Weekly Templates

Hello, parents!

We hope that all of you are staying healthy and finding a way through this unprecedented time in history. We know it is hard to balance jobs, schooling kids, and continuing to take care of other parental responsibilities. Our hope is that you have been able to find some balance and are figuring out ways to enjoy this extra time with your child. The state is slowly starting to open back up. Please continue to take precautions for your family's health and safety, but enjoy the outdoors! We have had some beautiful weather lately, and even though there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow (May 9th!), let's hope the weather is moving more towards summer warmth and sunshine.

Over the last few weeks we have rolled out a Weekly Template for learning. Many of you have expressed that the new format is much easier to navigate than Google Classroom. We are glad! The template is full of videos, worksheets, activities, and games for Literacy and Math. Keep in mind that all of these are suggestions for keep your child's brain active and learning; take what works for your family. There is also a section for Community Time (Social Cognition). This is a spot for us to put additional social/emotional learning activities. In our classroom teaching these principles was interwoven into every aspect of our day. Each week the topics may relate to your child or they may not. Again, take what works for you and use it! Next week's template will have a video about anxiety as well as a read aloud about perseverance. Other templates have had resources about emotions, or frustration, or perspective taking. These videos and activities are typically short and could be a fun break for your child from more academic work (but they should still learn something!). Let us know if there is a specific topic that would be helpful for your child.

The second page of the template has information and links from the Unified Arts teachers as well as more supplemental materials from us. These are typically fun videos, tours, mindfulness activities, or movement breaks that might be useful to you as a fun break or reward from academic work.

Check out Sight Word Twister! 

We would love to see other pictures of our students learning and playing at home.

We are Virtual!

     Our classroom is virtual! We have a very strong presence happening over on our Google Classroom right now. All of your children have been given access through their school accounts and when they log on to their chromebooks there should even be a bookmark for it. If you are having a hard time connecting to Google Classroom, please reach out to a teacher. We are here to help! 

     We understand if times are hard right now and you are in survival mode and schoolwork is not the priority, but if you are looking for resources for your children or activities to keep them busy, there is a wealth of videos, links, and activities updated daily on our Google Classroom. We are also offering daily video conferences where one of us will pop on to work with your child each day for 30 minutes. The links to those meet ups are always accessible in Google Classroom (click the Classwork tab at the top and then find the Social Cognition header). The 'Stream' portion of the Google Classroom is also a great resource for updates and announcements that might be pertinent to you.

     When it comes to Literacy, Ms. O is posting read alouds that students can watch as well as sample word study games and activities. There are also links to online games and websites that students love such as Epic (a reading app) and PBS Kids. 

     When it comes to Math, Mrs. Davis is posting a daily math video with ideas and suggestions for math work and math games using the supplies provided in your child's distance learning bags. She also has a lot of helpful materials and resources linked there, as well as links to online games such as Prodigy and Sumdog.

     The other neat thing you will find on our Google Classroom is a link to Pinky George's youtube channel!  Pinky George is a dog puppet that was named by our class and has helped us learn social cognition strategies all year. Now Pinky George is having an adventure at Mrs. Davis' house, and it's a lot of fun to watch! Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi9gtzWDUduzGhxpONkhU-w

Please know that Mrs. Davis, Ms. O, and Mrs. C are missing all of our students so much and look forward to the day that we can all be together again at school. For now, we are trying to make the best of it and creating resources for you each day. Let any of us know if there is anything else we can do to support you through this strange time.

Unified Arts

     Our students love music class! They get to sing, dance, and play instruments within a variety of musical genres. They get to have fun (without realizing they are learning a lot)! The instruments they are playing in these pictures are called Boomwackers. They are pitched plastic tubes that students hit against the floor, their hand, or their legs.

     Students in the whole school were able to have another free gym period as a celebration for positive PE classes. It's great to see what different students gravitate towards and how much fun they have with the opportunity for free exploration.

     We have other Unified Arts classes each week including Library, Spanish, Art, and Enrichment. There is always a lot of different options for students to learn and explore in Enrichment, including coding games, imaginative play, creative projects, and much more. Students have spent the last few weeks learning about the Iditarod - a sled dog race across Alaska. 

New Classmate!

     At the end of last week a new student joined our classroom. Welcome, Kayden! We are happy to have you join our community of learners. We worked on our cooperation skills, patience, and teamwork to put together a group snack to enjoy and celebrate his first day with us.

Recess Joy

     The students in our class look forward to recess every day (as most Elementary students do)! Many of them especially enjoy sledding at recess. Earlier this week there were no sleds outside and students were disappointed to not see them. But, students made the best of it and ended up sledding just using their bodies instead. It was such a fun recess!

     Students were so looking forward to doing it again at their next recess, but then the playground and surrounding field was too icy subsequent days this week to use it. Hopefully after February vacation there will be fresh snow and the playground will not be as icy. We hope students enjoy the break. We look forward to seeing them on March 4th!

Sight Word Practice

     Even though it is almost February vacation students have been continuing to work hard on their academic work. In Literacy Ms. O has been pushing 1st and 2nd graders to increase their knowledge of sight words. Students have been reading sight words, writing sight words, and playing games in order to test their comprehension. This repetition is so important and students are responding well to it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

     Students who were with us today were able to decorate sugar cookies, exchange cards, and celebrate together.  It was a small group, but days like today show us what a great community of learners we have cultivated in our classroom.  Besides Valentine's Day it has been a busy week of Unified Arts classes, as well as typical math and literacy learning.

     One special moment captured in our classroom this week was the whole class (and some of the teachers) laying on beanbags during quiet time. We have a short 10-minute block after lunch each day where we ask students to do something quiet to bring their bodies back to calm after lunch and before starting math instruction. Students really look forward to this time each day. Some students build quietly, some students listen to music, and some students just lay on beanbags to rest. We put on calming music and sometimes a soothing video accompanies the music - ocean scenes tend to be the favorite! On this particular day everyone wanted to lay down and be soothed by the sounds and scenes.