Digital Wellness is now part of our Health Curriculum
This week, I started teaching a rotation of lessons as part of our new Health Curriculum. This will continue throughout the year for a total of five lessons. The first lesson(some students had the lesson this week; the rest will come next week) was about the health of our school Chromebooks. Students learned the 4's for Chromebooks and responsible technology use at school.
Chapter Books
This week in the Media Center, students learned about chapter books which are a type of fiction book. As we are a K-2 school, and learning to read is a big part of their experience here, we have a large number of chapter books that are in between picture books(illustrated with more pictures than text) and chapter books(lots of text and minimal pictures). Reading this type of chapter book together is a wonderful way to support your child as they learn to read independently. In addition, longer chapter books without pictures are an excellent way to share books with your child and have many benefits including improving attention span, enhancing vocabulary, strengthening comprehension, increasing parent-child bonding, and improving discussion skills and cultural awareness. Overall,
I would love to know how to best support you at home to encourage reading and best manage technology use. Click on the QR code to complete the survey.
Reading@Home
Reading aloud to your child is a powerful way to spark their imagination, build vocabulary, and foster a lifelong love of learning. When you read together, you're not just sharing stories; you're helping them create a lifelong positive habit. As you read, your child is exposed to new words and concepts, which helps them develop language skills. Additionally, reading aloud can improve your child's attention span, concentration, and critical thinking abilities. And finally, it is a great way to bond with your child, while creating connection and facilitating conversation. Start by picking a regular, convenient time, such as just before bed, and make it distraction-free - i.e. no phones, smartwatches, or other electronics involved so your full attention can be on your child.
Be a Good Steward of Our Books
Bring your books home or leave them at school. Students are not required to bring their books home. The most important thing is to read at home. If they have access to books at home and are worried about forgetting or losing their library books, they are welcome to keep them in the classroom to read during school.
Read with your family. If your student brings library books home, please talk to your student about the books and read together. I will be sending out more information about this throughout the school year.
If you take the books home, find a safe place in your house to keep them. Please help your student find a safe place for the library books. This might be a special shelf, bin, or even in their backpack.
Make sure your water bottle is tightly closed in your backpack. I love that our students have reusable water bottles! Please help remind them to make sure the lid is tightly closed if it's in the main part of their backpack. They can always ask a teacher for help.
After school, leave your books in your backpack until you get home. I love when the students get excited about their library books; however, if your student attends an afterschool program or goes to a friend's house, they should wait until they get home to take the library books out of their backpack.
How to Identify Our Books
Here are some examples of our Winnona Park library bar codes. We still have a few "vintage" books that originally belonged to other elementary schools or have a "City Schools of Decatur" bar code. In addition, we have "Winnona Park Elementary School" stamped in the front and often the back of the books.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Ilene Zeff, Media Specialist
izeff@csdecatur.net