Double End of December 2020

 Happy Holidays, and welcome to the end of our December. This weeks blog will review last week (to make up for our lack of a blog) and tell you what is coming up for our week before break.

Math:  Last week we spent a lot of time adding by making a ten when one addend is 9. This looks something like this. 

               and   

                              9+1=10

                     10+2=12, so 9+3=12

We are working hard at making sure the students learn how to draw to solve, which makes it so much easier. We ended the week doing the same for solving when one addend is 8, which we will continue this week, as well for 7. We will wrap up this unit on Thursday with an assessment and we will begin Module 2 Topic B when we return from break, which is subtraction word problems. If for any reason we extend any of the lessons, I will skip the end of unit assessment this time around so that we may still begin on a new topic when we return from break. 

ELA:  Last Week our spelling sound was long a (a_e). This week we will have long i words (i_e). 

Social Studies:  Last week was our second week of our holiday studies where we learned about Christmas. The kids felt more confident about their knowledge about this holiday, however they learned that what they mostly knew fell under what we call traditions, and not necessarily about the background we are exploring with these holidays (who celebrates, how, why, when). They did a great job thinking deep about what they wanted to learn beyond the traditions, such as "how did Christmas get it's name" and "how did Christmas set started as a holiday?" We also had fun ending the week "making gingerbread houses." Not real houses this year, we had some peel and stick craft houses. This has always been a Friday Christmas week tradition, and I was feeling so bummed that we couldn't have our traditional craft morning this year. I was happy to find a gingerbread house alternative, and happy that this kids had a fun activity to enjoy. I was impressed with their creativity. Next week we will learn all about Hanukkah. I absolutely love learning about this holiday!

Zearn:  Zearn is a new math app that aligns with our Eureka math curriculum perfectly. Please make sure that you have Zearn on your child's iPad. If it is not there already, go to the self service app and install it from there. I want to begin Zearn so that they have an alternative to Dreambox, which I know they may be getting a little tired of. I will be starting the students on module one lesson one next week just so they can get used to the program and how it works. Shortly after we return from break I will reassign them all to module 2 to help us practice some of these bigger concepts we are diving into lately. The login for Zearn will be Their first name followed by abc123 (ex: Andreaabc123) and the password is abc123. Isaac and Riley, I will contact you separately with your log in information. 

RTI:  Due to testing there will not be RTI for the following groups next week: Hanno, Kasch, Anderson, and Shaw. All other RTI groups will continue to meet as scheduled.

December to Remember:  Here is a picture of the last five days of our December to Remember:

Winter Break:  After our 12:25 release on Friday your students (and you!) will officially be on winter break for the next two weeks. School will be closed from December 20th -January 3rd. We will resume on in Flexible Remote Learning on Monday, January 4th. 

One more week, I'm so proud that at the end of the week we will have made it through 18 weeks in FRL together. Who would have ever thought this would be our year together? So crazy, and yet we have made it happen. Nice job. - Ms. Shaw

December 2020

 Happy December. This week is the beginning of our last 3 weeks of school for the year 2020. Here is what is in store:

Math:  We are finally moving into our second module in math. We will start off by learning how to add three addends, make a ten to add 3 addends, and make a ten when one addend is 9. 

ELA:  We will be working on our sh and wh spelling sounds this week. We will also start a new December writing journal, which will go home on Tuesday (see below for information on distribution). 

Social Studies:  We will begin our social studies unit on holidays this week. We will take a look at the three holiday often celebrated at this time - Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Hanukkah. We will explore the origins of each holiday, learning who celebrates each holiday, how they celebrate, when and the importance behind each holiday. We will kick off each this unit by studying Kwanzaa this week, which is always fun because usually the kids know so little about this holiday and by the end of the week they know so much. 

Material Distribution:  Tuesday I will have your material bags out in front of the school for you to swing by and pick up. These materials will include what your child will need for morning work, spelling, and math for the rest of December and January. It will also include December and January journals, and other December and January learning and activities. I wanted to just do a distribution for the next two months for several reasons. One, because December is so short and it would be silly to do a pick-up for just a few items. Two, I did not want anyone to have to pick-up over their break. I will put the bags out in front of the school about 7 am this Tuesday and I will swing by about 6 pm to put them away. You have between 7am and 6pm on Tuesday to drop by and pick up your child's bag. We are not allowed to have anyone go inside the school for pick up, that is why they will be outside. I will not be hand delivering bags this time around, as I will be home teaching your kiddos. Any bags not picked up after 6 pm will be left in the office and you will have to call to make arrangements for pick up from there. I am hoping this window is big enough that all bags are picked up however. Oh yeah, we would be doing this tomorrow but I am waiting on a delivery from Oriental Trading so I can add something fun to these bags for next Friday. Should be here tomorrow night. Please make sure that your child does not do anything in the bags ahead of time!

Organization: Many of the kiddos still need help with organizational skills. Please make sure to put their materials and supplies somewhere your child or other children cannot get into them before they are needed (but at the same time somewhere your child can access them when the time comes).  If your child goes outside the house for their learning day, please make sure they have all materials and supplies I give to them with them. It may be a good idea to leave everything in the plastic bag they are in and tell the kiddos not to take anything out of there until I tell them to do so. They should not be working ahead on anything and they know this. Supplies they need include the scissors I supplied them at the beginning of the year as well as glue sticks, and wipeoff boards with dry erase markers. We use these materials quite a bit if not randomly throughout the weeks. They need them to be successful.

Show and Tell:  There will be no show and tell for the next three weeks. Instead we will be discussing Random Acts of Kindness for the next 15 days. Every morning we will talk about that days Random Act of Kindness and at closing circle the students will share how they accomplished their act of kindness at home that day. 

I hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating break. Cannot wait to see the little faces tomorrow! -Ms. Shaw

Thanksgiving Week 2020

 Happy Thanksgiving Week. I hope everyone has plans for a safe and restful holiday. We only have two days of school this week put we will still pack it with learning. Here is what we have on the agenda:

Math:  No math this short week. On Monday the class will come back to me at 2:00  for more turkey learning. On Monday and  Tuesday they will do Dreambox and Lexia during independent math time.

