May Assignments, Resources, and Updates!

Dear Parents,

It is both hard to believe and painfully clear that it is May. I feel like I have been sitting in front of this computer with your children for so long, that I am starting to grow roots into the floor!

I know that this is hard for them, for me, for you, and for everyone in our homes right now. The disappointment of lost opportunities and the pain of not being able to celebrate all of their accomplishments this year is weighing us all down.

I will be sending out a form/survey later this week and hope you will keep your eye out for it in your emails. I hear from most of you so infrequently, I feel like it is important that we touch base with how learning is going at home, and how you are all feeling.

Another quick announcement, if you haven't heard from your child or seen in an email, the class voted to push our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Zoom meetings to 9:30 instead of 9:00. This will allow siblings to get settled into their own meetings and hopefully won't create as much chaos if someone needs some support. We started this week, but I still have been arriving at 9:00 just to make sure that students who forget are reminded of the change.

I have tried to make things a bit fun and interactive for student assignments and projects, I hope they are enjoying them as much as I am in seeing the products of their efforts!

Our biggest project right now is incorporating all subjects: Country Reports and Vacations

Students have spent a lot of time researching a country of their choice, learning all about it and creating some really interesting presentations.

I believe you can find them all on SeeSaw, not just your own child's! (the ones that are turned in anyways) Though I know that some of the slideshows were too long to fit, and had to link to the document externally, which might make it difficult to see other students' work.

As students are finishing this part of the project, we are transitioning into groups to plan a vacation together! Students have to stop and spend a few days in each members' countries, but they get to use the internet, their math skills, and their researched knowledge to come up with a specific plan (and budget) for their trip!

Reading Assignments and Big Ideas:

Non-Fiction Reading, or Reading to Learn: Along with the country report research, students have had a few shorter assignments involving informative text! One article posted last Friday (because there was also writing involved) was about how fasting is built into different religions. I felt like this was a timely article while our Muslim students and friends are participating in the month of Ramadan.

In other Non-Fiction reading, on Monday I challenged your children to cook or bake something following a recipe! I know that some students have more experience in the kitchen than others, so I left it open to exactly how challenging it should be. I repeated many times that they need to discuss it with you and have your approval first! As all of these assignments are ungraded, I told students if you didn't want them to make something independently, they could instead watch a parent or adult make something, and share the recipe and a picture of it in SeeSaw. (Either way is fine, though I was secretly hoping that they might be able to make a Mother's Day treat!)

Fiction Reading: We have been so fortunate to have Mrs. Draper recording a read aloud of the book "Dogsbody" by Diane Wynne Jones. She has been contributing videos of each chapter in parts, and has currently just finished Chapter 4. These videos are posted at the top of our Google Classroom!

Reading Resource:
In Harry Potter news, Daniel Radcliffe has started a "Harry Potter at Home" read aloud of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! You can find the recording here: https://www.wizardingworld.com/collections/harry-potter-at-home

Writing Assignments and Big Ideas:

Non-Fiction Expository Writing: Students are working on a lot of writing for their Country Reports and Vacation Planning, teaching us about everything that they have learned, however I am still reminding them to continue their journal entries at least once per week!

Math Assignments and Big Ideas:

Block 4: Probability and Random Sampling

Last week's assignments finished up Block 4. Some of those skills were already touched on before Winter Break with the 6th grade statistics unit that we taught (like finding measures of center, Mean, Median, Mode, Range, Interquartile Range, etc.).

I have assigned a check for understanding on this week's Math Checklist, just to see that we are able to grasp some of the concepts.

Block 5: Direct Variation

Direct Variation, also known as "Constants of Proportionality," has been identified by one of our district's Algebra teachers as one of the Most Important units for students who are going into Algebra next year. This means that it is important that students who are planning on taking Algebra 1 spend some time with these concepts.

I always try to add external resources for students to get some extra practice and instruction, these include Khan Academy and IXL. I have mentioned several times in our Zoom Meetings, that our curriculum does a great job of linking skills on IXL for each lesson! This means that students who want some extra practice simply go into the Core Focus website, navigate to the lesson they are working on, and click on a link! If they are already signed in to IXL, they will be able to get credit for the practice too!

