November Blog

Hello Room 9 Families. Since I have not had the chance to blog in a while and there is a lot to communicate, I am going to make this one all informational. Next week I will cover curriculum, because we have covered quite a bit there as well. However, this one needs to be just the facts since we have so much. Let's dive in - 

Illness:  If your child is showing any signs of illness (cough, runny nose, etc...) or has had a direct contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid please make sure they stay home! Please remember if your child has a fever they may not be at school, and they may not be medicated and sent into school. This school year it is extremely important that we remain vigilant in keeping ourselves and each other healthy. So many of you are already doing this and I cannot thank you enough! 

Masks:  We have been asked to reach out to parents and ask for you to please start sending your children to school with a couple of extra masks every day. This especially pertains to those who have students that wear disposable masks. It would be extremely helpful if they had back up masks in their backpacks. Currently we are going through at least a box of kid masks a day and it is quite the expense. I know I give out a minimum of 2 or 3 a day in our room.  If they each had a few of their own to use when theirs break, get wet, or lost after lunch it would be extremely helpful! Thank you!

Discount Cards Fundraiser:  This is the final week for selling discount cards. In fact, if your child has sold cards they may bring their sale sheet and money in and exchange it for the cards at the office. The latest they can do this is Friday. So many kiddos have been telling me they have been selling the $10 cards. Nice job Mustangs!

Native American Heritage Month:  November is Native American Heritage Month. In Honor of Native American Heritage Month we would like our Indigenous students to share a bit of their culture with us. Tomorrow (Tuesday) students may wear their moccasins to school. Wednesday students may wear their favorite Native shirt. Thursday is traditional dress day and Friday is wear Orange.  All students may take part in these days, and on Wednesday if you do not have a Native shirt all students can opt to wear their favorite Marshall shirt. On Thursday we will have a visit from our long time FUSD employee and a dear friend of mine, Deb Onsae. She will be reading "Turkey's Gift to the People" and doing a craft with our kiddos. I have had the pleasure of hearing her tell this story and she does an amazing job, I cannot wait!

Behaviors:  I cannot tell you how proud I am of our students. We have earned a pizza party (Thank you Zanot family for all you did to make this successful!) and the kiddos are well on their way to earning a stuffy party (they will get to bring their stuffed animal to school for the day). We also just had our monthly star chart drawing for prizes and the envelope was full of star charts. All this to say the class has really doing an amazing job with class and school expectations, and their growth has been awesome to see! So proud of them. 

As always, I feel like every time I go to blog I forget half of what I wanted to say. I will reach out via email if I remember anything I left out. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me as well. Thank you. -Ms. Shaw

Last Week of October 2021

 Happy end of October. Thank you to everyone who attended conferences. We did have an 81% conference turn out. The highest I have had in years! I loved talking and meeting with families, especially in this time when volunteers cannot yet come into the building. Thank you for conferencing and continuing to partner with us to help ensure the success of your child's education. Here is what the week ahead looks like.

Math:  We have dived into place value. Last week we started bundling and counting ones, tens, and hundreds up to 1,000. We will wrap that up this week and begin counting up and down between 100 and 200 using ones and tens, and then counting up and down between 90 and 1,000 using ones and tens and hundreds. There has to be a lot of understanding of number sense in these lessons, and skip counting (especially by 10's and after that by 100's) is a good skill for them to be practicing for these lessons.  

ELA:  This weeks spelling will be ph and sh words. We will also be learning about nouns and contractions in grammar, as well as the ed ending. 

Science:  This week we will get into spiders, learning all about them with the help of Gail Gibbons story "Spiders."  We will turn our findings into a writing project.

Red Ribbon Week:  This week is Red Ribbon Week. With it will be different spirit days. They are as follow-

Monday - Pajama Day
Tuesday - Creative Hair Day
Wednesday - Fancy Foot Wear
Thursday - Marshall T-Shirt or Marshall Blue
Friday - School Appropriate Costume - SEE GUIDELINES BELOW

Costumes Guidelines:  Every year I try NOT to have costumes in the classroom and every year I am inadvertently overruled by Red Ribbon Week. With Covid, I am even more hesitant and I am going to stress that these guidelines are even more important that they are followed. I absolutely expect families and students to adhere to the following guidelines in order for the students to be allowed to wear costumes in the classroom on Friday. 

• No costume masks or face paint at all.  Costumes must allow for regular masks to be worn as per our Covid protocols. 

• No weapons of any kind at all.

• Make sure costumes are easy for students to remove/unbutton/unzip independently for bathroom purposes.

• Costumes may not impede students ability to move safely and quickly out of the building in event of an alarm.

• Students must still wear weather appropriate footwear and jacket for recess.

• Absolutely NO scary/violent/gory costumes - keep it second grade appropriate or I will call you to bring a change of clothes for your child to change into.

Keeping with the no food from home policy, we will not be doing any snacks or sign up for treats. We are not allowed to eat in the classroom, so this is fine. 

Pizza Party:  The students have earned a pizza party so I will be providing pizza for them on Friday, which is a great alternative for no food on costume day!  Felix should be so happy that we are finally getting our pizza!! I need a volunteer to pick up pizza and drop it off to us on Friday.  It will already be paid for, I just need someone to be my pizza delivery person. If you can help with this task please email me and let me know. 

We have a very busy November ahead. Looking forward to ending October strong. Feel free to reach out if you have any needs or questions.  - 💜Ms. Shaw

Field Trip and Conferences

 Welcome to a very different, but very busy two weeks ahead! We have a field trip, conferences, early releases, and fall break to look forward to, but first - here is what we are learning in second grade.

Math:  This week we will be finishing up our Module on Measurement and Data. We have learned about measuring with centimeters and meters, and we have been working hard with incorporating measurement with word problems.

ELA:  This week will be our second week of unit 2 in our NatGeo Curriculum, which focuses on Animal Adaptations. We will be incorporating this into our science when we return from break. This week will be our last week of spelling until we return from break. This weeks words will focus on final blends. Thank you families who are choosing activities every night from the spelling choice boards sent home on Monday's. The response from the students has been positive. Please make sure you are assembling the stories that go with our spelling and taking time for your students to read these nightly. This helps with the spelling sound as well as reading skills. 