ELA:  There will be no spelling for these two days. We will instead be learning about turkeys. What do we know, what do we want to learn. We will focus on three questions we want to learn about turkeys and read a short story to answer these questions. 

Social Studies:  We will wrap up our unit we began last week on Wants and Needs and Goods and Services.

Show and Tell:  There will be no show and tell these two days. Instead I will read a Thanksgiving book at the end of each day.

Fun Friday:  Last Friday was our first attempt at Fun Friday. Of course, there was technical difficulties. It wouldn't be FRL and 2020 without technical difficulties, right? Zoom decided I wasn't allowed to admit anyone without an FUSD email into my zoom room anymore. This is, of course, for safety reasons. However, I wish I had known before I tried having parents enter the classroom at 9:00. The kids were patient and ten minutes later we switched to plan B. This meant only half the parents were able to join us for whole group fun, but the kiddos had fun singing with Mr. Byers and drawing snowglobes with Ms. Valdivia. This class always just enjoys the good parts of any situation. Huge thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help with our first attempt at Fun Friday. Your willingness is still appreciated. I now know how to resolve this issue if/when we try it again. At the end of the day the students enjoyed themselves and that is all that matters.

Backgrounds:  Please remember that your child may NOT use any background than the three already installed on Zoom. They may not take screenshots and they may not use pictures of other students. This violates privacy rules, and they do not have permission from other families to use their child's image as their background. Also, students do not have permission to be using the camera or to be taking screenshots of anything. Please help me to clear up some storage space by going through and deleting all images that your child has taken on their iPads. Remember, these are not personal devices and the students should not be taking personal pictures on them. Thank you for your help in this matter. 

Fall Break:  School will be closed this Wednesday, November 25th - Friday, November 27th. We will return on Monday, November 30th. Please have a happy and healthy holiday.

Every year I write down what I am thankful about my class. This year has been so different, but I am still amazed at how we have been able to get to know each other over Zoom. I am thankful how online teaching has given me a chance to really focus on their little faces and I have really enjoyed watching their facial expressions when we do things. I am thankful that this group has found ways to connect with each other, they are so kind to one another and show each other love even through the screen. I am thankful when the students show up for their one on one times. These times have given us time to not only do some more learning but to talk a little about anything and everything and to just bond and get to know each other. I am so grateful to have those 10 minutes or so each week with the kiddos. I am also grateful that online learning has given me the opportunity to get to know my families better than ever before. I appreciate how much you all put into your children each and everyday, and I enjoy the moments we have random side little conversations and jokes. This would never happen in a classroom and I truly enjoy when it does happen. You all are amazing and I am thankful that you have trusted me with teaching your babies in the craziest year of their little lives. I am hopeful that we will be together inside a classroom one day. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving. 💛-Ms. Shaw

Veteran's Day Week 2020

Happy 13th week of FRL. So much to update you on, so let's get to it.

Math:  There will be no math on Monday so that we may begin our Social Studies unit, as well as introduce the students to My Lexia. More information on both of those below. The rest of the week we will work on subtracting a number from itself, subtracting with a result of 1, and relating subtracting 5 and doubles in subtraction problems. 

ELA:  Our NatGeo spelling sound for next week is final blends -nd,- -kn,  -nt, -mp, and -ft. As always with our short weeks, please still do all 4 days of spelling work.

Social Studies: We will be doing our Veteran's Day unit this week. We will make an awesome lap book and red "America's White Table" to help the children understand what Veteran's Day is and why we will have this day off. 

Snowdays:  Speaking of days off, it does not appear we will be getting any days off due to the snow this year. As long as we are remote, students have access to their iPads and learning will continue as usual. There could however be a delay called so please tune into the radio or Facebook to stay updated on that possibility happening-even as soon as tomorrow. If we are to have a late start I will send an email with an updated schedule for the day in the morning, then I will see you on Zoom at 10:40. 

Show and Tell:  This weeks show and tell theme is something with stripes. With the addition of a couple of new students I am once again updating the show and tell schedule. Below is your childs show and tell day:

• Monday - Aria, Christian, Cohen, Cypress, Dakota

• Tuesday - Damiana, Guner, Isaac, Jake, Jocelyn

• Wednesday - Juniper, Marcus, Nino, O'Ryan, Paloma

• Thursday - Rayland, Reese, Riley, Sofia

• Friday - Vaerick, Victoria, Violet, and Make - Ups

RTI, Reading Groups/1:1 Schedule:  We have had to reform RTI groups due to losing one of our instructors. This was an opportunity to look at more current data to help guide the reformation of groups, in both RTI and for my small reading groups. With that I have attached the new RTI groups and the new Reading Groups form. You will notice I also change some of the 1:1 sight word practice times to fit the schedule better and to fix some overlaps that were in the schedule. Please make sure your child is attending all 3 of these to help them with their reading development this year. If there is a snow delay RTI is cancelled everything will be cancelled to better accommodate a fuller learning day.

 

My Lexia Core 5:  Lexia is an approved reading intervention that is tailored to your child's needs, that we plan on incorporating the data and corresponding lessons into RTI. This is now a requirement that your student be on Lexia for 30 minutes a week. Please make sure your students have My Lexia Core 5 on their iPads. It may be there already, you may have to go get it from the self service app. After you have it on their iPad their log in will be the first initial of their first name and their last name (ex: ashaw) and their password will be abc1.  I will show them how to access this on Monday, and they will have time to be on the App after this. I have added it to the schedule when we do Dreambox so that they may choose between the two, or both :) as long as they are meeting the minimum of 30 minutes a week on Lexia. Your student may do it at any time during the time that works best for them, this time is just a suggestion as I feel it fits in the schedule well. As with anything, please just do Lexia whenever works best for you family. When is not pressing, just need that 30 minutes. Thank you.

I hope you all find some time tomorrow to get outside and play in the snow. If you have any questions about any of the information in this weeks blog please feel free to reach out. Stay warm and stay safe. -Ms. Shaw. 