Celebrations: 

• I am happy to report that our class has already completed almost 4,500 problems on IXL! WoW! While IXL doesn't provide instruction on skills, it does have a variety of practice problems that can give students some variety in what they are working on. 
• (FYI: IXL also has Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science!)
• I want to congratulate the bravery of Miki and Shrita for submitting their poems to the Northshore Speaks event, and to commend Miki's wonderful live performance of her poem "Bravery." I am so proud of both of you for your creativity and passion, your lovely poems are a light for me during this time. 
• FYI: If you want to read some more of Miki's poems, there have been one in each of Mr. Keeler's most recent Friday Updates! 
• Birthdays: While in my classroom I normally don't have time to celebrate birthdays, I wanted to recognize students whose birthdays have been celebrated (or will be) at home during this time. Having experienced this first hand a couple weeks ago, I recognize how this virus has affected the celebration of what should be a fun and exciting time. I have set up a Birthday Board on SeeSaw for students to post birthday messages to students, and thought it might be nice if they are reminded by you to care for their friends by acknowledging their birthdays, even if it is only online. (Note: I recognize that some of these are summer birthdays and aren't usually celebrated at school anyways, but from the way things are going, it is still unlikely they will get as social of a celebration as in years past)

• Aayush 3/12
• Jake 4/3
• Riley 5/23
• Lucas 6/6
• Bob 6/9
• Adah 7/3
• Finn 7/13
• Laasya 8/3

I hope you are all doing well, are staying healthy, and finding ways to connect even more closely with your family during this time. Please don't hesitate to ask me questions or send me an email if you need anything. Remember to keep an eye out for that survey later this week or early next week!

Next Wednesday we will be starting Geometry, so hopefully everyone has a protractor at home! If not, please let me know as soon as possible!

With Love,

Mrs. Hart

Updates!

Dear Parents,

I am grateful for the sweet birthday wishes on Monday from your children! Covid birthdays aren't terribly exciting, but it helps to have such kind people in your life to remember it! :)

This week's language arts lessons are still focused on doing research for our country reports as I try to create groups for the next part of our work: planning a vacation!

Though I know students are excited to go on a vacation, the group work and planning will start after students finish reporting on their countries! I am hoping to give them a template for their report tomorrow.

In math last week and this week I have assigned some Core Focus lessons with Khan Academy options to go along with them. These assignments cover Lessons 4.1-4.5 in our Proportions and Probability book. 

In order to check for understanding, I assigned a "quiz" on Khan Academy. If your child has not completed this quiz, you (and your child) should have already received an email from me.

I currently have 17/23 students who have taken the quiz, and all have done well on it! None of the grades go into the grade book, but some assessing of skills has to happen so that I know how everyone is doing.

Having just recently talked with my colleagues, 17/23 is a reasonably high participation rate! Good job class!

I have recorded a few math instructional videos that are uploaded onto google classroom as well as a "challenge" video (that isn't really a challenge if they have completed lesson 4.5.) I hope students find them entertaining!

Until next time, please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Mrs. Hart

Resources and Information

Happy Friday Families! (It's Friday... right?)

I have been reading many journal entries from students saying how their days seem to be more and more monotonous and they have trouble keeping track of what day it is.

It got me to thinking about finding some resources to "shake things up" a little bit! I know the Northshore Learns website has a lot of information and links, here are some more that I found.

Coding classes! 

Code.org has weekly interactive lessons on Wednesdays at 10am PST. I recognize that may get in the way of our classroom meetings, but I totally understand if kids leave early to take another class!

This coming Wednesday, April, 22, the coding class will feature Bill Gates as a special guest! 

Science projects!

This is a link to some engineering activities that could be done at home.

Or you could do some Science Experiments! 

Or more Science Experiments!

This site has ads, but also lists of a lot of experiments too!

Read a Good Book!

Excellent News, Audible has FREE audio book subscriptions for kids! 

Write something! 

The New York Times has free accounts for students and teachers, and this part of their website has activities, lessons, and webinars.  (some of this site seems to be geared more for high school students, so you may want to look through it a bit more)

Art is always fun!

Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems! 

