Newsletters

Week of 05/18 - 5/21 

What's Happening This Week?

Key cards has been sent to parents' emails. If you did not get an email from me, please reach out to me for this information.

Week of 03/30 - 4/10

What's Happening This Week?

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Your child’s wellness is a top priority for me! I believe that the situation surrounding COVID-19 can be confusing and frightening to students. At this time, prior to the start of our launching of Virtual/Distance Learning, rather than assigning a work load of assignments, I will especially focus on the 3Rs: REVISIT, REVIEW, & REFLECT to help keep your child retain his or her current academic skills so that he or she is prepared for our new online learning platform, scheduled to begin on April 20^th!

As the online learning platform is also something that is unfamiliar to students, new concepts will NOT be introduced up until after Spring Break. To be most fair, as students have missed many days of school since the lockdown, a lot of the work you will see this week will be concepts that students are already familiar with. The reason for this is to help them retain the skills from concepts they have already learned and to help further solidify their understanding of previously taught concepts so that they are prepared for what’s to come in the next few weeks, once virtual learning takes off. 

I am using the 3Rs at this time because I am a firm believer that if your child has a strong understanding of the previously taught concepts, then your child will be better prepared in building upon those concepts and in transferring those knowledge to help them make sense of new information or concepts once virtual instruction begins. 

Below you will find more information about the 3Rs and how they will help prepare you child for what’s ahead. Keep in mind that at this point, students will not be graded on their responses, rather this is an approach to get students thinking! 

3R’s Approach

REVISIT (R.I): We will do this by talking about or exposing the student to previously learned concepts to maintain and strengthen his or her current academic skills in those topics. This will allow the student to continue possessing the essential background knowledge necessary for the construction of new-related concepts. It will help to keep information “fresh” to the student so that she or he can easily refer to it, when needed to make sense of new information.

REVIEW (R.II): We will do this by providing opportunities for drill and practice to prevent the possibility of regression for the previously acquired academic skills. By doing this the student will gain fluency and confidence in those skills. This will serve to help students when presented with similarly situated learning circumstances through the transfer of skills.

REFLECT (R.III): We will do this by getting students to think about what they currently know and do not know to assist them in remaining alert in their own learning processes. Engaging in metacognition can allow the student to understand what they already know and what they do not know, which will foster active learning, allowing the student to take charge of their own learning.

If need, Scholastic has a plethora of ideas on what you can do to help your first grader in many areas; Literacy, Mathematics, Science, etc. Remember that the goal is to get your child "thinking!"

Have fun playing and learning together!!!