Field Trip:  Our very first field trip has finally received bus approval. We will be going to Llamar Haines for a hike, along with the other two second grade classes. The field trip is this Thursday!! Please be on the lookout for permission slips to go home tomorrow. We apologize for the last minute notice, but we were truly waiting on bus approval to go through, and did not get that approval until Friday afternoon. I know the next question is parent volunteers. Here is what we have been told. Because it is an outdoor field trip parent/guardian helpers are allowed. Siblings and other friends/family members are not. Also, the bus is already full with 3 classes aboard. If you are interested in meeting us at the trail you will have to provide your own transportation there. Students must go on the buses with their classes. Again, we know that more parents would have been able to join us if there had been more notice, we apologize that we were not able to give this until we had bus approval. We are just super excited it went through and we are getting the kiddos out of the building! Please make sure your student has a warm jacket, proper hiking shoes, a lunch (permission slip will have a place to let us know if a sack lunch from the cafeteria will be needed),  a water bottle or two, and their backpack to lug their stuff on their own!! 

Parent/Teacher Conferences:  Conferences are next week. These will be held from Monday, October 11th - Wednesday, October 13th. I have made the sign up on Google Forms. The form is supposed to be eliminating options when they are chosen. I am not sure this is happening, but I am able to see who chooses first, therefore if unbeknownst to you, you happen to pick a time that is already spoken for I will reach out to you and have you pick a new time. I will also send out a paper sign up towards the end of the week so that you have a hard copy of your conference time. We are really looking for 100% participation this year. I think this is important being that we have not had the chance to have parents in the building like we have in previous years. For many this will be our first face to face contact, which is so unusual. Any class that has 100% participation will earn a class prize (I have not told this to the kiddos, and will not unless we actually get participation - although I have a feeling it might get mentioned in the announcements) and I heard a rumor that if the school has 100% participation there will be a school wide celebration of some sorts from Principal Reasor. I am hoping to make conference attendance as easy as possible by offering it in a number of formats (zoom, in person, over the phone). All you have to do is pick the one that works best for you in the sign up. If you choose Zoom I will send you that link next week. If you wish to attend in person it will be limited to just the parent/guardians attending, no siblings or other family members. Masks will be required to be worn during the conference as well. I truly look forward to speaking to everyone about our second graders next week! Here is the link for conference sign up. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwr3ul48d5Zhyc24KTfW2iGnJ_lNc89uvdYqzuiFhMds4--w/viewform?usp=sf_link

Conference Week Schedule:  During conference week Monday - Wednesday will be early release at 12:25 for all three days, so please plan for pick-up and childcare accordingly. Thursday and Friday (October 14th and 15th) school will be closed for Fall Break. I hope you enjoy the great outdoors and fresh fall air!

Canvas:  For those of you that had me last year, you know that I utilized Google Classroom last year. This year the district has required all teachers to switch to Canvas (insert sad face emoji). All of this to say that I will have a classroom Canvas page up and running by the end of fall break. The purpose of this will be for students to access work and perhaps a schedule and zoom link if for any reason we should have to shut down our class room for any reason. This notification is not being sent in order to prepare for anything, or in anticipation of anything. I am simply letting you know that Canvas is how we will be accessing work and schedules. Our class is doing a great job with hand washing and sanitizing. Just wanted to inform everyone about Canvas being the platform that will be used. 

If you have any question or concerns about anything please feel free to reach out to me. I really do hope to see everyone during conferences. 💛-Ms. Shaw

Pictures and No Shool

 Happy Fall room 9 families. At least it will be officially this Wednesday. I for one am ready for the fall weather, the leaves, and everything else Autumn. One of the best things about this time of year is the pace of our year. Routines have been established and the kiddos are settling in, or at least it felt that way last week. Hopefully this remains, right? I am sure it will. Part of the reason is that they seem to be enjoying the curriculum. Here is what we are up to:

Math:  Last week we began our unit on measurement and data. We began with learning how to measure with centimeters. This week we will move into meters. This has been a lot of fun and the kiddo are truly enjoying this module.

ELA:  This will be our last week of our first NatGeo unit on communities. Our spelling sound will be ck words. We will also begin our writing unit on people in our Marshall community. We will work in groups of three to interview, photograph, and write about members of our Marshall community that help us (from Principal Reasor, to our custodians, to our specials teachers, to Mr. Billy our crossing guard and Ms. Pat in our lunch room). This is quite the project and will take a couple of weeks to complete. 

Social Studies:  Last week we also began our unit on communities. We learned how communities are places we live, work, learn, play, and problem solve. In conjunction with our ELA we will continue to learn about people in our communities and tie it in with our writing project. 

Green Homework Folders:  Please make sure your child's green homework folders live in their backpacks. Whenever they do not complete the math practice set they will be putting it in the school side of the folder. This means they are to complete it for homework and return it to school so I can check it. There is no predicting what day they will be adding math homework to there folder, so it is important that it is in there backpack daily. I will also have the calendar that has the weekly and monthly calendar on either side. If you wish for this to stay in the folder so that we can use it for written communication, that will work for me as well. Thank you.

Fratellis Pizza:  Fratellis Pizza will be offering 20% back to Marshall, Knoles, and DeMiguel on all orders this Tuesday, September 21. That's right, you get to earn money for Marshall, eat pizza, and you do not have to cook dinner! That's what I call a win, win, win!!!

Picture Day:  Picture Day is back! We will be taking class pictures this Thursday, September 23rd. Picture packets did go home last week. If you are paying with cash or check you may return your packet envelope anytime between now and Thursday morning. I believe you may also order online. Just FYI, it is my understanding there will not be a class picture due to the mask mandates. 