This post has 12 Art Channels on YouTube that have a variety of mediums. (Sorry for all the ads on their website!)

This channel is more geared towards adult artists. Its website has a subscription box for materials etc. but if you have a lot of art supplies and child who is really interested in using them, their tutorial videos are free, so it might be a place to go!

Quality Time...

Finally, this time is stressful, and your children feel it from you and from the world around them. They miss "normal" and want to do all the things that they used to do, even if they know they can't. 

Spending time doing something fun with them, whether it is board games or video games, a nature walk or a book club. If it is something you never get a chance to do together, you can create experiences that make "abnormal" fun instead of stressful. (For example, here is a video my friend posted of a Rube Goldberg machine he made with his son.)

Children all over the world are missing school, their friends, and all of their extra curricular activities. They will never forget this time. Don't be afraid to make it memorable for good reasons as well. 

Sending my love to all of you.

Mrs. Hart

Day 4 of Online Learning! Updates!

Dear Parents,

I have been posting updates to Class Dojo of most of the daily assignments, so if you need log in instructions, you are welcome to email me.

Please scroll all the way past my photo for messages for Timbercrest families!

Another important message regarding Algebra Readiness Testing, students were scheduled to take this test last week, but were unable to because of the school closure. I spoke with Derek Tucci in the assessment department, and he said that students will be fine taking the test after we all get back to school, and that if they qualify, the delayed results will not affect their enrollment into Algebra 1 next year.

Today, students tried out BrainPOP with a video and some activities about gravity! They were able to ask me questions about the 3.5 math worksheet and skills, and have started a "long" (according to them) SeeSaw activity with the word problems they all made on Monday! I am hoping this will help support them to be ready for some sort of Math assessment next week on Block 3!

I say some sort, because the 5th grade team is still trying to figure out how to make our assessments useful and authentic with these different online environments!

In other news, starting on Monday, Mrs. Stockdale and/or Mrs. Foran, our recess para educators, are going to help me hold students accountable for turning in their work and reading their questions in the comments. They may even "monitor" a "zoom recess" time where kids can socialize and spend time with each other.

They are going to do this so that I can make this new "role" more sustainable for myself and my home life.

It takes a village! SO grateful for all of you, and for everyone's support during all of this chaos.

We had a staff zoom meeting today and everyone was definitely feeling like the "honeymoon" period is wearing off for the kiddos, and the teachers! It is going to take a lot of work to keep students to a schedule, set boundaries, etc.

Cheers,

Mrs. Hart

P.S. Here is my 'do for student conferences yesterday, I have to keep things interesting! :)

For Timbercrest Families:

Dear Future Timbercrest Families,

As we continue to plan and thoughtfully respond to the challenges the COVID-19 virus is presenting for our community, schools, and our district this week, we are making some changes to our typical 5th grade registration process.

Changes:

• Students will not be traveling to the middle school for our welcome event.  We will reschedule this experience later on in the spring.

• Counselors will not be going down to the elementary schools to do registration.  This will be done remotely. Stay tuned for more information on how we will conduct the process.

• We will also postpone our upcoming 5th grade parent night that was planned for March 10.  This event is one that is key to supporting the transition from elementary to middle school so we look forward to rescheduling in the near future.

Thanks for your grace during this time.  We recognize that there are feelings and anxiety and uncertainty out there, and that the changes we are making may add to that feeling of uncertainty.  Please know that we will take good care of your student’s needs and we will get all of the registration process sorted out with students placed where they should be.

We will get through this together!  Grace abounds!

Best,

Kristi Hannigan, Principal

Timbercrest Middle School

khannigan@nsd.org

425-408-6905

February Updates and Health Information

Dear Parents,

First, thank you for regularly checking the emails that you receive from google classroom. I have yet to put in the January book report grades, so it will still show as "missing" until either your child goes into google classroom and clicks on "submit" for the assignment, or I put your child's grade into the system.

Please note that you will not be able to view assignment attachments etc. unless you log into google classroom with your child's account. This means that your weekly email is basically just a "check up" to remind them to do the work that they are supposed to be doing.

Second, our Valentine's Day "festivities" this Friday will be a lot more subdued than our October party.

