Welcome to our 2020-2021 School Year!

 Welcome to any Angell Eagles who have found this page in the 2020-2021 School year!  It is going to be an amazing year and I'm so glad you're here!

We will communicating through Schoology this year, so for now, the blog will not be updated.  If that changes in the future, I will let you know.

Have a great day and GO EAGLES!

Happy Last Day of School!

Dear Parents and Families,

I hope this email finds you well and healthy!  As some of you already know, due to health concerns in our extended family, we need to continue to limit our exposure to others. I am sad that this means I am not able to participate in an in-person send-off at this time.  I wanted to express my gratitude for all of your kindness and support this year.  We have all faced unprecedented circumstances, and I have appreciated your support and extra effort. I know that your children will be ready for the challenges of 5^th grade!

I know many parents might be looking for learning opportunities for their children this summer.  Here are just a few options that you might consider:

MATH

·       Students will have continued access to Dreambox (using their Clever badge or Gmail login) all summer.  This program is directly aligned to our standards and NWEA assessments.  Working in the program for just an hour a week will continue student math progress over the summer.

·       Practicing basic math facts (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) is so important so that students retain their knowledge over the summer.  Students can practice with flashcards, workbooks, online or just with a good old-fashioned pencil and paper.  You can challenge your child with 2-3 digit multiplication problems to practice that pesky Partial Products algorithm. 

ELA

·       Students will also have continued access to Lexia (using their Clever badge or Gmail login) all summer.  Many students still have a suggested weekly usage, but others could complete 30-60 minutes per week. 

·       Epic books will also be available and free this summer to all students and families who have activated a Remote Student Account.  Epic will be transitioning to Epic Free this summer, but you won’t need to do anything to continue your account. 

·       Read, read, read!!  Anything and everything students can read will benefit them next year.  Encourage your child to talk about his/her books and share feelings about the characters and events in the story.  Also, check out Ann Arbor Public Library’s summer reading program!  They have more information on their website: http://www.aadl.org/events

Thank you again for all of your support this year.  As you may know, I prepared a slideshow with students to document our year together.  After sharing with the students tomorrow, I will post a link on our class SeeSaw page.

If your child has personal items at school or materials that belong to Angell, please note that there is a pickup/dropoff time available at Angell on Monday, June 22^nd from 9-4.  See the recent email from Mr. Court about the procedures for more information.  If you aren’t able to make this time, students will be able to return items later in the summer or in the fall.  Please be assured that no one will be charged late fees for overdue library books currently at home.

I truly hope that we all look back on this year as one where we learned more about ourselves, each other and the world around us!  Have a wonderful summer, stay healthy, and all the best to your children next year in 5^th grade!

Sincerely,

Jessica Sawin

Update--Week of 4/13

Hello Parents and Families,

I hope you had a nice long weekend and that you are staying healthy and safe.  I know that we are all adjusting to a different style of life, but I hope that you are finding ways to learn, grow and stay connected as families.  I know we really enjoyed the warmer spring weather this weekend on a family hike!  This week, we begin our adjusted activity schedule, so I wanted to give you more information. 

Beginning tomorrow, Monday, April 13th, new activities will be assigned in SeeSaw each morning (Monday-Thursday) at 8:00 AM.  ALL ACTIVITIES WILL BE POSTED IN SEESAW.  This means that students should be signing into SeeSaw regularly to check for activities.

The activity schedule will include:

*Morning Message each day

* ELA (English/Language Arts) activities each day (4 per week- labeled A, B, C, D)

* Math activities each day (labeled 1A, 1B, etc for Week 1) PLUS assigned content in Khan Academy (30 mins/day)

*Social Studies activities twice per week (Mondays and Wednesdays)

*Science activities twice per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

You may see SeeSaw activities that look like they have been created by another Angell teacher, because we are sharing in lesson creation and design.  Each Friday, I will post a "Check for Understanding" that all students need to submit by the following Tuesday at 4:00 PM.  This will serve as a check in to ensure that all students have access and are completing activities.   We will also use Fridays for Team Meeting time.  In addition to these activities, Lexia and Dreambox required minutes *still* apply.  Once again, most students have a suggested Lexia requirement (if not, try 30-60 minutes a week) and Dreambox should be used at least an hour a week.

Students, if you have not done so already, you will need to follow the directions in Friday’s announcement to join our class on Khan Academy.  You can find the Khan Academy app in Clever once you’ve logged in with your badge.  You’ll log in with your school Gmail account and use the class code 2555JFXF. Once you create your account, you will be able to see the assignments I have given there.

These activities may seem like a lot at first, so please complete what seems reasonable for you and your family.  If you are under time constraints, I might suggest focusing on the math and reading content.  Finally, I will be adjusting my office hours to Tuesdays from 9-10 AM and Friday 12-1 PM.  I will be available online during those times for real time questions or comments.  As usual, I effort to reply to email within 24 hours. 

I know that this is a challenging time for all of us, but I am excited about the possibilities of learning in a new way with all of you!  Let’s have a great week together!