Parent - Teacher Conferences: Conferences are right around the corner. We just received word that these will be held via zoom this year. I will be sending out an online sign-up form soon so please be on the look out for that. Conference day will be early release days. Monday and Tuesday (October 11th and 12th) will be the 12:25 release time and Wednesday October 13th will be an extra early release of 11:10. Just a heads up so you can plan for any child care needs accordingly. We will be closed the Thursday and Friday (October 14th and 15th) following for fall break.  

School Closed 9/20:  Just a reminder there will be no school tomorrow, September 20th for students. Teachers will be in the building for PD. Enjoy the extra day off! 

I hope everyone enjoy's their long weekend. Cannot wait to see the kiddos back on Tuesday. -Ms. Shaw

Labor Day

 Happy Labor Day. We are diving into math, ELA, and school really looking like what 2nd grade will look like for the year. Here is a look at what we have been doing in 2nd grade, as well as what is coming up-

Math:  We are working on fluency with addition and subtraction within 100. This is a big unit, which we started last week and will assess at the beginning of next. The Friday before last  I gave a practice assessment over some of the review, and it took a while for the kiddos to get through. I am hoping now that they know what a math assessment will look like, the real deal will go a little quicker. 

ELA:  Last week we began our first unit in our NatGeo Curriculum, Places and People, which we will continue this week as well. Last week we also introduced our first spelling unit which focused on short a and short i sounds. Each week we will have 18ish words. 10 which will follow our spelling pattern(s) and the rest which will be sight words. At the end of the week the test will be over the spelling pattern, and will not include the sight words. I will not be sending home a list of spelling words that need to be written weekly. Instead I will just send home the words with a spelling menu, which you can choose an activity from each day - if you wish. If you do not, you will still have access to the list to study for Friday's test, which I do suggest. This is not something I will collect back. This weeks words will be short o and VCCV words. We will also be working on the words everyday in class during Daily 5. Daily 5 

Social Studies:  In tandem with our ELA curriculum we will begin our social studies unit on communities this week.

Homework:  After much thought and consideration, here is what I think I want to do in regards for homework this year. As mentioned above, spelling will not be a list of words that your child will have to write everyday (we will do that in class, among other activities during Daily 5). Instead I will send home a spelling menu which you may choose to do any activity from daily (up to you which one, and if you cannot get to one, that is fine - it is up to each family how to make this work for them). I will also be sending home little books that go with our spelling rule, which is great for your child to read each night. There will be 1 or 2 of these weekly. Again, up to you on how to make these work best for you and your child. 1 per night? You read first and then your child reads? Echo reading? Up to you. Just please, read these every night. These are yours to keep. The only math homework will be anything on the practice set your child does not get done at school. I will have them place these in their red homework folders on the return to school side and they will finish it that night and bring back the next day so I can check. This should never be too much, just a few problems. As always, if your child is getting overwhelmed, please have them step away from any homework for the night. Part of why I am not assigning any regular homework for the most part is that I do not believe that families need the stress that homework can bring, and that your evenings should be yours. If you have questions please feel free to reach out.

Save the Date:  Couple of dates to mark on your calendar:

• Monday, September 20th - School Closed for students (Teachers will be attending a professional development day)
• Thursday, September 23 - School Picture Day (more details to come)

I hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day Labor Day weekend. I know I rested, spent time with loved ones, got things at home done, and am ready for our 4 day week ahead! Can't wait to see the kiddos tomorrow! -Ms. Shaw

2nd Full Week Updates

 Welcome to our second full week of school. Last week was full of learning more routines, with the addition of specials and more consistency to our schedule. This week we will become more consistent with math and ELA. Here is what we will be diving into in room 9 this week -

Math:  Last week we concentrated on Module 1 Topic A - making a ten and adding to a ten. This week we will stay there briefly to review number bonds. Then we will move into adding to a ten, review quick tens to add to a ten. We will also be practicing making the next ten and adding to a multiple of ten. In theory this is all done with mini games, but I am doing mini review lessons of these concepts from first grade before we get into the mini games, just to make sure we lay down the foundation properly before really diving into Module 1 Topic B towards the end of the week, which will be initiating fluency with addition and subtraction within 100. Go slow to go fast, at least here at the beginning of this year.

ELA:  As of now, I am planning to switch back and forth between two curriculums, our old Hartcourt curriculum and our new NatGeo curriculum. This is because I feel that we will cover more of our ELA standards if I utilize both curriculums. However, I will stay with the spelling from NatGeo on a weekly basis as of now for consistency. With that, I will be starting ELA this week with our story "The Mixed Up Chameleon" from our Hartcourt series. We will not be doing spelling until next week when we begin NatGeo. Last week we also began learning our Daily 5 routines, which we will continue this week as well. Daily 5/CAFE is a literacy framework that I use in conjunction with our  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.  Lat week we learned a part of how to read to self, which is broken into 3 parts - read the words, read the pictures, and retell the story.  This week we will practice building reading stamina during reading to self and read to someone. The students will also learn how to read to someone (which has very specific expectations and language), word work (to build on their spelling and writing skills), work on writing and listen to reading (which also has a writing component).

Homework:  Homework will not be starting this week. 

Water Bottles:  Please remember that our rooms get warm, and the students do as well. Especially as they come in from recess or when they are at PE. Please send them with a reusable water bottle for the week, labeled with their name on it. Thank you

Supplies:  Thank you for everyone who donated Kleenex! We are set. We also have headphones for every child, so if you have not sent in headphones for your child we have you covered! Yay :)

Going Home:  Thank you to everyone who is either emailing me or calling the office when there is a change in how your child is going home that deviated from the norm, or when your child has a schedule that changed often. This communication has been helpful and imperative in getting your child home safely the correct way. You all are rocking this communication and I appreciate it so much!

Save the Date:  Monday, September 6th School will be closed for Labor Day. 

