March 23, 2020

Dear Families,

Welcome back to online learning in Early Years, Early Learners.

Today some of our teachers took time to check in with our students and families and welcome them back to online learning via Seesaw. We are slowly rolling out new procedures, such as Zoom meetings for check-ins. Don’t worry; we will support families with these new tasks. Please regularly check your Seesaw announcements for updates.

As a team, we finalized our lesson planning for the next few days and will monitor student posts and feedback. With the data, we will make lesson plans relevant and based on what students know and are inquiring about at home. Gauging student’s interests from their responses helps us understand what each child could attempt next time. For example, while responding to the shape activity from Seesaw, we might ask them to look for shapes around the house.

We look forward to the coming days and wish you all an exciting new journey with us as we learn together about distance learning.

Healthy regards,

Your Early Learners Team

March 22, 2020

Dear Families,

As you are aware, Qatar has taken further necessary measures to ensure we are all safe. As a result, we will be spending more time together as families and in our homes. The conversations on Zoom today was a fantastic way for the students to reconnect with their peers and share some of the things they have been doing to have fun while on mid-term break and how they are feeling about learning online. It’s great to see students interacting with Seesaw and posting their tasks. Every day teachers are eagerly looking forward to seeing what the children post and to provide meaningful feedback based on what they have posted.

We understand that juggling everything can be hard, and we are asking for patience, as we ALL navigate our way through the online learning journey.

1. Attendance is being monitored. Children must upload evidence of engagement to be marked present.

2. These days do count as part of your school attendance, and you are required to engage and interact each day.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

Your Early Learners Team

March 12, 2020

Dear Families,

We had another fantastic day of online learning today! We are excited to see the level of student engagement and the learning experiences they are sharing from home.

Today we started the day with our morning messages and some ideas from our specialist teachers, Ms Kathy and Ms Ingrid on how to stay calm and balanced by doing body movement to relaxing music. Ms Kathy and Ms Ingrid also took the children on a virtual fun ‘Bear Hunt’.

Some children in EL3 shared their learning and observations about their seeds growing at home in connection to our unit of inquiry, Sharing the planet. Also, some children shared how they used their understanding of growing food and how we can use the different herbs in our favourite recipes.

Some children in EL4 engaged in movement exercises using Arabic. Showing a great understanding of words such as run, jump, hop and walk.

Many children shared the work they have done using Math, counting and finding 2D shapes in their environments.

Some children shared with us their dramatic-play experiences, such as a stationary shop with labelled items and prices.

All these experience are examples working toward student learning outcomes identified in our curriculum outcomes. We will continue to monitor the engagements and responding to children’s posts as frequently as possible.

Moving forward, we will be introducing the use of the Seesaw Activity Library, so that your children have access to some guided writing and number exercise.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement for your children, as they learn to be ‘online learners’.

Have a wonderful spring break.

Warm regards,

Your Early Learners Team

March 11, 2020

Dear Families,

We hope you all enjoyed our second day of continuous learning using our online systems. Thank you once again for facilitating your child’s learning at home.

Today, we have been trying to troubleshoot your concerns and responding to all the beautiful photos and videos of your children posted on Seesaw.

To facilitate your online participation, please download the Seesaw Class App onto your home devices using the following link and follow the steps to login to your child’s online e-portfolio. https://web.seesaw.me/platforms. We have share a 'how to' video with you on Seesaw. This app will enable you to upload your child’s work, videos and stories directly to their e-portfolio space. We will be available online tomorrow to support you with any questions. Please note a few key points -

1. Attendance is being monitored. Children must upload evidence of engagement to be marked present.

2. These days do count as part of your school attendance, and you are required to engage and interact each day.

3. If you have any questions, please email your homeroom teacher, and they will be able to support you.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

Best regards,

Early Learners Team

March 10, 2020

Dear Families,

A huge thank you to the parents and children who have tried posting on Seesaw to share what you have learned today. Online learning can only work with your help and support, and we appreciate your active involvement on our online platform. Please expect a morning message from teachers every day, as well as replies to your wonderful messages, photos and videos. Your feedback is important to us as we embark on this online learning journey, so please keep in touch and send us your thoughts.

To facilitate your online participation, please download the Seesaw Class App onto your home devices using the following link and follow the step to login to your child’s online e-portfolio. https://web.seesaw.me/platforms. This app will enable you to upload your child’s work, videos and stories directly to their e-portfolio space. We will be available online tomorrow to support you with any questions.

We are sure that there will be some challenges as we learn to manage our learning and teaching in this new domain; however, we are all here to support each other and learn together. Our virtual doors are always open, so please email if you have concerns, suggestions, feedback or questions.

Have a wonderful evening,

Your Early Learners 4 Teams