New Baby

This is Ms. Vanessa’s baby girl Tessa, born October 8.

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History of Language Pics

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Our Work

Hello Everyone,

Another awesome week has passed. The kids are all settling in as are the teachers. We are continuing with our grace and courtesy lessons and figuring out how things work in the classroom this year. As I told the students today, we need to practice things, like putting away our shoes, the right way so that we will learn to do it right. We’ve enjoyed the cooler weather this week so we can have a more pleasant recess and also enjoy lunch outside.

One thing I failed to mention in my first couple emails is that we give the kids at least 30 minutes to eat lunch. Right now we are giving them 35 to 40 so they can get used to having a time limit on their lunch. We have talked about how we need to stay seated at lunch and eat, since many of the kids like to get up and wonder. We have also encouraged them to eat more than talk as we have noticed many kids are not getting very much eaten because they are so busy talking. Thank you for sending extra food for the kids to eat as snack. Now that we are moving into individual workcycle, the kids are picking their own snack times and are allowed to eat snack at their cleaned up work space.

We have continued with our great lessons this week. We did the black timeline, which teaches about the cooling of Earth and coming of life on Earth. We also got to explore the Giant Timeline of Life. It is a beautiful work that shows the progress of life on the earth in wonderful illustrations. The students were then able to work on their own timeline of life. This week we will start our cultural lessons and start learning about history. This goes right along with the great lessons.

We loved seeing our friends that are doing distance learning this week. We read my favorite picture book with them, You Are Special and played the game, would you rather so we can get to know each other a little better. We will continue to have live stream sessions weekly.

I want you all to know how appreciative I am to you all for making sure your child comes to school with a mask. Sometimes the kids forget, and that is okay. We do have some extra classroom ones for when that happens. I would like to emphasize that masks are more effective when they are clean. Some students are sucking on them and this will saturate the mask allowing air particles to cling on and this creates a dirty barrier for your child. Please take a look at their masks daily to keep track of if their mask is soiled. We want to keep your children as safe as possible. Thank you for supporting us with this important endeavor.

Up until now, I have been standing outside in the morning to greet the children and wait with them after they get picked up. Since our class has a door to the outside, starting Tuesday I will no longer be waiting outside. I will be in the classroom watching from the windows waiting to greet the children as they come into the classroom. Please remind your child to exit your car and come directly into our classroom. I will, as always, still be outside with the kids as they are being picked up from school.

As always, stay healthy and stay safe.

Jalee

 Our crayons from The Crayon Box That Talked

 Empathy Shoes  Maria Montessori Timeline of life  Stars from the book On the Night You Were Born

 Artwork inspired from the birth of the universe

 5 kingdoms of living things

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Welcome!

Hello Everyone!

We are so excited to welcome you back to school. It has been a long summer and we are excited to see all of the kids again. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare to send your child back to school. 

  • School starts on Monday, August 17 at 8:30 am. Please be on time.
  • The first week of school is all early outs. Starting this year,  dismissal will be at 1:45 pm on early out days. We also have early out days every Wednesday. Please plan accordingly so you can be on time to pick up your child.
  • Also new this year, regular school days will end at 3:15 pm. 
  • Due to new COVID social distancing guidelines, we will be implementing a new drop off and pick up procedure. Please enter through the east gate on 200 E. (Not the main entrance) and drive around the back of the school. Please drop your student off at the door nearest your teacher or advisor’s classroom. There will be signs with the teacher’s name where you should drop off your student.  Then follow the traffic in front of the school and exit through the main exit.  You will follow the same procedure to pick your child up at the end of the day.  A short video demonstrating this procedure will be sent in the next couple of days. 
    Please keep in mind the following safety guidelines:
      • Students should exit the vehicle on the RIGHT side only. 
      • Parents should remain in the vehicle and encourage their student to exit promptly to keep the traffic flowing
      • If your student is not waiting for you when you drive through to pick them up, you will need to make another circle around so that you are not stopping the flow of traffic
      • Use caution when going around a parked car
      • Please use grace and courtesy

 

 

  • Due to concerns with Covid, we will not be using lockers for the first semester of the school year. For this reason, students should not bring a backpack to school. Please only send your child with their lunch box and a water bottle. We will reevaluate the use of lockers after the first semester as the weather changes.
    Please only send a backpack to school with your child when you send school supplies. Please send school supplies the first day of school if possible, or by the end of the first week.
  • This year students will have their own supplies and there will not be community supplies. Please label everything with your child’s first and last names.  The binder should be labeled on the spine.  It is helpful if supplies are unpackaged before the students bring them to school. The pencils, scissors, etc. can be put into the pencil box.  If you are unable to purchase these supplies, please let us know.
  • We will also no longer be supplying utensils and dishes for students’ lunches. Please send them with whatever they will need to eat their lunch. If you would like to donate disposable items for lunches, this would be appreciated.
  • This year we will not be having a group classroom snack. Please make sure your child has an extra snack in their lunch box that they can have whenever they choose to have their morning snack. We ask that you still follow healthy snack guidelines in regards to this.
  • Lastly, please make sure your child comes to school with a face covering daily. They should also bring a fresh water bottle daily as they will not have access to a drinking fountain at school.