Students are encouraged to:

- bring a box or a bag (I can supply some easy materials for the bag) for any cards that are handed out.
- bring valentines for all of their classmates, please make sure you are giving one to each classmate.
- wear comfortable clothes (like pajamas) and
- bring a book that they "love" if they don't have a favorite already at school.

We will be having quiet reading time, doughnuts, and hot chocolate/cider in the morning with some small decorations around the classroom, and will exchange valentines in the afternoon.

I appreciate the interest in volunteering, but this is hopefully going to be a more relaxing affair that will take place throughout different times of the day, instead an official "party" of sorts.

Third, last week we covered sexual exploitation and our first day of our puberty lessons. 

We went over the following definitions:
Exploitation - one person using another person to make themselves feel good or to get something from the other person no matter how the other person feels.
Sexual Exploitation - when someone tricks or pressures someone into "secret touching."
- Adults can also be sexually exploited, as well as children can be exploited by other children, but when a child is sexually exploited by an adult or older child, that is called "Sexual Abuse."
Private Parts - the parts of the body covered by a bathing suit: the bottom, a boy's or man's penis and scrotum, a girl's or woman's labia and vagina, and girls' chests, even if they are too young to have breasts.

A student asked about the term "rape" which was defined as a violent form of sexual exploitation in which someone is forced to do things that they do not want to do.

We covered Safe/Healthy, Unsafe/Unhealthy, and Confusing Touch. You can find more information on these two lessons Here (day 1)  and Here (day 2)

On Day 2 of this lesson, we covered how we can help someone who has been (or is being) sexually exploited. We went over a poster that consisted of

5 things a friend can do:
1) Listen.
2) Believe them.
3) Show you care.
4) Don't blame them.
5) Tell an adult, not other classmates.

These were very tough lessons for students, and it is my hope that they have been talking and processing with you about these topics at home afterwords.

On Friday we covered the first day of Puberty by making a chart of changes that Boys, Both, and Girls go through. A complete list of those changes is provided Here (Day 1)

Students noticed how many items were in the "Both" category, and we finished the week with some really good understanding between everyone.

This week we will cover the 2nd day of our Puberty lesson, Reproductive System (Day 1 and 2), as well as HIV/AIDs (Day 1 and 2). We will be using the OSPI KNOW curriculum for our HIV/AIDs lessons, which were included in the binder in the nurses office for you to preview.

Finally, in Math we are finishing up a unit on Proportions, and will most likely be taking a test on Thursday or Friday. 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Mrs. Hart

January Updates!

Good Afternoon Parents,

I am sorry that I am so delayed in writing my new blog post, the district has put some tighter security around this website (even though they recommended that I use it...) so I can't access it at school.

I wanted to give some important updates from the work we have been doing these last few weeks, as well as looking ahead.

Students spent this week finishing their final (yay!) iReady reading assessments, and most will be finishing the Math assessment next week (if they haven't already.) I am happy to see all of the growth in their scores!

In Language Arts we are trying to finish our Sci Fi unit with 2 different writing activities, a comparative analysis of two sci fi books, one of them our class read aloud, and the other an independent sci fi book, analyzing themes that each have in common. So far I am seeing some really good thinking from students, and I look forward to seeing their work!

We are also working on developing our story for students' own Science Fiction picture books. We have worked really hard the last two weeks to develop a character with some depth and background, and will most likely move on to the setting of our stories next week.

We have started a read aloud by Malala Yousafzai called "We are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World" to transition us back into non-fiction reading.

Another activity that we worked on these last two weeks related to non-fiction was our Time for Kids magazines, sponsored by our PTA! This week students were asked to create a small brochure of a place in their community that is cool or special to them. I can't wait to see what everyone came up with!

In Math, our schedule has been a little out of sync with the other 5th grade classes with the snow days and winter break. Luckily, we are the ones ahead! Way to go hard workers! As a result, we have spent some more time reviewing the concepts in this first Block of our Proportions and Probability Unit. We will most likely take the Block 1 test on Wednesday of next week.

In Science, we have had several Nature Vision visits into our classroom, one covering soil and decomposers (today!) and another talking about space and our solar system (last week!). These are both finishing up our first science unit (Ecosystems), and starting our second one (Earth, Moon, Stars.)

