At Home Learning
#4 - April 20, 2020
Safe At Home Spirit Week
Monday is first up and may be one of the most important items on the list. Students NEED to know their address and the phone number of a parent for any emergency. If a child called 911, the first thing they will be asked is their name and address.
Tuesday - Friday are also important in giving kids a sense of security at home. If you already have plans for these and the kids know them, great! A drill is developing muscle memory for when an emergency situation may happen! If not, please take some time to develop, talk about and practice what you would do in each situation. More and more homes have cell phones and no land lines, it is a good idea to teach your child how to use a cell phone in an emergency.
A Note from our Safety Coordinators: The week of April 13-17, 2020 was Tornado & Severe Weather Awareness Week in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Emergency Management team and the five National Weather Service Forecast Offices that serve Wisconsin are asking residents to review home safety plans and be ready when severe weather strikes. Kettle Moraine participates in several annual drills, which often translate to safety and life skills outside of school, this will be a great way for you to stay safe and be ready wherever you are!
Apart Together
Photo Credit/Work: Trevor Heinzelmann
With the extension of the "Safer At Home" order, we see the hope of getting back together this school year out of our reach. As difficult as that is, we know by staying home we are helping others. That being said, it is still hard to accept as adults, and hard to understand for our children. We miss all that goes along with the end of the school year as much as your children do! While we cannot recreate the end of the year from home, we can still work hard to remain connected to each other and for each other.Now that the order goes longer and we know we are not returning to school, we are working on a plan to get fresh books into the hands of our learners. You will hear more about that later this week. Once we tackle getting new books out, we will figure out a plan to get student materials left at school back to families in May.
We will also be looking for creative opportunities to celebrate our fifth graders as they move on to Kettle Moraine Middle School. While this is not the end they, or anyone graduating, hoped for we can still celebrate all that they have achieved and send them off with well wishes! More on this to come too! (Please don't think we forgot this!!)
19-20 has been an eventful year, I am thinking 20-21 will be unpredictable as well.
At Home Learning
There is A LOT of great learning happening at home - some of it is on SeeSaw (I have over 15,000 notifications!) - and some of it is not. Kids are building, cooking, creating, measuring, and so much more! All of those experiences are learning. YOU are teaching your own children things you learned as a child, crafts and activities you did with a grandparent, books that were read to you or you read yourself, sharing favorite recipes, sharing hobbies and passions, and so much more. Not all learning comes on a lesson plan, and KUDOS to you for taking advantage of the TEACHABLE MOMENTS this pandemic is providing. YOU are rocking the At Home Learning! IF you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to your child's classroom teacher, or any Magee staff member, for assistance! THANK YOU!
Storyteller and Writer Patrick Ryan visited Magee on February 19, 2020. Students had a great time listening to his stories and working on writing with him. He, along with some other story tellers have created a YouTube Channel and are adding more stories all the time. It is free and it showcases stories from around the world. Stories Told by the Heart is the name of the channel.
Music, Art and PE are sharing lessons on Tuesdays. These lessons should be completed at any time during the week. Again, they do not need to be done all at once and can be done together if you have multiple children at Magee. These subjects are not optional, but offer flexibility for completion. Mrs. Jones created this helpful video to help you navigate through SeeSaw with your student to see what activites are shared for each class your child is in.
Wednesday, April 22 is Earth Day. Check out this website for Earth Day Fun or create your own! EEK! Environmental Education for Kids
Principal Chat on Google Meet!
Participants on the call would like to see it happen weekly, and on the weekends. Our next two calls will be on GOOGLE MEET - Thursday, April 23 at 6:30PM, and Friday, May 1 at 1:00 PM.
On April 19 discussion topics included:
- What could book check out/exchange look like? - We are working on this!
- Will we be able to gather/say good bye at the end of the year? - We need to wait and see what future orders from the governor hold.
- Is Summer Academy still happening and can kids still sign up? - Sign up is open.
- Having the weekly plan and specialist activities on Tuesdays allow families to plan the week and have some activities for the weekend too.
- Learners and families are appreciative of the Morning Meetings, small group meets, and individual meetings with students.
- Appreciate all of the work teachers are putting in to creating videos, providing feedback, taking time to meet with learners and to answer parent emails and questions.
Thank you for your feedback, we greatly appreciate it! Thank you, also, for joining the call from your home, your garage, your car, or wherever you are! Together, we've got this!
Message to Parents from Mrs. Sterner- April 12, 2020
From The Health Room
We hope you and your families are staying safe during this outbreak of respiratory disease caused by COVID -19 across the world. It's important to remain supportive of each other, and realize that all individuals can minimize the chances of spreading coronavirus by washing hands often, staying home when sick, and covering any coughing or sneezing with a tissue. The CDC does recommend wearing a mask or face covering in a public setting as many people do not know they have the disease; the mask protects people from becoming exposed to COVID -19 as the virus can linger in the air longer than they originally thought. Please remember that KM outdoor facilities as well as playgrounds are closed and not available for use during this time as an additional means of stopping the spread of the virus. Anyone who becomes sick with symptoms more severe than an ordinary cold is advised to seek medical care. Please know that our Health Services Webpage has information you may find helpful and that KM is here to support you! Children, like adults, may not understand what is going on around us. What is COVID-19? Why are we home from school? Can I do anything to help? What's going to happen next? COVID 19 Book for Children is a great resource to help children understand COVID-19. It is a free, downloadable book geared for children ages 5-9 years recently written and released from London, UK. Hopefully by sharing this book with your children, they may begin to comprehend what is happening in their world around them. Wishing you healthy days ahead as we are hopefully on the road to recovery in our communities. Please inform the Health Room staff via email if your child has been exposed to or have been tested for COVID-19 as we continue to track illnesses in our community. We are here to help. Take care, and wash your hands! Jenny Pick, RN Magee/KMMS pickjennifer@kmsd.edu Regina Cowell, Health Assistant cowellr@kmsd.edu Patricia Schuetz, RN District Nurse schuetzp@kmsd.edu
Lunch For ALL Families
Thank you for your cooperation with this!
If you have questions, please email KMSD Director of Nutrition Services, Joe Claas at claasj@kmsd.edu.
Student KMSD Email Accounts
A reminder that student email accounts should be used for KMSD educational purposes only. They should not be used to sign up for other social media or online activities such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Although most of our students are too young for the requirements of these platforms, it does happen. If you wish to sign your child up, you would need to create a different email account not associated with KMSD. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Resources
Magee Website - Family Resources, At Home Learning
Toggling between classes in SeeSaw
Mrs. Sterner's KMSD YouTube Channel - read alouds