Dear Class, Happy Wednesday! I'm trying to get motivated to clean up the playroom and fold a bazillion loads of laundry...but I don't want to do those things. So I'm writing to you instead! The kids are all done with their school work this morning, except for practicing piano and doing their journal. I'll make them do that after lunch. Anna is still in her pjs, and Michael and Luke have already started playing video games. Daisy and Lucy are taking their morning naps at my feet. Working from home has been kind of crazy. When I meet with the other second grade teachers to plan, I have to use my home computer for the video group so I can see everyone, my school laptop to access all of my work files, my binders that have all of my standards, lesson plans, and your info in them, my cellphone (in case my kids need me), headphones to hear better, and I got a light to make my picture look clearer on the computer meetings. There's not much desk left! I sent you mail yesterday, so check your mailbox later this week. :) I wrote your notes outside since it was so nice, and now I have my first sunburn of the summer. My knees are bright red and HURT. Oops. I also got my flowers planted and watered the ferns. One nest is full of eggs, but one of the eggs is not like the other. I'll have to do some Googling to find out why. I'll let you know what I find out! Love, Mrs. Smitley
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Dear Class, We are starting Weeks 4 and 5 today. Yay!! Just kidding. I'm still missing you. You don't argue with me like my own kids do. I know some of these skills and activities look different from what we've done at school. Just do your best, take breaks when you need to, and keep trying. And READ, READ, READ!! Here's what it looks like at our house this morning: I'm trying to do my work with Anna and Daisy under my desk. She's kind of working and kind of playing so it's going to take her longer to get her school stuff done today. Luke did his work while he lounged on the couch. He found some good audio books on Epic, but they only have the first one in the series. We'll have to see if we can find the next ones online. I think Amazon has digital kid books free right now and Audible has some free kid audio books, so maybe we can find the next books in the series without having to buy them. Emma didn't get up until almost 10! She did her work as soon as I brought it home from North School, and then practiced piano. The girls have virtual piano lessons today, but Luke is stuck with me for a piano teacher because he didn't like virtual lessons. We are working on several house projects while we're home. One of them is clearing out the playroom so we can move the kids' desks into it. Their desks are a mess, and I'm tired of looking at them while I try to do my work. So I'm kicking them out of the office. They've outgrown some of their toys, but they still have too many. It's like a giant puzzle trying to make everything fit in the playroom. Right now...I'm not sure if it's going to work. We might have to get rid of some more things. Or some kids. Ha! Love, Mrs. Smitley Dear Class, Good afternoon! It's beautiful outside! Emma and I walked Daisy and Lucy to my sister-in-law's house so they could run around in her big backyard and get their spring crazies out today. Have you been running around getting YOUR spring crazies out, too?? I think I've told you before that I am not an outside person. I really prefer to snuggle on the couch and read when I have down time. Well, now we have SO MUCH down time, that I'm actually spending time outside. So that has been a good thing to come out of all this! We've got some flowers that we're going to work on putting in pots this weekend. Last week we bought five ferns for the front porch. So far, two of them have nests, and another nest has been built on top of the porch columns. I'm excited to see eggs and baby birds on the porch...but it does make it hard to water the ferns. Michael isn't crazy about all of the bird poop either. Oh well. They are my new entertainment, so they get to stay! Luke and I went to Cork to get his allergy shots on Thursday. It was the first time we'd had to wear a mask in public, and neither one of us liked it. It was hard to breathe, and my glasses kept fogging up. I am so glad we are mostly at home so we don't have to wear them often. I had to take Anna back today, and it was easier to breathe because I wasn't as panicky about it. As a bonus, we got to see Thomas's mom, Dr. James! On Monday, packets and the link to the digital work will be available for weeks 4 and 5. If you are doing work digitally, you don't have to turn anything in. The school is able to see who is logged on to iXL and which levels you've worked on. They can also see how long you've been working, so it's ok to stop a level after 15 minutes if it's frustrating you. If you are printing from home, the easiest thing would be to just save a huge pile of work and drop off multiple weeks at once when you are in town. If you don't want to save the papers, you could just photograph the work that was done and save them as a digital file that can be emailed to me at your convenience. If you are picking up new packets, feel free to drop off completed work at the same time. Please call the school if you need them to mail a packet to you for any reason! The school is working on a system for you to get your school supplies and any other items you may have left at school. It will probably be towards the end of May. If there is something you need now, just let the school know, and they'll get it for you. I miss you! Love, Mrs. Smitley Dear Class, You have mail coming! In your note, I tell you