Password: reading

EPIC: https://www.getepic.com/students
Class Code: les7194

Storyline Online:
https://www.storylineonline.net/

1. Morning Meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays at 9:30am. 

2. One on One Check Ins will continue to be held every day from 10-12. The intention of these is to maintain our connections to one another! Keep signing up for once a week.

3. Read Alouds
We will continue to post recorded read alouds each day on our Padlet.

4. Heggerty
We will continue to post daily Heggerty recordings for your child to practice phonemic awareness skills.

5. Small Group Virtual Chats
I am going to start hosting small group lessons. You can sign up for one session a week. They will be offered on

Monday at 1:30 pm
Wednesday at 2 pm
Thursday at 1:30

The link to sign up AND the zoom meeting link is available on Padlet (will always remain the same link)

6. Math: Tuesday Math at 1:30 on Zoom with Ms. Hayes  (link in Padlet)

7. Performing Arts: Monday at 10:30 Performing Arts on Zoom with Ms. Cherry  (link in Padlet)

8. Movement:  Wednesday Movement at 11 on Zoom with Ms. Melanie (link forthcoming)

9. Clever: On Clever, (link is under extra resources on Padlet) you will have access to some apps including Lexia and ST Math. I strongly encourage all of you to check these apps out, as your child can use them independently. These are game based educational games that meet your child at their own independent level. “GoGoNoodle” is on there too! (Just ask your child about “gogonoodle” and they’ll get super excited! It’s movement videos they can easily follow along with independently).
**On our Padlet I have also added all sight word lists and some leveled reading lessons. These are OPTIONAL lessons but they are available for you if you’d like that extra push.

I hope this helps give some normalcy to your days at home. I want to thank everyone for being so flexible as we figure out this new way of learning. As always my message through all of this remains the same, do your best and don't stress if you can't make every meeting or complete assignments. And always reach out if you need help!

For cyber security reasons, I will be creating new links for our Zoom meetings. We will have a waiting room and a password for every meeting from now on.

For simplicity’s sake, and since we will have a new link each week, we’ll just have one all-purpose Zoom Meeting ID for all Zoom meetings (one on ones, morning meeting, and small groups).

(the link with password is in Sunday Email)

Meeting ID: 555 411 306
Password: (check Sunday email)

Links to everything (meetings, Clever, read clouds, sign ups, extra fun resources, etc.) are here.

I’ll also continue to post an outline of the week’s standards on the Padlet each Tuesday.

It’s been great to hear that those who have started to use Lexia and ST Math are really enjoying it. Once you have set your child up on these apps, they should be good to go, independently. These apps help keep the important skills we’ve been practicing in school fresh through fun games and activities. If you haven’t yet, please be sure to go try them out. Let me know how they work out!

I’m so happy to hear that children are enjoying our morning meetings together. We’ll continue to hold them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and try to keep them brief. This time to see one another and feel like a community feels invaluable right now. 

For cyber security reasons, I will no longer be recording any morning meetings. If you can’t make it on time, it’s okay. We’ll see you at the next one.

Thanks for your patience as we are learning how to best move forward with our small group teaching and learning. We will continue to have sessions on Mondays at 1:30, Wednesdays at 2, and Thursdays at 1:30. 

I look forward to seeing each and every one of your faces once a week on Zoom. Again, this is an informal time to chat and connect, as well as support in any area of learning as needed.

(Reminder to keep signing up. Some friends have gone ahead and signed up fo the same time each week, which I recommend as a way of adding some consistency to the week.)

Thank you for all the hard work you’ve been investing into your child’s learning at home. As always, I’m here if you need anything!

I’m also suggesting that everyone use Lexia and ST Math (or Zearn!) at least ten minutes each day. The consistency is key! Access these through Clever: User ID is your student ID and password is birthday in MMDDYY format.

Finally, please know that my goal here is to give you access to different resources that allow your child to learn at his or her own pace and in his or her own format. If this is overwhelming, do not feel bad about slowing it down and taking everything one day at a time. We’re here for you in any way!!!!!

1. I’d like to thank each and every green tree frog for wishing me a happy birthday and creating such beautiful cards on Friday. What an amazing group of kindergartners and families, and what a great way to start off my birthday weekend! :)

2. We do not have any distance learning, one on ones, or small group lessons this Thursday, April 16th for DC Emancipation Day. If you had a one-on-one scheduled for that day, feel free to go ahead and find a different day/time that works for you. I will hold our Thursday small group lesson on Friday instead at 1:00 (not 1:30). If that doesn’t work for you, you can sign up for a different day.

3. I will post a video going over next week’s DCPS packet (week 4) tomorrow evening. This week has a bit more to it than past weeks, so please watch the videos that I will post to get a better sense of what to do. Our small groups will now focus on these work packets, as I’ll be asking students to share some of their work that they’d completed. No matter where you are in the packets at the moment, please start Week 4 on Tuesday so that we can be more unified and on track with one another in small groups. 

(I will not be posting the link on Padlet because with the link, you do not need to enter a password, so from now on, please use this link in this email or check the Padlet for the meeting ID and remember the password.)

