Weekly News for November 18-26

It is hard to believe that November is already half over and Thanksgiving break is coming soon! Remember that there will be no school on November 27-29 for break! I encourage all students to join us next week for our Monday Morning Trekker Talk virtual class on November 25th at 10:00, as we won't have a regular Thursday class next week. We will be doing some fun turkey activities together with all K-2 students instead of our regular grade-level lessons. I hope to see everyone there!

I also hope that you find time during our break to relax and enjoy time with your family. I appreciate all the hard work each family and students have been doing on a daily basis! I love to see the learning that is shown during our advising meetings and uploaded to Accelerate! Also, a huge thank you to all the kindergarten families who have spent a lot of time working on our WaKIDS assessment! I appreciate all the families I work with and am so thankful that I am able to be part of your team in your child's education!

I know this is early, but I'd like to wish all families a Happy Thanksgiving as I most likely will not be sending out a new newsletter next week, but may resend this one next Monday to make sure everyone has received the information about our Thanksgiving break dates and our Disguise a Turkey project that is due after break. See below for more details on this fun family project. 🦃

November and December Progress Reviews: As there is also no school on November 27-29 for Thanksgiving break, we will be doing advising for those days (B week) the first week of December. As a heads up for December, we will be doing December progress reviews on December 9th-20th and I will be scheduling them for your normal advising time. Please make sure you are checking your emails for your progress review invitations. Some families have noticed our meetings are not going on their calendars or they did not receive the email. I send the invitation to your children as well, so it should also be in their Google Calendar and email if you don't see it in yours.

Remember that your child should be spending 27.75 hours a week on learning activities. This includes time spent in all the Accelerate Education courses, workbooks, Art and PE activities, reading, and any time learning new skills. Please make sure that these activities are balanced and varied and your child is showing evidence of learning in each subject. I do look at the amount of time students spend in each subject during the month and base their progress on that as well as the percentage of progression. Keep up the hard work in Accelerate Education!

Accelerate Education Due Dates - Module 12 this week

Students should be doing one Module in Language Arts and Math each week, as well as lessons in Science, Social Studies, Art, and PE. Most students should be working on Module 12 in Language Arts and Math this week unless your student started later. There will be no new modules next week, so use November 25th and 26th as days to catch up or to do fun projects!

Thank you for all the hard work you are doing as your child's learning coach! Have a great week!

Ms. Harrier and Mr. Cain

🦃 November 27-29 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

❄December 23-January 3 - Winter Break - No School

📆 January 24 - End of Semester 1

This week, we will be holding class as usual on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Next week, we will only have our classes on Monday and Tuesday at 10:00 both days due to Thanksgiving break and weekly contact is not required, but recommended. Please note that everyone will be meeting at 10:00 on Monday instead of our normal grade-level times.

Please remember that your child is required to attend class either on Google Meet or in person at least once each week. If your child is not able to come to either class during the week on his or her regular day, please ask your child what he or she has been learning that week and send me a direct quote of what he or she said by email. You can also send an audio or video recording of what was said. This is necessary for our required academic weekly contact and if I don't hear from your child, your child will be marked absent and you may get a phone call or attendance email. If your child missed class because he or she is sick, please let me know so I can send it to our attendance office. Thank you!

For every virtual meeting, have your child keep a blank sheet of paper to draw on, a black marker or pencil to draw with, and color crayons or colored pencils nearby. We won't be doing a directed drawing each week, but that way your child is prepared for our class in case it is needed. We often are waiting for students to get their paper and it saves us time if everyone has all the materials they need.

For the next few weeks, we will be learning about Thanksgiving, and turkeys in our Tuesday and Thursday classes. We will be reading the story "Turkey Trouble" and I will introduce our class "Disguise a Turkey" project this week. I would like each student to either print out a copy of the turkey or draw their own and create a disguise for their turkey. This project can take the place of one of the Accelerate Art lessons for the next few weeks. The disguise can be drawn and colored on the turkey or your child can use materials to create the disguise. I will show students examples during class and there are many other ideas online. They can make more than one disguised turkey!

I would like each remote student to take a picture of their disguised turkey and either email it to me or upload it in their Art class. Students who come to our Tuesday in-person class can bring them on either November 26 or December 3 to share and remote students will also be sharing our turkeys in class during our virtual meeting on December 5th. Please have any pictures sent to me by December 5 as I would like to post our turkey pictures on our bulletin board for everyone to see our non-turkey flock!

Disguise a Turkey Project

If your child wants to also make a digital version, here is the Google Slides link. It should have your child make a copy and then it can be shared with me.

Digital Disguise a Turkey Project

From all of us at BGVA, we hope our students and families have a joyous and memorable holiday season. We understand this time of year can bring challenges. Our wish is to ease some of the difficulties families are experiencing. If you are interested in receiving assistance, please fill out this form by November 20, 2024.

Please click here to fill out the form for the BGVA Giving Tree

If your child is attending our Tuesday in-person classes, please bring your child to the locked gate by the small parking lot/gym at 10:00 and I will be waiting for your child to walk back to our classroom. Campus Security is sometimes at the gate and may also let you in and if so, you can meet under the covered awning by the east door to the Longhouse. We will be in Longhouse Room 7 for most of the time. I will bring students back out at 11:55 through the gate and you can park along the curb in the parent pickup area closest to the building. If you prefer to park and meet us by the gate at the end of class, that is also fine. Please make sure you are following the traffic flow map when coming on campus. Click on the picture to make it larger. Also, have your student bring a water bottle and a snack if your child needs one. Bring a jacket if it is raining or cold as we usually go outside unless it is raining heavily.

For every class virtual meeting, have your child keep a blank sheet of paper to draw on, a pencil or marker to draw with, and crayons or colored pencils nearby. We won't be doing a directed drawing each week, but that way your child is prepared for our class in case it is needed. I will see virtual students on Google Meet on Thursday!

Topic: Ms. Harrier's K-2 Virtual Class Meeting on Google Meet

Time: Thursdays from 10:00-11:00 AM

Use the same link that you have already received via email for all of our virtual class meetings.

Come join our Monday Morning Trekker Talk Meetings! This is an optional meeting to kick off the week, review last week's learning, preview learning for this upcoming week, and to interact with other students in their grade level. Please make sure your student brings a small whiteboard and dry erase marker or paper to write on each week.

Monday Morning Weekly Check-ins through Google Meet with each grade level.

It’s a great idea to make items available for your student to use during math. Small beans, blocks, Legos or other small items that students can use to physically move around to count and represent addition and subtraction equations will help them with number sense. You can also click on this awesome link for fun virtual math tools!

Virtual Math Manipulatives

Please remember that the due dates for Language Arts may be a bit incorrect on your student's Accelerate Education calendar. This is because they are based on your child's start date and has the end date as the end of the semester in January. Depending on the course, there may be times that the calendar may show that your child should be doing 2 lessons a day or working on more than one module each week. Please ignore the calendar in Language Arts if it is incorrect and only do one lesson a day. Students should be doing one Module in Language Arts and Math each week. Most students should be working on Module 12 in Language Arts and Math Arts this week. It is okay to be in a different place if you are new to our program and are just getting started. This calendar is a guide to help you stay on track so you can finish by the end of the semester. Each module has 5 lessons in Language Arts and Math. For Social Studies and Science, you will notice that there are only one or two lessons in each module.