Can you believe it's finally Spring Time? It's been such a strange time for everyone. I truly appreciate all of the efforts that you've done at home to help your child. This has been hard from both ends. I miss my sweet class. I miss telling them stories and them sharing jokes with me. I miss seeing that light in their eyes when they understand a new concept. There is so much we're missing out on right now.
Along with this, I feel that we are all learning and growing: the class, and myself. I think everyone is learning that we can do hard things. That we need to do our best and not give up. We're all learning how to do things differently and still getting things accomplished each day. I look at all of us as a piece of bread dough. If you peter out and don't knead your dough enough by hand, or if you don't allow it enough time in your mixer, the dough will lack strength. The dough may even fall back onto itself and collapse as the gases produced by the yeast escapes. Once baked, an under-kneaded bread loaf will be flat and dense in texture. I don't want us to be like the dough that isn't kneaded. As we do difficult and divergent things from our norm, we have to decide to either do something or just sit and wait it out. I'm hoping that my students will rise stronger and stand taller when they come back to school next year.
Again, thanks so much for helping your child meet these challenges and better themselves.
ZOOM Virtual Pet Show:
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Today is the pet show at 1:00 p.m. My class has talked about having our pet show all year long. I tried to think of a way that we could still do this at home. Thank goodness for technology and ZOOM. I'm so excited about this. I sent out an email last night, but I'm going to re-share here on the blog what the email said with all of the directions in case you missed the email.
Dear Parents,
In 2nd grade, we always have an end of year pet show. I decided that we will do our pet show
during our Zoom get together. It will start tomorrow at 1:00 on Thursday. I’ll send out the link for the ZOOM chat 5 minutes before and I’ll also put up the information on our Google Classroom stream.
Please talk to your child about how we’ll be taking turns and need to not shout so we don’t spook our pets. Make sure ahead of time to have your child fill out a piece of paper with information about their pet. ( Paper is attached to email) This way they’ll know what to say when it’s their turn. This is the same thing we would have done if we were back in regular school. We’ll also be letting kids have their turns in their numerical order with the number they were assigned at the beginning of the year. They should all know what their number is. :)(I attached a sheet with the numerical order)
This should be a lot of fun. Even if you don’t have a pet at your house, have your child color a picture of a pet they wish they could have. This way everyone can participate.
Thanks so much!
Ms. Staley
Here are the questions that the children need to answer before we start, so when it's their turn, they'll be ready to introduce their pet.
Questions to answer about your Pet for Ms. Staley’s Pet show
1. What is your pet’s name? What breed?
2. How old is your pet?
3. Where did you get your pet?
4. What things do you like to do with your pet?
ZOOM Talent Show: Coming in a Few Weeks
In a few weeks (I'll let you know the real date soon!) we will have a class talent show on ZOOM. I wanted to give you and your child plenty of time to choose a talent they want to show and practice.
Everyone has different talents from dancing, singing, karate, playing an instrument, art, a sport, reciting poetry, etc. But, go ahead and start working on something. I'll even be doing something!
SUPER KID: If your child hasn't had a chance to be Super Kid this year yet, I'm working on some fun things that they'll get to do so we can highlight your child. I'll email parents directly when we will do some fun things for your child. Thanks!!
SUPER KID: If your child hasn't had a chance to be Super Kid this year yet, I'm working on some fun things that they'll get to do so we can highlight your child. I'll email parents directly when we will do some fun things for your child. Thanks!!
Picking Up Items From School
I wanted to talk about your child's items still at school. I will be going to school a few days next week to start sorting through things and getting them ready for you to come and pick up. There are many things I need to take down off walls, put in portfolios, and making sure everything I normally send home at the end of the year is put on their desk. I ask that you please wait until Mrs. Williams gives you the go-ahead to when it's time to pick up your child's things and turn in the Chromebook that you borrowed. I promise that I will have everything that belongs to your child will be returned to them. Thanks for your patience with this process.
Due Dates, Missing Assignments, and Last Day Work Will Be Assigned.
Hopefully, you noticed that I've not been putting due dates on most assignments. I did this mainly so as to not put a lot of pressure on my students. I felt that having no due dates would allow you and your child to decide when to do work. If you need to skip a day and do something fun, that's OK. All I ask is that you try to go back and finish as many things as possible. Go to Google Classroom and check each day to see how your child has been doing. Jordan School District sent out yesterday all information about grading for the end of the year. Please make sure to read what it said. If you didn't receive the email, you can find it on their website.
The last day that work will be assigned is May 22nd. Please hang in there with me and continue helping your child get their work done. I'm trying my best to get everything taught before then. I will be supplying a list at the end of the year things your child can work on over the summer to get ready for 3rd grade.
Sorry that this was so long, but I wanted to make sure that you had this information. There may be another blog post, but if not, I'll keep sending out emails often.
