Announcements

Ramadan Mubarak, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

We completed another week of online learning! Here are some announcements before we start our activities:

Meal Distribution
Starting Friday, April 24, Salina Intermediate will be hosting their free meal distribution on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:00 PM-2:00 PM. This schedule change will continue through Memorial Day weekend.

Mobile Food Program
The, “Mobile Food Program,” will be at Lapeer Park today (Thursday, April 23) from 2:00 PM-5:00 PM. They are located at 10040 Lapeer St, Dearborn, MI, 48120.

Personal Phone Calls
Mrs. Askar and I will be calling families today (Thursday, April 23) from 12:00 PM-3:00 PM. Our phone numbers will be blocked so please do not be alarmed.

Resources for Parents
Ms. Jennifer Lall provided a list of resources for families. Attached are PDF files with the resources (one version is in Arabic and the other in English).

Literacy Activity

Since today marks the first day of Ramadan, here is a wonderful children’s story about Ramandan:

I encourage you to watch the story with your child. After the story is over, I encourage you to talk to them about what Ramadan is and the importance of it.

Math Activity

For today’s math activity, I encourage the children to practice sorting/organizing items at home. Sorting/organizing is an important concept for preschoolers to practice because it helps them understand the similarities and differences in items, which can help them with more complicated math skills in the future. For more information about the importance of sorting/organizing, I encourage you to read this informational blog post, “Why is classifying and sorting important for young children?” https://www.neskkids.com.au/blogs/news/classifying-and-sorting

Here is how your child can practice sorting/organizing at home:

• Find items in your house for your child to sort/organize. These items can be silverware, coins, crackers, toys, clothing items (socks, shirts, and pants), jewelry, and much more.
• Ask your child to sort/organize the items you chose. They can sort/organize them by size, color, shape, what the item(s) is/are used for, and texture.

When your child is done sorting/organizing their items, ask them about their classifications. Here are some suggestions for questions:

• “Tell me about how you organized your items. What were you thinking about?”
• “How can you organize your items a different way?”

For extra practice, here is a fun sorting/organizing and counting interactive video:

Work Time

At school, the children engage in imaginary play for at least 60 minutes a day. This is a time for the children to engage with their friends,explore materials in the classroom, and participate creatively in activities that are of interest to the child. To accomplish this, we use a plan, do, review process which we call: “Planning Time, Work Time, and Recall.” You can do this at home! Here is how it works:

• Planning Time (5 minutes): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with.  Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..).  
  Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home. 
  التخطيط لوقت العمل ( وقت اللعب): ساعد طفلك على بناء مهارة تنظيم الوقت بوضع خطة  معهم عن لعبهم. هذا ما كان يفعله كل الطلاب كل يوم في المدرسة. هذا يساعد الأولاد على تنظيم أفكارهم. الأهل أيضا يضعون خطط دائما لتنظيم أفكارهم مثل قائمة التسوق قبل الذهاب إلى المتجر, كتابة القوائم تساعد على تنظيم اليوم….. 
  الأولاد سوف يخبروكم ما هي خطتهم/ ماذا سيلعبون/ مع من سيلعبون/ ماذا سيستخدمون من أدوات في لعبهم.
• Work Time (45-60 minutes): Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS.  Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
  وقت العمل :  يجب أن لا يستعمل الأولاد الإلكترونيات . يستطيع الأولاد استخدام الألعاب التي تساعدهم في  التخيل و البناء و الإبداع  
• Clean Up: When Work Time is over, encourage your child to clean up the area(s) they played in.
• Recall (5-10 minutes): Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
  وقت التذكر: بناء ذاكرة الأولاد و مراجعة الأحداث عن طريق جعل طفلك يعيد سرد ما قام به خلال وقت اللعب( اسال طفلك: اخبرني كيف قمت بذلك؟ أو ماذا فعلت بعد ذلك؟)

Outdoor Exploration

Unfortunately, it looks like we may be seeing some rain today. If the weather looks good, I encourage you and your child to try to go outside for at least 60 minutes. As mentioned, you can go outside once a day for 60 minutes OR you can go outside twice a day for 20-30 minutes each time.

