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

Conferences, Return to School, and More

Happy March. I have a lot of information to share with you in this blog so please take the time to read through it all. Let's begin with next weeks learning before we get into all the big stuff.

Math:  We will wrap up our unit on money next week. If you have not cut out the paper money in the bag that went home with the supplies, please do so by Monday. I ask that you do NOT have your child cut out the coins so that they may remain the size they are now. Thank you for your help.

ELA:  We will continue working out of our NatGeo curriculum. We are in the middle of unit 6, which focuses on weather. This weeks sounds are oo, ou, and ew. 

Science: We will continue our weather unit learning all about weather tools and how we use them. 

Next Weeks Schedule/Thursday's Asynchronous Learning Day:  Next weeks schedule is very different. Monday and Tuesday will be the only 2 regular dismissal days. The rest of the week will be early release days for conferences. Wednesday and Thursday will be 12:10 dismissal days and Friday we will dismiss at 11:10.  

Although we release at 12:10 on Thursday we will not actually be meeting on Zoom because the district has designated Thursday as an asynchronous learning day. This means that I will have a day's worth of planning in the Google Classroom calendar but you will not have to log onto Zoom to access that day's learning. You will just click the links and/or follow the list of assignments for the day. We do not need to log on for Zoom for attendance, all students will be considered present for the day unless called off by parents for any reason. Here are my thoughts on the schedule and work assigned for Thursday. I have linked the end of unit math test for Thursday. This is a must do. I do not care what time it is done on Thursday, just that it is done. I am thinking there will also be a Nearpod weather assignment. The same goes for this. Make Thursday's schedule work for your family. I am doing what I am required to do, which is to assign a day's worth of work for your student. If it works for you to have your child work the day like they are in school, please do so. If it works for you to work it differently, all I need are those two assignments completed by the end of the day. I will go over Thursday's work with the kiddos at Wednesday's closing circle. When the calendar is posted you will see that I have the days work following closely to a normal day, including the morning work and announcements. If there are any questions about this, feel free to reach out. 

Report Cards:  

I will tell you, I never really liked this meme but this is exactly how I felt this whole week. Like my brain has waaayyy to many tabs open. I have literally been trying to work on a thousand things at one time since the district announced the return to school. When added to trying to get report cards done today that turned out to be a lofty goal. I apologize for that not happening. They will be done before Wednesday for sure but I am hoping to have them completed before that. I will not give you a date this time, I'm scared to do that again and it not come to fruition. As I said in my email, thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued grace. I will email you just as soon as they are done and ready for viewing.  

Parent/Teacher Conferences:  Some of your have reached out to ask about conferences. Spring Conferences have traditionally always been optional. This year will be no different  If you are choosing to remain in remote learning and wish to have a conference please reach out to me via email and we will set up a conference for the week of March 8th-12th. If you are going to be returning to the classroom and would like a conference you can reach out and we will set up a conference for the first week of April. I believe we will probably have a bit more to talk about if we wait until the week after we return than if we do so before. If your prefer to still have a conference next week, let me know and we can make that happen. If you do not feel we need a conference, that is fine as well. As I mentioned, spring conferences have always been optional.  We will do what works for you.  Because I am offering so many choices I will not be sending home a traditional sign up sheet, just shoot me an email and we will make it happen.

Return to School Supplies:  For those returning to school you will NOT need to go out and buy "back to school" supplies. I am ordering all materials your child will need to carry them through the 4th quarter. We will not be sharing supplies at all, and we are not wanting them to bring items from home. I will be giving them all new glue sticks, pencils, erasers, crayons, pencil, sharpeners, you name it. If you have purchased anything for them already, please keep it at home. All items will be placed in their own pencil boxes, which will be provided by the school. Pencil boxes, individual bags of math manipulatives, Daily 5 supplies, and anything else your child needs for learning will be placed in their own 2 gallon bags which will be labeled and kept in their cubbies.  

Here is what your kiddos will need. Their own water bottle, labeled with their name on it. We will not be allowed to drink from water fountains. We will have water filling stations where the students can fill up their water bottles. Therefore water bottles from home are a must! Especially on PE days. Our rooms do get warm, and towards may they are downright hot some days. With no water fountains available they absolutely need a water bottle from home. 

If you would like to help purchase anything we will need Kleenex, Paper Towels,  and hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer will not be taking the place of handwashing. We will be required to hand wash before and after recess and before we go to lunch. We will also be washing our hands after we use the bathroom, as usual. We do not need any kind of disinfectant wipes because we have a cleaner that we are using in our classrooms that has been provided by the district. 

iPad Storage:  We need your help. The kiddos (at all grade levels) have had way too much fun taking pictures and screen shots of anything and everything, mainly to use as backgrounds that the district said they could not have. This is resulting in iPad storage issues, and apparently causing iPads to freeze and crash. Unfortunately when they get to this point they are requiring a replacement! Which is not something that FUSD is set up to do easily and at such a large scale as we are staring down at.  We need parents and guardians to delete all photos and videos off of your child's iPads immediately. Once you have done this we need you to go into the "recently deleted" and delete what you just trashed in order to save your iPad from imminent doom. Yep, a two step process in order for it to work. I have never asked the kiddos to take a picture or video of anything, so please clear out everything they may have in their photos and videos. Thank you for your time and attention to this very important matter.

Show and Tell:  There will be no show and tell next week. We will need closing circle for other things next week, and we will not even have a closing circle on Thursday. 

Spring Break:  Spring Break will be from Monday March 15th - Friday March 19th. Enjoy your very well deserved break! 

I know there will be so much more to cover in the upcoming days (weeks). I am attaching Marshall's Return To In-Person Plan for your perusing.  One thing of interest in the arrival/dismissal section is that parents are not allowed in the building at these times. I have informed the kiddos of this and Mrs. Burton helped us do a little tour of the school last Thursday. She took her computer and showed us how to get from the front door to our classroom, and from the classroom to the bathrooms. We discussed bathroom procedures and then we learned how to get from the bathroom to the classroom. We also learned how to go from our classroom to the playground, and vice versa. These are thing will we work on when we are in the building as well. I just wanted the kiddos prepared with the knowledge that they will be walking in by themselves, and to have some idea of where to go. I know I have yet to cover everything you may be wondering about when it comes to back to school. Please feel free to reach out and ask me anything you need to know. I will probably include your questions in the blog for others as well. If you are wondering how something will work I'm sure someone else will be as well.  In the meantime, have a great weekend. -Ms. Shaw