & Thursday
• Please be prepared to upload both of the above pages on SeeSaw after they complete them with me
• Your child should always have the whiteboard/marker/eraser available at math time too.

Thank you for having your child ready in advance for the small group meeting. Every minute counts during those meetings!

Thank you again for the amazing work you are doing with your children. My latest round of assessments showed some great progress that I am excited to share with all of you!

Week of 9/21

Thank you for scheduling your goal setting meetings with me so quickly. I look forward to meeting with you, beginning October 1st, to discuss the results of various assessments with you and what your child's academic needs are. I began meeting with children this past week, and will continue to meet with them this week, for a second round of assessments. Again, thank you for scheduling those so promptly with me.

This week we had a few bumps in the road with some of our Zoom meetings. I will be going back to the drawing board, reminding students of Zoom protocols on Monday, but I could also use your support. Students should be on mute during whole-class meetings, unless I ask them not to be. Some students are having a hard time "unmuting" themselves when I do ask for a response. Please review mute/unmute with your child. Also, as much as possible, please be away from the meeting(s) so that your child is not relying on you for help. If I am asking for a response to  a question, I want to hear your child's quick response. Many children are first checking with parents if their answer is correct. It is ok and expected that students don't always have the right response, and these side conversations are taking away from our learning time. If it is possible for your child to be in his/her bedroom or in a separate area, that would be ideal because we are also often getting a lot of background noise of parents on work calls, etc. I completely understand & appreciate the difficulty of finding a quiet space in the house, especially when some supervision is often needed. Whatever you can do to make the Zoom calls a more independent activity is appreciated. Thank you for your support.

Daily Cafe

We will continue writing and reading with Gail Bouchey this week. If your child would like to take out  the writing paper that was in last Monday's materials, they may use that for writing as well. There were also a few pieces of writing paper in the first pick-up. The most recent paper has lines on both the front and back, so one piece per day should be sufficient. However, some children have been using notebooks and other paper, and that is fine too. I just wanted to make you aware that there is additional writing paper in their materials that they are welcome to use. 

Apps

We have now rolled out these apps: Epic, Lexia, Raz-Kids, Khan Kids, eSpark, and Handwriting without Tears. As you have seen, there are often specific assignments in these apps that are on their schedule or choice board (last week it was Lexia, Raz-Kids, Khan Kids, and eSpark).  However, once they finish their SeeSaw assignments and assigned work in these apps, if they want to continue their learning, it is now ok for them to use these apps for enrichment. Remember to monitor their usage, however-- 15 to 30 minutes is appropriate at this age. 

Not all kids have completed last week's assignment in Raz-Kids. This can be found in the "My Assignment" spaceship on the homepage. If there is no spaceship that says "My Assignment," then they have completed the assignment. For further information on how to log into Raz-Kids, please check the video on last Wednesday's SeeSaw board. The assignment in Raz is specific to your child's reading needs, so please be sure to have them complete those each week. 

Reading Warm-Ups and Sight Word Sentences

On Thursday & Friday last week (and from now on) your children had two assignments: to practice reading, then recording themselves reading the sight word sentences, and to practice going through the letter sound chart and recording that as well. Last week's sentences were quite difficult-- they will be much easier this week, but we always introduce & practice them in small groups first, before having them as an assignment. The reading warm-up activity is also something we do in small groups, so they have had quite a bit of exposure to this chart in the past 3 weeks, and we will continue to practice it in small groups. Daily recitation of these charts and sentences really enhance their learning of letter sounds, blends, and sight words. If your child is struggling with the chart, just have them do what they can & submit it, and we will continue practicing this in small groups. A paper copy of the reading warm-up and the sight word sentences is available in their materials, so you can do this activity screen-free if you prefer (except for the recording part). Please reinforce that they should be practicing the warm-up chart exactly how the voice instructions are in SeeSaw-- by saying the letter name, the sound, and the picture.

