June 8 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
The last week of school is upon us, and we are finishing up three months of online learning. I know this has been hard on everyone, but most of the students have made phenomenal growth in the area of digital literacy! Here are some things you will need to know for this week.
First, This week's Zoom schedule is different, so please make sure your child checks the class website each morning.
1. Press this button
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
The last week of school is upon us, and we are finishing up three months of online learning. I know this has been hard on everyone, but most of the students have made phenomenal growth in the area of digital literacy! Here are some things you will need to know for this week.
First, This week's Zoom schedule is different, so please make sure your child checks the class website each morning.
- Zoom Monday class meeting is at 10:30 am
- There will be small group Zoom meetings every day, but the group times are changed around. We'll be talking about our SKIES autograph pages instead of discussing a book.
- There will be a first grade Zoom dance party on Thursday at 11:00 am.
- For the last day of school, we'll have a fun Zoom meeting. More details on that by tomorrow.
1. Press this button
2. It will give you the option to print or download as an ebook. If you download on an iPad, it will go straight to your installed Apple Books app. It is easy to download as many books as you want into the Apple Books app.
Third, This week's focus is on appreciating our year together, so the main thing the students should do is their SKIES autograph books assignments. I'm keeping the other assignments pretty light so that they can concentrate on doing the SKIES language arts assignment.
Last, Every child is automatically enrolled in online summer school this year. If you don't want your child to do it, you should opt out. If you want to let me know your decision about summer school, I can pass that on to Mrs. Leach.
Sorry to give you so much information today! I hope you and your children enjoy the last week of school!
Ms. Lambert
Third, This week's focus is on appreciating our year together, so the main thing the students should do is their SKIES autograph books assignments. I'm keeping the other assignments pretty light so that they can concentrate on doing the SKIES language arts assignment.
Last, Every child is automatically enrolled in online summer school this year. If you don't want your child to do it, you should opt out. If you want to let me know your decision about summer school, I can pass that on to Mrs. Leach.
Sorry to give you so much information today! I hope you and your children enjoy the last week of school!
Ms. Lambert
May 26 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday weekend! We just finished our Observing the Sky unit in language arts, and rather than start a new unit, we will spend the next two weeks focusing on phonics. I want to make sure the students have a chance to learn some of the more advanced sound/spellings before second grade, so we will be introducing two sound/spellings per week instead of just one. The books I will assign to read are decodable books that are based more on phonics skills than on comprehension skills. Your child will probably want to spend time each day on Epic or Kids A-Z to work on comprehension skills.
I was very pleased to see all the budding authors we have in the class! I saw some finished books and some books in progress on Book Creator. They look great! I am going to ask some of the students who have finished their books to read them to the class at our class meeting today. One thing I noticed is that some students managed to find some images and create some storylines that were full of fighting and violence. Because this is a shared library with the class, I would like to ask parents to keep an eye on what students are writing and the pictures they are using to keep it appropriate for all first graders.
Thank you, and have a good week!
Ms. Lambert
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday weekend! We just finished our Observing the Sky unit in language arts, and rather than start a new unit, we will spend the next two weeks focusing on phonics. I want to make sure the students have a chance to learn some of the more advanced sound/spellings before second grade, so we will be introducing two sound/spellings per week instead of just one. The books I will assign to read are decodable books that are based more on phonics skills than on comprehension skills. Your child will probably want to spend time each day on Epic or Kids A-Z to work on comprehension skills.
I was very pleased to see all the budding authors we have in the class! I saw some finished books and some books in progress on Book Creator. They look great! I am going to ask some of the students who have finished their books to read them to the class at our class meeting today. One thing I noticed is that some students managed to find some images and create some storylines that were full of fighting and violence. Because this is a shared library with the class, I would like to ask parents to keep an eye on what students are writing and the pictures they are using to keep it appropriate for all first graders.
Thank you, and have a good week!
Ms. Lambert
May 18 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone is well and relaxed today! Normally, in the spring, I start a Writer's Workshop unit with the students where they choose what they want to write about and get to publish their best books. The students learn a lot from each other because they get to read their books to the class, and because students take these books to read during reading time. I was a bit disappointed this spring because it seemed there wouldn't be a way to do Writer's Workshop with the class this year. However, a couple of days ago I ran across a website called Book Creator. On this website, children can publish their books and they will go into our class library. Once the books are published, students can read each others' books. Consequently, this week in our Zoom small groups, I'll publish books with the students instead of reading stories. That way students will learn about creating their own stories and they will also learn how to use the Book Creator website.
