Distance Learning Update March 30, 2020

Hello Families,
This is a note regarding the visual supports that were sent home this week.

• The second grade special educator, Ms. Lynch, created a social story called “Days At Home” about the school closure, to help explain the situation and provide children with language, expectations, and options to help support them during this time of uncertainty. This is something you can read to/with your child, which s/he can read and look at repeatedly thereafter. Some children and families may choose to read this story every weekday morning as a first step in their day, while others may read it once and then post it on the fridge, and other families may not feel it is appropriate for their use. Please feel free to use this in a way that is most helpful for you and your family.

• Ms. Lynch also created a visual daily schedule called “My Day,” as well as a visual daily task checklist called “My Daily School Jobs,” that may be helpful tools to reinforce consistency with a daily routine. Please look them over and know that they are simply suggestions for how you might structure your child’s day. You can use both or just one. Both visuals are aligned with the plans and materials that your child’s teacher has sent home.

• Another special educator created a visual about parents working from home, for working parents to review and refer to when they are working at home. “

Thank you for your support!

Mrs. Hock

Week #28 March 23-27, 2020
Week #1 Distance Learning

This post is a thank you.  Thank you to all the students and families for your efforts to transition to at-home learning this week.  You all had positive reports, and I enjoyed my communication with every family.  Thank you so much for your support and your hard work as you balance the needs of your family & professional demands as well. 

Many students sent me pictures of themselves or their work.  Here are some to share.  A few mentioned that they tried to send me pictures or videos and the attachments were too large.  Feel free to share in google world too or try to email again at shockenbury@sbschools.net

I'm looking forward to more regular contact with the students!  Keep sharing those pictures!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mrs. Hock

Week #27 March 13-20

Changes and Preparation
Distance Learning Begins March 23, 2020
Here are pictures of our academic learning bags ready for delivery Monday morning.

Week #26 March 9-13, 2020

We began a lot of new learning this week as we started new units in reading, writing, math and science.

Our science unit is about structure and properties of matter.  This week we focused on describing and classifying different kinds of materials by observable properties.  We defined matter and then investigated solids, liquids and gases more specifically.  We classified, not sorted, objects by texture, hardness and flexibility.  Our week's work culminated with our investigation of solids, liquids and gases in balloons--yes, balloons! We observed & described the 3 states of matter in the balloons, hypothesized what would happen when we popped the balloon, and then gathered evidence on the "popped balloon matter".  As scientists, the class was safe and collaborative, and had fun too!

Our opinion writing unit began with writing letters about our favorite books or characters.  By the end of the week we were using a checklist to check our writing for leads, opinions, examples & evidence, transition words, endings, attention to audience, and punctuation/spelling.  Next week, we'll use mentor texts to inspire our letter writing on various topics and try different craft techniques to enhance opinion writing.

Our reading unit focuses on summarizing our reading as we use the following language for sentence starters to eventually guide our writing of summaries (In the beginning, Then, Next, After that, In the end...).  We used picture books as shared reading to practice orally summarizing these stories "across our hands" using each finger for each sentence starter.  We will use these summarizing techniques in our reading groups as well.

We are using tools to measure in math.  This is the first year young mathematicians are expected to estimate and measure in standard units.  We are measuring length with inches and feet, and also comparing the measurement to the size of the unit used.

We celebrated Pi Day as close to March 14 (ie: 3.14) as we could on March 13 by engaging in math art related to Pi.  We read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi as we learned about the circumference of all circles being just over 3 times the length of its diameter.

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• a guidance lesson with Ms. Amblo about our hearts and words we use
• How Big is a Foot? and inch worm rulers
• saying "Hello" in different languages
• Vowel Team Task Force Manual
• Gratitude Journals

Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Hock

Week #25 March 4-6, 2020

Our culminating event for our geography unit was our America Float Parade this morning at assembly.  We did our best as we proudly marched a path around our school community in the gymnasium showcasing our floats. The crowd cheered in support, and we received many compliments!  Our floats are now on display in the library for all to enjoy a little more closely.

Other things to ask your child about this week:

• Star Power
• Adding tens and ones to 470
• Mystery Doug:  Why do we have Leap Year?
• Mrs. Hock's sample collection of cardinals

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Hock