If the weather is not good, here are some indoor dance activities your child can do:

Jack Hartmann: Let’s Move

Jack Hartmann: I Can Move My Body Like Anything

Koo Koo Kanga Roo: Milkshake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNL6RwymoNg

Patty Shukla: Jump!

Announcements

Hello, everyone! Before we begin our lessons today, here are some announcements that I want to share:

Google Meet
The technology department has activated Gmail accounts for the students. I will be sending your child’s account information later today for you to use. I am hoping to schedule a Google Meet meeting with the students one day next week. I will let you all know more information about this later this week.

Mobile Food Program
The, “Mobile Food Program,” will be at Lapeer Park tomorrow (Thursday, April 23) from 2:00 PM-5:00 PM. They are located at 10040 Lapeer St, Dearborn, MI, 48120.

Personal Phone Calls
Between 12:00 PM-3:00 PM tomorrow (Thursday, April 23), Mrs. Askar and I will be calling families to check in on how you are doing. Our phone numbers will be blocked so please do not be alarmed.

Literacy Activity

For today’s literacy activity, we are going to continue learning our letters. Today’s letter is, “P, p.” First, watch the Jack Hartmann video about the letter, “P, p”:

After watching the video, I encourage you and your child to do these three things:

1. Practice writing the letter, “P, p,” three times.
2. Practice saying the, “P, p,” sound.
3. Find three things in your house that start with the letter, “P, p.”

Here are three things in my house that start with the letter, “P, p”:

For extra practice, check out the Starfall letter, “P, p,” activity: https://www.starfall.com/h/abcs/letter-p/?

Math Activity

For our math activity, we are going to continue working with patterns. It’s been over a month since the students worked on patterns, so this is a great activity to revisit!

A pattern is a sequence that repeats itself. We see patterns every day in art, music/sound, movement, and math. Being able to recognize and create simple patterns helps children find patterns in complex mathematical relationships. Here is a simple pattern we may be used to seeing:

This is called an, “ABAB,” pattern because it repeats itself as: Red, Blue, Red, Blue.

Today, your child will recognize and create patterns with house hold items. These items can be silverware, coins, snacks (crackers, cookies, candies, etc.), socks, or anything else you have at home. Here are the directions:

1. First, create an ABAB pattern. Have your child look at the pattern and try to finish it. (For example, you may create the ABAB pattern: Fork, Spoon, Fork Spoon. Your child should complete the pattern in the same form: Fork, Spoon, Fork Spoon.)
2. When your child completes your pattern, encourage them to make their own ABAB pattern.
3. When your child creates their own pattern with ease, give them a challenge! Give them another household item to create an ABCABC pattern. (For example, this may look like: Fork, Spoon, Cracker, Fork, Spoon, Cracker.)

For extra practice, here is a fun pattern video by Jack Hartmann:

Work Time

At school, the children engage in imaginary play for at least 60 minutes a day. This is a time for the children to engage with their friends,explore materials in the classroom, and participate creatively in activities that are of interest to the child. To accomplish this, we use a plan, do, review process which we call: “Planning Time, Work Time, and Recall.” You can do this at home! Here is how it works:

• Planning Time (5 minutes): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with.  Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..).  
  Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home. 
  التخطيط لوقت العمل ( وقت اللعب): ساعد طفلك على بناء مهارة تنظيم الوقت بوضع خطة  معهم عن لعبهم. هذا ما كان يفعله كل الطلاب كل يوم في المدرسة. هذا يساعد الأولاد على تنظيم أفكارهم. الأهل أيضا يضعون خطط دائما لتنظيم أفكارهم مثل قائمة التسوق قبل الذهاب إلى المتجر, كتابة القوائم تساعد على تنظيم اليوم….. 
  الأولاد سوف يخبروكم ما هي خطتهم/ ماذا سيلعبون/ مع من سيلعبون/ ماذا سيستخدمون من أدوات في لعبهم.
• Work Time (45-60 minutes): Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS  Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
  وقت العمل :  يجب أن لا يستعمل الأولاد الإلكترونيات . يستطيع الأولاد استخدام الألعاب التي تساعدهم في  التخيل و البناء و الإبداع  
• Clean Up: When Work Time is over, encourage your child to clean up the area(s) they played in.
• Recall (5-10 minutes): Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
  وقت التذكر: بناء ذاكرة الأولاد و مراجعة الأحداث عن طريق جعل طفلك يعيد سرد ما قام به خلال وقت اللعب( اسال طفلك: اخبرني كيف قمت بذلك؟ أو ماذا فعلت بعد ذلك؟)

Outdoor Exploration

The Dearborn Public Schools parks and sports fields are still closed. However, you and your child can still go outside for exercise! You can play outside in your yard or go on walks! As long as the weather is good, I encourage you and your child to go outside for at least 45-60 minutes a day. As a suggestion, you can go outside for 45-60 minutes at one time OR spend about 20-30 minutes in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the afternoon.

Announcements

Hello Room 108 families! Before we dive in to today’s activities, I have some announcements I want to share with you all:

Office Hours
Starting today (April 21), I will be utilizing office hours for communication. These times are uncertain and unpredictable. These office hours are to ensure I communicate with you all effectively and in a timely manner. If I update my office hours I will let you all know. Listed below are my office hours:

• Monday: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
• Tuesday: 12:00 PM-3:00 PM
• Wednesday: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
• Thursday: 12:00 PM-3:00 PM

You’re more than welcome to contact me outside of office hours and I will respond as soon as possible. My office hours are going to be the best time to contact me, as I will ensure to have Remind and my email open and ready to communicate.

Daily Activities
Starting today (April 21), our daily activities will be looking a little different. I will be providing the students with one literacy activity and one math activity. These activities should only take about 5-10 minutes each to complete. Because everyone’s schedules are different, please complete these activities on your own time!
In addition to these activities, I encourage your child to engage in imaginary play (at school, we call this, “Work Time”) and outdoor play for at least 45-60 minutes a day.

E-Mail
Sometimes the, “Remind,” app acts up and refuses to work. As another form of communication, you can always e-mail me: thompsl@dearbornschools.org

Additional Resources
During these uncertain times, it is important that every family has access to resources they may need. Great Start Detroit/Wayne County has provided families with access to resources. Please click on this website to access the resources you may need: https://www.greatstartwayne.org/findhelp

Literacy Activity

For today’s literacy activity, the students will practice writing. Like our last writing activity, the students will continue to work on narrative writing. A “narrative” is another word for a story.

Today’s writing prompt is: What is your favorite thing to do at home?

First, the students will watch my video of me modeling the writing activity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_7mKxZkTwg&t=4s

Next, your child will write their own story about their favorite things to do at home. They may need help with writing their sentence and labeling their picture. That is okay!!

Last, read your child’s story with them. It is fun for your child to read what they wrote!

Here are the materials you will need for this activity:

• Paper (it can be any paper)
• Crayons (if you do not have crayons, you can use any other writing utensil you may have such as pencils, markers, etc.)
• Pen or pencil

Because my modeling video exceeds the 5-10 minute time frame for this activity, please allow your child breaks in between the activity (I apologize for this).

Math Activity

One important math concept that is important for young children to learn is recognizing numbers. Basic number recognition is important for young children because it helps them with more complicated math activities, such as adding, subtracting, number lines, and more. To help with their number recognition, here is a fun activity you and your child to do at home!

