Learning Labs

Our learning labs are beginning this week. I have contacted parents for Monday-Wednesday so far. I am waiting to see what the outcome of the Board Meeting on Monday will be to see if we will be changing our afternoon schedule before I make further plans. When your child attends the lab, please have them bring their Blue September folder of completed work. They can also bring the Benchmark Week 1 packet from last week that should be completed. I can start grading the papers in the packets. Also, have the children bring their bookbag so that I can give them different books to read. Thank you for keeping calm and being so supportive to me. We will keep on sailing through First Grade together!

Epic Books

Over 1075 books have been read on Epic books by my students since we began school! This has totaled over 126 hours of reading! I am so proud of my students! Remember, if you want to read into the evening (after 4:00pm) on Epic books you need to respond to the email invite that I sent to you. This will allow you to read a selection of books for free in the evening. Epic books is usually only free during school hours. Let me know if you need me to resend the invitation to you. I have assigned 3 books to my students this week about the life cycle of an oak tree and a butterfly. Kadence has hit the 100 books read level and Rachel has read over 14 hours! Great job! Keep on reading!

Assignments

All of the assignments for this week will be found in the Benchmark Week 2 packet. I have posted the independent work on the chart above. It is also found in Schoology on the ELA Reading course and Math course for each day. Please send me your spelling score in Friday’s discussion question on Schoology. Only 9 students have responded with their score. Scores will turn into zeros if you do not respond. Please go back and complete any assignments and discussion questions from weeks past in Schoology. They will also turn to zeros if not completed.

Just Keep Swimming!

Learning Labs

We are entering a new phase of our school year. Our learning labs will be beginning soon! I will be grouping my students into reading groups for learning labs. I will be scheduling each group to come into school or work via zoom during the afternoon independent work time to read with me. Mrs. Moslemani will also have a group or two that she will be working with as well. The groups are based on the NWEA and DRA test scores. I will be contacting parents this week.

EPIC BOOKS

Over 1000 books have been read on Epic books by my students since we began school! This has totaled over 114 hours of reading! I am so proud of my students! Remember, if you want to read into the evening (after 4:00pm) on Epic books you need to respond to the email invite that I sent to you. This will allow you to read a selection of books for free in the evening. Epic books is usually only free during school hours. Yousef, Adam, and Isaac have read over 100 books each! Great job! Keep on reading!

ZOOM MEETINGS

Please be on time for our zoom classes each morning. We begin at 9:00 am. Many students are entering at 9:15 am or later! If you are planning on being absent, please call the attendance office at Snow School and report the reason for your absence. I worry when students are missing! You are also responsible to make up any work that you missed from the days that you are absent.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://dearbornschools-org.zoom.us/j/81648640465?pwd=UXowY3Nwd2ZEaGtEeHB1R1VNeDZoQT09

Meeting ID: 816 4864 0465
Passcode: read

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS

The Blue Folders containing the September packet of activities and Zoom activities should now be complete! Please store all of these papers in the blue folder to be collected when your child comes into school for our learning labs. I will grade the papers at that time.

The October folder is yellow and it has many packets inside. We will be using the Benchmark Unit 1, Week 1 packet this week in class every day. It contains all the spelling and grammar worksheets from Unit 1, week 1 and the homework pages for this week. Please keep this packet out and ready to use each morning. The zoom packet will be used on Friday only this week. The October activities packet is for extra work and is divided into 2 parts, language arts and math. It will be used this Friday for extra assignments during math and independent work times. The other Benchmark Unit 1 Week 2 packet will be used next week. Keep all packets together in this yellow folder.

Gleaners

Get ready for another week of learning!

Just Keep Swimming are my “three little words” for this week! We all must keep on learning and working hard each day. I thank all of my parents for working so hard with your children. I am proud of my students who have completed the I-Ready diagnostic and are now working on their lessons independently. They have all completed the reading portion of the NWEA and they will be working this week to complete the math portion with me.

Please sign up below for this week. If you have a school chrome book, please have your child bring it with them to the test session.

Sign Up Here For NWEA MATH Testing With Mrs. Slater September 28 – October 2

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F4BA9AE2EABFE3-nwea1

My schedule for this week

EPIC BOOKS

Over 800 books have been read on Epic books by my students since we began school! This has totaled over 90 hours of reading! I am so proud of my students! Remember, if you want to read into the evening (after 4:00pm) on Epic books you need to respond to the email invite that I sent to you. This will allow you to read a selection of books for free in the evening. Epic books is usually only free during school hours. Yousef and Adam have read over 100 books each! Great job! Keep on reading!