I cannot begin to tell you all what a great bunch of kiddos we have in this class! I knew our old friends were the nicest bunch, but it has been so great to get to know all of our new friends who have been just as amazing. It really has set the tone for an amazing year, and I am so excited to rock second grade together! -Ms. Shaw

2021 Welcome

Welcome to the second grade, and to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year! I am super excited to be back in the building with our students this year. I am especially excited for the opportunity to be teaching second grade, an opportunity I have been looking forward to for some time now. I must admit, having to make the transition with this group of kids makes it even more exciting for me! I cannot wait for the new year to begin. We will spend the first few days learning school and classroom expectations, as well as spend some time getting to know each other, especially our new friends. I will start updating the blog with what we are learning as soon as we start diving into curriculum.  In the meantime, let's get into all the beginning of the year details you may be looking for.

Drop Off:  At this time adults are still not allowed in the building without prior arrangement with the office. This does include the first day of school. Luckily, most of our kiddos know where our room (Room 9) is at. On the first day of school students who are eating lunch may be dropped off at 8:20 so that they may go straight to the cafeteria for breakfast. 8:20 will always be the earliest students may arrive at school, those not eating breakfast will go straight outside every day. On the first day of school only students will not have morning recess. This is so that students may make their way to their classrooms where their teachers will be waiting for them when they arrive. 

Meet the Teacher/Drive Through Stations 2nd-5th Grades:  There are a few things the school needs to collect before school starts so we have decided to do so with some drive through stations on Tuesday, August 10th. There will be 3 drive through stations. Station 1 your will turn in Tech User Agreement and Proof of Residency if you have not sent it in electronically already. At station 2 you will be paying an iPad fee of $25 dollars (online, credit card, check, or cash), and station 3 will be a meet the teacher. 2nd grade will be outside from 10-10:30 am, and we would love if you could make it during that half hour so that the kiddos can see our faces before the first day of school. If you cannot make it during our grade level window the front office is available to help daily from 8am-4pm.  

Updated Marshall Mitigation Plan:  I highly encourage everyone to take time to read our updated Marshall Mitigation Plan by clicking on the link. It will provide many of your answers for pretty much everything you may be wondering about this year (more about pick up and drop off, masks, lunches (free again to all, same for breakfast), transportation, specials, transportation, and so much more). 

School Supplies:  Just about everything your child will personally need has been purchased by the school or myself. The only thing we we need from our families are Kleenex (always Kleenex, LOL), a personal reusable water bottle and headphones. Please make sure to label the headphones and the water bottle with your child's name. If we ever need anything for the classroom I will let you know here in the blog, but my guess is it will just be Kleenex most of the time, and that probably will not happen often depending on how many we end up with at the beginning of the year. 

Snail Mail:  I have sent out a letter via good old regular mail, so please be on the look out for that. In it you will find the back to school letter, some general information for our room, and the above information about school supplies. This is for those who check there mail more regularly than they do their email. I will be attaching those forms to this email as well, for those of you who are the opposite 🙋.  The one form I did not include is our Family Information Page. I have sent that out as a Google Form so that we do not need to send anything back in this year. For those of you who missed it, or who have not filled it out yet - here is the link to that again. - Family Information Form Link.  Please, please, please fill this out before the first day of school. It has the single most important piece of information I need - how your child gets home at the end of the day. This is most especially important for my bus riders! If you have already filled this out, thank you - there is no need for you to do so again.

Masks:  In our Marshall Mitigation Plan it states that "masks are highly recommended, encouraged, and supported" at this time but not required. If this changes I will let you all know.

If I have left out anything you might be wondering about I highly recommend reading the Marshall mitigation plan to see if your question is answered there. If it is not, or if it is but you still have questions and need clarification please feel free to reach out to me via email so that I can help answer any questions or concerns you may have. I am happy that this year is starting off with some normalcy of being back in building, but I also know that there are concerns and unknowns with Covid still being out there. I know we will get through this with two things - open and clear communication and parent and teacher collaboration every step of the way. I look forward to partnering with each and every one of you. I really look forward to seeing our kiddos on August 11th! 💙 -Ms. Shaw

Summer Vacation

Happy official first day of summer vacation. We did it! We made it to the end of the wildest school year ever. Did you ever think your child would spend 3/4 of their first grade year trying to learn on-line? Then transfer to in person learning for the final quarter! All while the teacher stayed remote, and for half the class I was brand new to them. It has been quite the ride. One I could not have done without the trust and support of each and every family. We did it together. We all persevered, and our kiddos grew in so many ways. Thank you all for working in tandem with us this year to ensure the success of your child this year. We have always emphasized that children are academically more successful the more caregivers and teachers work together, and it was never more apparent than this year as students had to learn from home. Your efforts were always noticed and appreciated beyond measure. I hope you all take the time to rest, rest, and rest some more before next school year begins.

 Summer Learning:  Please note that each student will continues to have access to some of our learning apps this summer. For reading they can continue to use RazzKids (ashaw31 password - abc), LexiaCore5 and Epic (class code - cks2044), and for math they will continue to have access to Dreambox and Zearn. 

Summer Food Services: FUSD will continue to provide meals throughout the summer to all children ages 18 and under. Here is the list of food service sights and times:

Cromer and Killip - June 8-July16 

Monday-Friday Grab N Go 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Breakfast and Lunch may be picked up at the same time.

Kinsey - June 8-July 9 

Monday-Friday Grab N Go 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Breakfast and Lunch may be picked up at the same time.

Leupp Public School and Marshall - June 8-July 30 

Monday-Friday Grab N Go 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Breakfast and Lunch may be picked up at the same time.

Thomas- June 8-July 16

Monday-Friday Grab N Go 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Breakfast and Lunch may be picked up at the same time.

Report Cards:  You should have received your child's report card in an envelope with their name on it on the last day of school. I printed them all off and handed them out to them on the last day. If your child was not there on the last day please contact the office, their report card is sitting on the bench with their bag of take home things. At this time I believe there are three report cards there, one from an absent child and two from kiddos who just left them behind. Your child's report card is also available online through ParentVue. 