I signed us up for a free Book Creator account that lets us write up to forty books, which is less than two books per child. If the students really enjoy the website, then I will use classroom fundraiser money to pay for an account that will let them write as many books as they want! If you want to look at this website, there is a link below. With a free account we don't have QR codes, but your child can log in with his or her LAUSD email and password. After logging in, you can put in the code below to connect to the classroom. During small group Zoom time this week, I'll give the students specific instructions on using this website. I will also include directions in Learning at Home Assignments. You can play around with the site to see how it works, but please don't publish books on it until students have their classes with me. Have a good week, and I hope the students enjoy their new books!
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone is well and relaxed today! Normally, in the spring, I start a Writer's Workshop unit with the students where they choose what they want to write about and get to publish their best books. The students learn a lot from each other because they get to read their books to the class, and because students take these books to read during reading time. I was a bit disappointed this spring because it seemed there wouldn't be a way to do Writer's Workshop with the class this year. However, a couple of days ago I ran across a website called Book Creator. On this website, children can publish their books and they will go into our class library. Once the books are published, students can read each others' books. Consequently, this week in our Zoom small groups, I'll publish books with the students instead of reading stories. That way students will learn about creating their own stories and they will also learn how to use the Book Creator website.
I signed us up for a free Book Creator account that lets us write up to forty books, which is less than two books per child. If the students really enjoy the website, then I will use classroom fundraiser money to pay for an account that will let them write as many books as they want! If you want to look at this website, there is a link below. With a free account we don't have QR codes, but your child can log in with his or her LAUSD email and password. After logging in, you can put in the code below to connect to the classroom. During small group Zoom time this week, I'll give the students specific instructions on using this website. I will also include directions in Learning at Home Assignments. You can play around with the site to see how it works, but please don't publish books on it until students have their classes with me. Have a good week, and I hope the students enjoy their new books!
May 4 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing weekend! The students did a great job last week on the Unit 7 Benchmark test. I was impressed with the high scores, even though the students had to read the test to themselves for the first time. The scores show that we are progressing in reading while learning at home. This week we'll start a new Language Arts unit, Observing the Sky. We have an exciting series of science lessons to accompany this unit, so I think students may find Unit 8 more engaging than Unit 7.
We have completed the geometry standards for first grade, so this week we are going to focus on tens and ones in math. The students have had extensive practice with higher numbers and grouping by tens with their CGI and counting collections lessons. However, the i-Ready diagnostic showed that the students needed more practice with tens and ones, so we'll work on them this week. I think most students will be able to do these lessons fairly quickly.
For our 2:00 pm Zoom meeting today, I'd like us to try another show and tell. I will have three students sign up in advance to do show and tell. Please message me on Class Dojo if your child would like to share. There are also directions for show and tell on today's learning at home assignments.
Finally, if you did not get a chance to read last week's message about best practices for small group Zoom meetings, please try to do that.
Have a good week everyone!
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing weekend! The students did a great job last week on the Unit 7 Benchmark test. I was impressed with the high scores, even though the students had to read the test to themselves for the first time. The scores show that we are progressing in reading while learning at home. This week we'll start a new Language Arts unit, Observing the Sky. We have an exciting series of science lessons to accompany this unit, so I think students may find Unit 8 more engaging than Unit 7.
We have completed the geometry standards for first grade, so this week we are going to focus on tens and ones in math. The students have had extensive practice with higher numbers and grouping by tens with their CGI and counting collections lessons. However, the i-Ready diagnostic showed that the students needed more practice with tens and ones, so we'll work on them this week. I think most students will be able to do these lessons fairly quickly.
For our 2:00 pm Zoom meeting today, I'd like us to try another show and tell. I will have three students sign up in advance to do show and tell. Please message me on Class Dojo if your child would like to share. There are also directions for show and tell on today's learning at home assignments.
Finally, if you did not get a chance to read last week's message about best practices for small group Zoom meetings, please try to do that.
Have a good week everyone!
