A Different Way to Do School

I hope everyone had a safe Spring Break and found something enjoyable to do!  My Twitter feed and Facebook blew up with posts from teachers around the country that are now learning a new way to teach from their homes instead of face-to-face with their pupils.  There is a LOT of stuff out there!  One thing I am grateful for-- PTA let me attend a technology conference last February in San Antonio.  While there, I learned about an online platform called Seesaw.  I have the free version set up for my two classes and we have completed a couple of activities on there, so the children should have some working knowledge of how to use the tools available to them.  I might utilize this online platform to have students show me about their learning from home.

Speaking of learning from home, all of us will be in this together!  The district rolled out the digital backpack to parents on Sunday, March 22nd.  These are activities that should be fairly easy to implement, to help you get a sense of what kind of a schedule you need to set at home.  Please do not feel that you should be "doing school" from 8-3.  This week teachers are checking in with families and doing some online learning ourselves.  Once we get a feel for what the district expectations are, we'll get together as teaching teams to put together some distance learning plans for the students.  For now, use the resources from the district.  There are a lot of questions that I don't have answers to at this time, but feel free to email any that you have to me.  I will answer what I can!

Please download the app for Zoom.  We will possibly be using this app for a lot of our eLearning.  Here is a link for more information about Zoom (Click here).  You might want to go ahead and practice getting onto zoom by using this link:  zoom.us/test
Once we get more information about how we are using Zoom with students, I'll be able to send you an email with the date and time to log in using a link that I will include in the email.  Students will click on the link, and hopefully be able to join in fairly easily! 

Fall Parent Conference and Carnival Week

It's already Mid-October!!  The Astros are still in post season play (thank goodness it isn't with a team on the east coast this year!!), report cards are being sent home on Friday, and our fun-filled school carnival is on Saturday!

Important things to know:
*Thursday and Friday are noon dismissal days.  Mrs. Wolf's homeroom will spend most of Thursday with Mrs. Mallette and Mrs. Mallette's homeroom will spend most of Thursday with Mrs. Wolf.  Since Mrs. Wolf's homeroom will NOT be with Mrs. Mallette on Friday, they will have their spelling test on THURSDAY, October 17th.
Then on Friday, Mrs. Mallette will keep her homeroom for the day and Mrs. Wolf will keep her homeroom for the day.  Mrs. Mallette's homeroom will take their spelling test on Friday.

*Fall Individual Picture day is on Friday!!  Brush your hair, brush your teeth, and wear something nice!  These are the pictures that are used for the yearbook.

Since we have dismissal at noon on Thursday and Friday, our schedule is a bit modified.
+ Block time will be from 9:10-9:40
+Recess will be from 9:45-10:15
+Lunch is 11:00-11:30

If you would rather have lunch with your child after school, that is fine.  We have to offer lunch to all students.  I would recommend sending along a snack that will help them get through the four hours they are at school.

Our fantastic Frostwood Carnival is on Saturday from 11-3.  There is a sign up if you would like to volunteer some time:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050d4eaba92ca20-tigerfest1
There are lots of activities, food, and fun for the whole family!  Mrs. Wolf and I will be out and about in between a couple of conferences that we have set up on that day.  Wave to us if you see us!

Rain, Rain...

I hope all of our families have had a good weekend of rest after the crazy amount of rain last week.  Thank you for supporting our book fair!  We should be back on our regular Friday library rotation this week.

Spelling Bee:  Third, fourth, and fifth graders are invited to participate in our school spelling bee tryouts.  Information will be coming soon with words to study.  The first round will be within the homeroom classes.  There will be two grade level champion spellers and two spellers from each homeroom chosen to participate in the school spelling bee that will take place in November.
Want to start studying?  Click HERE to go to our webpage of study lists!  Third grade will start with the Level One words. 

Speaking of spelling-- our first spelling test for the school year was put on rain delay, so we'll be taking that test on Monday, September 23rd.  Students will need to be able to spell the words correctly AND be able to write them in the write pattern column.  There will also be two sentences that students will need to write.  Spelling words will need to be spelled correctly and they will also need to use appropriate capitalization and punctuation.

Parent conferences will be held in October.  An email will be sent the first week of October with a link to SignUp Genius.  Mrs. Wolf and Mrs. Mallette will be meeting with parents together, so you only need to sign up for one meeting time.