Week ahead:

Monday: Last day of Week 3 DCPS packets

9:30 am: Morning Meeting

10:30 am: Kinder Performing Arts (link forthcoming)

11 am: Kinder Movement (link/meeting ID on PE Padlet)

1:30 pm: Small Group

 Assignment: bring your most recent work from the ELA packet to discuss

Tuesday: Week 4, Day 1 of DCPS packets

1:30 pm: Math (meeting ID on Math Padlet)

Wednesday: Week 4, Day 2 of DCPS packets

9:30 am: Morning Meeting

11 am: Kinder Movement (link/meeting ID on PE Padlet)

1:30 pm: Small Group

Assignment: bring your most recent work from the ELA packet to discuss

Friday: Week 4, Day 3 of DCPS packets

9:30 am: Morning Meeting

1:00 pm: Rescheduled Small Group Lesson (Thursday’s group)

 Assignment: bring your most recent work from the ELA packet to discuss

1:45 pm: NEW! Art Class with Ms. Dana

Also, please know that we will not have distance learning this Friday, April 24th, as it is a record keeping day for teachers. Use this time as you please!

Please:

1. Take a video of your child independently reading a book that is “just right” for them. It can be one of the books I sent home in March, or a book from home! Try to get the book in the video so I know what it is. 

2. Take a photo of their most recent writing sample. This can be from their journal or this week’s Earth Day writing. Anything that has complete sentences, mostly lowercase letters, spaces between words, and punctuation. 

3. Take a photo of a recently completed math worksheet/page from the packet.

Please send these to me through email by Monday morning so I can get back to you with praises and feedback! I can’t wait to see the growth they’ve made during this time. Reminders:

I am attaching our plan for the week ahead. Please know that it is not required to do every single little thing on this plan, but continue doing your best as you are doing what’s best for you and your child(ren). This is simply a guideline, not a strict assignment. 

Thank you for all of your diligence and patience. We are here for you! Please reach out for anything you need.

Some reminders:

Thunderwear :)

A: the street

A: "Mooo York!"

2. What did the little corn ask the mamma corn? Where’s pop corn! 

How is everyone? I miss all of your children so dearly.

I know that these past couple weeks have been incredibly challenging and uncertain, with both Covid 19 and the focus on racial inequities within our country. I want your children to know that I am still here for them during these times.

In order to maintain our strong connection, I am going to begin hosting once a week virtual “lunch bunches” with our students, in which your child is more than welcome to just join, see familiar faces, talk, or not talk, with or without food. Our relationships are more important than ever. Please feel free to join me at noon on Fridays. We’ll begin this Friday (June 12th)!

Green Tree Lunch Bunch: Fridays at Noon 

Meeting ID: 727 5721 9401

Password: In email!!

Also, please continue checking our Padlet for updated resources. I encourage each of you to continue logging into Epic, especially to check out their collection on celebrating black culture as well as starting a conversation about race. It’s never too early to start talking about this (note that age ranges start at age 3!) Links to these collections are posted on our Padlet. I’m here if you need any support with these resources, especially, as I am sure, it can be an uncomfortable and new.

I also started a column for you to post any updates from this summer so far! Lost teeth? New skill learned? Painted a picture? Just want to say hi? Feel free to share a comment, photo, or video. If you have trouble posting anything, feel free to just send it to me and I’ll post it!

Report cards will be sent home later this month, and please be on the lookout for information from Principal Whisnant about picking up personal items and returning materials to school.

With love and respect,

Lizzie

Expand your ideas about summer fun and give your kids (and yourself) a little room to grow.

By Catherine Newman

The summer of 2020 is approaching, and with it the waiting game on whether summer camps will open in your town. If you were expecting to send your kids off either every morning or for actual months on end, you might be panicking. But whether camp has already been canceled for your children, or you’re concerned about sending them even if it’s open, keep in mind there may be something not-so-terrible about a summer spent at home.

Without camp, your kids can sleep late, and you need neither to schlep them around, nor pack their lunches. They’ll have some time to play, space out and even learn a few life skills.

“For parents who are working from home, this is a nightmare. A summer with no structured activity,” said Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of “How to Raise an Adult,” but “we know that curiosity and imagination blossom from boredom. They can build forts, stage plays, do dress-ups, dig up worms. Maybe this is an opportunity for children to reclaim some of the very best aspects of childhood that we’ve paved over with enrichment programs.”

Maybe it is.

Here’s a formula to keep in mind for your “Pandemic Home Camp”: one part free-range, one part screens and one part parental involvement. And there’s a single rule at this camp: If your kids are having fun, leave them alone (unless they’re eating compost or chasing each other with rusty tools).

Your children might be happy rereading “Calvin and Hobbes” or learning to crochet over Zoom with their grandma. Or they might want to watch movies, make Popsicles, do a hundred push-ups and learn to vacuum (go ahead and dream a little). It’s all good! Or, at least, it’s all fine.