Spring Break

Hello Parents and Families,

I hope this message finds you safe and healthy.  I know this has been a challenging time, but I trust that your families have found a new routine and are making the best of things.  I have been very impressed with the responses I've been getting from your kiddos in SeeSaw and all the hard work they are logging in Lexia and Dreambox.  Hopefully your child was able to join us for our Live Team Meeting earlier this afternoon!

This is just a reminder that as next week is Spring Break, there will be NO new activities posted in SeeSaw.  Next week, if you're looking for academic work for your child, DreamBox and Lexia are great online options.  Reading, free-writing and enjoying the great spring weather are awesome, too.

I'll resume the daily Morning Message and SeeSaw activities for April 6-9th.  Plans for after that time are currently being developed and more information will be shared as soon as it is available.  I'll also be sending out invitations for another Live Class Meeting on Monday, April 6th soon!  Hopefully your child can join us then!

SeeSaw Starts Today!

Students,

Don't forget to check SeeSaw today for a Morning Message and assignment!

AAPS Food Distribution Plan

Please see the message below for more information on the AAPS Food Distribution Plan:

AAPS Food Service for Families     -     March 16 – April 5, 2020

AAPS, working with Chartwells Food Service, is pleased to provide “to go” meals available for pick-up between 11am – 12:30pm on:

·       Monday, March 16

·       Tuesday, March 17 (for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday meals)

·       Friday, March 20 (for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday meals)

·       Tuesday, March 24 (for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday meals)

·       Friday, March 27 (for Friday, Saturday, Sunday meals)

·       Tuesday, March 31 (for Tuesday and Wednesday meals)

·       Thursday, April 2 (for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday meals)

Pick-up at the locations are listed below.

These meals are intended for children up to 18 years old and any child with special needs up to 26 years old. AAPS will distribute these meals to children, parents/guardians. The meals will contain a balance breakfast and lunch.

Because we are practicing social distancing we ask that you pick-up your meals and take them home to eat.

AAPS Food Service Hotline – If you have food allergy needs or cannot make it to a pick-up location please call 734-994-2265. Arrangements will be made.

Food Pick-Up Locations

Peace Neighborhood Center - Peace Maple Meadows Satellite – West Arbor Satellite

1111 N. Maple Rd.                   

Community Action Network (CAN)

·       Arrowwood Hills Community Center

2566 Arrowwood Trl.

·       Bryant Community Center

3 W. Eden Ct.

·       Green Baxter Court Community Center

1737 Green Rd.

·       Hikone Community Center

2724 Hikone Dr.

Pinelake Village Coop - outside the clubhouse

2680 Adrienne Dr.

Lakestone Apartments - outside the clubhouse

4275 Eyrie Dr.

Scio Farms - outside the clubhouse

6655 Jackson Rd.

Orchard Grove - outside the clubhouse

2835 S. Wagner

Carpenter Elementary – outside the school

4250 Central Blvd.

Scarlett Middle School – outside the school

3300 Lorraine

Message from Mrs. Sawin

Dear Parents and Families,

            I hope you are all staying well and healthy.  I know that this is a challenging time, but let me reassure you, that your kids are still in my thoughts daily.  Working together with our Angell team, we have developed a plan of action to continue to provide educational opportunities for your children during our time apart.  Luckily, our class uses technology frequently, and your kids are very experienced using all the platforms available by using their Clever badge/GoogleID.  For reference, these items are taped into their homework folder.

            Starting tomorrow, Monday, March 16^th, your children can expect daily communication and assignments from me.  I will be posting a daily Morning Message at 9:00 AM on SeeSaw each weekday, so we can stay connected as a classroom community.  You may know that we always start our day with a team Morning Meeting, so I want to keep that feeling going, even when we can’t see one another.  Students are encouraged to read, post and comment with their classmates each day. 

            Academically, I will also post an assignment on SeeSaw for completion Monday-Friday mornings.  Students should know that they’ll find them by logging into Clever, then SeeSaw, then they’ll click Activities.  I will vary the subject areas and I’ll be assessing and commenting on assignments.  In addition, students can plan on using Lexia and Dreambox each day.  Lexia gives a recommended usage for most students, but if your child does not have required minutes, he/she should try to complete 20-30 minutes per week.  DreamBox recommends around an hour a week for 4th grade.  Also, students were given Reading Group books/assignments as well as a Reading Response homework and math worksheet.  These can be completed and returned to school.  Finally, good old-fashioned reading is a great thing and always encouraged!  If you do none of the online work, just make sure your child is reading! 

            Of course,  please understand that all these plans are simply to provide opportunities for learning.  I realize that many students may not have time to complete each and every assignment.  As a mom myself, I understand that screentime can be both a help and a hindrance for our kids.  I defer to you parents as the experts on what makes the most sense for your child and family.  Hopefully this work will allow you to set a daily family schedule to help your routine.  Setting aside specific times in the day for school work, as well as physical activity, creative endeavors, quiet time (reading, writing or drawing) and play will help get you through the day.  This evening, I helped my kindergartener write out a daily schedule on a chalkboard in her room, which we'll refer to during the day. Even 4th graders can benefit from this kind of structure.

