WCH Weekly Family Newsletter
March 30th 2020
White Center Heights Elementary School
Marcello Sgambelluri, Co-Principal
Dr. Shajaira López, Co-Principal
Website: https://wch.highlineschools.org/
Phone: (206)631-5200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Center-Heights-Elementary/1525478097695543
Coming together as a Community
-We continue to serve meals everyday from 12:30-1pm in our parking Monday-Friday (a list of foodbanks is also below)
-There are paper learning packets for pick up at the same time as meal pick ups (we will also try to have books that you can take and keep at home), again 12:30-1pm Monday-Friday in the WCH parking lot.
-All learning packets and online learning programs you can use to continue learning at home can be found at bit.ly/wchonline
You should set up a schedule for your students to work on these learning resources (or any learning resources) at home everyday for a set amount of time spread throughout the day. 20-60 minutes of work, depending on your student, followed by 10-30 minutes of break is a good place to start, with 3-6 learning blocks in the day depending your student (there is no one right answer for how your student should be learning so work on finding that just right number for them). It is also helpful to set up a designated spot in the house (a table, corner, or room) where learning happens, this can help students to focus and know that when they are in that space they are "in school" and elsewhere they can just be in their home and be present and content.
Right now we are focusing on everyone settling into being at home and building structure in this time. Again, focus on the mental and physical health of your family and students, don't worry about schooling if these things are not figured out. Once you are happy and healthy move to focusing on school. If there is anything we can do to support e-mail us and let us know.
Upcoming Events
ALL EVENTS ARE CANCELLED FOR NOW
Wednesday, Apr 1, 2020, 11:45 PM
WCH
Important Reminders
- The best point of contact is your teacher, if they don't have an answer the second best point of contact is the Principal or District. The easiest way to reach anyone is e-mail, you can find all staff's e-mails here. If you do not have an e-mail or have not shared your e-mail with your students' teacher, now is the time to do that, e-mail will be by far the best way to communicate. Please set up an e-mail (if you don't already have one) and send your teacher an e-mail just to open that line of communication now. You can sign up for a free e-mail account here.
- Spring Break is still technically from April 4th-12th so your teacher will not be able to respond during this time (these are non-working days for teachers).
- Our school must do what the state tells us to do, the state originally said all at home learning should only be review, they are now saying we can give students new lessons and learning at home. We are still developing what this will look like, for now focus on the at home learning links below, but know that the format of learning will change in the coming days/weeks.
- You can find an update from specialists here on ways to engage your students in art, physical education, music, and reading.
Technology at Home
Learning From Home Right Now
There are three things you can be doing to continue learning at home:
1. The paper packet (you can just read it on a phone, tablet, or computer), this has activities you can do at home to continue learning. Go to this website click on "Elementary Resources" then the grade level of your student to see the packet, you can also pick up a paper copy at meal pick ups (12:30-1pm at WCH M-F)
2. Online learning programs, on the same website as above click on "Elementary Resources" and then scroll down, the main program to use is i-Ready, some teachers also use iStation, Epic, RAZ Kids or others, connect with your teacher to determine which online learning programs you should be using. All students should use i-Ready for about 45 minutes a week in reading and 45 minutes a week in math.
3. Any and every other learning activity you or your student wants to do! There is no bad learning activity, your student wants to build a fort? Talk about shapes and how to make it more sturdy. Your student wants to learn about tigers? Have them search the internet and write a report about tigers. Reading any book or text is a great use of time. Epic is free for 30 days and has tons of online books. Amazon is offering a free trial or very cheap 3-month and year long plans of their Freetime Unlimited which has many reading and learning resources. All Highline students also have a digital King County Library System (KCLS) account for free. Through KCLS you are able to access online materials (books, magazines, videos, and databases). If the book you are waiting for is not available you may place a hold and be notified when it becomes available. To log-on:
- Go to www.kcls.org/students
- Once you land on the student page, DO NOT login yet.
- Choose elementary school students
- Choose one of the links in the center of the screen to explore
- Log-in from your chosen page using your student number. (Note: All library card numbers for Highline School District students begin with 401, and are followed by your student number. Your password is the last 4 digits of your student number. So if my student number is 0123456, then my KCLS login is 4010123456 and my password is 3456) If you need help with student numbers contact your student's teacher.