April 27 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I think today's message might be too long to send as a Class Dojo message, so here are some things to share with you
First of all, the small group Zoom meetings last week were very successful! They were also a good learning experience, so I think I have learned some guidelines we can follow to ensure that everyone can learn.
Finally, I'm sorry I didn't get around to responding to students' Counting Collections on Friday. I had major technical problems on Friday and all weekend, which caused me to spend hours doing simple tasks. Sorry about that!
Have a good week, everyone!
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I think today's message might be too long to send as a Class Dojo message, so here are some things to share with you
First of all, the small group Zoom meetings last week were very successful! They were also a good learning experience, so I think I have learned some guidelines we can follow to ensure that everyone can learn.
- Make sure students are wearing headphones or earbuds before they sign in.
- Students need to be sitting in a quiet place.
- Students should not be conversing with family members during the small group class.
- The small group meetings are different from the class meetings, because the students are not muted. I want them to be able to chime in with their thoughts, just as they do in a classroom small group. If someone in the room is talking or watching TV, we won't be able to hear each other during the lesson.
- I put a live link to all the Zoom meetings for the week on the website Learning at Home Assignments page. Ideally, your child should just be able to press the link on his or her device to join the meeting. It might be more complicated from your end, but hopefully they are easy for your child to sign into.
Finally, I'm sorry I didn't get around to responding to students' Counting Collections on Friday. I had major technical problems on Friday and all weekend, which caused me to spend hours doing simple tasks. Sorry about that!
Have a good week, everyone!
April 13 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone had a relaxing week off! I have a lot of information to share with you today, so I will use subtitles.
Grades
Over the break UTLA ( the teacher's union) and LAUSD agreed that a student's grade at the end of the year could not be lower than the student's grade on March 13. This is great news, because I know that not all students have equal access to the curriculum right now, so this seems to be a fair way to grade. It also relieves those of you who are struggling to do your jobs, keep your families healthy, and help your children with classwork. Although no one's grade will be impacted by learning at home assignments, they are designed to help your child master the first grade standards and be ready for second grade.
Attendance
I am still being asked to take attendance each day, although this is mostly to make sure that everyone is safe and healthy. If I don't hear from a student or his parent for an entire school week, I need to let an administrator know. As I mentioned last week, I use SKIES, Zoom meetings, and Benchmark Universe to take attendance. Over the break I also learned how we can use Class Dojo portfolios for attendance. I will tell you how in the next section.
Class Dojo
I spent some time over the break researching how to use Class Dojo. I am still a beginner, but I will share what I learned.
SKIES
When I give a SKIES assignment, I check student work in the afternoon and leave feedback for each child. Students should remember to go back into SKIES later in the day to see how they did and leave positive comments for other students.
I hope you have a great week! I really appreciate all the families who shared things on Class Dojo. It is fun to see how students are enjoying their time at home. I think Class Dojo offers us many great learning options, so please sign up if you haven't already. Remember, Zoom class meeting today at 2:00pm.
Good Morning Room 4A Families,
I hope everyone had a relaxing week off! I have a lot of information to share with you today, so I will use subtitles.
Grades
Over the break UTLA ( the teacher's union) and LAUSD agreed that a student's grade at the end of the year could not be lower than the student's grade on March 13. This is great news, because I know that not all students have equal access to the curriculum right now, so this seems to be a fair way to grade. It also relieves those of you who are struggling to do your jobs, keep your families healthy, and help your children with classwork. Although no one's grade will be impacted by learning at home assignments, they are designed to help your child master the first grade standards and be ready for second grade.
Attendance
I am still being asked to take attendance each day, although this is mostly to make sure that everyone is safe and healthy. If I don't hear from a student or his parent for an entire school week, I need to let an administrator know. As I mentioned last week, I use SKIES, Zoom meetings, and Benchmark Universe to take attendance. Over the break I also learned how we can use Class Dojo portfolios for attendance. I will tell you how in the next section.
Class Dojo
I spent some time over the break researching how to use Class Dojo. I am still a beginner, but I will share what I learned.
- If you want to share a picture on Class Story, you can send me a message and I will post it for you. If you make a video in your portfolio, I can't post it to Class Story.