Today, I encourage you and your child to do a number scavenger hunt! Here is how it works:

1. Write each of these numbers on a piece of paper (other paper alternatives can be Post-It notes, the back of can labels, scrap paper from old letters, etc.): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
2. Show your child each of the numbers one at a time. Ask them what the number is (example: “What is this number?”). Try not to tell them what the number is, please allow your child to think about what the number is.
3. If your child does not know the number, tell them. Have them repeat the number back.
4. After showing your child all of the numbers, hide the pieces of paper with the numbers around your house (make sure the paper is visible for the child to see).
5. Encourage your child to find all the numbers in the house. After they find the number, ask them what number they found. (example: “You found a number! What number did you find?”)
6. OPTIONAL: If your child does well with this activity, give them a challenge! Do the same activity with these numbers: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Work Time

At school, the children engage in imaginary play for at least 60 minutes a day. This is a time for the children to engage with their friends,explore materials in the classroom, and participate creatively in activities that are of interest to the child. To accomplish this, we use a plan, do, review process which we call: “Planning Time, Work Time, and Recall.” You can do this at home! Here is how it works:

• Planning Time (5 minutes): Build your child’s ability to organize their time by having them make a “plan” with you about what they would like to play with.  Children do this everyday with us at school. It helps children learn to organize their thoughts. Adults make plans all the time to organize their thoughts (shopping lists are made before going to the grocery store, to do lists are made to help plan your day etc..).  
  Kids will tell you what they are planning to do/want to play with/how they will use toys at home. 
  التخطيط لوقت العمل ( وقت اللعب): ساعد طفلك على بناء مهارة تنظيم الوقت بوضع خطة  معهم عن لعبهم. هذا ما كان يفعله كل الطلاب كل يوم في المدرسة. هذا يساعد الأولاد على تنظيم أفكارهم. الأهل أيضا يضعون خطط دائما لتنظيم أفكارهم مثل قائمة التسوق قبل الذهاب إلى المتجر, كتابة القوائم تساعد على تنظيم اليوم….. 
  الأولاد سوف يخبروكم ما هي خطتهم/ ماذا سيلعبون/ مع من سيلعبون/ ماذا سيستخدمون من أدوات في لعبهم.

• Work Time (45-60 minutes): Kids play WITHOUT ELECTRONICS  Kids can use toys to pretend play, build, and create.
  وقت العمل :  يجب أن لا يستعمل الأولاد الإلكترونيات . يستطيع الأولاد استخدام الألعاب التي تساعدهم في  التخيل و البناء و الإبداع  

• Clean Up: When Work Time is over, encourage your child to clean up the area(s) they played in.
• Recall (5-10 minutes): Build your child’s memory of events by having your child tell you what they did while they played (ask “tell me how you did that” or “what did you do next?”)
  وقت التذكر: بناء ذاكرة الأولاد و مراجعة الأحداث عن طريق جعل طفلك يعيد سرد ما قام به خلال وقت اللعب( اسال طفلك: اخبرني كيف قمت بذلك؟ أو ماذا فعلت بعد ذلك؟)

Outdoor Exploration

The Dearborn Public Schools parks and sports fields are still closed. However, you and your child can still go outside for exercise! You can play outside in your yard or go on walks! As long as the weather is good, I encourage you and your child to go outside for at least 45-60 minutes a day. As a suggestion, you can go outside for 45-60 minutes at one time OR spend about 20-30 minutes in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the afternoon.

Hello and happy Monday! Welcome to another week of online learning. For today’s activity, we are going to be learning about the letter, “O, o.” Here is a Jack Hartmann video about the letter, “O, o.”

After watching the video, I encourage you and your child to do two things:

1. Practice writing the letter, “O, o,” three times.
2. Find three items in your house that start with the letter, “O ,o.”

Here are three items in my house that start with the letter, “O, o”:

For extra practice, checkout the Starfall letter, “O, o,” activity: https://www.starfall.com/h/abcs/letter-o/?

Families, I would love to see pictures of your children learning! You do not have to, but if you would like, you can send me pictures of your children on the, “Remind,” app.