Week 12 Updates

Happy November and week 12 of FRL. Thank you to all the families who picked up materials on Friday. It was so good to see so many faces, kids and adults. For sure the highlight of my week. Here is what we will be learning this week in school:

Math: We will be finishing subtraction word problems this week, with an assessment on Wednesday. Then we will begin working on decomposition strategies for subtraction. 

ELA:  We will wrap up our Lit Study on Mummies in the Morning this Week. We will also begin a new unit in NatGeo, focusing on Goods and Services and Needs and Wants. This weeks spelling sounds are blends and triple blends s words. Our spelling focus each week is definitely increasing in difficulty. Please make sure they are writing their words each day and doing some kind of word work at least twice a week to practice them. This can be writing them on a wipe off board, spelling them in their notebooks, writing them in shaving cream on the counter or in a salt tray, with their playdough, etc....as long as they are getting some extra practice a few times a week. 

Science:  We will finish Mummifying our Apple this week, taking a look at what our apple in our natron mix looks like and recording our data towards the end of the week. 

Show and Tell: This weeks theme is bring or wear your favorite shirt. 

Fundraiser:  Thank you to all the families that helped us sell discount cards and raise funds for Marshall school. We sold 723 discount cards. You all rocked it! Our very own Cohen even took home the electric scooter, selling the most cards out of the whole school. He picked up his scooter this Friday, and figured out how to zoom around in not time. Nice job Cohen!

Mark Your Calendar:  The following will be days off in November:

• Wednesday, November 11th - School Closed - Veterans Day
• Wednesday, November 25th - Friday, November 27th - School Closed - Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a restful weekend. I will be off this Monday so I will see everyone on Tuesday. - Ms. Shaw

Start of 2nd Quarter 2020

 Welcome to the second quarter of 2020 Flexible Remote Learning. I cannot believe how quickly the first quarter really did fly. Believe it or not we only have 40 school days in quarter two. That sounds like no time at all. We will be trying to squeeze so much in, so there will be some schedule changes every now and then (like the next two weeks). I will notify you when those happen, and they will also be in the calendar. Here is what is coming up next week...

Math:  We will be relating addition to subtraction and solving problems using the number line. This will conclude with an assessment on Friday.

ELA:  We will begin one of my favorite units of all time, learning about Ancient Egypt through our Lit Study "Mummies in the Morning." Everyday for the next 10 days we will review vocabulary,  read a chapter and answer some comprehension questions with writing. We will learn about mummies, pyramids, sarcophagi, and more. We will also continue with our spelling sounds from NatGeo (L blends are this week: fl, bl, pl, gl, and cl words) and read stories from NatGeo. Although there is just 4 days this week, please have your kiddo double up on writing spelling one of the days, the extra practice will only help.

Science:  We are going to be wrapping up our unit on plants this week. We will collect some data on what our lawns look like with pictures and labels on Wednesday and Friday we will collect data before and after we "mow" our lawns. All seeds should be planted by this point. Also, please make sure your child is checking their plants and watering as needed. If your child is at a safe learning center or somewhere else during the day, please make sure they have their plants with them on Wednesday and Friday.

Materials:  Please make sure your child has all their school materials with them daily, especially if they are not at home. This is because there is not telling when I might need them to pull out something we have not needed previously, or that we have not used in a while. The loosing or misplacing of supplies is not new to distance learning, it happened daily in the classroom. The only difference is that I am not in a position to help them find anything now. I have talked to a few of them one on one about finding a place at home for storing their supplies. A bin or a bag/backpack for keeping everything in one spot is a good idea. Let me know if you need a backpack and I will see what I can do about getting one for your child. Also, before the next round of materials goes out I will check and see what basic supplies your child may need at this point and I will try and get those to you (wipe off board, wipe off marker, pencil - bigger things like crayons will not be able to be replaced).

Schedule Next Two Weeks:  This upcoming week and next I will be having the kiddos come to me after lunch for our live math, from 12:15-12:45. They will be able to do independent math practice after this. It will be a requirement for all students attend class during this after lunch time. This is because we will be doing our lit study in the morning during our regularly scheduled math time. Trying to fit it all in :).  I will also be updating the 1:1 sight word testing time and the group reading times this week, both of which will not resume until next week. I will send those updated lists ASAP. 

Report Card Access: First, thank you to everyone who took the time to attend your child's conference last week. Working together has never been as important for a child's educational success as it is right now. If you missed the conferences you can still access your child's report card through Parent Vue. You may view the tutorial on how to do so at this link here Accessing standard report. If you have any follow up questions after viewing please feel free to send me an email.

Thank you to everyone who is participating in our fundraiser this year. Students are selling discount cards to all kinds of amazing restaurants for $10 to friends and family. You can use this ordering form when selling cards. You can also use this flyer, which had a link to the form as well. Just send the flyer out to anyone who you think might be interested in buying a card. This Thursday, October 22nd will be the last day to drop off cash and checks collected from cards sold, and to pick up the cards you need to distribute. This will happen from 3:30-5:30. You may also swing by the front office Monday or Wednesday from 3-4. Sales must be received by 10:30am on Friday, October 23rd for students to qualify for the raffle drawing. Students who sell 5 or more cards will be entered into the raffle for prizes. The student who sells the most cards will win an electric scooter, and I just found out that the class that sells the most cards will win a pizza party. You can check out all the info and prizes by clicking on the link here →  fundraiser.

Show and Tell: We will be doing show and tell this week. Everyone's turn will just be pushed back a day. The theme is something Orange (uh-oh...sorry Riley 😂). Here is the schedule:

• Tuesday - Aria, Cohen, Cypress, Dakota, Damiana
• Wednesday - Elizabeth, Guner, Isaac, Jake, Jocelyn
• Thursday - Juniper, Marcus, Nino, Paloma, Rayland
• Friday - Reese, Riley, Sofia, Vaerick, Victoria, Violet

I hope everyone had an amazingly restful 5 days off. Here's to the next 40 strong! -Ms. Shaw

Conferences 2020

Welcome to our 9th week of school. This officially marks the end of the first quarter. This is also the end of a very historic quarter, our first ever in Flexible Remote Learning. It feels like we just got started and this quarter has just flown by, but we did it! I cannot wait to share with you during conferences how your children made growth, even in this unconventional setting. More on that below. First, I will share what we are learning over the next 3 days.