- Once your child signs in to Class Dojo as a student, he or she will have the opportunity to create a portfolio. Items in the portfolio can only be seen by the student, the student's family, and the teacher. Portfolios are a great place to store things like writing assignments that you'd like the teacher to see or other learning that you'd like to file. When you include a class assignment in your portfolio, I can use it to mark you present for the day. Portfolios won't be seen by other classmates, so if you'd like to share with everyone, then message me your picture to add to Class Story.
- To sign into Class Dojo as a student, you can get your QR code from the Log In Cards page. If you have a school iPad, you won't be able to download the Class Dojo app. It will still work; just use the camera on the iPad and let it read your Class Dojo QR code. If you have your own device, you can read the QR code with the app.
SKIES
When I give a SKIES assignment, I check student work in the afternoon and leave feedback for each child. Students should remember to go back into SKIES later in the day to see how they did and leave positive comments for other students.
I hope you have a great week! I really appreciate all the families who shared things on Class Dojo. It is fun to see how students are enjoying their time at home. I think Class Dojo offers us many great learning options, so please sign up if you haven't already. Remember, Zoom class meeting today at 2:00pm.
March 30 Message,
Good Morning Room 4A Families!
I hope everyone is doing well. The teachers had trainings and meetings last week to help us plan how we could monitor attendance and work completion from home. With the SKIES platform, I have an opportunity to see who is checking into school and how students are doing on assignments. Some of you have been completing SKIES assignments regularly, so you're in good shape. If you have not used SKIES at home, please help your children learn how to get to their assignments. The students have been using SKIES all year at school, so this should not be a big stretch. Look on the website "Guide to Learning Links" page for more explanation. I am also happy to call you at home if you need more guidance. Just send me a message with your phone number via the Remind app. Also, I expect that the first few times the students work on their at home assignments, they will probably need a lot of help and it will take them a long time. I'm sure they will learn quickly and get much faster with practice.
I promised to get back to you about Zoom. The good news is that we are allowed to use it with the students, and I think they will be very happy to have a chance to see their classmates! For this week, I plan for us to have Zoom "show and tell" on Monday at 2:00 and a Zoom pajama day on Thursday. I can't wait to give it a try! If your child would like to have a turn for show and tell, please let me know via Remind. The first three students who sign up will have a turn on Monday. My Zoom number is https://lausd.zoom.us/j/5018792272 You can also press the button below.
This week, I am asked to start an attendance log. When students post SKIES assignments or attend Zoom classes, I can mark them as present. I was also asked to set some office hours for when you can ask me questions via Remind and expect a quick answer. Here are my office hours
Monday 10:00-11:00 Tuesday 1:00-2:00 Thursday 1:00-2:00
To be honest, I've just been trying to answer messages as I get them. I don't mind doing that. Parents have been thoughtful about not messaging me at odd hours. These office hours are something the district asked for. My online trainings this week interfere with my Monday and Tuesday office hours, but I will certainly answer your questions within an hour or two.
Finally, this week we will have fewer assignments because we are expected to complete two hours of professional development each day. Therefore, I will only assign math and language arts this week. Friday is an unassigned day to honor Cesar Chavez, so there will be no lessons that day.
Have a great week!
Ms. Lambert
Good Morning Room 4A Families!
I hope everyone is doing well. The teachers had trainings and meetings last week to help us plan how we could monitor attendance and work completion from home. With the SKIES platform, I have an opportunity to see who is checking into school and how students are doing on assignments. Some of you have been completing SKIES assignments regularly, so you're in good shape. If you have not used SKIES at home, please help your children learn how to get to their assignments. The students have been using SKIES all year at school, so this should not be a big stretch. Look on the website "Guide to Learning Links" page for more explanation. I am also happy to call you at home if you need more guidance. Just send me a message with your phone number via the Remind app. Also, I expect that the first few times the students work on their at home assignments, they will probably need a lot of help and it will take them a long time. I'm sure they will learn quickly and get much faster with practice.
I promised to get back to you about Zoom. The good news is that we are allowed to use it with the students, and I think they will be very happy to have a chance to see their classmates! For this week, I plan for us to have Zoom "show and tell" on Monday at 2:00 and a Zoom pajama day on Thursday. I can't wait to give it a try! If your child would like to have a turn for show and tell, please let me know via Remind. The first three students who sign up will have a turn on Monday. My Zoom number is https://lausd.zoom.us/j/5018792272 You can also press the button below.
