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
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