Dear Families,
What an upside-down time. I have heard from a few of the children this week and it was wonderful to be in touch. I’ve also received some emails of photos or updates otherwise, and have loved to see the work coming together in your homes. The smiles of the children beside naan bread and other finished recipes are a reassuring sign that things are going as smoothly as possible! You are all on my mind throughout each and every day. I miss the children very much.
Please do let me know if I can be of help in any way - even if that means dialing my phone number and handing the phone to your child so that you can have 20 minutes of peace when needed. On that note, I’m happy to speak with the children individually and will expect to do so at least once per week as we move forward. The time spent on the phone can be a general check-in, a help with school work as a time to answer questions, and to give your child some personal one-on-one connection with someone outside of the immediate family! Please see
this list
of when I will make phone calls and to whom. If the time/day selected does not work for you, please do let me know and please give me a time that does work for you.
Perhaps the most important thing I can recommend to all of you at this time is to try as hard as possible to bring rhythm and structure to your weekdays. I would reserve weekends for time to relax and rest, but try to maintain some kind of schedule. This will help the children in the long run. It’s “an ounce of prevention…” moment - a bit harder to build from the ground up, but worth it in the end. Too much unstructured time leads to boredom and a wide variety of other things. At this point in time, I recommend making a schedule and sticking to it. I also suggest giving your children new chores and enforcing time in nature or outdoors. Those can come as mandated demands from me - their teacher - and I’m fine with you making me the enforcer as much as you need to at this time!
Because I think it might be helpful for you and know it will be helpful for the children, I’ve broken down the Main Lesson work for the week into a list of what should be done each day - find that here -
daily breakdown of ML work
. Outside of that there are also different tasks - and subject classes - to tackle. Please feel free to either use this scaffolding or to scrap it as you need to. There is no pressure here as we all try to figure out what works best.
I have created a Spotify playlist for the class. This is completely optional. It includes music from North America - the Canadian national anthem to bluegrass to state anthems, as well as the “unofficial” national anthem of Cuba, “Guantanamera.” I’ve also included a ukelele version of “Over the Rainbow” (many of you have probably heard this already) and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” because they are uplifting and relate to the North American content we’ve studied. Mainly, it’s on my mind that many children while stuck at home are going to be interested in and asking for media consumption. One thing that has been on my mind is the age-appropriateness of popular music of today and the lyrics that songs contain. My thought in creating this account was that they could engage with music that relates to school work, and
Schedule for this week:
Monday -
- Yoga / morning verse (yoga routine / morning verse / german verse / spanish verse - audio files for german & spanish verses will be sent soon in a following email)
- dictation for spelling words from last week
- Begin working on spelling words for this week
- Math sheet for Monday
- Begin working with the poem
- Nature observation - write down three signs of spring
- Writing for comparison - what is similar about the ancient cultures that we have studies: India, Perisa, Egypt? What is very different? Please write at least two paragraphs about these.
- Listen to Story - Leaving Egypt, Entering Greece (audio file for this story will be sent soon in a following email)
Tuesday -
- Yoga / morning verse
- Song - Ms. Loshak “Shanty Boys” ( come all ye jolly shanty boys)
- Spelling words - sentences - what do you see in these words that is similar?
- Math sheet for Tuesday
- Recite poem
- Recall story from yesterday as we would in class. List what things that you remember most using three nouns, three verbs, three adjectives in each paragraph (they can be noun/verb/adjective in one sentence). Write one page about what you heard in the story yesterday. Have a parent or older sibling check it for spelling (if you need help with this please call me!). This is journal work - not ML book work.
- Create a drawing based on your nature observations from yesterday (signs of spring)
Listen to Story - Chaos (audio file for this story will be sent soon in a following email)
Wednesday -
- Yoga / morning verse
- Song - Ms. Loshak “Shanty Boys” ( come all ye jolly shanty boys)
- Spelling words - sentences - similarities?
- Math sheet for Wednesday
- Recite poem
- Recall story from yesterday as we would in class. List what things that you remember most using three nouns, three verbs, three adjectives in each paragraph (they can be noun/verb/adjective in one sentence). Write one page about what you heard in the story yesterday. Have a parent or older sibling check it for spelling (if you need help with this please call me!).
- Drawing for Gaia - look at my drawing for guidance and help
- Listen to story - Gaia and Ouranos (audio file for this story will be sent soon in a following email)
Thursday -
- Yoga / morning verse
- Song - Ms. Loshak “Shanty Boys” ( come all ye jolly shanty boys)
- Go over spelling words
- Write a pen pal letter in this link you will find another link to take you to the addresses for sending out these letters (pen pal list)
- Math sheet for Thursday (and Friday)
- Recite poem
- Create a ML book page with border. Do your best work. Finish the border today and transfer your recall writing from yesterday onto that new ML book page.
- Start drawing for Gaia and Ouranos - look at my drawing for help and guidance
Friday -
- Yoga / morning verse
- Song - Ms. Loshak “Shanty Boys” ( come all ye jolly shanty boys)
- Math sheet for Friday
- Review spelling words
- Write a pen pal letter
- Math sheet for Friday (finish from yesterday)
- Recite poem (can you memorize it?)
- Create a ML book page with border. Do your best work. Finish the border today and transfer your recall writing onto that ML book page.
- Finish drawing for Gaia and Ouranos
Additional Work:
● Finish reading The Golden Goblet if you have not already.
● Handwork: The fifth graders should continue working on their socks (
knit socks
). If they have any questions, their parents can email me at
naturescolor@yahoo.com
. If they don't have their socks, they could practice knitting and purling.
● Foreign Language - this is from the teachers - but please look below for individual assignments: Dear Grade Five Families, We hope you are all well. For the week of March 23rd, your students can recite the morning verse in German and Spanish each morning. Additionally, they can read the first chapter of the German reader and Spanish reader out loud each day. Please text Senora Concha any questions you may have for Spanish at 518-755-0604 and Frau Pilgrim for German at 612-229-8976. Wishing you all the best.
● German: Say the morning verse in German each day. Also look here for additional work (audio file for this work will be sent soon in a following email) contact
KPilgrim@hawthornevalleyschool.org
with questions.
● Movement - yoga each day before Main Lesson work. Take a walk in nature each day - very important!
● Continue with instruments.
● Read for pleasure.
● Cook with your family or for your family!
Please do reach out with any questions. I’m going to print out versions of this work and will put them in the classroom with the recorders. The children should take their recorders home and practice.
They will also need more main lesson book paper
. I’m going to put this out for them as well. There will be a bin system set up this week for drop offs and pick ups. Let’s be in contact about the best way to do drop off and pick up. I would like to get work from you as well. I’m happy to pick it up at school either in the bins or in the classroom.
Wishing you all the best for the coming week.
Yours in the service of the children,
Meaghan McKenna
352.283.0089
