April 15, 2020

Dear 5th Grade Families,

Welcome back to ArtSpace @ Home following what might be the strangest Spring Break ever! We do hope you and your family managed to find some time to reset, rest, and relax during the break from school responsibilities.

Ms. Dana and I want to say how proud we are of our kids for staying focused and doing their work to the best of their ability throughout this unprecedented school closure. As mentioned before, we know everyone's circumstances are different, but please know that we are here to help, and if you feel there is something you need, please communicate that with us. Here's the link to the Community Support Survey, in case you need access to food, a tech device, or basic school supplies.

The Google Classrooms are updated daily, and we respond to questions and concerns from students rapidly, so please encourage your child to ask for help if needed. We have a regular schedule for ZOOMs, so please familiarize yourself with these, and encourage your children to join in whenever possible! If they're unable to make it, have them send us an email so we know they won't be there.

Please help us in reminding students of these ZOOM guidelines:

  • FOCUS on the lesson/discussion
  • NO hand signals/dancing, etc. to distract peers
  • NO chatting with anyone other than teacher
  • Be respectful of others!
  • Your screen name should be your name or your parent's name, so we know who you are!
  • Stay muted unless teacher unmutes you, or calls on you- this helps with background noise.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your child, please email us, and we will do our best to get back to you ASAP.

HEATHER.BURROWS@ARTSPACECHARTER.ORG

DANA.YORK@ARTSPACECHARTER.ORG

ACADEMICS

Language Arts: Remote Learning is currently focused around the historical fiction novel My Brother Sam is Dead, and continuing poetry lessons and activities throughout the month of April, as it is National Poetry Month. A mix of read alouds, questions, and projects will continue to be shared in the Google Classroom.

Math: In math our remote learning is currently mixing decimal work with some review of concepts we studied earlier in the year. Your student should have some more "real world" targeted questions geared at more conceptual learning. Practice in computation will continue to be offered, but we will be focusing on smaller math tasks that are focused on deeper thinking.

Science: In science our remote learning unit on Forces & Motion has just ended. Moving forward, we will be reviewing the Water cycle, and celebrating some Earth Day lessons specific to Environmental science. As we move through the month of April, I encourage students to think about how our current situation with the pandemic may be impacting the planet as a whole. We will look at some of these topics more closely during our studies.

Social Studies: Remote Learning is currently focused around The Revolutionary War, and will move from that into Founding Documents (Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, etc.). A mix of videos, readings, artwork, and websites to explore will continue to be shared in the Google Classroom.

Distance Learning Resources:


ArtSpace Summer Camp Opportunities!

Please check out the descriptions of the fun camp opportunities below. To reserve a spot in any of the camps today please follow this link!