4/24

Hello families!

Be sure to talk through this craziness of this pandemic with your student. Let them know they will be safe, see if they have any questions or worries. Kids can hide their worries and concerns just like adults, which can make it hard to just see. Teachers can worry about academics next year, you can worry about physical and emotional health now!

 Thank you for doing the home learning survey on the Google Classroom. If you have not completed it I will leave it up for another week! This gave me great feedback! Some families are feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work being given out due to a variety of reasons.

DO NOT STRESS! Do the amount of work that makes sense for your family. If that means pairing some of the assignments down, do that! No one is keeping track of the things you are or aren't doing. If you don't complete the weekly learning plan its ok! Its not a to do list, its a choice list. There are days in school that I don't get to everything cause the day was hectic or there was just not enough time. Just do a FEW thing to help maintain your child's skills and knowledge.

Google Meets: I want to set reoccurring times for our meetings! Mondays will be a 3pm, Wednesays at 6pm, Fridays at 11am. I chose these times based on the responses to the Home learning survey on the Google Classroom. These will continue til the end of the school year. Remember these are not required.

ELA Packets: You should be receiving another ELA workbook soon. If you do not get it before next week do not stress. Our weekly plan does have some lessons in the new packet but if you do not have it you can have your student login to Clever and use one of the apps instead of doing the packet work (cause you don't have it) or you can go back and finish anything in the first packet.

4/17

Hello families!
I hope your week went well with our packets and Google Classroom. I have a couple of announcements for this week. I have posted a video and also wrote out the major points below.

Announcement video!

Compassion: As a staff we wanted to continue giving out our Moral focus awards and this month's compassion recipients are Elysee and Ryan! Great job! Our next/last reward will be given out next month (May) and will be focusing on Integrity.

BrainPopJr.: Closed this weekend (April 18-19) for maintenance. It should be up and running again on Monday. Just wanted you to be aware if you were trying to login this weekend.

Parent Home Learning survey: I have posted a survey for you to fill out under Classroom Resources on the google classroom. Please fill this out. It will help me navigate and plan better.

Google Meet: Google meet is a video conference platform NHA has approved for us to use! I am super excited about this! We will finally be able to see one another! These Google Meets are NOT required. In the survey, mentioned above, there is a question you can fill out to let me know what time would be the best for your family. I know I will not be able to please everyone but I will try my best! Our first Google Meet will be on Monday (April 20th) at 3 pm. I will upload the link to our Google Classroom at 2 pm on Monday so you can get set up. If you can not make it, we will have other times scheduled as soon as the survey is done. Attached to the email I sent are some documents on how to access Google Meet and other resources regarding technology.
*I will go over expectations with your students once we are all on. This will be an adventure for sure! Also please make sure your students are dressed appropriately and have gone to the bathroom before the Google Meet.

Below are the plans for next week!

Upcoming info about Packets and Plans

Hello parents! (Warning: Long post ahead! READ ALL OF IT... or else😆).

Learning Packets should be arriving soon or should already be at your home! Yes, they are a lot. The First Grade team is here to help you! Please familiarize yourself with the packets. Flip through them, and book mark the different sections if you can. This will help with finding things more quickly. We will start using the packets on April 13th! If you do not have yours by then please email and just continue to work on the Google Classroom.

Watch this video for more info (I also typed up the major points underneath).

Packet Info video

Outline: Each week I will post a weekly outline on the blog (at the bottom), Google Classroom and will send it in an email. This outline will help you navigate the packets and the Google classroom each day. We are trying to use both packet and Google Classroom. Some prefer packet and some prefer online, either is good. Please remember to do what you can but please don't stress if you can not get everything done. If you have a limited time please have your student choose (with your guidance) what they want to do. 

Support/Challenges: Under the grid for the week is a section of supports and challenges per activity/section. If your student is struggling to complete an activity please refer to the support section. We have listed some things you can do to guide your student through the activity. The challenge section is to push your student and lists more activities you can do. This is great if you need more work for your student.

Technology: Ohhhh Technology! It has been a blessing and a curse during this time! If an app or website is not working please email. NHA is working on getting a Parent/technology help hotline up and running. I will send that info as so as I have it! Also some people have been having trouble getting in certain app/websites. Make sure your student's NHA account is the one logged in not a personal one. Sometimes computers get confused!

Breaks: Don't forget to take a break! Your students are amazing and can really focus but don't forget about breaks! Have them do some exercises, go outside for a walk or bike ride, do a Gonoodle.com video! If your student becomes frustrated please take a break!

Again, thank you for your support, patience, understanding,  and kindness through all of this. This was an abrupt change for everyone and I appreciate your support while we scrambled to get everything going!