Weeks are Flying

The weeks are just flying by.  I cannot believe that we only have 10 days left.  As we wrap up this very different school year, I have to give a shout out not only to the students, but also the parents.  As we began our distance learning, we had no idea how it would unfold.  After weeks of persistence and determination, we are so pleased with the outcome.  We have received many positive emails, in how well the children have adapted to this process.   It certainly a school year that no one saw coming, but with everyone's support and guidance we are getting through it.

4Z is in the process of reading The Empty Pot.  I have assigned various activities for them to do. One is to create a poster about integrity.  This book has many themes, one being  Integrity.  They will continue to work on these activities until Wednesday, when all of them are due.  They will find all of this in Google Classroom. 

Every day I have been getting pictures of children who are giving it their all.  The children are so dedicated and motivated with all that they are doing.  It hasn't been easy, but they are doing it and getting things done.  Flexible Fridays seem like a good time for them to be catching up on work that needs to be done and others choose activities from the choice boards.  

 

Lastly, Flat Mrs. Zirilli has been keeping very active and busy.  I LOVE all the pictures that are being sent my way.  I enjoying seeing what "she" is up to.  Boys and girls, please keep them coming. It puts such a great smile on my face whenever I see what "she" is up to. 

The children will be putting together a slide show with all of her adventures during our last week of school.  Stay tuned for more adventures and sightings of Flat Mrs. Zirilli.

Hope you are all out there enjoying this beautiful weather.  I am finally getting out there to do some gardening.  It is starting to feel "normal," just a little bit, to get outside and planting my flowers.  

Our Week in Review

This week we continued with 5th graders  presenting their virtual wax museum presentations.  Many of them did an amazing job.  Although this is our first ever virtual one, it sure was different to see them presented this way.  I was blown away with their presentations.  Kudos to the 5th graders!! They always seem to impress me in whatever situations they are presented with.

As the weeks progress, I see how well the children have been adapting to different circumstances.  They are reading and writing and choosing various activities from the choice boards that they have available.  They never disappoint and are always putting forward all that they've got.  

When answering questions of the day or comprehension questions from something they have read, they should be using the R.A.C. E. strategy.  This allows for them to cite evidence, not just simply write an answer.  This is something we were working on as it is a skill that they need to acquire.  Some children just want to write a simple answer and not back it up, with R.A.C.E. it forces them to have to give details in the answers and refer back to the text.  

Flat Mrs. Zirilli Adventures continue...

 

The 4th graders in my homeroom were mailed a mini version of me and they are taking me on all sorts of fun adventures throughout the days.  I have been making pizza, celebrating a birthday, going on walks, ziplining, going for ice cream, playing outside and was at the beach for the first time this week. 

 I love all the pictures, keep sending them.  When all my adventures finish, the children are going to create a slide show of all the different places I ventured out to and all the fun activities I did.  I cannot wait to see the final product. 

Happenings with Mrs. Zirilli's Homeroom

This week your child should have received a little someone in the mail.  I created a bitmoji of myself and sent it out by mail for your  child.  I am hoping that it brought some smiles to their faces as they opened up the letter and read all about it. 
Over the past couple of days I have received pictures of the students with my mini me having all sorts of adventures.  I am hoping to get more as the days progress.  I had so much fun putting these together for them and I hope that they have fun with it too.  This is very similar to Flat Stanley.  I am waiting to see how many more adventures I will be going on.  I will be checking my email for pictures. 

My plan is to put these all together into a book.  It will be memory book of  the 2020 school year in quarantine.  Along with their picture, I would like for them to do a little write up about the adventure they went on with Flat Mrs. Zirilli.  Once they write about how we spent the day, they can send it to me on a google doc and I will have them printed and bound for others and themselves to enjoy, once we are able to return to our school. 

Here are a few of the pictures I received over the weekend.

I was telling my family that Flat Mrs. Zirilli is having more fun, than the real one!!

I am so pleased with many of the wax museum presentations that I have already received.  I hope that the few that have not submitted them yet, will do so.  We are going to hold google hangouts for the children to present them to the rest of the class.  This isn't the way we wanted this to go, but we have had to make accommodations along the way.  