This Week in Class

We will:

• learn the letters Kk & Ll
• learn the sight word the
• return to number sense in math
• continue writing and reading with the Daily Cafe videos
• introduce a science series called "Mystery Doug" with an engaging video on a new topic each week

Upcoming Events

Thursday 10/1-Friday 10/9: Parent-Teacher Goal Setting Meetings 

Friday 10/16: No School: Staff Professional Development Day

Monday 10/19: No School

Week of 9/14

It was another fun lunch bunch last Friday-- thank you for having flexibility in your schedule so that your children can join these. I aim to try and do one every few weeks so that we can chat informally and enjoy each others' company.

We have a materials pick-up on Monday the 14th at 1:00 to 1:30. I look forward to seeing some of the Grasshoppers at that time! I will send out a video on the 14th that walks you through what is in this bag, and where to place it to help keep your paperwork organized. 

Lexia

On Monday, we will begin using an adaptive reading program called Lexia Core 5. Lexia is an excellent online program because it gives students material/content based on their reading level. It is therefore essential that students use Lexia completely independently. If they are asking you for help on this program, please do not offer it-- tell them to just do their best. If a child is overly assisted, Lexia will place them at a higher level than they can manage on their own, and it will not be something they can do independently, and they will not enjoy doing it. If students use Lexia independently, it is a valuable tool because concepts that need additional reinforcement will be presented until they master them.  On Monday, your child will have a video to view in SeeSaw about Lexia, and instructing your child on how to log in. Once logged in, your child will take a placement test that will last anywhere from 5 minutes to 20+ minutes. After they complete the placement test, Lexia will log them out for that day. That is all I want them to do on Monday. After that, you will notice that Lexia will be on their page 1 schedule on SeeSaw, similar to Epic. This week, when your children are not meeting with me in small groups, they should be doing 15 minutes of Lexia each day. Lexia is a program that children can get carried away with. Please try to limit their usage as close to 15 minutes a day as possible. I do receive a daily report of time logged, and if I see any concerning trends (either too little or too much usage),  I will contact you.

SeeSaw Schedule

Speaking of the page 1 schedule in SeeSaw (mentioned above), I have noticed that not all students are following along with the additional activity posted there, aside from SeeSaw. If you notice in the image below, during the first block of learning time (8:50-9:45), students who are not meeting with me are supposed to be doing 15 minutes of reading on Epic, followed by their SeeSaw activities. The image shows the Thursday schedule, so on M, W, F the other groups (Grasshoppers, Bumblebees, and Butterflies) are doing Epic. When I went into my Epic account recently, I noticed that several students have never logged into Epic. Epic is a fantastic program that offers volumes and volumes of engaging books. With the difficulty of getting into libraries right now, I highly recommend that your child uses this resource, and it is part of their learning day. Remember, as mentioned previously when I first emailed about Epic, that it is only available during school hours. Therefore, if they are following along with the schedule below, they should be able to access Epic and use their 15 minutes of time on it. This week, in place of Epic, Lexia will be on the schedule. Children should be doing 15 minutes of Lexia every day that they are not meeting with me in the 8:50 to 9:45 time block. Lexia will only be on the activities page (page 2) of SeeSaw on Monday, because everyone is taking the placement test on Monday. However, going forward, it will be on the schedule for them to use in place of a small group meeting with me. Please ensure that your children are doing their additional minutes of these reading programs when it is on their schedule.

