If you would like to come after school to check the Lost and Found, you are welcome to do so. On Friday, December 17th, there is no school for students because it is the first day of Winter Break. Ms. Hardy will be in the building from 9:30 until 12:00 pm to allow families to come in and look in the Lost and Found before the building closes until January 3rd.

FLE is still currently on yellow, which means all adults and students in grades 3, 4, and 5 are expected to wear masks while in the building. This also means we limit the people coming in and out of the building to ensure that we are not increasing transmission. When we move back to Green, we will begin allowing families into the building in the morning to walk with students to class! We have always done this in the past at FLE, so this will be a nice return for our staff and families. However, we still have to be safe and respectful, so there are some guidelines we ask that families follow:

Everyone entering or exiting our building in the mornings (with the exception of students coming off the bus) will need to use the front entrance. If you are choosing to walk your student to the front door or down to class, we require that you park in the FLE Family Parking Lot at the front of the school. The drop off loop will still be just for dropping and driving.

We unlock our front door at 8:55, but we do not walk down to classrooms until the 9:00 bell rings. All of our teachers are welcoming their students to school each morning, so we ask that their attention remain on all students entering their classrooms. If you would like to schedule a conference with your student's teacher, please reach out to them so you can make an appointment.

If we moved back to yellow, the expectation would be for adults and students (3rd grade and up) entering the building to wear a mask. We may limit entrance into the building to all visitors, dependent upon the guidance we are given from our district's Health Advisory Team.

At dismissal we will keep our procedures the same since the system works so well, and it is hard for the teachers to pay attention to who is leaving their room if it is too hectic. However, if parents needed to come in the building (to check the lost and found, for example) they certainly can.

If you are hoping to volunteer in your student's classroom, please reach out to your student's teacher to schedule a a date and time!

We look forward to seeing our families in the building once again. Thank you for cooperating with our guidelines to ensure the safety of all students and families.

Walking into first grade classrooms is always a fun treat, especially when the kids are working hard on their reading and writing skills. I recently spent some time in Ms. Sibal, Ms. Samaniego, and Ms. Parret's classes during their reading blocks. Here are some of the things I heard:

Ms. Samaniego's students were working hard to read their story using echo reading. Echo reading is when Ms. Samaniego reads a sentence and the students "echo" read back to her!

Ms. Parret's class was working on their station rotations! Some students were working on spelling words, others were sorting pictures based on their beginning sound.

Ms. Sibal's students were focusing on digraphs! What is a digraph? A digraph is a combination of two letters representing one sound, such as "ph" in the word phone.

It is so impressive to see how responsible these first grade scholars are while they are working hard in their classrooms. Ms. Parret, Ms. Samaniego, and Ms. Sibal all work with small groups while other students work independently-and they are total pros! Our Kindergarten and First Grade teachers use a program called Heggerty to teach phonemic awareness when they are working with the whole group of students.

Phonemic awareness is the relationship between the sounds we say and hear. While phonics focuses on the written letter and the sound it represents, helping students develop phonemic awareness means helping them identify beginning and ending sounds, how to segment a word by syllable, and how to rhyme words! There is a direct link between phonemic awareness and reading fluency, so when reading with your student at home, ask them to tell you about the sounds they hear in certain words!

Have you heard your student talk about Go Noodle before? Go Noodle is a website that has short, physical activity videos to get our students up and moving. The State of Alaska expects that students have opportunities for no less than 54 minutes of physical activity during the full school day for students, and it can be a combination of recess, P.E., and in classroom activities. Many of our teachers use Go Noodle as a "brain break" for students and as a way to get those hearts pumping and some energy flowing!