The best part of the whole school year was getting the chance to go in and be with all 31 kiddos on the last day of school! I don't know who was happier, me or the kiddos. We may have broke the no hugging rule, don't tell. I may have also cried with each child I saw. I cannot wait to see them all next year (where I will definitely be in building). Again, thank you all for your patience, grace, perseverance, and trust as we navigated this crazy year together. Please take the time to breathe and relax and reset before your children return to us as second graders. Read all summer, enjoy all the summer snuggles you can get, and please give your kiddos a big hug for me, I miss them already! 💛 - Ms. Shaw

End of Year

Happy 2nd to the last week of school. I know it has been a while, but we have been incredibly busy in our two rooms. Let me catch you up on what we have been doing as well as what is coming up...

Math:  Since we meet last we wrapped up our unit on fractions. Last week we began learning at how to tell time to the hour and half hour. We will finish time this week and then wrap up the year learning two digit addition without regrouping (ex: 24+13). 

ELA:  This week will be our last week of spelling, we will be wrapping things up with words that end in -le. We spent the last few weeks learning about compound words and ABC order. This week we will spend some time on rhyming words. 

Social Studies/Science:  Our sound/inventors units were a huge hit last month. After that we learned all about Earth Day. Last week we started preparing for our final unit on bees. We will spend this week learning all about the types of bees, their various jobs, pollination, and the life cycle of a bee. 

Water Bottles:  Please make sure to send your child in with their own reusable water bottle. It is getting warm in our classrooms, out at recess, and during PE. The water fountains are off but we do have water bottle filling stations. Kiddos are allowed to have their water bottles in their cubbies. Please just label with their names. Thank you!

Walking Field Trip: We are thinking of heading to the tree park the last day of school.  Just to get out of the building for a while on the last day and play in the park. Enjoy some fresh air and sing to our summer birthday kiddos. Look for a permission slip to go home sometime later this week.

Save the Dates:  Couple of important dates to mark on your calendars. This Thursday, May 27th is a 12:25 early release. Please plan accordingly. This does not affect Friday's 12:25 release, that remains the same as always. Also, no school on Monday, May 31st in honor of Memorial Day. The last day of school is Thursday, June 3rd. We will release at 12:25. 

Charging Cords:  We still do not have every students charging cord and its block. If you have not returned your child's charging cord and block to us we need you to please do this tomorrow! Thank you. 

Tomorrow we officially begin week 38 of this school year, leaving only one week of school left after Friday! I was going to reflect back real quickly, but then I started getting a little teary so I will leave the look back at this EPIC year for next weeks post. 8 days everyone, WOW! Hope you have a great rest of your weekend. -Ms. Shaw

Last Week of April 2021

 Hello Families. I cannot believe we are headed into the last week of April, and the last six weeks of the school year. We are accomplishing so much, with so much still to do. Check out what we are doing in our rooms recently:

Math:  Last week we started our unit on Geometry. We looked at attributes of 2 dimensional shapes. This week we will look at 3 dimensional shapes and composite shapes. 

ELA:  This is our final week of our NatGeo U7 Then and Now. There are only 8 units in our curriculum. This weeks spelling sounds air, are, and ear words.

Social Studies:  Last week as part of our Then and Now unit we did a mini inventors unit. This week we will wrap up both inventors and then and now with a look at the telephone and discuss who really invented it, and how it has changed over the years. This will also lead us into our science unit on sound.

Science:  We will be kicking off our sound unit this week, exploring our big question "What Causes Sound?" The kids will be making their hypothesis and doing a bunch of hands on experiments to discover how sounds are made. So much fun ahead. 

iPad Charging Cords and Blocks:  As you know we are now keeping all iPads at school in our classroom iPad carts. In order for your child's iPad to be charged we need their district issued charging cord and block to also be returned. We have discovered that we can actually tell if we are not given the charging block that came with your childs iPad because it will not fit correctly in the iPad cart, which means it will not sit in there properly to charge. Who knew? We have iPads, however we are missing a large chunk of chargers and blocks, especially from our Avengers side. Please take time to locate and return to us ASAP. Thank you.

Spirit Week:  Next week is spirit week. Below is the flyer telling what each day is. 

Cannot wait to see all the kiddos in their pj's tomorrow. Please remember, they still need to wear shoes for recess time. Looking forward to our busy but fun week ahead! -Ms. Shaw 

Mid April Updates

 Hello families. I wanted to touch base with 3 important updates for our class, please read carefully.

We are moving:  At least half of us are. Room 9 is moving across the hall to room 10 for the remainder of the school year. This is creating the opportunity for us to be right next door to the other half of our class in room 8. The super exciting part of this is that there are double doors that connect the two rooms that we will now have open, allowing Mrs. Burton access to act as the lead sub-aide/co-teacher in the two rooms. The kiddos in room 8 (who now are going by the name Avengers) and the kiddos in room 10 (who are now the Autobots) will remain on their separate sides, and Ms. Hoffman will also remain solely in room 8. This is a unique and exciting opportunity that we are confident will help us utilize Mrs. Burton's natural teaching knowledge to reach our full range of students and increase consistent ecpectations across the two classes with the continued support of Ms. Hoffman on the one side. We let both kids know about the move on Friday and they are all excited. Mrs. Burton and I worked this Saturday to set our new room up as well as get ready for some new friends, and we are ready to assemble and roll out!

iPads:  We will now be storing your child's iPads at school. Starting tomorrow we need you to send your child to school with their fully charged iPad, their district issued charging cord and their iPad block. Just a heads up that they will not return home with them, we will be storing and charging them in the classroom from now on. 

Picture Day:  Pictures are a little different this year. They will be done digitally, from my understanding. Here is the link to the information. Picture Day Info. If you have any questions I would suggest contacting the office.

4 day week ahead, and some positive changes. Thank you all for your continued support as we continue to pivot. If you ever have any questions please feel free to reach out to me. 💜-Ms. Shaw

Happy Sunday families. Hope you all are loving this weather as much as I am. I hope it stays just like this through August, I know it won't but this temp sure is ideal. Throw in a summer monsoon storm and I would have the perfect day. Anyway, it sure is perfect for opening some windows in the classroom and getting outside. JT from Terra Birds has been in touch and we are trying to work out a schedule to get into the garden soon! Will let you know when that happens. Until then, here is what is happening in our rooms...

