We can do VIRTUALLY anything

Families:

Two days until I get to see "my" students.  I have been focused on this moment and how it would work all summer.

And mostly I got good at worrying.

I don't have all the answers because I'm not sure of all of the questions!  I can tell you that the 2nd grade team has been working together to make sure that it is as simple as possible for families.  If you rolled your eyes at that, know that it could have been worse.

Everything is difficult when you are a beginner.  I am a beginning virtual teacher! There will be a lot of FAILING FORWARD as I learn the routines to switch from monitor to monitor, app to app, platform to platform.  And that's okay because I am really motivated to do my best for you.

It will be frustrating for you and your scholars when things don't go as expected.  I wish I could save you those growing pains but I know if we persevere we will get through it.

Technology and bandwidth are the great unknowns.  There are things that are clearly above my capacity to fix but I know the right people to ask.

So ... take that deep breath with me.  We can't change this, but we can approach it positively.  To give myself perspective, I think this is 1/x of my lifespan (see what I did there?) and this too shall pass.  But for my students this is 1/3 of their educational experience.  Their desire to be learners is built on their impressions today.  I wish I could give them the class transformations and group activities of last year.  But I can't.  What I can do is work with you to make this the BEST VIRTUAL YEAR EVER!!

Enjoy the Summer

There are a lot of unknowns right now, and I have been guilty of living in the future considering all of the possible permutations.  But when I think of my students I have a much healthier outlook:  enjoy today, do your best today and take things as

3/31

Charlie's YouTube channel link is ONLY on our Class Dojo site for privacy reasons.

3/27

3/25

3/24

3/23

Sumdog is free! Changes in Class Dojo

Sumdog is a highly engaging math site.  We had access last year as a school but because of the high membership cost it was cut this year.  It is in the bottom left hand corner of the symbaloo links page.  In a united front to help educators they have offered it free during school closures.  I will be emailing you your child's log on.  One thing that always confuses kids is when they enter in forestcreek it has NO space between the words.  This is our school code.  The more they play and advance, the more games that are open to them.

I don't have the district plan yet, but I do know that I will be modifying our class dojo to recognize all of the hard work being done from home.  So far there are points for reading on www.getepic.com .  I am working on posting reading group assignments and picking books at an appropriate level for your child.

Class Song : )

I'm Good, I'm Good, I'm Good

Moving towards e-learning

Hello parents and kids:
I hope everyone is healthy and positive today. These are certainly uncharted territories for schools, families, employees and most importantly students.

First of all, please tell your child that I am going to miss them. When I said goodbye it was for a week! As unusual as our current circumstances are, try to enjoy this week off.

I am not certain how e-learning will look after Spring Break. Our district is working on a plan for virtual learning. I will post curriculum and activities on our class page and send directions for specific activities as we get to that point.

Most importantly - keep calm for your children. Their social and emotional health is the most important thing. They should not have to worry about economic effects.

Secondly, we are a strong FCE community and if you have a specific need, please feel free to contact me and we will work together.

Third ... academics. Just read. Use www.getepic.com with the classcode SHC9230 during school hours. Encourage creative play and board games over video games. Keep a schedule. Kids respond really well to routines.

Lastly at least for today, please feel free to email me or have the kids email me if they want.

We're better together, Love Mrs. S

Our Poetry Collections are Complete!

January 13th we kicked off our Poetry unit -- one of my favorite for kids that are reluctant writers because they are quick and fun.  The first tool in our writers' toolbox was rhyme.  Students then set off to write their own rhyming couplet after we wrote (several) as a class.  1)  Think of a place 2) Think of rhyming words for that place and 3) write a two line rhyming couplet which is two phrases or sentences that have the rhyming words at the end.

We wrote:
Pool
The cool blue water of the pool
Sparkling like a dazzling jewel

School
Walking quietly is the rule 
When in the hallways of the school

We then spend a few days learning the difference between nouns and adjectives so that we could write "Two words on a Line poem"  As a class we wrote

The Wedding

Happy bride
Nervous groom
Beautiful dress
Lace veil
Flying rice
Thrown flowers
Wedding cake
Fun dance
Married couple!

We learned about the author's use of repetition and enjoyed several poems with rhythm in an ABCB rhyming pattern

Next we took on Personification -- this is a tough one.  We read The Fog by Carl Sandburg and walked like a cat to visualize the fog moving through the harbor.  We spotted examples in our reading like "the sun peeked over the ridge", "the waves tossed and turned the boat" and my personal experience -- the chair jumped in front of me.  Students had a worksheet to guide them writing this one.

Acrostic Poems were next.  My main teaching point -- but not necessarily the student's learning direction is that you brainstorm your subject first instead of trying to force phrases that spell out the subject.  We watched a brainpopjr., wrote several class examples and then did our own.  I conferenced with students to make sure that their phrases were meaningful to the subject.

Alliteration might be the most fun as we threw ourselves into tongue twisters and wrote silly but grammatically acceptable ALLITERAINBOWS.  We read Z got Zapped and wrote a class A my name is __________ poem as well as tongue twisters.

Last, but never least we worked on the second grade syllabication tek by learning to count out 17 special syllables in a Haiku.  We read Dogku and Haiku Hike (a book written by students) During conferences I encouraged a lot of rewriting so that we weren't 
repeating a lot of words in those short three line poems.

We also learned about sensory poems, concrete poems and onomatopoeia.  I hope when these beautiful collections come home next Thursday you will enjoy.  I already have some nominees for the Rising Star book for sure.