Daily Cafe

If we were in the classroom, we would be using an engaging and differentiated reading approach called "Daily 5." In this model, students rotate around different literacy activities while I am meeting with reading groups. Children are independently doing these various reading activities in the classroom, which include: a writing center, a word work center (literacy games), reading to self, and listening to reading (programs such as Epic and Raz-Kids). We are trying to replicate this model virtually. So far, we have rolled out meeting with the teacher (small group ELA meetings) and listening to reading (Epic). This week, we are rolling out both "reading to self" and "writing independently." It seems surprising, but reading to self is actually a difficult skill, even for our students who are already readers. Sitting down quietly and reading a book to yourself without distraction is a skill that must be really built up. As teachers, a valuable website we use for developing our Daily 5 program is The Daily Cafe. They have developed a whole section on their website for parents to reference for distance learning. A great informational video about working on building stamina with the "read to self" skill is available here. Likewise, they are also a great resource for developing writing skills. Again, they have a parent section on the website on this topic, as well as another informational video. This week, we will be using the videos that the Daily Cafe has developed for students (she mentions these in her parent videos-- no need for you to show them to your children because we will be doing that). Every day in SeeSaw, there will be videos for children to watch that will roll out both building reading stamina skills, as well as writing skills. Some videos will be posted several times during the week to keep building on the same skill. I highly recommend that you check out this website and watch the parent videos, as they are a great resource about building literacy skills. 

This Week in Class

We will be working on:

• the letters Ii and Jj
• the sight word me
• rolling out two more skills in the Daily 5 (read to self and writing)
• continued reinforcement of 3D shapes & their attributes in math  

Upcoming Events

Monday 9/14: Materials pick-up, kindergarten parking lot, 1:00-1:30 

Thursday 10/1-Friday 10/9: Parent-Teacher Goal Setting Meetings 

Friday 10/16: No School: Staff Professional Development Day

Monday 10/19: No School

 

Week of 9/8

I hope you are all enjoying a nice long weekend. I think our first week of small group meetings went well, and I look forward to continuing to meet with students in small groups this week. A reminder again that it is helpful to set alarms on your child's iPad for their meeting times, since we have several meetings at different times each week. We are all working to give them the tools they need to manage their distance learning (mostly!) on their own.  

Finished Work Folders

I understand that the "finished work folders" are getting rather stuffed. There are only a few items I'd like you to continue keeping in there:

• The first day of school self-portrait
• The heart map
• The "This is Me in August" self-portrait
• The number writing assessment that we did last Wednesday & Thursday

The rest of the work, you may choose to "archive" in whatever your preferred method is for saving non-essential work. Please make sure the above items remain in the folder though.

Materials Pick-Up

We are going to schedule a second materials pick-up for Monday, September 14th, from 12:00-12:30. This pick-up will be in the kindergarten parking lot, which is close to the corner of Westchester & Blossom Valley. You enter this parking lot from the Westchester corner (about) and exit next to the school garden. If this time is not convenient for you, please contact me and we will arrange another time for the pick-up. As with the first pick-up, please have your child's name in the windshield (passenger side) and please wear a mask while we are handing the materials to you or placing them in your trunk.

 What We're Working on This Week

• We will introduce 3D shapes this week. The shapes we study are the cone, cylinder, sphere, and cube. By the end of the unit, children need to not only name the shape, but describe its attributes: sides, vertices, and faces.
• We will introduce letters Gg & Hh.
• We will learn the sight word "at."
• We will focus on "Growth Mindset," following along with the character trait Mrs. Bailey introduced this week in her "Cougar Corner" update. Kids will be viewing some great Growth Mindset videos from Class Dojo and I have some wonderful books to share with them around this topic.
• We will continue working on phonetic spelling by labeling pictures. This week, students will draw and label a picture of their bedroom. A reminder again to please encourage your children to sound out words on their own. Even if they just put only the beginning sound, I'd rather them attempt to spell on their own than have words spelled for them. My mantra over & over again is: we are emphasizing independent work skills. 
• We will introduce our classroom magazine "Let's Find Out" this week. This magazine explores a variety of social-emotional, social studies & science topics. This week's lesson is on feelings.

Lunch Bunch

Let's have another lunch gathering this Friday! Similar to the teddy bear picnic (but no teddy bears required this time) I'll be leaving the Zoom on during the lunch time (11:20-12:00) so that children can talk & visit with one another in an unstructured environment.