Our school nurse, Nurse Debbie C. has a iBlog! Check it out!

Recent media reports indicate that within the next few days Governor Whitmer will most likely announce the closure of all school buildings for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.  This news has raised questions, concerns, and a variety of emotions from parents, students, and staff in the Dearborn Public Schools. 

The District will wait for official word from the Governor before taking a position regarding this news. Governor Whitmer is a strong supporter of public education in Michigan and we are confident her plan will provide details allowing school districts to address questions and concerns at the local level.  

I want to assure our community that since the State closure of schools on March 16, we have been working on both short and long term plans to address how the district will operate for the remainder of the school year.  Graduation, SAT testing, eligibility for special programs, the third grade reading law, and kindergarten round-up are just a sample of the topics that have been part of our planning and discussions. 

For our staff, we know there will be questions about the continuation of pay, attendance incentives, extra pay assignments, and other concerns related to work responsibilities. It is a priority for us to continue to pay our staff regular wages/salary and benefits.  We will also protect the financial stability of the district going into next year given the uncertainty with the current crisis. 

We understand the emotions this uncertainty has created over these past few weeks. Although we are limited on the decisions we can make at this time, and much of what we can respond to depends on the actions coming out of Lansing, we hope that by providing continuous communication our stakeholders will be assured that we are planning for the future of the district and the educational needs of our students.  

Typically on Tuesdays we have therapy time with our Speech Pathologist, Ms. Dawn and our Occupational Therapist, Ms. Emily. 🙂 Below are some activities from our therapists to check out:

Lets GO with Ms. Dawn!

Making Oobleck (slime) with Ms. Emily:

Materials:

1 cup water
1/2 cup to 1 cup cornstarch (start with 1/2 cup and add as needed)
Bowl
Spoon
Measuring cups

Instructions:

1) Gather materials
2) Measure cornstarch
3) Pour cornstarch into bowl
4) Measure water
5) Pour water into bowl
6) Mix water and cornstarch with a spoon
7) Add more water or cornstarch as needed. Mixture should be thick, solid when squeezed, and turn to liquid when held in an open hand or left alone
8) Play with the Oobleck and read Dr. Seuss’ book Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Here is a link to a YouTube book read-aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDef7vCgrk0

This week if we were in school, we would have been preparing for spring break!  We would have done lots of spring crafts, read books about spring and bunnies and made colorful eggs.  Here are some books that are fun to listen to:

Starting next week, Dearborn Public Schools is changing to free student meal pickup three times a week. Pickups will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week (March 30 to April 3), and then Monday, Wednesday, Thursday the week of April 6 to 10 because of Good Friday. After that, pickups will stay at Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the program is in effect. Each bags will contain enough meals for each student to last until the next pickup date. The reduced schedule will hopefully be easier for families, and reduce the potential virus exposure for families, staff and volunteers.

Each week we read our News-2-You. Our favorite part is telling the jokes using adaptive switches (have some fun and tell the joke to your family)! On Fridays, we complete our News-2-You journals and work on preferred choice making! Next weeks News-2-You is about Coronavirus.

Ms. Dawn, our Speech and Language Pathologist has a iBlog! Please subscribe to her blog and enjoy her video stories using the Core Vocabulary board! 🙂

Typically at school we focus on a letter each week; we sing songs, do an art craft, talk about what sound the letter makes and discuss what starts with the letter.  Last week we would have discussed letter ‘S’ this week would be the letter ‘T’ and next week would be letter ‘U.’  Here are some songs to go along with ‘S’ ‘T’ and ‘U’ …can you find items around your house that begin with these letters? 🙂