Math:  We will finish our unit on tens and ones this week. The kids learned how to draw quick tens on Friday and we will use them to help us identify 1 and 10 more and less than a two digit number. At the end of the week we will begin our unit on comparing two-digit numbers with > , <, and = signs. 

ELA:  We finished reading our Twister on Tuesday last week. We will wrap it up on Monday with a comprehension test. We will also begin our 7th Nat Geo Unit on Then and Now, which we will tie in with our social studies unit. 

Last week we practiced taking our spelling tests in person and on Nearpod. The practice was to see how it worked, and will not count as a grade. This week will be the real deal. However, I realized that part of the issue with not sending home spelling words and having them do spelling words only in class is that this eliminates the opportunity to study the words at home. Therefore I will be sending home a copy of the spelling words with the kids at the beginning of each week (this weeks words will go home on Tuesday instead on Monday due to some behind the scenes errors). This list is up to you to use how you see best for your child. We will still be writing the words everyday in class. If you feel they should do this at home as well, then go for it. If you want to use it as practice tests, then you can use it that way. If you would like for it just to be a study guide for Friday's tests, that is fine as well. I just want to make sure there was a hard copy for you all to have for the sake of studying before Friday.

Social Studies:  We will be comparing and contrasting life long ago and life today, looking at schools, homes, communication, entertainment, and transportation. We will be researching and writing all about these 5 areas in our own little books.

iPad Apps:  Please remember that these iPads are not for personal use, they were issued for school purposes and must be used as such. The only apps that should be downloaded are those that have been requested by your child's teacher this year. The kids may not be downloading games or you tube from the app store, as these are not needed for school use. The are taking up storage space, but even more concerning are the kids are trying to get on the apps and play with them during school time. We cannot go in and delete individual apps, our media specialist has to do a reset on the whole iPad, which wipes everything clean. Then we have to download everything we do want, which means Zoom, Google Classroom, etc....again. This is quite the process. If we are at a point where we are wiping your child's iPad and they return with games downloaded, and they are playing on those games during class time we may opt to just reset again and keep your child's iPad at school instead of sending it home. Here are the only apps we need downloaded at this point:

• Zoom
• Google Classroom
• Razz Kids (Kids A-Z)
• Lexia
• Dreambox (Both, apparently)
• Nearpod
• Some may have Google Slides and Zearn and Nat Geo (Reach for Reading)  - those are fine

Please note I will never ask them to download any type of game, and these things should not be put on there from home. Thank you for your understanding.

Tutoring at the FRC:  The FRC is once again offering free tutoring at the Family Resource Center. They are offering reading and math support for all grades. They are half hour slots and parents must transport their students.  Parents can register at https://fusd1.ce.eleyo.com/.

Short and sweet this week! Have a great rest of the week. -Ms. Shaw

End of March and End of First Week in Person Updates

 Welcome to the end of our first week, beginning of our second week of in person instruction. With the exception of figuring out a few little tech things at the beginning of the week, I must say our first week back went better than I ever imagined.  Our kiddos did an amazing job with mask wearing, distancing in line, learning how to wash and use the bathrooms the way we need them to, how to use the playground and line up where they are supposed to, and every other safety and routine expectation we put forth for them to learn and follow! This week we implement more learning routines. We started this morning and these students do not miss a beat. You should be proud of your little learners, I sure am! Here is what we are diving into this week at Marshall. 

Math:  We are still learning about place value this week. We are working on how to write numbers in a place value chart, what that means as far as the value or worth of a number, and how to draw that amount. We will also learn how to draw quick tens. At the end of the week we will identify 1 more and 1 less than a two-digit number, and at the beginning of next week we will identify 10 more and 10 less than a two-digit number.

ELA:  Our spelling sounds for this week are oo and ea. We will be finishing up our Lit unit on Twister on Tuesday this week.  We will also be learning different ways to do Daily 5 in the classroom. Daily 5 is the independent reading and writing choice program we use with students while teachers work on small groups and sight words with them during our ELA time.

Change in Dismissal:  If your child is going to have any change in how they are going home for the day, you MUST call the office and let them know! You cannot tell your first grader to tell the teacher, we will not go by what a first grader tells us. We will only go by the last thing the adult told us their child does for dismissal. This is especially important for changes in busing. If they are not to get on a bus, if they are getting on a bus for the day or from now on, if they are getting on a different bus for the day or from now on, you must call the office and let us know. Please do this early in the day and not at dismissal time. Thank you! 

Dressing For the Weather:  One day it is snowing, the next it is sixty degrees outside. Welcome to spring in Flagstaff. Please pay attention to the weather and dress your child accordingly. Right now layers may be a good idea. A hoodie or sweatshirt to wear inside (our classes may be a little cooler with ventilation happening) and a bigger jacket for the days that are requiring it on top. Also, with rain and melting snow we still get puddles, and our firsties cannot stay away. It might be a good idea to pack them an extra pair of dry socks and shoes in a large ziploc bag so if they get their feet wet they can change. We cannot send them to the nurse for dry socks and shoes because she does not have the supply to keep up with the demand on these days. 

Snacks and Supplies:  Thank you to everyone who donated snacks to get us through the first week and a half. The students were fed and happy. At this point it looks like FUSD will be providing healthy snacks to our students everyday! Therefore the students will no longer need to pack their own snack for the day, we will have something for them. This is truly awesome, I love when we can provide healthy food and snacks to all our kids at no cost! This also means you do not need to send in anymore snacks to our class. If you would like to donate anything, each class could still use a couple of boxes of Kleenex and some hand sanitizer! Thank you in advance for these much needed supplies.

All things iPad:  Please make sure your child comes to school with their iPads fully charged everyday. Everyday, fully charged. Thank you. Please make sure you have taken the time to delete all videos and pictures and screen shots from your child's iPad, and then emptied the deleted folders file afterwards. This will save your child's iPad from dying completely and never turning back on again. This is a real thing, and it is happening. This will also prevent them from using backgrounds, which they no longer need to do in the classroom setting. All of these things are musts, and we need your help in making them happen. Thank you.

