April 17

April 17, 2020

Dear Kindergarten Families,

My hope is that this letter finds you all remaining healthy and well.  We are all enduring and extremely stressful time, but hopefully the past week has allowed you some time to relax and connect as a family without the pressures of remote schooling.  Or maybe you missed the structure and routine that you had finally settled into and are anxious to get back into the swing of it!  Either way, Monday will be here before we know it and I wanted you to be aware of a few changes you can expect.

I want to thank everyone for all your support over the last three weeks.  You have all made this possible.  Thank you for the added effort and help getting your students connected to our on-line programs (Dreambox, Zearn, Lexia Core 5, Seesaw, and Raz Kids (see below)).  While it may seem like a lot of technology, these programs are going to aid me in assessing student work throughout the rest of the school year.  They will also continue to add skill practice and new challenges for your kindergartener, as we are not able to distribute additional supplies to you.  At the same time, I want to remind you that there is a limit.  Students should break up the amount of time they are connected to their device each day and limit their sessions to 20-30 minutes at a time.  No child should be doing more than 90 minutes of work a day total.  If you find they are, scale back.  Let some things go.  But do try to have them access each program at least once a week for 30 minutes.  the exception to this is Seesaw.  Students will want to get on Seesaw everyday and be sure to access their daily assignments.  If they are not able to get to all of them in a day, they will continue to be available until they are submitted to me.

• I will still be doing individual check-ins through Google Meet on Monday.  I will be emailing you an updated schedule (I believe the times are the same).  The one change is that Mrs. Forrest may be helping me make some of these contacts, so your child may be checking in with her instead of me.
• Mrs. Boudreau (literacy tutor) and Mrs. Allen (math tutor) will be helping me with groups on Wednesday and Thursday.  They will each have two groups and I will have two groups.  On Wednesday the times of your child's group will alternate weekly so that I can see all children every two weeks.  We have not decided to do this for math yet, but that may come later.
• Seesaw lessons will now include lessons from all the kindergarten teachers at MES.  We are approaching this as a team effort to lesson the demand on each of us.  Miss. Cavanaugh and I will be teaching Math lessons, and Miss. Gale and Mrs. Gresham will be teaching literacy lessons.  So if you child questions why there is a video of another teacher, they should still do the lesson.
• Speaking of Seesaw, students will now be receiving a daily menu through their seesaw app.  The menu is a little different each day.  Students should do their best to complete the activities assigned on the menu.  At the end of their day, they can check off the activities they completed and submit it to me.  
• The school has decided to lessen the number of proficiencies we will be reporting on at the end of the year.  That means that your child will have fewer grades and several areas marked n/a (not assessed).  This does not mean we will not be teaching outside of these chosen proficiencies, it simply means we will not be collecting evidence on them (or assessing them).  Our main goal is to focus on the absolute necessary skills students will need to be successful in first grade. 
• Raz Kids is a new online reading platform students can access with leveled books. I will be sending a username and password card in an email over the weekend.  When students are assigned reading on their daily menu, they can choose to read books from their supplies that went home, or they can read new books I have assigned through Raz kids.  My hope is that students will read new books a couple times a week.  The program will allow students to listen to the book first and then work on reading it.  I am able to check student progress through the program.  

Morning Meeting:  Tuesday, April 21st @9:00.  

• Topic:  School Spirit.  Students are invited to wear green and/or gold to show their school spirit.  
• Sharing topic: share something you have made while you have been home (students should come with their item to show everyone...be prepared to tell: what it is, how did you made it, and why you made it.
• Activity: Freeze Dance
• closing:  Wolf Pup Song

A reminder that the school offers breakfast and lunch to any child.  pick up is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-11 am.  

That's it for now!  

Please let me know if there is anything you need.

Sincerely,

Diane Nicholls