As you are aware, we will be starting our Health unit next week as well. Lessons that we will cover next week include:

1) Introduction - setting expectations and rules for how we behave during this unit.
2) Family - "what families are for and how they (students) can contribute to their own families."
3) Self-Esteem - helping students learn to like themselves and the benefits of doing so.
4) Gender Roles - discussing the "similarities and differences between the expectations of each gender."

Many students seem nervous about this unit, and will be taking worksheets etc. home with them to discuss what they learned each day with you. Please, if possible, try to be open and available to discuss and help students process some of what they will be learning.

In Social Studies, we will be starting our unit on Discovery and Colonization most likely after mid-winter break. We just have too much going on to fit it in right now!

Extra stuff that we have been doing:
1) We had a Domino presentation and exploration from a parent from Sunrise Elementary that introduced the domino activities that are now available on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Library.
2) We have done some AWESOME art most recently with sewing and water colors!
3) We had a VERY important/impactful social emotional lesson today about empathy by practicing putting ourselves into other people's shoes using comments that my students from 2 years ago, as well as some from last year, wrote down and reading them while imagining what it would be like to live in their shoes. I am having students do something similar for homework this weekend for next year.

I am sure that there is a lot more that I wanted to talk about, but my head is currently full of report card thoughts! Don't forget that Monday is a teacher work day so there is no school!

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Warmest Regards,

Mrs. Hart

Some Trends from our Conferences, Some Information.

Dear Parents,

Thank you all for your flexibility over the last two weeks with half day, conferences, and progress reports! November is such a busy month! We have been very busy in class as well, however, based on the majority of conversations that I have had with you all over the last two weeks, some of your children have not been as busy at home as you would like, or as you feel they should be.

First, let me state that all lessons, work, homework, and projects, are supposed to be written down in their planner every day. I reserve 15 minutes of every afternoon to write these things down.  It would take me 15+ minutes to also check every assignment written down by every student, and many days I simply do not have the time. I will attempt to hold students accountable better at school, however, it is important that your child know that you also expect them to come home with this information.

In order to help you and your students keep track of assignments, I am looking into a few options:

1- adding "guardian email addresses" to your child's google classroom account. This will send periodic emails with work and grades that your child has been given on assignments. It will also notify if your child has not turned in an assignment. I have to enter these in individually, so I will work on doing that next week.

2- researching a way to post or display the lessons and assignments online, every day. I have to confirm with our Technology department, on whether I am allowed to set up a twitter feed or something that parents can choose to follow, where I can post images of our planner and/or notifications of assignments every day.

3- I will be emailing all of you with the login credentials for the student login for our math curriculum. If your child is not bringing math homework home, even if it is finished, you can easily access the worksheets that I assign online and print out another copy. There are also practice pages in each of the lessons in the student textbook, which is in PDF format for students to view as well as videos and power point slides of each of the lessons.

One of the reasons that kept me from making all of this information available earlier, is because I do not hear from many of you. While my last blog post had 48 views, the rest of my posts have only been viewed by about half of my families.

Just like students, I put my energy into what seems important to all of you. If families are not interested in keeping up with the goings on in the classroom, then I will divert my efforts to other tasks to help your children be as successful as possible.

A majority of you have indicated over the last two weeks that a communication of assignments and due dates is important to you. Therefore, I will do my best to keep you all as updated as possible.

One important due date coming up is your child's November Book Project. This assignment is due This Monday, December 2nd. Your child was assigned a "free choice" to show the underlying themes or lessons in a Realistic Fiction book. Themes can include: the author's message, a lesson learned by the character, problems or the solutions to a character's problems that are apparent in the book. Students can show this understanding in any way that fits them, there are several suggestions in the assignment packet in the reading section of your child's binder.

I have said many times this year: I would rather your child turn in a quality project late, than a sloppy project on time. If this book report was "news," then I recognize that they may not have a book read and a project done by Monday. I do expect that these projects show care and effort. It is highly recommended that these projects be worked on in little pieces at home throughout the month.

As always, please feel free to contact me with questions.

Regards,

Mrs. Hart