Social Emotional & Mental Well-Being
After March 12, masking will become strongly recommended, rather than required, for students and staff. This means our hallways, classrooms, gyms, libraries and other school spaces will likely include students and staff who are wearing masks and those who are not. While this will create visible differences, it is key that we continue to honor all students and staff and help them feel like part of a rich community of learners.
Our students will need opportunities to build empathy and understanding of the different choices/situations they will likely observe in their classrooms. Students may be feeling excited about the change, worried, nervous, anxious or even angry, especially if their choice is different from some of their peers. Our responsibility is to honor individual choices and our goal is to create understanding, foster community and prevent divisiveness as much as possible.
On Friday, March 11th, please consider having a community circle or classroom meeting with your elementary class or during advisory/community time at the secondary level. On Monday, March 14th, a second circle would allow students to revisit the conversation after they have had time to process the change and discuss questions with their parents/caregivers. Please see the second page of this document for circle prompts, questions and resources: Memo and Circle Prompts
Coming together as a community will provide dedicated time for students and teachers to process the change and better understand the choices people make around masks. Thank you for helping to play a key role in this effort.
Literacy Happenings
Yard Sale Items- going really cheap- in fact, FREE!
- Kindergarten: Units of Study- Show and Tell unit
- First grade: Wonders anthology books and shared read texts
- All grades: are you missing any of the following? Email Lindsley Gehrig and she’ll check to see if there’s a replacement for you.
- Units of Study writing workshop units
- Wonders TEs
Math Happenings
DreamBox – You can use the Play Demo lesson function to instruct students individual or in small groups.
Bridges Unit Screeners – if you haven’t tried the unit screeners, yet. Try them! They help identifying the needs of students with specific hyperlinked lessons (open Bridges Educator Site first) for intervention.
Bridges Revised Post Assessments More revised post assessments are becoming available for grades 3-5. Please refer to the “Revised Assessment” folder within your Grade Level Bridges Folder.
SBAC – Oregon now allows the use of manipulatives when students are taking their state assessment. See the list here.
On Monday, 3/14, some folks might want to celebrate Pi Day! Here are some resources if you’re interested:
Supporting English Learners
If you have any emergent bilingual students who need support with understanding directions for activities in Lexia, with the change of a setting, they can get native language support in any of the following languages: Arabic, French, Haitian-Creole, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish or Vietnamese. Check out the video or slides in this folder for directions on how to change the language settings for Lexia on their iPads. Please note that the activities will still be provided in English, it’s just the directions that will change.
New in Sora!
Comics and graphic novels in Sora? Yes please! The Sora app is already installed on all staff and student iPads. If you’re not familiar with Sora, please learn how to access this fantastic digital library by watching this quick video: Getting Started with Sora
Click below to read what’s new in Sora: