Good Morning to all of you. I am sorry I didn't get to post yesterday but I left school right at the end of the day to get to my daughter's soccer game in Lyndon. I love watching my girls compete and love that they get the opportunity to play games again. They won 10-0 and are now 2-0!
This week we read two different books during read a loud time. One book was What Do You Love About You and the other was I Like Myself. We continue to focus on books that focus on each individual and promoting that our differences make us both special and unique. I have linked a video read a loud for each book, if you want to listen to them with your child.
Progress Reports:
I hope you all found the progress reports both informative and helpful. The point of these was to give you an update about your child's pacing and for you to help your child adjust if they need to catch up with things. I also wanted you to know where they were starting (in some areas) to give you an idea of they are doing the work that they are. I also hope it gives you a sense of how important the asynchronous and Wednesday work is in regards to your child's learning. The work being assigned is not busy work but a crucial cog in the development of their academic skills. Although these did take a bit of time to do, I felt the time was worth keeping you all in the loop and giving feedback to allow for adjustments where needed. Please let me know if you have any questions.
A Tour of The United States of America:
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Next week will start our Social Studies unit focusing on the United States of America. Throughout the year we will travel to each state to learn about it and document our learning. The research will happen through a variety of means including readings, videos, pictures and other platforms.
Each student will be receiving a passport (see a passport photo to the right) that they will be using to record their learning in. It is very important that this doesn't get lost. Please make sure that if your child isn't using it, they keep it in their Ziploc bag and in their backpack. They will also be using Flip Grid to record their learning. This past week, each child had a chance to record a video and learn how to use this technology. If your child wasn't in school this week, have them go to the social studies section of my Google Classroom, find the flip grid assignment and complete the task.
I am very excited about this unit and wanted to create something that would be interesting for the students, would allow continuous learning whether it is in person or remotely.
Here is a video that I strongly urge you to watch. It is 15 minutes long but it explains how the unit will work, how your child records their learning, and how he/she will be graded. The video cuts out at the 15 minute mark because of time limits. The only other thing that I was going to add was that you can add anything else to any state. In other words, if you love Montana and want to teach your child other interesting facts, feel free to do so when we visit that state. We will be starting with Vermont this coming week. I want to thank Mr. Mongeon for all of his help in creating this unit. The two of us have put some time into it and hope your child enjoys the journey.
NOTES:
*You all did a great job getting your child to bring back all of their work last week. Thank you so much and I appreciate the effort. It certainly makes life easier on my end.
*You may have noticed that you can't access the writing "turn in" sheet anymore. I was asked not to make that viewable by all of you. Sorry for any inconvenience.
*We are getting to the point where kids may be wearing boots to school. I ask that your child brings a change of shoes with them or leaves a pair at school. Since we are sitting on the floor, I want to keep the dirt and water off the carpet. If you want your child to leave a pair of shoes at school just remind them or let me know and I will remind them.
*As great as backpacks are, some children may benefit from having a reusable grocery bag as a school bag. This will offer more space for bringing things back and forth. This is just a suggestion and not a requirement.
That is all for now. Have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