This week‘s assignments

This week we will be finishing up all of the assignments in the September zoom packet activities and the September activities packet of worksheets in the blue folder. Keep all of the September worksheets in the blue folder to be collected at a later date. I have the October packets, (A zoom packet and October activities ) to give each child when they come to test with me this week. I will also be giving them the Benchmark packets for Unit 1. There are 3 weeks in Unit 1. Three packets, one for each week will also be given to each student for reading. All of this work, it looks like a lot, will take us up to October 23. I am hoping that we will be back in school by then!

We can do this!

Dear Parents/Guardians of Snow Elementary,

It is with great pleasure and an honor to serve you as the new principal of Snow Elementary School beginning October 1^st of this year. I look forward to meeting all of you and working alongside the community.  I am honored to have the opportunity to lead a school with such a rich legacy of success and so many points of pride. I have dedicated my career to the students of Dearborn for the last 16 years. I started my career as an elementary classroom teacher then moved on to an elementary resource teacher/instructional coach at Salina intermediate. I then moved on to be a middle school bilingual resource teacher and have spent the last four years as Assistant principal at Woodworth Middle School. I am eager to dedicate my skills to the Snow community. 

As all of us embark on the upcoming school year we do so for the first time with high levels of uncertainty due to the current international crisis we all know as Covid-19. This has affected all of us in so many ways. Our students and community as a whole have had to encounter many hardships as a result. However, this will not deter our mission to make this school year the best one ever. I plan on working with parents, teachers, students and the entire Snow community to ensure that our students are safe and learning at high levels. Together we will continue to provide experiences that are rigorous, relevant and with relationships based on trust to prepare them for their future endeavors. As your new principal it is important to me to greet everyone who enters the school with the utmost respect. I have an open door policy and value every stakeholder’s opinion. Please feel free to contact me to discuss any concerns you may have or any points of pride you would like to share. 

I look forward to our work together in the years to come and establishing a team committed to the Snow community. Please stay safe and have a great school year.

Sincerely,

Mohammad Abdelfattah

Snow Elementary Principal

We did a lot of testing for DRA reading levels last week! We have more testing to do in the next 2 weeks! This week I will be calling students into class (three at a time), to do the NWEA reading assessment on the computer. It is required by the state and students usually take it 3 times a year. The NWEA math test will be given next week, after we complete the reading test. I am choosing to call the children into school to monitor them. The older students are doing the test virtually. Please sign up below for this week. If you have a school chrome book, please have your child bring it with them to the test session.

Sign Up Here For September 21-25 Testing With Mrs. Slater

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0f4ba9ae2eabfe3-nwea

I-Ready Diagnostic test

Last week, I started all of the children on the I-Ready diagnostic test to get them ready for individualized lessons to begin this week. I sent home a letter detailing how to log into I-ready and asked all of the parents to help in completing this diagnostic test at home. Ten students completed the test so far and they are ready to begin their lessons on Wednesday. If your child has not done so, please take time to let them finish this diagnostic before Wednesday. Do a little bit each day, and no helping them please!

Epic Books

Over 500 books have been read on Epic books by my students since we began school! This has totaled over 54 hours of reading! I am so proud of my students! Remember, if you want to read into the evening (after 4:00pm) on Epic books you need to respond to the email invite that I sent to you. This will allow you to read a selection of books for free in the evening. Epic books is usually only free during school hours.

Special Classes

Remember to visit the special class assigned to you each day. You will find the lessons on Schoology. If you are having problems viewing the lessons, feel free to email the special class teacher. You can find their email addresses on the Snow School main website, or email me and I will forward it to them.

Schoology

Please go to Schoology to find the plans for the week and any discussion questions to answer. We are all still learning how to submit answers, so always check to see if there are any assignments in the margin posted for you. I am still learning how to grade and put content onto the platform. You will notice, I put the benchmark materials into a black folder. Soon, I will be assigning leveled books and worksheets from our new reading and math programs for the children to complete.

Get ready for a brand new week of learning for us all!

