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