which candy I sneak from the kids' Easter candy stash. I shouldn't be eating candy. We have been on a baking streak this week, and we have TONS of sweets. Emma made brownies from scratch. (Who does that when the box ones taste so good?!) She also made baked chocolate donuts with chocolate frosting. And I clearly lost my mind when I thought it would be a good idea to quadruple the waffle recipe I used. We will be eating waffles for breakfast for the next two weeks!! Have you been baking at home? Or do you prefer to finish off your Easter candy before someone else in your house does? Ha! I'm also really missing my teacher friends. Mrs. Scott visited in her red convertible, and we chatted in the driveway. And then Mr. Benefiel stopped by a few days later to talk outside. It was so good to see them and catch up on how they are doing. All the second grade teachers have been texting, emailing, and google meeting. We KNOW you miss your friends...because we miss our friends. I miss you! Love, Mrs. Smitley P.S.--Here's a glimpse into our Sunday baking craziness. Brownies, doughnuts, and waffles all got made in the same afternoon. What was I thinking?? Dear Class, By now you've probably heard the news that we won't be going back to our classroom this year. I knew it was probably coming, so I made sure to watch Governor Pritzker's news conference this afternoon. Lucy kept me company as I cried. My heart hurts. I'm sure Mrs. Morgan will be meeting with Mr. Ross this weekend, and we will get more information next week. I'm sending you big hugs. I'll check in with you next week, but please call if you need anything before that. Love, Mrs. Smitley Dear Class, Happy last day of Spring Break! I don't know where the sunshine and warm weather went, but I want it back. I had to pull out my winter coat again to let the dogs out this morning. Boo. Your work for the next two weeks of school is available online or your parents can get it from the school. I'll be at South today from 1-3 helping out in the office. Let me know if you need anything from the classroom, and I can have it ready for you. As a reminder, you can do only iXL things OR only packet things OR both if you would like to. The school is keeping track of who logs in and works on iXL, and it's easy for us to see how you are doing. They will also be keeping track of who has returned packets, so make sure to put your name on them and drop them off at the office when you get your new ones. If you are getting stuck on an iXL level, it's ok to stop after 20 minutes. You don't have to finish the level in one day. Let me know if you need help with any of your work online or in the packet...or even something that you're working ahead on. I can either send you a video clip or we can talk on the phone. I can also create an answer key for the packet if you would find that helpful. I miss you bunches! Mrs. Smitley Dear Class, Our first week of E-Learning or Remote Learning or whatever you want to call it is over. Did you survive? Did your parents survive?? We were good for three days. The kids were suppose to do some work this morning while I went to Walmart...but I don't think they did. Oh well. They at least practiced piano. It's absolutely gorgeous outside, but they've been playing video games with their cousins all morning. In the past few weeks we've upgraded our internet, got Xbox live, and some new games for the Xbox and the Switch so the kids could play with their friends and talk at the same time. I'm learning more about gaming systems than I ever cared to know. My brain might explode trying to keep the different pass codes, log in info, and parental controls straight. Walmart was an interesting experience. I haven't been in several weeks, and I was a little bit nervous. There are grocery carts sectioning off the entrance, and someone counts you as you walk in. About half of the people I saw were wearing masks or gloves. I had a mask with me, but I decided not to wear it. This time there was plenty of bread and milk. There wasn't much toilet paper, but based on the laundry I'm doing...I think several of my kids aren't using it anyway, so it wasn't on my list. (Kids are SO gross.) The weather felt like summer this week. The kids got in the hot tub, played in the sprinkler, and filled up water balloons. Unfortunately, the wasps are out, and Anna accidentally put her hand on one and got stung. She's now terrified of all flying bugs. Ugh. We also did school outside one morning while I got happy mail ready for you: notes, info for a few parents, and April birthday pencils and stickers. I really hope the Marshall pool is going to be open this summer. We are ready to go swimming! I hope your family stayed safe during the storm last night. We hunkered down in the basement for an hour. The kids didn't like it when we lost power, but the dogs LOVED chasing the flashlight beams. Luckily, the power was back on before we put everyone to bed. I soaked up bunches of sun this week; I think my internal solar battery is FINALLY recharged. Ha! I miss you! Love, Mrs. Smitely Dear Class, How did your first day of e-learning go? Ours was...meh. Since we had to leave the house anyway to pick up packets, we grabbed breakfast from Latte Dough. I was hoping the sweets for breakfast would make schoolwork more enjoyable. It didn't. Ha! At our house, the kids can wake up whenever, but there's no TV or device games until after lunch. They need to eat breakfast, get dressed, and brush teeth by 9:00. Then we do school from 9:00-10:00ish. The rest of the morning they can do educational things or play. The kids did their school work in completely different ways. I'll go one kid at a time: Emma: Emma loves school and