Hello Weckie Families!!
Today completes our final full week of virtual learning on Zoom 😥😥. Next week brings big changes for all of our learners and our classroom family. While I did not apply to teach virtually, I also have not yet been told my grade-level and building placement... hopefully soon!!
Monday through Wednesday next week will remain like normal virtual learning days on Zoom. The next several days after that will look very different. Thursday, October 29th, and the morning of Friday, October 30th will be spent with asynchronous learning. What does this mean? This means there will be NO Zoom on these days. Your child will still come onto their Google Classroom page and find a post of options of work tasks that they will need to complete on their own in our core subject areas. There may still be work needed posted to Seesaw as I will still be following along as I work to get my classroom at Dublin set up for a return to "in-person" learning. The tasks posted are not meant to replace a full day of learning and should not take your child hours to do! You should be hearing from your "next" teacher around October 30th. We are hearing we will see class lists around October 29th.
Looking ahead, the tentative schedule for the first week of November includes:
- Monday, November 2nd: We will meet on Zoom from 9-10am to do a closing type activity with our original class. The remainder of the day will be spent with asynchronous learning from our Google Classroom Page.
- Tuesday, November 3rd: No School for Election Day
- Wednesday, November 4th: (Kindergarten returns to In-Person Learning) Grades 1-5 Welcome on Zoom with your new 2nd Grade Teacher 9-10am. Then the rest of the day will be spent with asynchronous learning from your new teacher - whether in person or virtual.
- Thursday, November 5th: In Person Learning/Virtual Our Path Learning resumes 9-4. If you are choosing in-person learning, last names A-L will attend school on this date. Last names M-Z will find asynchronous learning posted on your Google Classroom page. All Our Path Students will have a normal school day on Zoom.
- Friday, November 6th: In Person Learning resumes 9-3 for students with last names M-Z, while students with last names A-L will find asynchronous learning posted on your Google Classroom page. All Our Path students will have a normal day on Zoom.
This is the most up to date information we have been given about our return to learn. My hope of all hopes is to be placed back at Dublin, in 2nd grade with ALL of our children who are picking to return in-person. And just a reminder, if you are choosing to keep your child virtual, please know that I am just an email or call (room phone: 248.956.3864) away! I always say, "Once a Weckie, always a Weckie". I'm still going to want updates on how your child is doing, available for questions or help in any way and hope to get some Zooms going with your kids from home when we figure out our schedule and hopefully tie them into your lunch break time!
This week we wrapped up many of our first units... Math, Writers' Workshop, Readers' Workshop and we are close in Phonics... Here's what we have been up to!
Phonics
This week in phonics we have really focused in on CAPITAL letters. We have been talking about: when to use capital letters, when to use lowercase letters, and adding specific details into our writing that uses capital letters. We have been focusing on the chart in our Writing Folders titled "What gets a capital letter?" This is HUGE for our second graders as they learn to write predominantly in lowercase letters with proper use of capitals along the way.
Readers' Workshop
Our Readers' have been digging deeper discovering all of the lessons, big and small, that we can learn from reading fiction books. While it is obvious when reading non-fiction that we are learning about a specific topic, looking deeper in to our fiction texts for an author's message or lesson is a wonderful skill to sharpen for our young readers! We have read several Kevin Henkes books over the last two weeks and each book gave us an important lesson we could all relate to and learn from. Then we moved onto the Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems which are often set around one or both of the characters learning a lesson. We have had rich discussions about these lessons and the similarities between some books about the topic or the lesson learned.
Writers' Workshop
Our Writers' threw a celebration this week for their published writing pieces!! It was wonderful to hear them all sharing their work across several breakout rooms on Monday. Then each child posted their writing onto Flipgrid and read their work to us. We all got to leave comments to each other on their writing work. It was a great way to wrap-up our Small Moments Unit! The remainder of the week, we used Writing time like a free choice writing time where the kids could write about any topic, fiction or non-fiction. They seemed pretty eager to have a choice in what they wrote about this second half of the week!
*Breakout Groups to share and celebrate our writing!*
Math Workshop
This week in math we began our second unit! We spent time with addition strategies including - using what we know about double tens frames to help us add, using doubles facts and adding up to a friendly 10. We introduced two games this week that would be great additions to game night at your own house! We learned how to play "Spinning for Money" and "Fishing for 10s". Both can be found on Google Classroom posts from this week - Tuesday and Thursday!
Social Studies
This week in Social Studies we began wrapping up our unit on our local community by creating a circle book showing our readers how in their own small circle is their family/house, then the next circle (a little bit larger) shows your house in a neighborhood, then branching out further to your neighborhood in a city, then your city in a state and our state in a country! Please be sure to ask your child to see their books, they looked FANTASTIC!
A few final words...
This will probably be my final news blog post with our current class list. My heart is SO happy for all that we have accomplished in our time together these last 10 weeks!! Our kids are truly becoming tech wizards and have amazed me with all that they have learned and even taught me about technology. My heart will be SO sad to say goodbye in the coming days... Even virtually we have all really developed quite the bond and relationship! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for ALL that you have done to help your child to be successful with our virtual learning. Whichever path you have chosen moving forward, please know I understand and support your decision. I look forward to the day when I can see and meet each child in person and give them a giant squeeze!! Jen Weckstein😀
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