ELA:  There will be no ELA this week. This means no spelling and no reading groups or 1:1's. There is also no RTI this week. When we return from break we will begin learning about Ancient Egypt through our Magic Treehouse Book "Mummies in the Morning." Please feel free to purchase a copy of this book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble if you would like for your child to follow along at home as we read a chapter a day during class.

Math:  This week we will concentrate on using Doubles (ex: 3 + 3 = 6) and Doubles Plus 1 (ex: 3 + 4 = 7) to solve addition problems. Doubles is a relatively fun and easy lesson. Doubles plus one in extremely hard, and I do not expect mastery. Our curriculum gives one day to teach this, I am breaking it into 2 and depending on how doubles plus one goes I may extend it to all 3 days. There will be no practice set on Monday.

Science:  The kids loved planting their ryegrass and alfalfa seeds on Friday. That's right, we are growing our own little grassy lawns. Please remember to have your child check their lawns and see if they need water daily. The soil only needs to be moist, not soaked. If it is not watered properly their lawns will not grow. I am hoping they will have very tall lawns by Wednesday so that we can record our observations before and after we mow our lawns (that's right, our grass will be getting a "haircut" when it gets long enough). If this does not happen before break please make sure your child continues to water properly over the 5 day break so that this may happen when we return.

Parent/Teacher Conferences and Early Release:  Do not forget that all week we are on a special schedule for both learning and release. Monday and Tuesday we will release at 12:25 and Wednesday is extra early at 11:10. If you have not signed up for a conference yet please do so at this link Conference Sign Up. Please use your child's classroom link to access your online conference with me as this is the link we are using for online conferences. Zoom Conference Link. I think it is imperative that I touch base with every family during this round of conferences, and highly encourage you to sign up so that we can discuss your child's progress during remote learning. If you do not sign up, I might be reaching out to you for a conversation anyway. 

Schedule:  Please be aware of the schedule changes in our Google Classroom for this week. Lessons will be happening at different times, as well as lunch (M/T @ 10:30 Wednesday no lunch, just a half hour break from 9:30-10:00), and end of day meeting times. There will also be no Show and Tell next week, instead I will be doing Heggerty live for the closing meetings. 

Quarter 2 School Board Decision: As promised, the update on the Boards decision. I will try not to make it complicated. When we return from break we will begin in FRL. We will stay in FRL until we hit the benchmark requirements to begin a phased reopening. The Requirements are as follows:

FUSD must be within the Moderate (Yellow) community spread level, with all three benchmarks in the yellow and green categories for two consecutive weeks of data to initiate the phased return to in-person learning at schools.  

The highest risk color (i.e. Red is highest, then Yellow, then Green) shown in any benchmark on the chart below over the two-week period determines the overall risk level.  For example, if the health benchmarks show 2 Greens and 1 Yellow, the risk level will be Moderate because Yellow is the higher risk value.  If any one of the benchmarks is the Substantial (Red) community spread level, FUSD will continue with full remote learning as it has for the 1st quarter of the 2020-2021 school year.

Health Indicators for Initiating Return to In-Person Learning

The phased reopening plan looks like this:

Week 1:  Teachers and Staff return to district sites and schools

Week 2:  Initial students return to in-person learning (5 dayIs per week)                        Grade Bands:  PK, K, 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, *Special Education Specialized Programs

Week 3:  Additional students return to in-person learning (5 days per week) 
Grade Bands:  3, 8, 10, 11

Week 4:  Final students return to in-person learning (5 days per week) 
Grade Bands:  4, 5, 7

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the front office or the district.

I truly am impressed with what has transpired over this quarter and look forward to sharing your child's progress with your over these next three days. I will see you all at some point this week! -Ms. Shaw

October 2020

 Welcome to October. I love teaching this time of year. This is where we dive into our plant unit, learn about Ancient Egypt, mummify an apple, and so much more! As always, I will let you know what we are doing and when right here in the blog. Here is what we have coming up this week....

Math:  We will continue on where we left off last week, learning how to make equivalent expressions, learning the commutative property of addition, and using the commutative property to count on from the larger addend. Once we get past Monday's lesson of turning a false number sentence into a true number sentence, the rest of the week should go rather smoothly in math. 

ELA:   Our ELA runs in 4 week units, alternating between social studies and science. We began our year with our social studies unit on families. We are now entering week 2 of our Plant unit. This means (now that we have distributed materials) we can begin incorporating our reading with our science, and do some planting by the end of the week! The spelling sound of the week is ck and ng.

Science:  As mentioned above we will begin planting our seeds at the end of this week. This, along with learning about how seeds travel last week, will kick off our plant unit. Before we plant we will talk about what is a scientist and begin recording about being a scientist in our science notebooks. Warning - we will be using our scissors and glue sticks this week, please make sure your child has these materials that were sent home at the beginning of the year.

Material Distribution: If you were unable to make it on Friday to pick up your child's materials please make sure you do so as soon as possible this week, Monday would be ideal. Your child's bag of October supplies are in the office. Please make sure you pick up the bag with your child's name on the science notebook. Also, there is dirt and seeds in the science bags. You may want to make sure that these are placed somewhere safe until the day we plant (I'm aiming for Thursday but depending on what happens this week it may happen Friday). On a personal note, thank you to all of those who had just the kindest things to say on Friday. Your words of encouragement and acknowledgement were uplifting and did my teacher heart good. I even received a couple of little handmade gifts which was totally unexpected and so thoughtful. I also just loved seeing the kids. Each time I feel like we know each other better and it is so cool to see their cute little faces in person and spend a minute talking to each other. I just wish I could hug them all!