Again, I am so proud of our kiddos and their efforts this week. It has been amazing to see them all back in one space. I am loving getting to know a whole batch of new kiddos and their little personalities. It is so much fun for the students to be able to join with an expanded group of friends when they have the opportunities. They have certainly shown that they are resilient and adaptable to all changes. Love this group!     -Ms. Shaw

Return To In Person Learning Edition

 Welcome all families! This is officially the first blog going out to our "new class" for the 2020-2021 school year. Any of my kiddos and Ogg's kiddos who have opted to return to in person learning will now be returning to their given physical spaces, with Mrs. Burton co-teaching in room 9 and Mrs. Griffis co-teaching in room 8. We will spend much of the first week looking a lot like a normal first week of school, establishing routines and learning new expectations and learning how to love in person school again. 

Math:  We will begin math on Tuesday. They have been doing math all year, and I feel like establishing this routine on Tuesday will be fine-nothing new to learn about how to do math in person so we might as well dive in 😂. I do not want to waste any days and fall behind. The one thing I like about our new schedule is that math time will be consistent, M-Th from 8:55-9:50. This will be on Friday the first week, and then after lunch on Friday's from then on.  We will begin learning about place value to the tens place.

ELA:  We will complete our unit on weather by beginning a new lit study with the magic tree house book "Twister on Tuesday." Not only will this wrap up our unit on weather it will also begin our unit on Then and Now in Social Studies. There will not be spelling or new ELA this week, we will add that on next week. We will be reading the book "First Grade Jitters" to help us deal with any nervousness we may have about returning to school after so long out of school. We will also reread our story from the beginning of the school year, "Our Class Is A Family" as we make our transition back into the classroom with each other and new friends. 

Social Studies:  As stated above, we will begin our unit on Then and Now but probably more the second week back after we have established our new learning routines and schedules.

Science:  We will also be tying our Then and Now unit with our sound unit which will also include a side unit on inventors. Again, look for this all to begin the second week back.

Meet the team:  Since many of you are meeting me and/or our co teachers for the first time we felt it would be nice to take a minute to introduce ourselves.  I will start. 

My name is Ms. Shaw and I am a Flagstaff native. I graduated NAU with a Bachelors in Science in Elementary Ed with an Emphasis in Early Childhood. I began teaching at the age of 19 in preschool, putting my total years of experience at 27 - please do not do the math. I am the proud mother of the most amazing 17 year old aspiring writer and soon to be NPA graduate, as well as an equally naughty yet very cute Cockapoo named Phoebe. My 17 year old, Bradley, would not give me permission to include a picture of him and I do not do pictures so the only photo you get from me is one of my dog.

Mrs. Burton: My name is Christine Burton.  I have a degree in Special Education and General Education.  I taught for the school district for a few years before my second child was born.  I stayed home until my youngest started Marshall in Kindergarten.  Since then I have subbed exclusively for Marshall.  I did take a detour for a few years and taught Preschool; but I always come back to Marshall! I am the mother of two teenage girls; Emily (17) and Erin (13). They both went to Marshall! I am a proud Marshall parent and teacher! I can't wait to see all the kids back in person!

Mrs. Griffis:  My name is Mrs. Griffis and I am so excited to get started with your kiddos for the last quarter of the school year!! I have been a substitute teacher for 15 school years with Flagstaff Unified School District and have enjoyed watching kids as they have changed grade levels and turn into brighter, creative and uniques little people. I have two kids who are older and am about to be a grandma this year!! My husband and I have been married for 32 years and the attached picture was at our daughter's wedding. I'm excited to help finish this year out with Ms. Shaw's class! I will do my best to the transition to in person learning as stress free as possible. I am easy going and adaptable to children's uniques personalities and learning styles. I'm ready to see the kids again and enjoy the remainder of the year. I will be excited to meet all of them on March 22, 2021.

Supplies Needed:  The question keeps being asked, "What supplies so I need to send to school with my child for the first day of school?" The answer to this is - almost nothing!  We will have supply boxes and their own personal bags with everything they will need to be successful at school. This will include pencil, eraser, dry erase board and marker, pencil sharpener, a new box of crayons, new scissors, a folder for their Daily 5 work and a folder for notes and papers that need to go home. Please check this folder daily, just in case there is something in there, then please place back in their backpack promptly. 

Here is what you will need to make sure your child brings in with them:

• Fully charged iPad everyday (this will go back and forth)
• Their headphones (these will stay at school)
• Any math manipulatives they were given (yellow/red counters, centimeter cubes - these will all remain theirs and stay in their supply bags. We do not have enough to replace these for every child so we need them to bring back in the ones they have at home)
• Science journals (these will still be added to for the remainder of the year, any new Shaw students will be given one)
• Spiral Notebooks (like the science notebooks, we will be adding to these, incoming students should have these as well)
• Months of the Year Handwriting Books - we will be using these as the morning work for the first week back.  Any new kiddos will be given new copies. 

This is the only materials your child can bring (and needs to bring) with them from home. DO NOT have them bring in any school/office supplies or any extra supplies that are not on the above list. If they do they will be placed back in their backpack to be sent back home.  We are trying our best to keep what comes from home to a minimum this year. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Save your iPads:  For those of you have not done so yet, we need your immediate help to save your iPad from imminent doom. iPads are crashing and dying without hope of return because of storage space issues. The storage issues are occurring because the kiddos are taking photos, videos, and screen shots they did not have permission to be taking. Now once the storage hits capacity it is causing the iPad to freeze, and this appears to be irreversible at this point. We need parents and guardians to delete all photos and videos off the iPads immediately. Once you have don't this we need you to go into the "recently deleted" and delete what you just trashed in order to complete this process. Please remember, these are not personal devices, they are educational tools for school purposes. Therefore the only pictures and videos that should be on there should be for assignments given be the teacher, at this point there have been none for our class. Also, the district has repeatedly stated that the only pictures for background is what is offered through Zoom. When we are back in the classroom I will not want them with any Zoom backgrounds on at all. Thank you for your timely attention to this matter, if it is not completed your child's iPad may crash soon. 

