8:45 – Student Shares!
Student Shares are an important way for our students to stay connected during Distance Learning. For a share, a student picks something important or meaningful and talks about it with the class. It has been amazing during Distance Learning for students to have access to things inside their home to share – like Luke’s new drums and Liam’s awesome robot!
9:00 – Read Aloud
Read Aloud is great for many reasons. First, research shows that literacy progress increases the more students engage with books either by reading or being read to. Second, these videos are a great way for students to see their teachers and connect with them everyday. Finally, the shared experience of everyone in the class reading the same book brings a sense of community and connectedness to the students in the classroom!
9:30 – Mini Lesson
A mini lesson is an important part of Reading Workshop, the reading curriculum we use at City Elementary. The mini-lesson highlights an important literary aspect – in today’s mini lesson the students are exploring what we can learn from choices and behavior of main characters. By providing examples and visuals, our teachers support students in becoming thoughtful, engaged readers. During Distance Learning, teachers record a mini lesson each day with assigned work to follow and individual teacher video conferences.
10:00 – Writing
The ability to express thoughts and feelings through writing is one of the most important skills we can teach our students. Here is an example of a presentation a student put together over the course a few weeks of teacher and parent supported work during distance learning. The student researched his topic, wrote an essay, and then took the main points of the essay and created a presentation with visuals on a topic that is important to him – conservation.
10:05 – Bonus Writing
Our students have been practicing writing to each other to stay connected during distance learning. Their letters demonstrate the power of friendship and community!
10:30 – Just Joshin’
One of the favorite activities in the Iguanas classroom is telling jokes. Diverse learners can have challenges initiating social interactions, and teaching jokes is a great way to support students social skills. Several times a week Mr Josh films “Just Joshin’” where he reads jokes that students in his class have submitted, and Mr Josh also tells some news jokes.
11:00 – Math
We use a curriculum called Singapore Math at City Elementary. During distance learning, each student is assigned individualized math work. Students complete the work with the support of 1:1 video conferences with teachers, working with parents, and they also have independent practice. Here is some of the math work students have completed during Distance Learning!
1:30 – Spirit Day Celebration
Every year at City we have a Spirit Day to celebrate the amazingness of our school. This year we combined Spirit Day with Teacher Appreciation Week and celebrated online! We watched a video created by students to thank our staff, shared some of our favorite stories, and cheered to say thank you to our teachers.
2:00 – Rock Band
At City Elementary we have innovative and fun ways for students to learn and practice social-emotional skills. One of the classes we have is Rock Band led by Mr. Alex. Each classroom forms a band and students work cooperatively to build music skills, navigate band practice, and perform music together. During Distance Learning, we are focusing on games and activities to leverage music in bringing students together.
2:30 – Art
Art at City Elementary is a beautiful endeavor. Ms Luella, our talented and creative teacher, creates wonderful opportunities for students to explore and engage in art as a way to express and feel. In this lesson, she reads a book and then plans an engaging lesson for students to participate in based on the story.
2:45 – Bonus Art!
We had to share some of the distance artwork our students have created!
Distance ARt Liam Landscape
Distance Art CJK Scribble Scrabble Poem
Distance Art CJK Poem
Distance Art CJK WCW Plum
Distance Art CJK Earth in Process
Distance Art HMW Self Portrait
Distance Art CC Life of Color
Distance Art LG2 Omu
Distance Art LG1 Omu
Distance Art LG2 Fill your day
Distance Art LG1 Fill Your Day
Distance Art LG Robot
Distance Art MC Self portrait2
Distance Art MC Omu
3:00 – Cake Hour
At City Elementary we have a class called Cake Hour once a week focused on empathy and friendship skills. We have continued Cake Hour during Distance Learning. The skills we focus on are perspective taking, recognizing emotions, and shared attention. In today’s activity, we have students finding and sharing things they find in their house in a structured and fun way. Students are working cooperatively to uncover a mystery video that they will all watch together at the end!