Pink Out:  On Friday all Marshall students and staff will be wearing pink to support and raise awareness of breast cancer. In honor of a very amazing and sweet friend of mine who passed on Thursday from breast cancer I would love my class all to be wearing pink on Friday. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences:  Conferences will be held Monday, October 12th - Wednesday, October 14th. These will be early release days (12:25 on Monday and Tuesday, 11:10 on Wednesday). I will send out an online sign-up about midweek so keep an eye out. Also, conferences will be 20 minutes, and they will be held online as well. I will not be holding any in person conferences at all. You will be able to access your meeting time via our regular classroom Zoom link. I will resend that out to you as the time draws closer. Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday will all be days off for a fall holiday. Yep, 5 days off. Enjoy. 

School Board Meeting:  This Tuesday night is another board meeting, where we are hoping for some more finalized direction for quarter to learning. As always, I will email you with any information or direction that comes out of Friday's meeting. 

I hope everyone had a restful and peaceful weekend. Ready for a fun and exciting week 8! -Ms. Shaw

Last Week of September 2020 Updates

 Welcome to our last week of September, and for those of you counting, our 7th week of Flexible Remote Learning. Yes, our students are headed into their 7th week of learning online. Still mind blowing to me. We have learned, all of us. We have grown and students have made growth. We have done hard things together. I am so appreciative of all you are doing to make this happen on your side of the screen. I see your hard work, I know it is hard and the many reasons why it is so. Still you are doing it! All for our first graders. I wanted to recognize you and what you have put in for 7 weeks. Thank you! We are not done, take a deep breath and let's keep going. Here is what we have on the table for this week:

Math: We have been cruising along nicely in math during FRL. We will finish up with Topic D, Strategies for Counting on this week, followed by an assessment. After that we will begin Topic E, understanding the equal sign and the commutative property of addition. We will be creating true number sentences with equal expressions (3+2=4+1) and recognizing and correcting untrue number sentences (3+2 does not equal 4+2 so students will learn how to change just one addend to make it a true sentence). These lessons can often take more than one day in the classroom, so I will not be posting a full weeks of math in our calendar. I will post one day at a time, please do not work ahead. If I need an extra day for teaching I will make sure to send an email letting you know there will be no math practice for that day, we will save it after we do more teaching and learning of the concept the following day. Thank you for your understanding and working with me to ensure your child's understanding of these math concepts.

ELA:  We are headed into our second unit of our NatGeo reading curriculum. The theme for unit 2 is Plants. Be on the look out for how I plan on incorporating this into some science and how this will work with another material distribution soon. In the meantime, our spelling sound of the week will be short u sounds. Parents, do not forget when your children go to Independent ELA Reading time this is when they can be doing the following (side note we are working on RazzKids should be coming soon):

Work Due: Please make sure to use the Google Calendar to also look for work due. I have assigned a social studies assignment on types of homes families live in that is due, and I will repost a grammar assignment on Common and Proper nouns that was in the Calendar. Remember, we may be in FRL but things that are assigned are still being graded and put into report cards. We will review report cards at parent teacher conferences which will be held Monday Oct. 12 - Wednesday Oct. 14. I will have more details in next weeks blog.

Food Service:  I posted about FUSD's awesome food service program in last weeks blog, which you can access here Food Service Info Blog.  I want to add to this info that you can now also pick up meals on Friday for Saturday and Sunday at Cromer, Killip, Kinsey, Leupp and Thomas elementary schools from 7:30 am to 9:00 am and 10:30am to 1:00 pm. Again, if your family is in need of meals for your children ages up to 18, I encourage you to click on the link for more information and take advantage of this amazing program.

Pledge of Allegiance:  If your child would like to lead the school in the pledge you can videotape them saying the pledge and send it to Principal Reasor at jreasor@fusd1.org. She will make their video a part of the morning announcements for the school to see. 

Show and Tell:  I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying show and tell. This has been amazing for the students to get to know each other and for their speaking skills. My favorite part is how kind they are to each other during this time. They other day one friend shared a cool homemade show and tell and on their own they started giving it thumbs up, heart, and confetti emoji's. It was such a genuine show of love and support and our friend who was showing had the biggest smile on his face. Next week's theme is something blue.

Hope everyone has had a restful weekend. 💛-Ms. Shaw

FRL Week 6 September 21-25

 Welcome to week 6 of FRL. I cannot believe how fast online learning is flying by. Just so you know, the district will be making a decision on back to school for quarter 2 this Tuesday night. You may watch via Venmeo on the district home or live on Facebook. I will email you on Wednesday with their decision so you will be up to date immediately. If we are back in FRL, things will continue as they are. If we are in any kind of hybrid model I will send information with what this means. For now let's talk what we are learning next week:

Math:   We will finish Topic C - adddition word problems on Monday. This will be followed by our Topic C assessment on Tuesday. Then we will begin our unit for strategies for counting on. Please remember, in our math curriculum we teach many strategies for problem solving. The reason for this is not just so that your child may learn many methods, but also so that they may learn how to pick the strategies that work for them, and even discover the ones that do not. If one way seems to frustrate them, encourage them to use a strategy for solving that does. 

ELA:  We are finishing the first of our 4 week units in ELA, this one being families. We will be working on words with the short e sound and in grammar we will continue learning common and proper nouns. This was a difficult concept last week, so I want to continue it for another lesson. I want to point out that it is also more of an introductory concept for first grade, so although I will teach it another day I do not expect mastery of this concept in first grade. They will be exposed to common and proper nouns in subsequent years.

Suzuki Violin:  Suzuki starts on Monday. For those of you who choose to participate and picked up a violin (or have one at home already) please make sure to join this special on Monday's from 1:10-1:40. Link will be in the Google Classroom.

RTI:  RTI will also begin on Wednesday of this week. RTI will be every week, Monday-Thursday from 10:50-11:20 from this point on. Your child will click on their teachers link to attend their RTI class. If your child is in SEI, they will continue with Ms. Waltner. I will put the links in the stream of the Google Classroom, not the calendar. This is because there are 8 groups and they will not fit in the classroom. I will list the groups below. If your child is not on the list it is because they will not need to attend RTI while we are in FRL at this time. Please keep in mind, students from the other 2 first classes will also be in these groups. 