Welcome back to a full week of learning! Everyone is getting used to the virtual zoom lessons. They seem to get better each day! I look forward to seeing my students this week in person during the learning lab times. We will wear masks and socially distance with only 1-3 children with me at a time. I will be DRA testing to determine their reading levels and give them some new books for their bookbags at their levels. Please sign up on the link in my blog for a time and day that is good for you. Only 10 families have signed up at this time. If you are not comfortable with bringing your child into school, please email or call me, and we will work out a plan. The sign up link is below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F4BA9AE2EABFE3-drareading

I hope to get them started on their chrome books with the I-ready diagnostic test. Please do NOT begin this at home. I will start them off and if the children need more time, I will send a note home with directions for them to finish it at home. When at home, please do not help them with the test. The test will determine for each student the lessons that they will need to grow in their learning. If you help them, their lessons will be too hard, and they will get frustrated. The diagnostic test is a tool that places each student on an individualized path of learning.

Schedule for this week

Schoology

I am now posting some practice assignments and discussion questions in the ELA-reading folders on Schoology. I am still just learning so please be patient with me. Try to submit your answers and I am learning how to grade them. I also posted the math assignments in the Math folder, but there is nothing to submit, just keep your work in the workbooks. The schedule can be downloaded and printed if you would like a copy. Visit Schoology each day and check the folder to see what to do. Also use Schoology each day to visit your Special Classroom teachers courses. They will be posting their assignments too. Miss Al Saad’s lesson is in my Wednesday assignment folder on ELA Schoology because she was having some problems with the posting site. Below you will find the directions on how to find Schoology.

Epic Books

Great reading this week! Our class has read over 250 books since we began school, with over 27 hours of reading time! There are still 4 students who have not read any books! Please read daily for at least 15 minutes. Yousef is our top reader with 60 books read. Adam and Isaac are tied in second place with 33 books read. Great job! Keep on reading!

In School Reading Assessment Sign Up

Please use the link below to sign your child up for in school reading assessments with Mrs. Slater next week at a time that is good for you. Once you have selected your time slot, please type your child’s name in the comment box next to the time and date that you have selected. Please bring your school chrome book with you, if you have one, otherwise, you are welcome to send them with their personal one. If you are not comfortable with that, we will provide a chrome book for them to use. After I determine their reading level with the DRA test, I will be starting the I-Ready diagnostic test with them. If they do not complete the test, I will be sending home the directions for them to finish at home. Also, have the children bring their book bags with them. I will try to give them some new books to read at their reading level. These assessments will allow me to group the children for learning labs which will begin on September 21. Please come into school with your child and sign them in, but you will not be able to wait in school for them. Each session is 50 minutes. We will be social distancing in the classroom with only 2-3 students with Mrs. Slater at a time. If you are not comfortable or not able to bring your child in, please email or call Mrs. Slater to make other arrangements. Thank you!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F4BA9AE2EABFE3-drareading

Welcome back to our virtual learning voyage! Last week we practiced our zoom lessons with moments of rough seas! Meeting all of my families on supply distribution day was the highlight of my week. It was so nice to meet all of you. Thank you for your support!

Schedule for September 8-11

The schedule below is my plan for the week. Our morning zoom begins at 9:00am and will end at 11:45am. Lunch is from 11:45am-12:25pm. We will continue our zoom (same meeting link) at 12:25pm-1:00pm. The afternoon will then be independently done by the students.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://dearbornschools-org.zoom.us/j/81648640465?pwd=UXowY3Nwd2ZEaGtEeHB1R1VNeDZoQT09

Meeting ID: 816 4864 0465
Passcode: read

I have posted Special Classes found on Schoology and independent work for this week.

We will be contacting each family to make individual student appointments to come into school, if you feel comfortable with it, for assessment purposes. The student will be assigned a time to be dropped off at school in the afternoon. They will come in with a mask and be assessed in reading (DRA) and they will take the I-Ready diagnostic on the computer. This should take about 1 hour.

EPIC BOOKS

The Epic book code was given to all of my students and I encourage them all to use it regularly. I am able to see the student activity and a log of their reading times and choices of books! Soon, I will be assigning books to correspond with our Social Studies and Science lessons.

Epic School: Students use Epic school during the school, 7am-4pm local time, M-F. During school hours students can log into Epic School from school or home with our class code, and read between 7am -4pm.

Epic Free: Students use after school, after 4pm local time, students can access a selection of books on Epic Free for up to 2 hours/week when parents sign up with an email address. I will be sending you an email invitation. If you would like to use this site after school hours, respond to the invitation using the same email address that I send the invite to.

The class code is the same. The link to this site is https://www.getepic.com/ and the class code is iae0266.

Adam has already read 4 books with a total of 50 minutes reading! Great job Adam!

Please view the following slide show presentation to introduce you to our support staff at Snow School.

