The Reading Life - There's never enough time to squeeze everything in, and the classroom is no different the rest of life in this respect. But it's clear to me that dedicated time for independent reading of student-selected material on a daily basis is not the thing to cut. We are grabbing a cushion and finding a comfy place to get lost in our books for 15 minutes everyday. Your child should always have a book that they are reading from our classroom library, one that they have chosen, are interested in, and can read with ease. Right now we are in a nonfiction unit in English Language Arts, so your child may bring home two books each night for their nightly reading HW (a "chunk" is 20-30 minutes) as many students are continuing in their fiction series. You may recall from Back-to-School Night in August that I said when parents share their reading life with their child, when your child sees you reading and hears you talking about your reading on a regular basis, it's hugely impactful. So, perhaps you'll want to start daily D.E.A.R. time (Drop Everything And Read time) in your home and watch you child catch the reading bug, becoming an avid reader for life!
Absences & Illnesses - After a relatively healthy January and February (following LOTS of illness in December) we now seem to have more kids out sick. Today we had four students out. We are still in the middle of flu season and winter colds, and we've been washing our hands a LOT --- everyone washes before lunch AND after lunch now. (Third graders need to stop picking their noses --- it's unhealthy for the rest of us and just plain gross. Please work at home to help your child break this preschooler habit.) We have plenty of Kleenex at the moment, but I'll let you know when we run low.
You should have received an email from Superintendent Dr. Vivian Ekchian last evening, Monday, March 2nd, with the subject: Update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus). If you did not receive this email, then your contact information is not up-to-date. When I use the district's Chalkboard email app, only two-thirds of our class's parent emails are delivered. Fully one-third are not delivered for one of the following reasons:
- invalid email address (perhaps a typo when you filled out the form?)
- email address blocked
- no email address on file
For those of you who have received a letter from Ms. Tonoli about excessive absences, please know that we do NOT want you to send a sick child to school. Not only do those of us at school not want the contagion, a sick child is in no condition to learn and likely will not heal as quickly as they would if they were home getting plenty of rest (no, I don't mean watching movies and playing video games). Keppel and GUSD are trying to minimize the rate of non-illness absences.
If your child is absent from school for any reason, please make sure that you call the school office (818-244-2114) before 10:00am. If you must pick up your child early from school (I recall that my sons' orthodontist appointments often had to be scheduled during school hours) please email me ahead of time. I can't send your child to the office until you have arrived, but we can be ready to go.