 

As we move into this school year, we want you to know that we love your children and are excited to see and work with them again. Parents of children who are doing distance learning should expect more information in a later email.

I am happy to share with you that the assistant in our class this year is Ms. Vanessa Hearrell. She has worked at MMA for 4 years and will be a great addition to our classroom. She will also be doing her student teaching in our class this spring.

I am so excited to see all the kids again and get to know all the new students. In spite of all the craziness going on in the world, it is going to be a great year!

Stay healthy and safe,

Ms. Jalee

 

Lower Elementary Supply List 2020-21
The items on this list will be used during the regular school day.
They may be brought from home on a voluntary basis, otherwise, they will be furnished by the school.

Due to Covid 19, supplies in the classroom will not be universally shared. All students will use their own individual supplies.

Supply List
—Please include your child’s name on the following items:

  • Water bottle with close-able lid. Please make it a lid that students do not need to touch with their hands the part they will be putting their lips on. Students will need to bring their filled water bottle to school daily. They will also be taking it home at the end of the day. This is due to not using water fountains or our kitchen sink to fill up the bottles.
  • 1 inch 3 ring binder
  • Soft Soled Slipper Shoes 
  • Pair of headphones or earbuds for computer use to be kept at school
  • 1 graphing paper composition notebook; Example: Graphing 
  • 3 wide ruled composition notebooks; Example: Notebook
        (please feel free to send any notebooks from previous year that are not full)
  • Pencil case
  • 1 box #2 pencils
  • 1 pair child size scissors
  • Glue sticks
  • 1 box colored pencils
  • 1 box washable markers
  • Water color paint
  • 1 ruler
  • 1 box of Kleenex

Optional: 

Disinfecting wipes

Hand sanitizer

1 roll paper towels

1 ream copy paper

1 clipboard, regular paper size

Ziplock bags: sandwich or gallon sized

 

Suggested Healthy Snacks

  •  Vegetables such as carrots, celery, broccoli
  •  Fruits such as strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, apples, pears,
  •  Pretzels
  •  Graham Crackers
  •  Crackers
  •  Bagels and cream cheese
  •  Snack-sized fruit cups
  •  Raisins or fruit leather or fruit snacks
  •  Granola or granola bars
  •  Dry cereal (not sugar cereals)
  •  Goldfish crackers
  •  Rice cakes
  •  Jerky
  •  Tortillas
  •  Whole wheat bread with butter or jam

Please! No candy, soda-pop, chips/Cheetos, or red drinks (to prevent stains).

Please! No foods that need microwaved. 

Thank you for understanding our commitment to healthy minds and bodies!

 

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Supply List

Hello All,

You should have all received an email from the school with a list of classroom supplies. I am also attaching it here: Lower Elementary Supply List 2020

A few things to keep in mind with this list:

  • If your child was in my class last year, you will not need to provide a binder. I kept their binders from last year.
  • Please feel free to send any notebooks from last year that are not completely full.
  • We DO NOT need glue sticks. We have sooooo many from past years.
  • We also have a plethora of pencils but please feel free to send some anyway. If you do choose to send pencils, I would recommend Ticonderoga. They hold up the best that I have found and sharpen really well.
  • I would like all students to have their own clipboard. If your child brought one last year, I still have it at school. At least I am pretty sure I kept them, so if you did not get your child’s clipboard back, please don’t send another one. If you are new to the class, please send a clipboard.
  • Lastly, I would like all the kids to have a hard, plastic pencil case. They will be keeping these on a shelf in the classroom with all their supplies in them and the hard ones will stack better. Example

I am excited to see all the kids and see you all.

I know these are uncertain times, but we will get through it and have a wonderful year.

Thanks.

Jalee

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Welcome Baby!

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to share the exciting news with you that my baby boy was born last Friday, June 12th, on his due date.  His name is Dax. He was born at 9:18 am. He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounce and was 21 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing well and are healthy and happy.

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Thank You and Have a Great Summer

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for not getting this post/email out to you over the weekend. I decided to give myself the 3 day weekend to do nothing since this final week for teachers is pretty busy.

I want to start by saying thank you, for so many things. Thank you for all your support, especially during our school’s closure. Thank you for your patience while we as teachers figured out all the works and tried to make it work for all of the kids and for you as parents. Thank you for working with your children to the best of your ability. Thank you for having such amazing children, and thank you for trusting Ms. Tiffany and me to guide and teach your children. I am truly sad we did not get the last 2-3 months to work with them daily and be with them. Thank you for filling that void as parents. I know you were all busy and may have felt very under qualified at times, but I can promise you that you are greatly appreciated by all teachers in all that you have done. So thank you!

I don’t really have any announcements or other things to share at this time. I am excited to work with all the returning level 1s and 2s next year. We will have a supply list for you sometime during the summer so you can be prepared for the school year. Level 3 parents, you will know who your child’s upper el teacher is by the end of July.