Ms. Waltner - Jake, Jocelyn, Damiana

Ms. Voorhees - Violet, Vaerick

Mrs. Hanno - Rayland, Guner

Mrs. Anderson - Elizabeth, Nino

Mrs. Stamer - Marcus

Mrs. Schepper - Cohen, Dakota, Riley

Mr. Kasch - Victoria, Aria, Isaac, Juniper

Mrs. Burgoon - Sofia

FUSD Food Services:  It's back! FUSD's Grab and Go Food Service Program has returned. Here's what I love, the program is available to all children under the age of 18 in the community, and children do not have to be enrolled in an FUSD school to use the free meal service. Meals can be picked up by parents for their child. Each meal will include breakfast and lunch for the day. Meals will be provided from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Cromer Elementary, Killip Elementary, Kinsey Elementary, Leupp Elementary, and Thomas Elementary. Additionally, meals will also be available via bus distribution at the following times and locations:

• 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - Mountainaire Store

• 8:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. - 6885 Lumberjack Blvd.

• 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - 1001 N. Fourth St.

• 8:40 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. - Grey Mountain at East Side of 89

• 8:51 a.m. to 9:01 a.m. - E. Rustler Rd. and Leupp Rd.

• 9:05 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. - 2701 E. Industrial Dr.

• 9:10 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. - Kachina Trail at Raymond Park

• 9:14 a.m. to 9:24 a.m. - S. Horn Rd. at Leupp Rd.

• 9:25 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. - STAR School

• 9:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. - Bird Springs Housing MP 27.5

• 9:55 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. - 37 W. Pinewood Blvd.

• 10:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. - Tolani Lake at Three Way Stop

I think this is such an amazing service provided by the district and highly encourage anyone who needs it to please take advantage of this meal service.

A very full week ahead. If you have any questions feel free to reach out. Look for updates midweek. -Ms. Shaw

Labor Day Week

 Happy Labor Day. I hope everyone had a relaxing 3 day weekend. Can you believe we are headed into week four of FRL? I would like for us to gather on Wednesday night to discuss where we stand at this point, more of that below. First, as always, let me share what we will be doing in class.

Math:  We will finish Topic B on Tuesday and Wednesday. This covers counting on from embedded numbers up to totals of 8-10. On Thursday I will review the math test with them, and then they may take the test after that on Nearpod. They may not take the test before that, or they will not have been taught the lessons covered on the test. Next week we will get into Topic C, addition word problems.

ELA:  We are moving into week 2 of our ELA unit of families. This also means our second week of spelling, which is short i words. Please remember that when your child goes to independent ELA the first thing they should be doing is their spelling words, and then they can be doing one of the Daily 5 options they have learned with me, along with watching the link to the video I have provided for them in the independent work section. This will always be a short, fun video that goes with the spelling sounds we are working on. 

Suzuki:  We are hoping to add Suzuki violin to our FRL schedule. This would be on Monday's from 1:10-1:40. We need to know who is interested in having a violin at home for their child to participate in this special. Please take the time to fill out this attached survey either way to help us plan accordingly.  Suzuki Survey  Thank you.

Parent Information Check In Night:  Ok, I tried coming up with a cute name for this, but it is 6:30 on Monday evening. If you have a cute name, let me know. The important part is I would like to host a parent check in night this Wednesday from 6:00-6:30 just to go over some important information that might make life on your end a little easier and answer any questions you might still have on your end. We will make it easy and just use the same link we use for class. I really hope to see everyone there.

Show and Tell:  I have decided to bring back show and tell, something we have not had time for in first grade for the last several years. Every week I will let the students know the theme for the upcoming week, and put it here in the blog. This weeks theme is - something with wheels. On your child's assigned day they may share something they have that has wheels. They are to tell us as much information they can about their item, where they got it, why they like it, etc.. Then they will be able to call on three friends who can ask a question or make a statement about your child's show and tell. The assigned days are in our Google Classroom calendar, but I will post here as well. If we ever have a closure on Monday (or any other day of the week) those kiddos will go on Friday. Friday will also be reserved for make ups. This week was no school Monday, so Monday kiddos will be going this Friday. I told them the good news is that they will get to go two times in a row. Here is our show and tell schedule.

Monday's - Aria, Cohen, Cypress, Dakota (This group will go on Friday this week).

Tuesday's - Elizabeth, Guner, Isaac, Jake, Jocelyn 

Wednesday's - Juniper, Marcus, Nino, Paloma, Rayland

Thursday's - Reese, Riley, Sofia, Vaerick, Victoria, Violet

Reading Groups: I will begin meeting with your kiddos in reading groups next week, starting Monday September 21st. This week we will finish district wide testing that is used to help form these groups. I will be doing a combination of group meetings and one on one sight word meetings to build their sight word skills. Being that I am trying to accomplish both types of meeting, I will be doing some of the groups during independent work times. This means your child will have to complete their independent work at other times of the day. Please make sure that days independent work is completed. Here is the schedule as it is at this time:

Monday's -

Group 1 @ 9:30: Jake, Vaerick, Violet

Monday's 1:1's -
12:20-12:40 Cypress
12:40-12:50 Reese
12:50-1:00 Damiana
1:00-1:10 Paloma
1:40-1:50 Cohen
1:50-2:00 Juniper

Tuesday's - 

Group 2 @ 9:30: Jocelyn, Guner, Elizabeth, Rayland

Group 3 @ 12:20: Dakota, Nino, Isaac, Riley, Marcus

Wednesday's - 

Group 4 @ 9:30: Aria, Cohen, Victoria, Sofia

Group 5 @ 12:20: Juniper, Cypress, Damiana

Wednesday's  1:1's -

2:00-2:10 Jake

2:10-2:20 Violet

2:20-2:40 Nino

2:40-2:50 Vaerick

Thursday's -

Group 6 @ 9:30: Reese and Paloma

Thursday's 1:1's -
12:20-12:40 Rayland
12:40-12:50 Guner
12:50-1:00 Elizabeth
1:00-1:10 Jocelyn

2:00-2:10 Dakota

2:10-2:20 Isaac

2:20-2:40 Riley

2:40-2:50 Marcus

Friday's 1:1's -

11:20-11:30 Aria

11:30-11:40 Sofia

11:40-11:50 Paloma

11:50-12:00 Victoria

I believe I have everyone covered. Unless there is a major scheduling issue, let's see how this goes before we try and switch any times around. Of course, if there is a huge and immediate conflict please let me know.

