We made it through our first week of remote learning and third graders did an AMAZING job! Students were challenged to not only learn and communicate remotely, but adapt to using new learning platforms and Zoom. One of our biggest challenges this week was navigating Schoology in the midst of our Zoom meetings, which was no easy task. I am so proud of students for remaining calm, cool and collected. Of course, none of us know just how long this remote learning journey will last, but I am so proud of students' hard work. The responsibility and respect they demonstrated this week is commendable. Way to go! In literacy this week, one of our learning objectives centered on descriptive language. Our goal was to bring adjectives and descriptive writing from mild to spicy. Sometimes, we get used to using mild descriptions like good, bad, fun, or big. We could improve our writing by using spicier words like: fantastic, dreadful, exciting, or humongous. Doing this makes written work more colorful and draws a reader's attention in! This week, our learning also focused on the theme of gratitude. As a class, we discussed how we define gratitude and gratefulness. We then transitioned into a discussion of the phrase "take for granted." Students learned what the phrase means, as well as came up with examples of things in their own lives they're guilty of taking for granted. Some examples included: parents, siblings, houses, technology, school, meals, and toys. The book, Those Shoes, served as an excellent example of taking things for granted and really drove home our gratitude learning! In math, our learning objectives centered around a review of rounding and estimation. As a class, we noted how we are constantly making estimations without even realizing it! Students put their skills to the test with two estimation tasks. We had a great time discussing what estimates were too high and too low. It was fun to see how accurate third graders can be! The time has come... our transition to remote learning! Please carefully review the information below. Feel free to contact Mrs. Minatta with any questions. Learning Platform - Schoology Schoology is the learning platform we will be using for remote learning. Students access Schoology by logging into their myCherryCreek account. Assignments will be organized into folders. Students simply click the folder corresponding to the week and day. Their morning (asynchronous) and afternoon (synchronous) assignments are located in separate folders. Online Meeting Platform – ZOOM Students will use Zoom for our daily synchronous meetings. Please be sure to download the Zoom app on your child’s computer/device. Zoom works much better when you have the app downloaded and you don’t go through the web browser. If you don’t download the app, your child won’t have access to all the features of Zoom that we will be using. During our Zoom meetings, it is important that students follow the guidelines below so that we can make the most of our time together. Daily Schedule Students will have asynchronous and synchronous learning time each day. Please see below for more information. 9:15 – 12:00 Morning Asynchronous Learning This is independent work time for third graders. Each morning, students will have assignments to complete during this time. Assignments will be posted in Schoology. I will go over their assignments with them at the end of each day so they know what they will need to work on the next morning and how to access it. Morning (asynchronous) and afternoon (synchronous) assignments are often linked, so students are expected to have accessed and completed their morning assignments prior to our daily start time at noon. We will get to a point where small groups meet during asynchronous time 1-2 times per week, but we will ease into this! 12:00 – 3:00pm Afternoon Synchronous Learning This is direct instruction time with Mrs. Minatta. Students will log into Zoom each day and receive 3 hours of direct instruction time. We will follow a Green Day and Blue Day schedule, which impacts the content covered each day. On Green Days students will have science/social studies instruction and on Blue Days students will have a specials class (PE, gym, music, STEM or ROAR). Attendance
Students are expected to engage in synchronous and asynchronous learning each day. Attendance will be taken. If your child is sick and will not be in attendance, please call the attendance line at 720-554-3295 to excuse them. Lunch Third graders need to eat lunch during their asynchronous time (so before 12:00pm). There are scheduled brain breaks during our synchronous time together. Students are welcome to grab a quick snack during that time if needed. Grading Teachers are expected to grade during remote learning. Grading is intended to measure proficiency of the Colorado Academic Standards. Students will be able to access grades/feedback on assignments in Schoology. |
Author
Mrs. Minatta is a third grade teacher at Cottonwood Creek Elementary. See and read all about what third graders are up to throughout the school year! Archives
March 2021
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