This week, I am asked to start an attendance log. When students post SKIES assignments or attend Zoom classes, I can mark them as present. I was also asked to set some office hours for when you can ask me questions via Remind and expect a quick answer. Here are my office hours
Monday 10:00-11:00 Tuesday 1:00-2:00 Thursday 1:00-2:00
To be honest, I've just been trying to answer messages as I get them. I don't mind doing that. Parents have been thoughtful about not messaging me at odd hours. These office hours are something the district asked for. My online trainings this week interfere with my Monday and Tuesday office hours, but I will certainly answer your questions within an hour or two.
Finally, this week we will have fewer assignments because we are expected to complete two hours of professional development each day. Therefore, I will only assign math and language arts this week. Friday is an unassigned day to honor Cesar Chavez, so there will be no lessons that day.
Have a great week!
Ms. Lambert
March 23 Message
Good Morning Room 4A Families!
I hope everyone had a good weekend, and I hope everyone is surviving our shelter in place efforts. For this week, I wanted to be able to facilitate more classroom communication. I'm sure some of you are wondering if we are going to start Zoom lessons. I've heard that Zoom has an 18 and over policy, so we might have to look for some other way to conduct "real time" lessons. I have a Zoom meeting with my first grade level colleagues and Mrs. Leach this week, so I'm sure I'll find out more. Meanwhile, SKIES is a great platform for students to communicate with me and with each other. I've only used SKIES this year for math lessons, but today we're going to use it for a class meeting and for a language arts lesson. Please try to make sure your child is able to use SKIES. I've been signing in as a student to check the lessons. I think you need to download the app for it to work well from an iPad or a phone. I'm adding two new courses to SKIES- "Class Meeting" and "Benchmark Lessons." You'll need to enter a code for each course one time, but then you'll have access to these courses as I add more lessons to them in the future. Hang in there everybody! I know many of you are terribly busy getting food for your families or working a full day from home with children to manage. Just do the lessons you can do and don't worry about the rest!
Ms. Lambert
Good Morning Room 4A Families!
I hope everyone had a good weekend, and I hope everyone is surviving our shelter in place efforts. For this week, I wanted to be able to facilitate more classroom communication. I'm sure some of you are wondering if we are going to start Zoom lessons. I've heard that Zoom has an 18 and over policy, so we might have to look for some other way to conduct "real time" lessons. I have a Zoom meeting with my first grade level colleagues and Mrs. Leach this week, so I'm sure I'll find out more. Meanwhile, SKIES is a great platform for students to communicate with me and with each other. I've only used SKIES this year for math lessons, but today we're going to use it for a class meeting and for a language arts lesson. Please try to make sure your child is able to use SKIES. I've been signing in as a student to check the lessons. I think you need to download the app for it to work well from an iPad or a phone. I'm adding two new courses to SKIES- "Class Meeting" and "Benchmark Lessons." You'll need to enter a code for each course one time, but then you'll have access to these courses as I add more lessons to them in the future. Hang in there everybody! I know many of you are terribly busy getting food for your families or working a full day from home with children to manage. Just do the lessons you can do and don't worry about the rest!
Ms. Lambert
March 20 Message
Good Afternoon! I was able to bring home an LAUSD student iPad today, and I was pleased to see how well it worked. I can see that all the connectivity issues have been resolved. I bookmarked our class website on the iPad and I was able to get into all of our websites via the Learning Links page. I realized that you can't download the Kids A-Z app on the school iPads, but it works fine without the app. The only thing that wouldn't work on the LAUSD iPad was GoNoodle. Hopefully, you have another device to access this site. Hope you had a great first week of learning at home! Don't hesitate to ask questions via email or the Remind app. Stay healthy everyone! Virtual hugs kids! I miss you!
Good Afternoon! I was able to bring home an LAUSD student iPad today, and I was pleased to see how well it worked. I can see that all the connectivity issues have been resolved. I bookmarked our class website on the iPad and I was able to get into all of our websites via the Learning Links page. I realized that you can't download the Kids A-Z app on the school iPads, but it works fine without the app. The only thing that wouldn't work on the LAUSD iPad was GoNoodle. Hopefully, you have another device to access this site. Hope you had a great first week of learning at home! Don't hesitate to ask questions via email or the Remind app. Stay healthy everyone! Virtual hugs kids! I miss you!