Here is a sneak peek at some of the projects.  I am so excited to see the rest.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead.  I will be waiting for pictures to see what Flat Mrs. Zirilli is up to.

My Heart is Full!!

Virtual learning continues-
The children are doing such a great job and we are so proud of their efforts. It has taken some getting used to, but it seems like everyone is receptive to this new way of learning (at least for now).

Although I would much rather be in my classroom, hearing the children and seeing their smiling faces, I am sad that I won't be able to see them in the classroom for the remainder of the school year.

 

This year it was a different teacher appreciation week, but we still felt very much appreciated and loved my the students.  I love my sign, which I proudly display in front of my house.  Our PTO also was wonderful in celebrating us.  Thank you to all the students who made slides, wrote poems, wrote us thank you letters, made posters and sent me a gift or two.  I truly feel honored to be teaching your child. 

My heart is full and I am sad that I won't be able to see my students in person before ending our school year, but we are making the best of the situation.  I am so lucky to be working at Stephen Olney and would not change anything about it.  We are a special group and so lucky to have one another.  Our SOS family can never be replaced and we are fortunate to have all our students and families be a part of it. 

On Friday we said good bye to our student teacher, Ms. O'Neill.  We are going to miss her and wish her all the best.  This was truly a first ever for her.  She did a great job in assisting me during these weeks.  I wish only the best for her and I know she will keep in touch and will join more of our google hangouts before the end of the year.  Many joined us on Friday, there were smiles all around and the students even created a google slide presentation for her.

 

On Friday, we surprised more of our students of the week.  We have made this a Friday tradition and look forward to it each week.  We love to see their smiling faces and surprised looks when they see a parade of cars showing up in their neighborhood, and not so quietly, I might add.  We start blaring on our horns and want everyone to know we are there. 

The smiles and excitement make our whole day.  

I want to wish all of our SOS moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. a very Happy Mother's Day.  I hope you all enjoy this day with your families and Stay Safe!!!

Until next week...Be well!!

Virtual Learning; Weeks 1-6

I have decided to start up my blog again.  I had put it on hold, when all of this virtual learning began, but I am back and hope to keep parents informed with what is going on.  We just finished our 6th week on Friday.  When this all began, we wondered how it would all work out, but with time passing and decisions made on how and what to do, things seem to be going smoothly.

There has been a lot of preparing and meetings held for us to be able to take on this uncharted territory.  We are a great team at SOS and we feel that we are meeting the needs of our students and are available through google hangouts.  We hold small group meetings and discuss concerns that the children may have.  We review work with them and guide them through assignments or projects.

I feel confident that we are reaching out to the students and doing our best to make them feel comfortable.  I know that everyone feels over whelmed, but we've got this and we are going to get through it together.

The children are doing such a great job and we are so proud of them.  We miss them so, so much and know that they are missing their friends and yes, even their teachers.  We hear it often on the hangouts.

The children have been working on many various projects and assignments in their google classrooms.  Some things that we have assigned are posters for their windows, Earth Day activities, reading books from Epic, and recently they  should be working on their virtual wax museum presentations.

They are all so proud to share their work with me and I feel that they are doing such a great job communicating with me.  I receive many emails, and messages through google classroom.  They are making the best of the situation, as well as, we are doing our best to reach out to them.






When the Governor announced that schools would be closed for the remainder of the school year, we were saddened that so many of our events would not take place this year. Our faculty vs students basketball game, our Talent Show and many more celebrations would not be part of the 2019/2020 school year.  The children stress how much they want to see their friends in person.  We are also saddened by the fact that our fifth graders will leave SOS and we won't be back with us.

They will always hold such an important place in our hearts.  We weren't planning for any of this, nor did we think that it would end this way.  This was totally out of our control and feel for these students, in every grade level.

Flexible Fridays:
Every Friday will be designated as Flexible Fridays.  The children will have an opportunity to catch up on work they aren't done with and meet up with teachers in google hangouts.  They are given choice boards to work on fun, unplugged activities.  This was our first week doing this, and I must say, the children really impressed me  with what they did. 

 So, with all that is going on, the children are really stepping up to the challenge and make me proud, each and every day.  We even surprised 7 star students on Friday.  We showed up at their house with a special treat.  We are planning to pull more surprises like this for the remainder of the Fridays we have left.