Sept. 21-25

 Wow!  Wonderful weather again this week!  I'm loving this fall like weather!  

For both groups we have been working a lot on iPad activities--how to get on zoom by ourselves, how to find our assignments on Schoolwork, and how to get on Epic and Seesaw from Schoolwork.  I hope you are noticing your child being able to be more independent on their iPads. :)

I am sending home the C Day and Remote plans well in advance, so I don't forget to pass them out.  You can just keep them in their Remote folder until the day we need them.  I will also try to type in the date first on Schoolwork so the assignment is easy to find.  I'm finding that sometimes the links are going awry.  If so, I don't mind you finding another book for them to read on Epic or Youtube.  Or you can find a similar Youtube video as the title if it's math.

Sight words:  I am going to be sending home our Fry's Sight word list this week hopefully!  In first grade we try to learn the first 100 words, 25 each quarter.  It's a big bump up from learning 50 in KDG, but hopefully your child will know many from last year.  I would suggest getting some notecards and writing the words on them to practice.  So far, I have introduced, (I, can, do , not,) and will add (if, as) this week.  We just don't have much time right now in class to work on them, so please start practicing them at home to keep up!  

Small Groups this week!   I had to change some kids around, please look for your child's time.  It may be new!

10:00-10:30.  Group 1--Hunter, Olivia, Seeley, Wyatt, Freddie, Ke'Vontae, Coltt

10:45-11:15.  Group 2--Aiden, Annelise, Madeleine, Jade, Alison, John

12:00-12:30.  Group 3--Kinsley, Viviana, Hadley, Dylan, Maika, Will, Blake

Handwriting--We are working on remembering to start our letters and numbers at the top!  Please make sure to watch that your child is doing this at home.  Also, is your child holding their pencil with 3 fingers?  It is ok to hold a pencil with 4 fingers as long as they are not holding it like they did when they were just learning how.

Assignments--Please try to have your kids only do assignments assigned on the days assigned.  We will only assign packets to do a few pages at a time to have work for multiple days at home.  They should only be on lesson 2 and 3 for remote days in the Drops in the Bucket.  If you let them work ahead, then they will not have much to do on remote days at home.  Thank you!

Birthday treats!--Try to send in individually wrapped treats where no one is touching the same treat or reaching for a treat out of a container.  Little Debbie snacks, goldfish, etc. are great!

We will be beginning our new My Math curriculum when A group comes back on Thursday and Friday.  B group will begin it on Monday and Tuesday next week!  Homework pages from our math book will be included in assignments soon!

I also put a laminated ten frames sheet in your child's remote folder  to stay.  It  will be used for math groups, but can also be used as a dry erase board in remote sessions!  

Binders--I think the binders are working great for organization and the kids having supplies at their fingertips wherever they are.  However, three of the inside metal parts have come apart from the cover.  I am happy to buy replacements at Walmart that are more sturdy unless you are able to get there before me!  Dollar Tree did not hold up for all we are putting in them!  Bummer!

Group B on the playground dome

Group A enjoying music class with Ms. Donovan

Sept. 14-18

 We had a great start last week!  I know it's quite crazy, but you all are doing great keeping up with the craze!  It definitely takes time to get on a system with the Hybrid setup, but we'll get there!  I appreciate any questions you are asking, as I'm sure others are having the same questions!

Specials Teachers are only teaching in person on Zoom on C Days.  They have the A/B kids in person when your A/B child is not in school, so they aren't able to teach on Zoom on A/B days.  I believe you should be able to go to their Schoolwork tab now and find what they have assigned for the specials we have each week.  We had library and counselor this week.  Ms. Hartigan our counselor added a video.  Ms. Arter is having difficulties with her Schoolwork or iPad, so hasn't been able to upload anything yet.  

I went over how to get on the Zoom and activities on Schoolwork the last two days.  It will get easier as we keep using it.  I showed the kids to look for the dates to help them find things.  I will make sure to add dates for all links and activities to help you know when they are to be done.

C Days-- Tomorrow I will be beginning small groups with your children.  I meant to send the lesson plans for this week by paper but I forgot so, you can find it in an email I sent last Friday.  Your child will just hop on my Zoom at their time. Here are the group times:

10:00-10:30:  Kinsley, Viviana, Hadley, Dylan, Maika, Will, Wyatt

10:45-11:15: Ke'Vontae, Aiden, Annelise, Madeleine, John, Freddie

11:25-12:00. Lunch

12:00-12:30.   Hunter, Coltt, Blake, Olivia, Alison, Jade, Seeley

I will be having the kids write numbers so they will either need a dry erase board or paper.  They will also need to have the linking cubes in their math toolkit with them.  So,  if they go to JCPRD or another daycare, please send those in their backpack on C Days.

Please make sure to help your child get on my Zooms each day they are not in my class.  I do have to count them absent if they are not on.  Sorry.  I especially would like them to get on C days as I will be teaching on those days.  We have to get in any teaching we can with them on C Days.

Thank you for all you are doing at home!  It's a lot for all of you with your own jobs and families!  I appreciate you!

Reminder!  The Zoom meeting will hopefully answer any questions you may be having about Zoom or Schoolwork or Ipads in general.  I put the Zoom address in the email.  The meetings are at 6 pm either tonight or tomorrow night.

First Day of First Grade!

We had a wonderful first day of school for both groups!  I hope your child had a great day too!  We learned a lot about our new first grade "things".  We took pictures too!  See below.

I introduced the parts on an Ipad (power button, volume, home button, microphone plug in and charge cord plug in),  We talked a little about the Apple crayon but did not use it.  We found where the power button is and learned to hold it down for it to turn on, and to not tear off the rubber piece to get to the plug in.  Most importantly, we talked about keeping it safe in our case so we don't lose it.  If it gets lost, we won't be able to write with it anymore or draw with it.  So, please always check that it's in there before closing the case for the day.  We also learned that it's important to keep it charged before coming to school, so we can use it!

As you can see, our binder is already full with the supplies in the pouch.  I'm hoping it will hold up this year!  I hope you had a chance to pull out the papers to keep from the Take Home Folder and the remote assignments from the Remote Folder.  The remote assignments will come back in that folder.  If there are any school homework assignments or notes for me/school, please send them back in the Take Home Folder.

Headphones--Please send in headphones when you can if you weren't able to get them yet.  Make sure they aren't earbuds as they aren't as comfortable as headphones.  Thank you!

Lanyards--I will try to take off their lanyards at the end of the day to keep here in their schoolbox.  They are definitely needed when the kids eat lunch to hold their mask.  If it comes home, please send it back.  Thank you!

C day is tomorrow!  We will begin at 9:00 and be on for about 45 min.  The rest of the day will be spent completing the Sept. 11 assignments that are in your child's remote folder. See you tomorrow at 9:00!

Group A

Here's our First Grade classroom!

These are our cubby lockers!  Since we don't have lockers, we are calling them that!

Group B