Once again, I think that is enough information for tonight. I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday at 6:00. Week 4, let's go! -Ms. Shaw

3rd Week FRL Updates

 Hello families. Welcome to our third week of Flexible Remote Learning. I will be honest, in 27 years of teaching I have never worked so much or so hard in my life. Thank you for your patience as I learn how to teach your children online. This is literally something I have never done before and I do recognize there has been some bumps. The good news is this, last week we settled more into our schedule and I think that will help all of us start to develop more of a routine of coming in and out of the links, which will make the technology issues more bearable and maybe (with any luck) less frequent, or at least less noticeable. Again, so much information to share with all of you, let's start with what we will be learning.

Math:  The students will be discovering all the ways there are to make 6, 7, 8, and 9 (ex: 6 is 4+2, 3+3, 6+0, etc...) and learning that the inverse answer is the same as the original answer (if 4+2 are parts of 6 so are 2+4).  Students will continue to write number bonds for these problems.

ELA:  Next week we will begin learning from our NatGeo reading curriculum. This means we will begin spelling, which I will introduce during our live portion of our ELA on Monday's. We will also be reading stories from our ELA that go with the the spelling sound, and I will have linked so that your students may go into Google Classroom and practice reading these stories at home as well. I will also be putting your children into reading groups, and once a week their group will meet with me during the independent ELA time. This means their independent ELA work that day will need to be done at another free time in their schedule. I will discuss what your child should be doing during independent ELA time below. I will also be creating a schedule to do 10 minute 1:1 check in's during the portion of the day that says 1:1 Check In's/Office Hours. This is usually from 1:00-2:00, and will not include specials times. This 1:1 time will be so we can work on sight words, which I will also talk about below.

Daily 5 Reading Bags: Thank you to all the families who either picked up bags on Friday or contacted me and made other arrangements. If you have not picked up your child's Daily 5 reading bag please contact me via email ASAP so we can get that to you, we will be using these this Monday! Do not take the books or word card words out of this bag, these stay in. The Play-doh can be removed and be put with their other school supplies, I will explain to them how to use it on Monday. The playdough is a tool, not a toy so please have them keep it with their school supplies. Because I have so many kids at the same reading level I was unable to put as many books in their bags as I was hoping (meaning I ran out of books). Therefore, you may not be able to cycle them out for the quarter as communicated earlier. However, I do believe they are providing a good start and it will be a good idea to add a few books of your own to the ones that are in there now, and cycle these ones out over the next quarter. If you need books the library is closed but they are doing curbside pick up. It is my understanding that they will even give you picks that are appropriate for your child's reading level when you call and speak to them. here is some info if you would like to go that route flagstaffpubliclibrarycurbsidepickup.

Sight Word Cards:  Inside your child's Daily 5 bags are sight words rings (the words on the index cards). The words each child has in their bags are the next 5 words they need to be working on. In order to continue working on their sight words I will need you to purchase a pack of index cards so that we may continue to add to their words. Thank you for your help in this.

Independent ELA:  When we go to independent ELA time you will notice that our schedule says Daily 5 read to self, work on writing, word work,  and listen to reading, and writing weekly spelling words. This is what I taught them last week, and they know how to do all of these things, however I will explain each one here so you better understand what they should be doing during these 30 minutes and can help guide/assist them.

The very first thing they should do every day is write their weekly spelling lists. These were included in their writing folders at the beginning of the year. There is a spot for them to write all 10 words once daily. This week we are on W1U1 (Week 1 Unit 1) short a words. Please do not allow your student to work ahead to the other weeks. After that they may choose to do any of the following (THEY ONLY HAVE TO DO ONE EACH DAY)-

• Read to Self - Students will read the books and sight words on rings that are in their Daily 5 book bags you picked up this weekend.
• Work on Writing - Students can write in their September journals. They may need some help reading what to do on some of the pages. The back pages are for free writing. I would like 2-3 sentences (complete with capital letter and punctuation) and then after they write they can draw a picture that matches. If they need extra free writing space they may write in their composition books.
• Word Work - Students may practice their spelling words on their wipe off boards, they may write them in their composition books. They may also rainbow write in their composition books (write in different colored crayons) and spell them with their playdough.
• Listen to Reading - Students may listen to stories on their iPads through theri EPIC's app. As soon as you have RazzKids on your iPad this will be another option for listening to reading (If anyone checks their self service app and it is their, please let me know).

Sometimes I will have video lined for them to watch. These go with our spelling sound of the week. These are optional and can be done at any time, make it work for your family.

There is more information I want to share with you, but honestly I think that is enough for tonight. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions in regards to any of the above information. I know it's a lot. If there was ever a time when working together to ensure the success of your child's learning, it is certainly now when that learning is taking place remotely. I appreciate you doing your part to help them and recognize the work and time you have already put into this as well. You are all appreciated! I will leave your with this from Dr. Brad Johnson. Hope you had a great weekend. -Ms. Shaw

2nd Week Updates Aug. 24-28

 Congratulations, we did it! We survived our first week of FRL (Flexible Remote Learning). We all learned how to log on to Zoom, navigate our new life of links and a schedule that was had us in and out of those links. We learned how to get into our Google Classroom, and how to find apps on the iPads. It was not flawless, but everyday it was better. In the end, students were back to learning. That is a win! This week will be even better as our schedule becomes more consistent. I will address that below, but first let me start by telling you what we will be learning next week:

Math: We will start our live and independent math lessons this week (check the classroom calendar and/or the attached schedule for these times). These lessons will be taught from our math curriculum, Engage NY. We will be looking at embedded numbers, which means seeing parts inside of whole numbers (ex: inside of 5 we have the parts of 4 and 1, or 3 and 2, etc...).  We will also focus on making number bonds from the whole number and it's embedded parts.  Understanding number bonds now is very important because they will be part of nearly everything we do in math the rest of the year. On Thursday we will have our first math assessment, which we will do on the iPads. The first time around this will work a little different because I will show the students how to access the test on NearPod and I will review the test with them. Then they have to log out of our Zoom to access NearPod and they will do the assessment during their independent math time with you at home. Please make sure on Thursday that you read the question out loud to them then allow them to write their answers. This is an assessment, so if they miss something do not change their answer. I need to check for their level of understanding, and if you change their answer or help them so that they correct their answer I will think they understand more than they do. However, if they ask clarifying questions before they answer, that is ok. If you have any questions about this, please let me know. 