Snacks and Other Donations:  We will be giving our kiddos morning snacks. They are little, they get hungry and need fuel to get them through the morning. For the remainder of this year I am asking that kiddos bring their own morning snacks from home. However, sometimes we have families who cannot provide this, or students who just forget. We have permission to allow families to donate snacks for the rest of the quarter but they must be individually wrapped (enough for 24). For example, this means no bulk containers of pretzels, instead they must be individual bags of pretzels so that each student can have their own individual bag. If you would like to donate individually wrapped snacks for 24 students we would appreciate it. We are also in need of Kleenex and hand sanitizer, any donations of those would also be appreciated!

Playground Toys and Other Items From Home:  Someone asked if basketballs, soccer balls, and other playground toys would be allowed from home. The answer is no. We do not want the kids bringing and possibly sharing any items from home. This includes no stuffed animals, dolls, make-up, electronics, books, notepads, art supplies, etc.  They cannot bring anything from home except their backpacks, lunches, and their folder for notes to go home. With this, there will not be show and tell so we do not have items from home in the classroom. 

How Does Your Child Get Home:  This will be our most important question on the first day of school. Will your child be pick-up, FACTS, or bus? Please note that the school does not provide bus route information. You must contact the district and let me know which route (not the bus number - the route number) your child is on. Here is a link to the transportation department.  Please find this out before the first day of school, and let me or Mrs. Burton or Mrs. Griffis know immediately.  Feel free to email me. 

Drop Off:  Straight from our Marshall Mitigation Plans:

• Families will verify a child's health prior to dropping off students or placing them on the bus.

• Arrival begins at 8:20am and ends at 8:35am.  Staff will assist families beginning at 8:20am. 

• Students will be dropped off in the west parking lots and will and go outside to their grade level section of the playground.

• Staff will pick up students from their designated section of the playground at 8:35am.

• Students who arrive after 8:35am must check in through the front lobby.

A few things to clarify, parents your are our first line in keeping everyone healthy. If your child is feeling under the weather, has a cold, fever, etc... please keep them home. We will be really adamant about sending sick children to the nurse and she will be sending sick kids home. It will be easier if you keep them home then if you need to make a return trip to pick them up.  
Second, parents are not allowed to come in for drop off or pick up. We will be serving breakfast for those that will be eating. They will go outside to the designated playground section for the week when they finish. When the bell rings this is where they will line up to meet Mrs. Burton or Mrs. Griffis accordingly. Our first week both Burton and Griffis will be outside in the mornings so our kiddos can look for them and know where to meet (Field One). I will let you know each week where outside they are to go the following week.

Dismissal:  Again, straight from our Marshall Mitigation Plans:

• All students will stay in their classroom during dismissal.

• Buses will be dismissed as they arrive.

• There will be adults monitoring in the following locations:

• Front door, Hallways

•  Older walking students will be dismissed first in order to be ready to meet their younger family members. 

• FACTS students will stay in the classroom until all other students have been dismissed.  They will then be walked to their designated room for snack before class begins.  This may take place in a staggered way depending upon the hallway traffic.

The first week of school either Mrs. Burton or Mrs. Griffis will take all of our pick-ups and walk them out the door. The other will stay with the busers and FACTS kiddos. This is to make sure our little ones get comfortable navigating their way through the sea of people in the halls at dismissal. That sea should be less considering that there will not be grown-ups in the building, but we want to make sure they know where they are going and have a week to get used to the routine. This person will also help with making sure the busers find their way onto their correct bus lanes at the end of the hall. 

Birthdays:  We will not be doing any in class birthday celebrations the remainder of the year. This is for several reasons. First, we are not allowed to bring in birthday treats of any kind, edible or non-edible. Second, we were not able to do this over the first 3 quarters of school, and it would not be fair to suddenly allow it for those who will be celebrating birthdays over the last quarter in person. If you know anything about first graders, they are all about fairness. I would like to avoid hurt feelings and we will continue with our tradition of wishing the person a happy birthday during attendance to close the year. This always made the birthday kiddo happy, and there was never any complaints so I am satisfied sticking with what has worked. Thank you.

Homework:  There will not be any assigned regular homework for the remainder of the year. I will be including the spelling list as a required part of their regular Daily 5 routines instead of sending that home. Math practice will be done in class. If your child does not complete their math practice in class there will be a note saying they need to finish it that night. This will not need to be returned, we will have an idea of your child's understanding of the concept without needing the completed work back. I will have the math help video posted in Google Classroom if you need them to assist you in assisting your child in completing their math practice set. As always, if this occurs do not let it be a struggle for the evening. We will be teaching the next lesson the next day and if they did not complete the previous days practice, we simply move on. I prefer to have happy homes not arguments over first grade work. If your child is not having it, just let it go. Make dinner, read bedtime stories, snuggle, and enjoy your evening together! Other than the occasional math practice page, there will not be any other work that needs to be done at home. Let's end the year as stress free as possible!

Google Classroom: For my new families, we use Google Classroom in our room, not Canvas. I know, one more change, I apologize. Please download Google Classroom on your child's iPad today. Our class code to join is 4q7kskx. 

Breakfast and Lunch:  Great news! Breakfast and lunch is free for all students!  If you would like for your child to eat they will simply get in line (no card needed), grab their food, and sit at a socially distanced marked spaced at a table. Love this so much!

I believe I have covered everything. Or everything I can think of. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out and email me. Although I am not in the building I will still be your main point of contact as the lead teacher in the classroom, though you will see that I will CC both Mrs. Griffis and Mrs. Burton on pretty much everything. Communication will be key and I will make sure the three of us are on the same page to make this transition and everyone's safety and success a priority as we close out the year in our unique environment. Enjoy what is left of your break. Can't wait to "see" everyone on Monday to begin our last chapter in this crazy first grade year. 💚-Ms. Shaw