Here is some general information about our classroom for the 2015-2016 school year.
About Me: My name is Mrs. Crook and I am in my second year at Kelseyville Elementary School. Prior to that, I was teaching classroom music to Kindergarten through 6th grade students. I am on the Technology Committee for the District and love working with various types of technology. My husband and I have been married for almost 9 years and we have a 3 year-old son and a 1 year-old son.
Classroom Schedule:
8:00 - 10:00 English Language Arts
10:00 - 10:20 Recess
10:20 - 11:30 Math
11:30 - 12:20 Lunch
12:20 - 12:50 Social Studies/ Science/ P.E./ Library/ S.T.E.M.
12:55 - 1:25 English Language Development
1:30 - 1:57 Social Studies/ Science/ P.E./ Library/ S.T.E.M.
On Mondays through Wednesdays we do centers during part of our English Language Arts time.
Classroom Behavior:
I use Class Dojo in my classroom for behavior management. This is an online app that gives students positive points for behaviors such as respect, responsibility, and participation. There are also negative points in this system for things such as, unsafe behavior, talking out of turn, and bullying. Students receive points that accumulate over 2 week periods. Every other Friday I will give them an opportunity to spend their Class Dojo points. If they don’t spend them they roll over into their “account.” Class Dojo is accessible online or through their free app which can be found in both the App Store and the Google Play store. (For a list of ways to spend points, see my earlier blog post on Class Dojo at http://crookclass.blogspot.com/2015/09/class-dojo-and-quick-glance-at-our.html
P.E. and GoNoodle:
Every Wednesday our class will be doing a P.E. activity outside. Please send your child in tennis shoes on those days. GoNoodle is our indoor P.E. activities that we do every morning as a transition time from reading groups. These are fun videos that get the kids moving and give them a little bit of a break in the day. GoNoodle also has a home version for parents and students and you can find that at www.gonoodle.com
Homework:
We only have one thing for homework which is the Reading Comprehension Log. There is a small activity for each day that the student reads. Read with your child 20 minutes every night (Monday through Thursday) and then do the activity on the page. The actual homework paper is only collected once a week on Fridays. Monday is focused on the Main Idea of a story they read. Tuesday focuses on drawing the beginning, middle, and end of the book that was read. Wednesday, students need to draw a setting from the book. Thursdays they draw a picture to show what the problem was in the story and then write 1 sentence about that problem. This doesn’t have to be the same book for alll four nights, but it can be. If your child is more interested in picture books, then do a different one each of the four nights. If your child is starting to show interest in smaller chapter books, then focus on a chapter a night. This is very flexible and the main idea is to have students reading at home and critically thinking about what they have read. Here is a copy of the reading comprehension log. https://goo.gl/nU2syH
Technology and Worksheet Free:
Just this year, Kelseyville Unified School District has issued a Chromebook to every student that stays on campus. Every student has been given a district issued Email address with a password. This e-mail account will follow them throughout their educational career in Kelseyville District. In our class, we use the Chromebooks at least once a day. Technology is a wonderful tool and we now have a greater accessibility for our students. In our classroom we focus a lot on Digital Citizenship, which includes but is not limited to internet and computer safety, online etiquette, and learning through technology. Google Classroom is a tool that is also used in our class on a daily basis. The students respond to their journal prompts through Google Classroom. We also use other sites in class including: iRead, www.typing.com , and www.frontrowed.com Throughout the year students will be introduced to a variety of websites, some of which will require a username and password. Please know that I keep a record of all of their usernames and passwords and they also have a copy of all of their usernames and passwords. If at any point in the year, you would like to be able to access some of their site accounts, please let me know and I will be happy to send home a hard copy of usernames and passwords with your child. Because of our frequent use of technology in the classroom, very few papers will be sent home. We still do use paper and pencil, but most activities in class will be hands-on, manipulative, or computer-based. For more information on my worksheet free philosophy, read my blog post at http://crookclass.blogspot.com/2015/07/worksheet-free.html
Library:
Our class has a regular library time every Friday morning at 9:30. Your child will get to check out 2 books each week, providing they turn in their 2 books from the previous week.
Field Trips and Volunteers:
In Second Grade we go on three field trips during the year. Two of these are walking field trips in town and the third is a bus field trip. We walk to the Kelseyville Firehouse on Main Street usually towards the beginning of November. We walk to the Kelseyville Post Office usually in February. Both of these field trips connect with our Social Studies program which has a big focus on community involvement and community workers. Our last field trip for the year is to the Ocean at Fort Bragg. We take a bus and are gone all day. This is a great trip and very exciting for the students and teachers as we close our unit on ocean and tides pools in our science curriculum. Details about each field trip will be sent home as we get closer to them. If you would like to volunteer to be a chaperone on the field trips, you will need to fill out a volunteer packet from the office and have a current TB test done. If you would like to volunteer and help out in the classroom, you will need to fill out the same packet with a current TB test.
Communication:
The best way to get a hold of me is through Email at rcrook@kvusd.org I will get back to you within 24 hours. You can also call the school and leave a message at (707) 279-4232 x106. Most communications I send out to you will be through either the class blog at crookclass.blogspot.com or through the Class Dojo messenger. The class blog will be updated at least once a week to give you an idea of what happened in class, generally, and if there are any upcoming events for our classroom or the school. I also do have a Twitter account if you would like to reach me that way @rcrook_rcrook
Many thanks to all the families that were able to attend Back-to-School Night.
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