Dear Parent/Guardian,

       According to Johns Hopkins University, the effects of summer learning loss can result in nearly a three-month loss in grade-level equivalency in math and a two-month loss in grade-level equivalency in reading. 

 As a result of the school shut down, estimates suggest students will return in the fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year.  However in mathematics, students are likely to show much smaller learning gains and in some grades, nearly a full year behind what we would observe in normal conditions. In order to close the summer learning loss gap in reading and math, students should be reading on a daily basis and or completing math activities. Below are some recommended activities:

Raz Kids – www.kidsa-z.com – Many great books to read!  

Zearn

Eureka Math Resource – greatminds.org   Find Knowledge on the Go, then click Access Free Resources.  Click your grade or the next grade!

Read 20 minutes each day

Thank you so much for supporting your child’s development through summer learning.

Today will be my last post here on our classroom blog. Report cards have been finished. Details on the grading for this card-marking are on the June 9 blog. They will be mailed to your homes. Again, thank you for all of your support and help during our On Line Learning experience! I hope everyone has a restful, safe, and wonderful summer!

Today I finished cleaning out my classroom. Mrs. Juntunen will be moving into Room 206 in the Fall to teach 4th grade next to Mrs. Hull. As I have been reflecting on my career, I thought I’d share a few numbers and interesting things with you:

*Schools I worked at: Lindbergh – 1st grade, Salina Old Building – 3rd grade, Salina New Building – 3rd grade, Lindbergh 4th grade, 3/4 split.

*If I averaged 22 students per year, I have taught approximately 682 students!

*That means I’ve completed approximately 2,728 report cards!

*Number of Principals I’ve worked for: 9

*I’ve had 4 student teachers – One of them, Khaled Abdulla is the Assistant Principal at Edsel Ford HS.

*Many of my students have become teachers – including Amal Abdulla, Assistant Principal of Miller Elementary.

*I’ve mentored many teachers over the years – including the newly hired Glenn Maleyko at Salina. Now, of course he is Dr. Glenn Maleyko, Superintendent of Dearborn Schools.

*I was on the designing committee of the new Salina Elementary, and spent a summer choosing all the carpet, tiles, countertops, desks, chairs, and hallway colors of the new building. It was very fun!

*Marian Illitch attended Salina as a child, and she was our Grand Marshall of one of our clean-up parades. She promised pizza to every student, and the next day, a Little Caesar’s semi truck pulled up and delivered!

*My Grandma lived to be 99 years old. Her last outing was going to Barnes and Noble to see the Lindbergh Choir perform.

*I’ve read the BFG by Roald Dahl to 28 classes. I consulted with 2 different women from England who helped me with the Queen’s accent.

*A definite highlight of my career was travelling to Washington, D.C. with Ms. Tiba and Dr. Maleyko to accept the Blue Ribbon Award for Lindbergh. It was an honor to represent such a wonderful, well-deserving school!

*Lastly, sometimes as teachers, we don’t know the long-term affect we may have on students. I had a boy at Salina who moved here from Pakistan. He spoke Urdu. We did not have an Urdu translator at that time. He didn’t know one word of English. He didn’t understand me, and I didn’t understand him, but we made the best of it starting with sight words. We laughed a lot – I’m glad he had a sense of humor. Many years later, a U.S. Navy Sailor was waiting for me in the office of Salina. It was my student, Naveen. He was a computer tech on board the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. He spoke 6 languages now. He came back to thank me for being the first person in the U.S. that was kind to him and helped him.

It has been an honor and a privilege to teach the wonderful students at Lindbergh School. Keep up the good work everyone! I will miss you, and I will visit next year. Miss Knaus

**All assignments from last week are due TODAY. Please have all assignments turned in by 5:00 pm. I must begin Report Cards tomorrow evening. Here is how Dearborn Schools and Lindbergh Staff have calculated report card participation:

M – Meeting Grade Level – 80% assignments have been turned during the 7 weeks of “graded” on line learning.

P – Progressing – 50 – 79% of assignments were turned in.

LP – Limited Participation – Less than 50% of work was submitted.

Throughout the last 7 weeks, I have kept a spreadsheet of submitted work. This is what I based the Weekly Progress Reports on. These are the numbers of the assignments:

Math – both grades had 20 Lessons and 4 Zearn Reports – total of 24 math assignments.

Reading – Reading Literature – 6 books/quiz/questions on Google Docs

Reading Informational – 7 books/quiz/questions

Writing – 10 assignments – we covered Opinion, Informational, and Personal Narrative writing.

Social Studies – 8 assignments in Economics

Science – 3 assignments in Life Science

***Due dates were given for each assignment, however if something was turned in the week following a Progress Report, I counted it. After one extra week, you would notice the assignments were taken off Google Classroom.

***This was an extraordinary time for all of us! I would never expect 100% participation in these circumstances. I know some real sacrifices were made to help our kids, struggles were had, technology presented challenges, and we were all trying to stay safe and healthy! I really believe that most students did the best they could, and I am proud of the efforts of all of your families to help out!! Technology is not my strong suit, so I thank you for your patience too! Please don’t feel “disappointed” if your child does not get all M’s. This report card will obviously have the asterisk* next to it with COVID 19 labelled. This card marking is more of a record keeping for us and a way to look ahead to the best practices for everyone when all of you return to school in the Fall. (all of you – Not me!!) The report card will be mailed to your home. I will be making 1 more blog post tomorrow.

Thank you! I truly enjoyed all of your children in my last year of teaching, but I really wish we could have been together in class.