Zearn

Students need visit the Zearn website each day to practice the lessons from class. https://www.zearn.org/ is the link. I gave every child a user name and password during our supply distribution day. 15 minutes a day is the minimum time for this activity.

Elyas is already on Module 1 Lesson 3! Great work Elyas!

Closing comments

I have planned a lot this week! We need to build stamina to complete it all. I will adjust the schedule as needed. I am still learning Schoology. I have posted a few things in ELA and Math, just to test it out. Give it a try! Our Art and Gym teachers have also posted some items tp try. Please look at the schedule for daily activities. I am hoping for smooth sailing this week as we continue our voyage into first grade!

Welcome back! Greetings Snow School Families! I hope you and your family are doing well and you are safe! Although the beginning of this school year will be different than any in the past. All of us at Snow School are anxious to welcome you back to school! Our first week of school is all half days for students.

On Monday, August 31, 2020, I will be contacting all of my students and their families to welcome them and let them know that they are in my class, and hopefully it will give me a chance to speak to each child personally. I will do this by phone and/or email. There are no assignments or meeting scheduled for this day. You may want to take time to watch the orientation below with your child.

I will be using this blog to communicate with you until I learn the program Schoology, which is the new platform that our district has adopted. Please sign up for my blog!

Please download and preview the following slide show presentation:

First Zoom Welcome meetings

Cynthia Slater is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 and Wednesday, September 2, 2020. All students will join the meeting at 8:55 am. To join just click the link below and wait for Mrs. Slater to let you in! Parents, you can assist your child to be sure that their camera is on upon entering the meeting room. We will review the mute and unmute buttons. I will go over some of the virtual meeting rules. I anticipate that our meeting will be about 30-45 minutes long on these 2 days. If you do not have a computer or have difficulties joining this meeting, please email or call me. Chrome books sign out will be available during our Thursday supply distribution day if you need one. Cell phone is 313-460-3769. I will be taking attendance each day during this meeting. Please be patient, this is my first time zooming with 25 students too!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://dearbornschools-org.zoom.us/j/81648640465?pwd=UXowY3Nwd2ZEaGtEeHB1R1VNeDZoQT09

Meeting ID: 816 4864 0465
Passcode: read

BOOK AND SUPPLY DISTRIBUTION

This Thursday, September 3, 2020, I will be at school to meet your child and give them a bag of text books and supplies that will be needed for our virtual classes and learning labs. I will be there from 8:55am until 12:00pm. My table will be set up by the Kindergarten doors and playground on the Culver side of the building. Please follow the social distancing and mask rules. The hardest rule for me to follow is the no hugging my students rule! Since I will be meeting with all of my students in person, there will be no virtual meetings or assignments on this day.

Get ready for a great learning voyage: FIRST GRADE!

Greetings Parents,  

On Monday, August 10 the Board of Education approved a plan for all Dearborn Public School students to return to school on-line. Students K-12 will take classes online at least until October 1.  At this time the board will reevaluate conditions to see if it is possible for some or all students to begin returning to their classrooms perhaps in a blended model of in-class and on-line learning.

The District understands there are parents who want their children in a 100% virtual learning program no matter what phase the State is in or how other students in the District are attending school.  For the parents who want a 100% on-line option for the entire school year, the school district has created the Dearborn Virtual Learning Program for students K-12.  Parents selecting this option are opting their children into the program for a one-year commitment. 

In order to meet staffing, transportation, and several other components of our new school environment, it is vitally important to know how many students will join the Virtual Program. Parents seeking more information and/or are interested in opting their child/children in this program are highly encouraged to visit Snow Elementary School on the Culver side on Friday, August 14 from 9am-2pm. School administration and staff will be on hand for enrollment/questions. (This will take place outside with social distancing and masks will be enforced).  If you have children at different grade levels and buildings, you do not need to attend meetings at multiple schools.  Opt-in forms will be available and parents can opt-in all their children at one location.

If you are not comfortable meeting in a safe environment at the school or are unable to attend on one of the scheduled days, please call or email the school so we may discuss this option and begin the opt-in process for your children.

We understand there are many questions, concerns, and uncertainties as we approach the start of the school year.  Our Back to School Reopen Committee has spent many hours considering all of the health, safety, logistical, and educational concerns before making their recommendations. Our Board spent many hours reviewing those recommendations including a six hour Study Session to hear from the various sub-committees and stakeholders.  We are now ready to move forward, together, to ensure what will be an interesting, but great, start to the 2020-21 school year. 

Thank you.