This will not be my final post until the lists come out. I will definitely update you on the arrival of my baby. I am due June 12 and my doctor won’t let me go past June 19. However, after this week and all the school work is done, I am fine to have him anytime. I will keep you updated and share pictures.

Again, I want to say thank you to you all. Please let your little ones know they are loved and missed! Stay healthy and safe.

Best!

Jalee

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Conferences Next Week

Hello Everyone,

We are finally at our last week of school. School is officially over on May 21. When all this Covid stuff and the school closure happened, the end of the year seemed decades away, and now here it is. Thank you for all you have done to support your students and help them continue learning through this time. And thank you for your support of the teachers and the school as a whole. It has definitely been a trying time and I am grateful for a wonderful team of parents to help get through it all.

Next week we have our virtual Parent Teacher Conferences. These will be held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the 19-21. If you have not had a chance to sign up yet, please do so now using this link: https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/dazhz. If the times that are left do not work for you, please email me and let me know so we can arrange something else. Also, if you are unable to do a Zoom meeting for your conference, also let me know so we can plan a phone call. The day before your conference I will send you the Zoom invite. Tiffany and I would love to have you and your child on the conference with us. We will be going over progress reports and any work done at home.

Level 3 parents, you will be receiving a separate email from me in regards to the level 3 bridging that will be happening on Monday.

We are still waiting to hear on when yearbooks will arrive. As soon as I have this information, I will email those of you who have ordered one with the information on how to pick them up.

Moving forward as this year comes to an end, we are busy planning for the following school year of 2020-2021 and are trying to be proactive as possible. Please take a few minutes to take this SCHOOL WIDE DISTANT LEARNING SURVEY- so we can use your feedback with Professional Development planning in two weeks. Your voice and your opinion is so valuable to our community and our growth as a school. Please take the survey by next Friday, May 22 by 4:00. Again we will be using this information to help us be more prepared if we do continue Soft Closure another time.
https://forms.gle/R6v9Dqi4aUmdBRez9

As we enter into summer, we will also be working on class lists for next year. Please be looking for these by the end of July.

I am sad that we were not able to finish the school year at school with the children. That has truly been the hardest part of this closure, not being with the kids and working with them. Ms. Tiffany and I truly love all of them and will miss them over the summer.
Again, thank you for all your support.

Jalee

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Last Week of Work

Hello Everyone,

We are on our last official week of work for the 2019-2020 school year. If you have not picked up your last packet, I would still encourage you to do so. Please use any work your child did not complete to continue working and reviewing some during the summer, but also, please allow yourself and your child a break. Also remember that if you have not picked up your child’s personal belongings, this is the last week to do so. You should also check the lost and found. The 15th is the last day to turn in any works/workcharts. After that, please keep whatever you have.

Parent teacher conferences will be taking place virtually Tuesday, May 19; Wednesday, May 20; and Thursday, May 21. Please sign up on the wejoinin link I have created. https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/dazhz. If none of the days or times work for you or if you will not be able to meet via Zoom, please let me know so we can work something different out. I look forward to seeing you and your child during this time. Thank you for all you have been doing to help them in their progression and learning.

If you would like to participate in the teacher appreciation “parade”, please come to the school at 3:15 with your child. Due to social distancing, you will not be allowed to stop and get out of your care but you will be able to wave and say hi as you go by. I will be there and hope to see many of you and especially your child there.

For our Zoom meetings this week our theme will be rocks and the rock cycle. I did not get to cover this as much as normal this year so we will do some this week. If your child has any rock they love or find, have them bring them to the meetings and based on what we learn about rock types, we will try to identify their rocks. We will have our morning meeting on Tuesday at 9:30 as always. Our evening meeting will be Friday at 6 pm. The reason we will not be doing it Thursday is because that is the time of the MMA Community Meeting. I was able to watch the last one and loved it. If the one this week is like the last one, it will help you get to know Mr. Hirokawa. I truly feel he is amazing and just what our school needs. Here is the info for the community meeting:
Dates: April 30, May 14, and May 26, 2020 at 6 PM
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93455570459
Phone: +1 669 900 9128
Meeting ID: 934 5557 0459

Level 3 parents: Level 3 bridging will be the evening of Monday, May 18th at 6:30. We will be doing this via Zoom, so you will get an invite for that soon. If you have not yet, please send me a picture of your child by Monday morning. If I don’t get a picture from you, we will use your child’s yearbook picture for the slideshow that will be presented.

As always, a huge thank you to you all. I think you are all amazing and so appreciate you all and miss your children dearly.

Take care. Stay healthy and safe.

Jalee

 

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Parent Teacher Conference Sign Ups

Hello All,

Here is the link for our Parent Teacher Conference Sign ups. I hope you will be able to find a time that works for you. If not, please email me and let me know so we can work something out. These conferences will be held via Zoom Meetings. If you can’t do a Zoom meeting, please let me know and we can do a phone call.

https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/dazhz

I also wanted to remind you of the Zoom meeting tomorrow, Thursday, evening at 6:00 pm. To prepare for this, students can go outside and look for patterns or neat things they see in nature. We will be talking about patterns in plants at the meeting.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Take care.

Jalee

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