Miss Knaus

Just a reminder. Today and tomorrow (Tuesday) are the LAST days to turn in assignments from last week. I am missing a lot of assignments, and this could affect your participation grade on the report card.

The week of June 1 – 5, these were the assignments due:

Math – 3rd grade – Module 6, Lessons 1 and 2. Zearn Lessons 1 and 2.

Math – 4th grade – Module 6, Lessons 1 and 2. Zearn Lessons 1 and 2.

Raz Kids – www.kidsa-z.com – select 1 of the 5 new books that I put in your student portal of Raz Kids. Read 1 book and take the quiz. The choices were: World Cup Soccer, Alia and the Furniture Troll, The Ant in the Photograph, Life in Space, and Animals Feel Emotions. You must get an 8/10 to be counted as submitted.

Social Studies – Economy – Specialization and the Division of Labor – Answer questions on the Google Doc about Henry Ford’s Assembly line.

Writing – Turn in your final copy of your Personal Narrative. This came from your digital Memory book, then the plan you made to write about something that happened this school year.

Music, Art, PE and Science Enrichment (I hear the ice cream is delicious!)

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If you have finished everything, I put some links to fun math games on Google Classroom. These are just for fun!

***If you did not pick up your things from the desks and lockers last Thursday, please read Ms. Tiba’s blog on the Lindbergh Website. It will explain how you can pick things up. If anything is left on Thursday, June 11, it will be thrown away.

This is our last official Friday of the School Year! I will not be giving any more assignments – even though school officially goes through next Thursday. I will make a few more blog posts next week and maybe some fun things to look for on Google Classroom, but nothing that needs to be turned in.

Please finish up this week’s assignments (see yesterday’s blog) and turn those in. If you need Monday and Tuesday to turn in, that’s fine too.

Don’t forget to check out the great stuff that our awesome special teachers put in Google Classroom for you this week: Cosmic Yoga in PE, Origami Hawaiian Shirts in Art, Mrs. Baloga’s super fun interactive music classroom, and make homemade ice cream in a bag or make a bubble blower in Science Enrichment!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello Class! Today is the day that parents may come up to school and pick up your things finally! All the things that were in your desk and locker will be in bags. Please read Ms. Tiba’s letter (on a previous blog) about the time that parents may come to school. Also, please bring any library books, classroom books, book bags and anything else that belongs at school with you. Our class lunch bin will be with our class things for you to put books into. Please follow Ms. Tiba’s instructions in her letter so that we may all practice a safe exchange of items. Thank you.

Thursday and Friday – I would like for you to try to complete all the assignments that were given this week by Friday. I am NOT going to put any new assignments in Google Classroom!! Please finish the following work, so I can work on Report Cards this weekend. If you need to, you may turn in work Monday or Tuesday.

Math – both grades had Module 6 – Lessons 1 and 2. Zearn Lessons 1 and 2.

Reading– Pick 1 book of the five choices I put in Raz Kids. The titles of the books are on yesterday’s blog. Read 1 book and take the quiz.

Writing – Personal Narrative – final copy. I’m looking forward to reading your stories!

Social Studies – Economy – Specialization and Division of Labor. See Henry Ford’s Assembly Line, and an assembly line that doesn’t quite work!

Art, Gym, Music, and Mrs. Poisson Science Enrichment.

This will be your final Progress Report!!!!! yea!!!!!!!!!!

New Assignment today – Math, Science Enrichment with Mrs. Poisson

3rd grade – Module 6, Lesson 2. Please do the homework for this lesson. Also, go to Zearn and do Lesson 2. Due Friday, June 5.

4th grade – Module 6, Lesson 2. Please do the homework for this lesson. Then go to Zearn and do Lesson 2. Due Friday, June 5.

Visit Mrs. Poisson Science Enrichment: Make your own ice cream at home and make a bubble blower!

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Work this week:

Writing both grades – Personal narrative – due Friday.

Social Studies – Economy – Specialization and Division of Labor – Google Doc with questions – Due Friday.

Reading – Raz Kids – www.kidsa-z.com – Pick one of the 5 new books I put into your Assignments. You only have to read 1 book and take the quiz. The choices are: World Cup Soccer, Alia and the Furniture Troll, The Ant in the Photograph, Life In Space, and Animals Feel Emotions. Due Friday.

***Please read the previous blogs for important information about when parents can come to Lindbergh and pick up items from desks and lockers.

Starting tomorrow, Wed., June 3 – next week June 11, I will only be available to answer emails quickly from 9 – 11 a.m. I will be at school each day in the afternoon – cleaning out my room – 31 years of stuff! If you send me an email during the day, I will get back to you the following morning. Next week – Monday and Tuesday will be used to turn in any assignments from this week only. If all work can be done by Friday, June 5, that would be wonderful! Thank you.

Please make sure that you have read the blog from Ms. Tiba regarding picking up things from lockers and desks and dropping off any books, book bags, library books, or anything that belongs to our classroom. This will take place Thursday. Be sure to see what time you are to come. It was on a previous blog called – Pick up Stuff/drop off books. Thank you.

Some of you are able to watch the videos attached in the Social Studies lesson, and some of you are getting a “restricted” notice. If you cannot view them, please log out of your Dearborn browser and use your home browser or a phone. Go to YouTube. Search for: Model T Ford Assembly Line (4:06 minutes), Ford F-150 Assembly Line (4:41 min) and Lucy and the Chocolate Factory (2:58 min.)