enjoys learning on her own. She is the perfect homeschooling student. Thank goodness at least one of them is!! She finished most of her work today, so she can pick what she wants to learn the rest of the week. She is also working on learning Spanish through the Duolingo App. She's on the paid version since she's demonstrated that she's responsible enough to actually do it every day. Emma's pretty independent and cleared off her desk and got to work on her own. She's doing the packet and the iXL levels. Luke: Luke was finally adjusting to our schedule and the binder of work I'd put together for him the past few weeks. He was not happy to get something different. Different is BAD. He had to take a ten minute break to calm down and refocus. After that, he was fine. But he's not doing packet. He is only doing the iXL levels and then writing what he wants in his journal. I don't have the energy to fight the packet battle. He worked at our kitchen counter for a little bit and then moved to the couch. He's also learning Spanish on Duolingo, but he's using the free version until I think he'll actually use it consistently. There was about 30 minutes left of down time this morning before lunch, so he got on Curiosity Stream and picked a short video about Mars to watch. Anna: Anna likes to do what her brother does, so she also throws a fit when it's school time. I make her work at the kitchen table so it's easier for me to keep an eye on her. Every time I turn around, she disappears! She did a few pages out of her packet and then did her iXL levels for the day. Kindergarten doesn't have much work since they are so little, so it didn't take her long to do both. She then chose to do Sumdog for a little bit. I added her to my class and opened up the store so she could use her "money" to buy things. When she got tired of that, she played with her dolls and then watched part of the Mars show Luke was watching. All three kids also had virtual piano lessons with their teacher today. We propped an iPad up so they could see Ms. Jan and she could see them and their fingers! This is our third week doing virtual lessons, and it's getting easier. We found an easier way to prop the iPad up, and it doesn't feel as awkward talking to each other this way now that we're getting used to it. They spent the afternoon playing outside, finishing the Barbie Netflix series, and playing Roblox on their iPads. I went to school for a little bit to clean up the mess I left on our last day. I also grabbed some things to organize my kids' school stuff. My dining room has piles of stuff everywhere!! I guess it's not that big of a deal though, since no one can come over to eat with us anyway... Michael is on day shift this week, so we won't eat dinner until late when he comes home. I've still got plenty of time to take the dogs for a walk, clean, and make dinner. It's been a busy day! Good luck adjusting to e-learning, and let me know if I can help with anything! Love, Mrs. Smitley We have almost no yard, so we walked to the First United Methodist Church and borrowed their parking lot for Anna's bike practice and their yard for exercise.
Dear Class,
Today I am grateful for three things: you, the weather, and my bird feeder. First, it made my heart so happy to talk with all of your families yesterday. I've missed hearing your voices and seeing your faces. Feel free to post on Seesaw pictures and videos of what you have been up to with your family. Second, the weather today was my ideal day, 70 degrees and sunshiny. I could live like this all year long! (Especially since the biting bugs aren't around yet.) Finally, my bird feeder is entertaining me every time I'm in the kitchen...which is A LOT these days. So far I've seen a pair of cardinals, a pair of red headed finches, a blue jay, two pairs of mourning doves, a bunch of house finches, and a squirrel. The squirrel was hilarious to see hanging upside down snacking on the bird seed, but he's eating more than his fair share. He needs to stick with the corn I'm throwing out for him. As you start working from home next week, let me know if you want help with anything. I have a document camera that I can film tips or answers so you can check your work. I'll work on putting daily links on Seesaw in case your family would like to finish voting on our favorite book, too. Next week looks rainy, so let's make it a show and tell week. Post a picture or a video of something you make at home while it's rainy. You could show us a puzzle you finished, a picture you did, a fort or obstacle course you built, a creation you made, or anything else you can think of. If you don't have your own device, your parent can send me a picture, and I'll share it with everyone else if you would like me to. I can't wait to see what you will make next week! Love, Mrs. Smitley Dear Class, Today I got to meet with the rest of the second grade teachers and start looking at how we are going to teach you this month. It was pretty crazy trying to take turns talking on Google Meet and seeing everyone's home and hearing their dogs bark! I'll call your families this week to see how you are doing and if there is anything I can do to help. I know you were looking forward to getting a BUNCH of homework, but...you mainly need to keep reading and run around your house outside until your parents let you back in. Ha! I miss you! Love, Mrs. Smitley |
AuthorWelcome! I'm a second grade teacher in Marshall, Illinois who is now unexpectedly homeschooling my three kids while our schools are closed for the coronoa virus. While I've always wanted to homeschool, this was not how I wanted to do it! Archives
May 2020
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