Hello Room 108 Families! Thank you all again for your cooperation and patience during this COVID-19 pandemic and it’s impact on the schools. Needless to say, this has been a crazy time for us all, yet we made it through another week of online learning!

Before I share some weekend activities, I have an announcement I want to bring to your attention:

New Personal Family Contact Days and Times
Due to some new weekly scheduled meetings I am required to attend I will be changing the days I personally contact families. I will be continuing the same contact format: messaging families personally on Remind one day a week and calling families one day a week. I will now be personally messaging families on Remind on Tuesdays. Mrs. Askar and I will be calling families on Thursday afternoons. These changes will be effective starting the week of April 20. You will still be getting a phone call from Mrs. Askar or me today (Friday, April 17).

Weekend Activities

Let’s give our brains a break this weekend! Just to give your family ideas to do this weekend, here are some suggestions:

Go outside!
It looks like this weekend’s weather forecast is a little chilly and slightly rainy. However, it looks we might be seeing some sun on Saturday! If we do see sun this weekend, I encourage you all to go outside! The Dearborn Public Schools parks and sports field are still closed, however, I encourage you all to go for walks or play in the yard. Exercise and outdoor activity really helps refresh the brain.

YouTube Exercise Activities
If we do see some unpleasant weather this weekend, here are some activities on YouTube your child can do for exercise:

• Jack Hartmann: “Exercise, Rhyme, and Freeze”

• Jack Hartmann: “Workout to the Letter Sounds”

Dance!
Take time during the day for a dance break. HighScope released a new CD for kids to dance to. The best part is that you can listen to this CD for free! Click here to listen to the music.

Again, these are suggestions you and your family can do over the weekend. Thank you all again for your cooperation during this time! I miss the students so much and I hope you are all staying safe and well!

Today, we will be doing a mathematics activity. This activity will help the students with their one-to-one correspondence counting. One-to-one correspondence counting means pointing to one object at a time while recognizing a number value behind it. For example, if a child is counting three teddy bears in a row, they will point to each bear one at a time and say, “One… two… three,” and recognize that they have three teddy bears.

To help the students with their one-to-one correspondence counting, we are going to play a fun game called Coin Drop! Here are the materials you need for this game:

• (2) Containers – One container will be filled with coins and the other container will be empty
• Coins – If coins are not available, any other material will work (example: candies, toys, pasta noodles, crackers, beads, etc.)
• Timer – Can be your phone, watch, the timer on your oven/stove, the timer on your microwave, etc. (if you need a one minute timer, see below)

Here is the step-by-step procedure of how this activity works:

1. Set the timer for one minute
2. Start the timer
3. Pick up one coin at a time from the full container and put it in the empty container – Do not scoop up the coins and put them in the empty container
4. When the timer stops, empty out the second container
5. Encourage your child to count each coin using one-to-one correspondence
6. Repeat steps 1-5 to play the game again!

Family Survey

As a kindly reminder, Cotter School would like to know the current status and needs of families. I sent a survey from Cotter on the, “Remind,” app on Tuesday. If you did not complete the survey, please complete it at your earliest convenience. Click here to access the survey. If you did complete the survey, you do not need to complete it again.

If you are unable to complete the survey, Mrs. Askar and I will help you when we call on Friday.

Thank you all again for your cooperation during this crazy time! I hope that you all stay safe. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you need anything!

For today’s activity, we will be learning about the letter, “N, n.” First, watch the Jack Hartmann video about the letter, “N, n”:

After watching the video, I encourage you and your child to do two things:

1. Walk around your house and find three things that start with letter, “N, n.”
2. Practice writing the letter, “N, n,” on a piece of paper.

Here are three things in my house that start with the letter, “N, n”:

For extra practice, check out Starfall’s letter, “N, n,” activity: https://www.starfall.com/h/abcs/letter-n/?

