In just one short week we will begin our Winter Break from December 21st-January 1st! We hope your time together will be filled with making memories, playing and staying warm and cozy.

You may be wondering what our next steps are given the guidance from the Metro Health recommendations. At this time, we will continue to offer in person learning throughout the end of the school year, but highly encourage and support that families switch to remote learning. We are also recommending that families continue remote learning for 10 days following our Winter Break. We are here to provide support and flexibility to families as they navigate and consider what the best option is for your family. Please talk to your child's teacher if you would like to move your child to remote learning.

In November, we hosted our 2nd Drive-Thru Food Pantry in partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank. During that event we handed out 200 boxes of food and 200 gallons of milk to 100 families! We also began instruction for our newly added 9th grade class. We are excited to step into this new phase and look forward to expanding to additional high school classes in the near future.

In January, we will offer our Play Connection 5 Week Series, a virtual class that will teach families about the importance of play and how to play with your children. It will be a ton of fun!

Please continue to practice social distancing, washing hands and staying safe. We are in this together!

Warmest wishes,

Dr. Mills

When: January 6th - February 3rd at 6:30pm

Where: Zoom

What:

Week 1: We Are A Family & We Can Play Together

Week 2: We Can Play & Dream Together

Week 3: We Have Family Traditions

Week 4: We Will Communicate and Grow Together

Week 5: We Believe in Each Other

Email Erica Martinez at vamosjuntos@lighthousesa.org to register.

You can see your child's attendance and grades through our Parent Portal. This can help you see if your child is turning in assignments or logging in for their virtual lessons.

If you need a Parent Portal username, please call the front office at 210-236-7693.

Families can reinforce these "plays" at home in the following ways:

Think, Ink, Pair, Share (TIPS)- Create a family dinner menu by asking your child to think of what they'd like to eat for dinner for one day next week. Then have your child write or draw a picture of their dinner idea. At the same time, you write or draw one or more dinner ideas. Finally, you and your child will pair and share your ideas for dinner. Combine your ideas on a calendar.

Anchor Charts- Reward and contribution charts are popular in many families. Create one together that lists our tasks or contributions you want your child to complete or meet. Then create a list of rewards together. Here's the key part: the rewards have to be things the child likes, but cannot be bought at the store. A few examples are eating dinner in the living room, going for a walk, playing together for 10 uniterrupted minutes and making hot chocolate. Consistency is key and can help with unwanted behaviors.

Frayer Model- This play is used to help students understand new words. This can also be helpful when they are learning a new idea. See an example of the Frayer Model here.

10% Summaries- When students are reading or have just been given a directive from you, ask them to summarize what they just read or heard.