New School Year, New Beginnings

Welcome to the 2020/2021 School Year!!

This year I have been assigned to all the 5th graders and only 1 4th grade Intervention Block.

I am super excited to be back in the classroom and to be with the children.  We have been going over many protocols and new procedures that have been put in place.  Last week, we spent our days getting to know one another and doing some writing.  

Fourth Grade News:

We listened to the book; I Am Enough.  During the Intervention block, the children will listen to a book a day and do some type of assignment.  The book I read always has some type of lesson or moral and we discuss it thoroughly.  Once we discuss it, we will then do an activity that relates to the theme of the book, it may be a writing, art or small group activity.

Last week we also did a lot of getting to know you activities.  We are building relationships and getting to know one another.  The children have Mrs. Davia for ELA, Mr. Pono for Math, Mrs. DeAngelis for Science and Mrs. D'Amico for Social Studies.  We have Google Classrooms and Class Dojo up and running.

Each week I will send out the blog through Skyward, so pleas make sure you have access to that.  Also, if you did not join Class Dojo, please do as I communicate daily through that.  

The children all wrote a positive word on a slip of paper and put it into our positvity jar.  Distant learners, you had this as an assignment of Google Classroom.   I will write your word on paper also and put it into our jar.  Each week I will choose a slip and we will discuss what that word means and how we can use it in our daily lives.

Fifth Grade News:

It was great seeing all of my former students this week.  They all seemed happy and ready for the new year.  One of the first books we listened to was The Dot by Peter Reynolds.  It is a great book that teaches us not to give up and Make a Mark wherever you go.  So, once we listened to the story, they were given a piece of paper with a dot on it and used their imagination to turn it into a picture.  We have some great illustrators in the room.  For the distant learners, they also listened to the book and did some writing about how they can make their mark in the world.

I also had the children listen to the song while they drew their pictures. It is a catchy song that you can find on You tube for my distant learners.  

I hope the children enjoyed drawing their creations.  Some are still working on them and I will see what they drew tomorrow.  

Hope that this little glimpse into our week showed you how we spent our days.  Now that they in person learners will be in 5 days, there will be a lot more discussion, interacting and participation as we social distance and follow the CDC guidelines. 

For our distant learners, I will be seeing you live during the week, as you follow your daily schedule.  We are excited to have you be part of the classroom as much as possible given the current situation that we are all in.