Choose Joy
The reason for our hope
1 Peter 3:15
This is our school district's theme for the 2020-2021 school year.
How appropriate! We could choose negativity, despair, unwillingness to adapt because of the
situation that the world is facing BUT
Our God tells us that we need joy!
I asked all the littles to tell me what brings them joy after reading this lovely book by Corrinne Averiss.
I took their photos on the first day of school and their words and photos are welcoming them into the classroom. You will see a photo from earlier last week, before I had met them all, showing how the door
into the classroom looks.
Every classroom has a sanitizing station at the door and the kiddos are quickly adapting
to what they need to do to help keep them safe. They understand that wearing a mask means
that we care about others and that by wearing a mask you are keeping others safe. THANK YOU
for sending your child in a clean mask everyday.
Door to the classroom (Room 111)
We are doing our best to be as far apart as we can be. Each table has two littles at it.
The blue bin is for their own supplies because AHS says we cannot share. The light blue bin
is the 'tidy tub' so when they cut and have little papers to recycle, they go in the bin, thus
there is less moving around the classroom. I wash tables every morning, they wipe their tablespoon with
a school provided wipe before snack and before lunch.
David is such a beloved book character! We read these two books
during the staggered entry days.
The students followed my verbal directions and watched each step as I drew
David, on the SMARTBoard. Step by step, they too drew David and they are
on display in our classroom.
The classrooms on the main floor are extremely luck to each have a working sink.
The students wash their hands before eating snacks and eating lunch. They noticed how
many soap bottles I have lined up for their use. The red cup covers the water fountain
because AHS has told us that we cannot use them.
Thank you for sending a water bottle that meets my criteria. That means that the
water comes out through a straw, like the one on the left or has a spring loaded
mechanism, the the one on the right. This helps avoid the accidents that can happen
in backpacks (and yes, we have had one of those already) and the ones that happen
in our classroom (not yet....but you never know!)
The type of water bottle that I would kindly ask you to avoid is the type
that requires you to completely take off the lid, or that if it was put on it's side, the water
would spill out. Could you please choose a different bottle to send with your child, if
this is the type you have been sending? I would appreciate it!
I like to avoid the tears that go with water spilling all over on their tables.
We have a morning snack. I ask the children to choose a fruit or vegetable if possible.
Could their snack not be put into their lunch kit? We are trying to avoid too
many students in the hall at a time (social distancing) and if your child has to unzip the
lunchkit, find the snack....or choose because there are yummy things and they want to
eat them all....it means that instead of 10 minutes, the whole exercise is taking 25 minutes.
My own social distancing attempts to avoid touching the students' food. These littles often
need help with opening their containers. I sanitize all the times that they do, so please know
that if they need help, I won't say no, but it might be helpful if each student can open their
own containers. Many of them do not know how to open a prepackaged cookie or cracker bag.
Perhaps this is something that you can help them learn how to do at home.
I will always help, but I really want to be careful to ensure that they stay healthy.
One last thing...the system I use for blogging has gone through an update since I last used it in March,
so it doesn't look as colourful as it used to. I will look into trying to 'spiffy it up' this weekend.
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