Letters

Last week I sent my kindergarten kids a letter asking them to send me a picture and a story about how they were doing.

I thought I was helping them get through this unusual time with a little link to school and to me.

But it turned out THEY are helping ME to get through these neverending days of planning and designing. 

I get emotional with each letter that I open,  I cry happy tears for their adventures and  triumphs. I cry sad tears for their sense of loss at not being at school with me and their friends. I am touched by the words of love for me and school and each other.  I am moved to tears by the handwritten notes full of gratitude and kindness the parents tucked in amongst the colorful drawings and stickers.

So,  thank you,  k kids and parents!  You really made a difference in my life!

2020 Distance Learning preface and thoughts

Well.

This is interesting.

Like you I am just figuring this out, 
trying to find a balance between my family and my job, trying to find calm and normalcy.

I do have a purpose that keeps me moving.
An important purpose.
I need to be there for you and your child.

Here's a good first message:

Until we all get a handle on this 

remember

YOU ARE ENOUGH

Just being there for your child is 

ENOUGH

If this closure continues,

please consider the first 2 weeks of this 

distance learning as a trial run.
We will begin on March 30.
More details to follow.

Changes will occur.

Expectations will change.

But until then

it will be ENOUGH

Please contact me if you need anything.

Email, text, phone

Anytime day or night.

It takes a community 

and I am proud to be 

part of this community.

In parting here's a list of ideas to keep 

your child active and involved:

With love and caring,

Marcia O'Duggan

2020 Week 25 Review and Transportation with a little Leprechauns and Shamrocks!

My Spring break trip to Indianapolis was postponed so my hubby surprised me with a trip Up North and it wasn't even WINTER CAMPING!  We actually rented a lodge!

We hiked the toughest 5 miles I've ever hiked due to the melting 36"-50" snowpack!

Snow shoes and ice cleats were useless!

But we made it!

We are now at mile 199.1!

I was NOT smiling on the inside!

Saturday brought a whole day at the Lake!

So it was worth it!

Bonus: I found this lovely agate

(it's only thumbnail size but still beautiful!)

We found lots of other beach treasures, too!

Sunday and Monday were spent back at home painting walls and ceilings and I LOVE the fresh look!

We've our last senior so there will be lots of home improvement projects from now until May.

Why didn't I start earlier?

Tuesday we continued with our transportation unit with this engaging sorting activity:

Tuesday's centers were transportation themed including this fun 
CAR WASH!

We also had read the room NUMERAL word race cars...

 

Crystal helped with traffic light numeric order...

Ms. G helped unscramble star words on semis...

 

This station was creating 2 digit numerals with dice on the race track....

More car wash photos...

 

The Senior Choir was part of a lovely concert on Tuesday night!

Wednesday's new morning challenges included:

Pot of Gold vowels...

Pot of Gold mixed equations...

and Short i word families...

This incredible student brought ice cream bars for our Ii snack...

Wednesday afternoon we prepped for 2 upcoming projects:

Leprechauns and Shamrocks!

Stay tuned to see the final projects!

Thursday's centers included:

Pot of Gold color words...

Science Station: Earth's Materials

Land*Water*Air

Pot of Gold Addition...

Shamrock sound it out

word writing...

Counting on from 10 to make teens...

Good Reads:

Check out the shamrocks around our Ireland station!

Cute!

The March Family Projects are looking good!
There's just a few more out.

Let me know if you need a new one.

And here's those adorable leprechauns!

Here's our final transportation themed independent work:

Sentence Unscramble!

Just going to leave this right here.

Does anyone else have this trouble on game night?

Haha!

He won apparently!

And now for the week of March 16-20:

Reading/Language Arts: Letter Oo, pronouns

Star Words: make*them*play*say*new*give

Math: creating teen numerals

Science: Earth's Water

Theme: Shamrocks and Leprechauns

BIG NEWS: 

School Carnival is Friday

March 27 from 5:00-7:30

Hope to see you there!

Friday, April 3 NO SCHOOL

Teachers’ Workshop.

Wednesday, April 8 10:00 Start