Once you’ve gotten your mind around the fact of a summer at home, the rest is in the planning (or not planning). Here are some steps you and your school-age kids can take toward a successful, fun, educational (or at least a safe, contented, sanity-saving) summer. If you have tiny ones in the house or children with special needs, you’ll most likely need to adapt these ideas significantly:

Brainstorm. Ask your kids what they were most looking forward to about camp — then help them grieve their losses and figure out which parts you can recreate. Dodgeball and bunkmates? I’m sorry, sweetie. Lanyards, those little boxes of sweet cereal, and flashlight tag? You got it! Remind them they get to skip the parts they hate, like the bus and the shouty lifeguard. (Or the whole experience, if you send them to Lord of the Flies Camp!) Then, list their favorite things to do at home, especially activities the kids can do independently and without fighting.

Could you come up with an easy theme for each week or month? Think music or movies or nature or — if you have this kind of kid —school camp. (Relaxing is also a fine theme for camp.) If you’re blessed with an older kid who can be a younger kid’s “counselor,” discuss this arrangement, and its compensation, privately, so as not to rankle anybody.

Invest a little time upfront. Your kids will be more independent in the long run if you teach them some basic skills right now. Show them how to put on their own sunscreen, feed the pets, change batteries or a light bulb, cut safely with a sharp knife, mop up a spill, unload the dishwasher. That’s why they call it Chores Camp! (Kidding.) Praise them extravagantly for their efforts.

Structure the day — or don’t. A schedule written out on a white board might be reassuring to some kids and constraining for others. Lay out some basic expectations, if you prefer: that the kids will go outside at some point, make their own lunch, or be on screens no more than a certain amount of time (and that can be a big number right now). Some afternoon downtime with an audiobook and coloring supplies might be wise, too.

Offer a challenge — or don’t. Give your kids an idea or two to shape the day or week. These can be fun for them, helpful to you, or both. For example challenge them to make an arcade game from cardboard boxes, paint the garage,create a stop-motion animationfrom clay, make a fruit salad for dinner, hack a dull game like Candy Land to make it fun, organize all the books by color, make fancy hats for the dolls, check in with their grandparents over FaceTime, use up the old bananas, create a Rube Goldberg machine, open a salon and paint everybody’s toenails, learn your favorite Joni Mitchell song on the piano, roll all the pennies, make a fort, fix the broken lamp, etc.

Consider lunch a teachable moment. Show them how to make a sandwich, a quesadilla, a package of ramen — and then leave them to it. Pose an occasional ingredient-challenge contest, like on the show “Chopped”: “Each of you has to make a dish using that huge block of cheese and the old celery.” Then take a work break at lunchtime to judge and — Bonus! — be fed. Teach them to clean up too: load the dishwasher, put ingredients away, wipe the counters.

Make friends with screens. From massively multiplayer online games to video tutorials, TikTok and FaceTiming with friends and family, connectivity is a huge boon to the stuck-at-home kid. For active children, Wii fitness games and their ilk are lifesavers, and for sedentary ones, a daily feature-length film is a totally legit option. (If it makes you feel better, call it Film Camp.) But do set some screen limits, even if they’re long, especially for social media, because otherwise the kids will be on tablets all day and the opportunities of summer will pass them by.

Here are some recommended resources for online classes and activities:

Gather some supplies. Think: stuff your kids can do on their own. (If you have to stop working every time someone wants to thread a needle or boil fudge, you’re going to be frustrated.) Remember you’re saving money on actual camp, which might make this an acceptable time to invest in that Nintendo Switch or a giant set of LEGOs. But this is also a great moment to cultivate the value of scrappiness by making garbage art or finally using all that origami paper.

The items to consider come in a few select categories that you can also use to structure your day. Some of them may seem obvious, but in the sudden rush of bored kids looking for something to do, you’ll come to appreciate this list — much of which you may already have:

Be all in or all out

If what you mostly need to be doing is work this summer, then tell your kids as much and enlist their help in making it happen. Set aside time to spend with them during the day, whether it’s lunch (which they can make for you), or an hour in the afternoon to play a game, take an online anime class, or attend any magic shows or concerts where your presence is requested (a roll of actual paper tickets is a wonderful thing to have on hand).

And if the kids want more of your presence than you can give, then “I wish I could spend more time with you” is a helpful thing to say.

Lay a blanket on the floor near where you’re working, in case someone is lonely or sad and needs to lie down near you with a book for a little while.

Keep a question box, so they can jot down their issues to rehash with you later: practicalities like, “Do we have food coloring?”; curiosities like “What’s the kind of bird that kind of looks like Robin Hood?”; and problems like “We had a fight about farts and why they smell.”

Pick an end time for the “camp day,” then help the kids clean up — not because it’s your job, but because it’s nice to help.

Maybe home camp will be a mess, in more ways than one: the cluttered house, the under-supervised activities, your abandoned ideas about how time should be spent. But it’s OK. The kids are learning important skills right now — like how to be flexible, creative and resilient. And so are we. It’s just one summer of many. And one day? It’s going to make a really great story.