Dear Parents and Guardians,

As you may have already heard, Governor Pritzker has called to close schools Tuesday March 17 th-Monday March 30th. With that in mind, I will be creating packets for all the students these two weeks to complete. The expectation is that students still complete their daily work and that I am still here for their support through online resources. On Monday, students will go home with this letter, some resources for you to use at home, and pages from their workbooks to complete over the next two weeks. When we come back to school, these pages from the workbooks will be collected and graded. In this packet I have given some additional resources for you to use at home. One is a schedule of what a day could look like, our schedule at school and another is some ideas for non-screen time activities. Below I will also include the RAZ kids log in information, Xtramath and IXL information. We use these three sites almost every day, it would be great if students continue that habit over the break, however the amount that they log on will not be graded as all students do not have access to a computer. If students who do have access to log onto the sites and complete at least a lesson a day, complete a book and comprehension passage and do Xtra math, we will have a whole classroom celebration to celebrate the work that they did.

To support you and the students of 204 at home, I have set up a google classroom. All students who are enrolled at CPS are given a CPS email, I used the students emails to invite them to the classroom. In case they have trouble at home, the class code is 7bgowsv. Students can find this app when they log into their gmail account and go to the google apps top right circle with 9 dots. There they will find the icon “Classroom,” if they click on that it should take them to the classroom I set up for 204. Students wrote their emails and passwords on this note at the top. We set up their emails at school on Monday, if they were not at school, please message me on remind to get their email for you to set it up at home.

Every day I will be on the google classroom and be able to be reached through the app. There is a “stream” button you can click and that is a space for students and myself to type information and questions. Please use this to check for information on what to do that day and updates for the day. I will have this available for those who are confused as to what to do each day, questions on the work itself or just any inquiries about what else to do when at home. Through google classroom, I can also set up video chats with Google Meet. If a group of students or individual needs support to complete a math page or are confused and need this support that will be available for us to use. As always, Remind will also be a place for you to reach me during normal school hours and I usually do answer after hours as well, if you have a question or concern. I will also be using the school website to put up information that I put on remind and that I send home on Monday. If your child did not come to school Monday and you would like the work that was sent home, please message me and I can scan and send the documents to you to be printed and completed or you can complete them on a separate piece of paper. Please know that Google Classroom and Google Meet are two apps that I am just learning myself. This may take a little bit of trouble shooting on all of our parts, so please have patience with the program and myself. I will try my best to be as available for you and the students of 204 during this time.

Websites for our classroom:

www.raz-kids.com go to Kids Login and the classroom teacher is ross204. There students will find their log ins. All passwords for Raz Kids is 204

www.ixl.com/signin/mcclellan students should know their log in, but if they don’t please let me know and I will tell you their log in. All passwords for IXL is second with a lower case s.

Skills and lessons to practice on IXL: Each letter has a number of lessons that are under each category. If students do work on these lessons, we will have a classroom celebration to celebrate all their hard work. Hopefully this will motivate them to complete the lessons.

Language arts: P, R, S, V, AA, BB, DD, EE, HH, KK, MM, PP, RR, XX, YY, ZZ

Math: B, E, F, G, H, I , J, M, N, P, Q, T U—the lessons in Bold (I, J, M) are the lessons that cover what we are learning currently and what we just covered in our last chapter. The other lessons are more so review. Many students may have already completed those lessons that are listed, I just wanted to give a wide variety of skills to work on.

Xtra Math: This is a program we use daily that helps with math fast fact fluency. They can only use it once a day, if you are able to please have your child log on one time on at least Monday-Friday to practice their facts. Go to www.xtramath.org on the top left click sign in, go to the STUDENTS tab and type in my email: lross11@cps.edu, your child’s first name and last name initial (i.e. LauraW) and their Pin. Their pin will be written on this page along with their other log in information. If you have issues with this, please use the google classroom to let me know and I can help support you to help you log on to this.

Below I did supply a COVID-19 schedule that I found online. Also if you would like to keep consistency with what we do at school below I will also provide our schedule at school with specific times and subjects that are taught then.

8-8:30 read aloud & respond to reading—students listen to a book or read the story as a whole group and then they respond to reading in their notebooks. They may write a summary of what was read, the key details and main topic, the theme or message of the story, or write about the author’s purpose.

8:30-9:00 Guided Reading—students work in work stations on items like vocabulary, word sorts (Words their way), free writing (write stories, letters, write about what they’ve read), use computer time where we go on IXL or Raz Kids, we also use this time to read in a small group with me. This would be a great time to complete WTW work, complete computer lessons and the Vocabulary pages that were sent home.

9-9:40 writing—students are writing in their journals about personal narratives, things that have happened to them. This would be a great time for them to write about what it’s like being home during this time.

9:40-10:15 Independent reading students find comfy spots in the classroom and read. You can have them respond to what they read by writing their favorite parts, writing what happened first, next and last or just talking about the book they read and why they liked it. If students read something interesting, they can also share it on Google Classroom Stream or we can set up a Google Meet and students can share what they’ve been reading.

10:15-12:00 is their special time (gym, art, dance), recess and lunch

12-1:15 Math—students complete math work pages, do Xtramath, and work in workstations where they practice their learning. You can have them use IXL or play math games with playing cards.

I will not be sending home science or social studies books home with students, however if you would like more resources for them at home or work that they can do in these subjects, please let me know and I can scan and email them to you or give you some ideas for different activities to do.

1:15-1:45 Science

1:45-2:15 Social Studies

I will send home with students 10 books from our classroom library that they can read at home during independent reading time or for their reading log. PLEASE make sure that they are returned when students return to school. I will also have students bring a blank notebook so that they can write about books they’ve read, do WTW words and activities (rainbow words, write them in a sentence, use them in a story, write them three times, ect), and write stories (these can be real or make believe, just a way for them to continue their writing). When they come back to school, please have them bring this notebook back so I can go through it and see the work they did.

I will be reminding students on Monday that this time off is not an early spring break, it is a safety measure to make sure we are all safe. It is very important that we continue to do the hard work that we have been doing in school, this is an expectation we have for the students and that CPS has for me as well. I want to make sure this message is clear for the students and for you to know that I will be available to support and help teach students throughout the school day even if it is through online support. I hope that this will also encourage students to complete their work and stay focused on academics even in this unstable, inconsistent time.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns through this time. My email is lross11@cps.edu and I do check my email frequently. If you do not have remind, please follow this link to receive messages rmd.at/2042n

Best,

Ms. Wojciechowski