Families, I would love to see pictures of your children learning! You do not have to, but if you would like, you can send me pictures of your children on the, “Remind,” app.

Happy Numbers

I am very excited to introduce a new online learning activity called Happy Numbers! Happy Numbers is a website that provides students with grade-level math activities.

I created an online class for your child to access as a personal activity. The math activities on this website resemble a lot of math activities we would do if we were at school. Our class code is 460176. Each child has their own profile and password. I will send your child’s password on Remind. When your child first accesses their profile, they will be given a pre-assessment to determine appropriate math activities. This website can be accessed with a phone, tablet, and/or computer device.

To access your child’s Happy Numbers profile, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to happynumbers.com

Step 2: Click on, “I’m a Student” (the yellow button)

Step 3: Type in the class number (460176) and click on, “Go”

Step 4: Click on your child’s name

Step 5: Enter their password and click on, “Go”

After you enter your child’s password, they will have access to the math activities the website has provided for them. Please let me know if you have any questions about Happy Numbers!

During this crazy pandemic, it is important to teach the children the importance of keeping ourselves clean. One way to do this is to wash our hands with soap and water. Washing our hands helps prevent both the spread of germs and getting ourselves or others sick.

Before school closed, washing our hands was always a favorite activity! The students washed their hands as soon as they got to the classroom, before meals, in the bathroom, and whenever they got germs on their hands. We also talked about why it is important to wash our hands with soap and water.

To help your child understand the importance of washing hands at home, try this fun science experiment! Here are the materials you need:

• (2) Bowls
• Water
• Pepper
• Soap (Antibacterial dish soap may work best and you only need a tiny bit)
• Towel or paper towel (in case if there are any spills)

Here is the procedure for the experiment:

1. Fill up one bowl with water and pepper.
2. Put a little bit of soap in the other bowl.
3. Have your child put their finger in the bowl with water and pepper (you will see that nothing happens at first – that is okay!)
4. Have your child take their finger out of the bowl with water and pepper. They will see the pepper on their finger.
5. Have your child put their finger in the bowl with soap.
6. Have your child put their finger in the bowl with water and pepper. You should see the results of the experiment.

After doing the experiment, check out this read aloud of the book, Germs Are Not For Sharing, by Elizabeth Verdick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCq3Ft_s-5s

Why is this experiment important? The pepper in this experiment represents germs. Before your child put their finger in soap, they got pepper on their finger. This represents the germs getting on their hands. After your child put their finger in the bowl with soap and placed it in the bowl with water and pepper, they should have seen that the pepper floated away from their finger. This experiment is important because it is representing the removal of germs from their bodies, therefore, keeping us safe and healthy!

In the event you are unable to do this experiment at home, or if you would like to see this experiment in action before doing it, please check out this YouTube video of the experiment:

Hello everyone,

On Tuesday, April 14 and Tuesday, April 20, the Food Mobile Program will be at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center (“Civic Center”)from 9:00 am-12:00 pm for free food distributions. This is located at 15801 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI, 48126. More information can be found on Salina Intermediate School’s blog: https://salina-int.dearbornschools.org/2020/04/13/april-14-20-free-food-distribution-for-households-with-children/

Hello Room 108 Families, and welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful break! Today marks a new day of online learning. Today, we are learning about the letter, “M, m.”

First, watch Jack Hartmann’s video about the letter, “M, m”:

After watching the video, I encourage you and your child to do two things:

1. Walk around your house and find three things that start with the letter, “M, m.”
2. Practice writing the letter, “M, m,” on a piece of paper.

Here are three things in my house that start with the letter, “M, m”:

For extra practice, check out Starfall’s letter, “M, m,” activity: https://www.starfall.com/h/abcs/letter-m/

Announcements

AMS is offering free breakfast and lunch pickups on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1:00 PM-3:00 PM for families with children ages 18 years old and younger. They are located at 9945 Vernonr Highway, Dearborn, MI, 48120.