ELA:  ELA stands for English Language Arts. This is where we will be doing all things reading, writing, spelling, and grammar related. I will be following our live and independent schedule for this starting this week as well (again, check the classroom calendar and/or the attached schedule for these times). However, I will not be starting our ELA curriculum until next week. This week I will be laying down some foundations and teaching the students how to do some parts of our Daily 5 routines at home. Daily 5/CAFE is a literacy framework that I use in conjunction with our district approved ELA curriculum to teach our children how to read. Daily 5 is a series of 5 choices your child will make everyday during part of our ELA time.  CAFE is the methods I will teach them to implement while they are reading during Daily 5.  This week during Daily 5 the students will learn how to read to self, which is broken into 3 parts - read the words, read the pictures, and retell the story.  We will also learn how to word work at home, which is essentially different ways for them to work on their spelling words (or any words they wish to work on spelling) and work on writing, where they learn how to start writing (coming up with ideas, writing in journals, etc...). We will end the week with them learning Listen to Reading, and what that will look like from home. It sounds like a lot, but the following weeks your students will get to choose which of these they will work on during their independent time and they really are engaged in their learning process so much more when they have those choices. 

In order for us to continue with Daily 5 I will have to get out a book bag to you. This will happen on Friday. I do not know if this will be another pick up, or if I will be making deliveries. I will let you know as soon as I arrange this with Principal Reasor. 

Daily Schedule: I have made a few changes to the schedule. One of them is a quick break after morning meeting (before ELA live). This is because I realized without the break they will be in front of the screen from 8:40-9:30, which is too long for them. I would rather they take a quick break and be back for a complete lesson. During this time I will NOT have them sign off completely, instead I will just move them into the wait room and then readmit them when the break is over. This will eliminate the need for you to re-log them into our Zoom as well. Here is the link to our new schedule. Schedule Link. The schedule is also reflected in the calendar in our Google Classroom and I will link it in the email as well. 

Apps to Add: Please make sure you have the following apps installed on your child's iPad. NearPod, Epic, and Dreambox. If you do not see these on your child's iPad already you will find them in the Self Service app, where you will just click install. Please do not install any apps that you are not instructed to, as this will clutter the iPad quickly and may make it hard for your child to find the apps they need for school. We have not used Dreambox yet, but will be taking a look at it together on Monday. It should already be on the iPad. Here are the log in instructions for Dreambox - Dreambox Login. For Epic the Log in instructions are Epic Log-in.

Backgrounds: The district has asked that we allow backgrounds and I am fine with this. However, per the district and Principal Reasor your child may only use the backgrounds that are provided by Zoom. If your child is using a picture of any kind from somewhere else, they must delete and change to a Zoom provided background. I have not instructed the students to take any pictures for anything, so I am asking that you delete any pictures they might have taken make sure they understand that they may only take pictures when instructed by me, which will serve an educational purpose for a project. Also, I did set some guidelines with the class last week on when they may change their backgrounds. They can change their background before class or during a break. They may NOT change their background during any live time with me, as this becomes a distraction for both them and their classmates. I must say, the students did well with this, and did not play with their backgrounds after this. Still, a reminder from home will help solidify this. Thank you.

Limiting Distractions:  I need your help in limiting the amount of distractions the students have in their new learning environments. At school they are not allowed to have toys or other electronics with them. I know this is hard to implement at home when they are surrounded by all their things. However, I really need them to not have anything in their hands, or within their reach when they are with me live. This includes toys and extra school supplies. I will always tell them what they need and when they need it. It will also help if they have a learning space that is free of their things. If there is room at a table as opposed to their bed if possible will help them sit up and have a surface to write on. Also, they do not need to make signs to hold up to the class. I need them focused on their own learning, not on what others are doing. I will be in charge of those who unmute when they are not supposed to, or that are off task. These types of things also distract your student and others from the learning. Please make sure your students use the bathroom before school starts and during the breaks, and before we join back on. This way they will not have to leave for a potty break in the middle of a lesson. If they do ask if they can step out I will ask them what they need to go do. I will let them go use the bathroom or get a drink if necessary, just like in class. However, I am finding that as of now they are finding it really easy to go do something they would normally go do at home because they are home, and I will tell them no to these types of things so that they can establish the routine of being at school and treating it as such. Thank you for your support on this. 

Emailing Me: Please make sure if you have a question you email me directly at ashaw@fusd1.org as opposed to putting a message in our Google Classroom stream. I only ask this so that Classroom can remain uncluttered and for accessing our students work and assignments for the week. If we use it for emailing those things will become buried under a line of messages, and I want to avoid making them difficult to find. With that, please make sure you email me at anytime with any questions you may have - I encourage that. :)

Classroom Google Slide Show: I finally figured out how to share the our classroom slide show with you all, and make it so you can edit your own slide, and it only took me about a dozen or so tries. I might be able to do it again. Thank you all for your patience as I figured it out. Here is the link for that as well - OurClassFamilySlideShow. If this link does not work, please access the link in the stream of our Google Classroom. We will be sharing the slides your children create during the closing meeting this week as a way of getting to know each other better and building that classroom community. Please make sure not to accidentally mess with someone else's slide. I cannot wait to see these next week. 

Grace. I have never been one of those people who have a word for the year, but I guess this 2020 school year has changed that. My word for this school year is grace. I have seen this so much already in just this first week. Given and received, and it has been appreciated and necessary. You all have been amazing, and I look forward to our year together. Also, here is a picture of our first day together, in FRL, on Zoom - 2020, sure to be a classic.