            Finally, I will be available via email to address any questions or concerns you or your children might have.  As usual, I will continue to check email from 7 AM-7 PM and effort to reply within 24 hours of your email.  I will update via SeeSaw and our class blog (www.mrssawin.blogspot.com) with information.

All the best,

Jessica Sawin

Update 3/13

I hope this message finds you well.  I know these are challenging times, so please know that we are doing everything we can to reassure and support your children!  

Today, I'll be sending your children home with a few hard copies of assignments and books.  All of them are assignments that we have completed together before, so they should be independent work.  If your child is not at school today, please know that he/she will not be behind if they do not have these assignments.  They are simply supplemental at this point and you do not need to pick anything up.

In the coming days and weeks, I will be in touch with you and your children about the online learning activities for our time apart.  Your children have lots of experience with completing assignments in many different ways, so I'm confident this will work out great for us!  Each student has a Clever Badge and Google ID  taped into his/her homework folder which they can use to access Lexia, Dreambox, Google Drive, and SeeSaw.  

If you are looking for immediate work they can complete, Lexia (reading) and Dreambox (math)  are the best place to start.  Goals you might consider for time are 20-30 mins/day for Dreambox and Lexia personalized goal (listed in Lexia) or 20-30 minutes a week.

I appreciate your support and patience as we transition into unchartered territory.  Please know that I have shared all the information I have at this time with you.  You can expect to hear from me soon with more specifics.  I hope you know that I am committed to ensuring success for all students!

Partial Quotients

You'll be seeing your child working on Division this week using the Partial Quotients Algorithm.  I know this will be new to many (most) of you, and it's somewhat different than typical long division.  I know some students may know long division already, but I'm going to ask students to use this strategy when solving division problems, at least until I can see they are proficient at it.  Students are NOT expected to know traditional long division in 4th grade and I won't be teaching or demonstrating it in class.

In case you're not familiar with the strategy, it looks like this:

If you're looking for more information, try this video or this one!

Week of 3/9

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on reading assessments and finishing our reading group books.  There will be no Word Study test this week, due to our shortened schedule.

• Math:  We will continue Unit 6 with lessons in remainders, measuring angles using a protractor, and additive problems with angles.

• Writing:  We will be starting our persuasive writing unit.

• Social Studies: We will continue to learn more about the human and physical characteristics of the United States.

• Science: We will complete our Project Lead the Way coding unit our amazing Ms. Danziger.   We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  

Field trip 3/11/20

Please see the following note from Mrs. Ryan, our music teacher, about next week's field trip to Hill Auditorium:
******
Dear Parents,
I am proud to announce that the students in third and fourth grades will have the opportunity to attend the Link Up Concert with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra next Wednesday, March 11th at 10:15 AM.

 This concert format is unique in that it blurs the lines between the performers and the audience. All students attending the concert are invited to join the orchestra by singing and playing recorder on a few of the pieces. We will be performing with the rest of the audience from our seats.

 Students have been working on the music during our music classes for the several weeks. The music in this concert is quite difficult and I’ve been so proud of how students have grown musically during our preparation. We’ve had many discussions about how some feelings of frustration while learning something new are actually a good thing: a sign that your brain is seeking to create new pathways!

 A little practice outside of music time would help students feel more comfortable and would help them get more out of this opportunity. I’ve linked all of the scores and recordings to my classroom website: http://angellmusic.weebly.com/recorder-resources.html

 Students will be bringing their recorders to the concert. If students have taken their school recorder home or if students would prefer to use their home recorder, please have them bring it on Wednesday. I will have school recorders ready for students to take with them if they are here at school. We will be walking to the beautiful and historic Hill Auditorium. Please make sure your child is appropriately dressed for walking to and from the venue.

Lastly, we’ve talked about making sure we represent our school well. Please encourage your child to be good listeners with outstanding manners on our trip.  Also, as this is a ticketed event (and our tickets were purchased last fall when we had fewer students on our roster), we *cannot* accommodate chaperones on this trip.
I thank you for your support. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Katie Ryan

Week of 2/17

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on what we want to remember after reading our books.  We'll also resume word study this week.

• Math:  We will take our Unit 5 assessments and our pre-assessment for Unit 6.

• Writing:  We will be starting our persuasive writing unit.

• Social Studies: We will continue to learn more about the human and physical characteristics of the United States.

• Science: We will continue Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.  We will continue the input/output unit, coding with iPads.  We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  

Week of 2/10

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on what changes we might make if we were the author's of our books.

• Math:  We will continue Unit 5 with lessons on symmetric figures and multi-step number stories.  We'll also review and prepare for the Unit 5 test.

• Writing:  We will be starting our persuasive writing unit.

• Social Studies: We will continue to learn more about Geography.

• Science: We will continue Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.  This week, we'll start the input/output unit, coding with iPads.  We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  We'll also be talking about ways to show our personal best!

Week of 1/27

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on how writers capture the interest of their readers and look for "hooks" in our books.

• Math:  We will continue Unit 5 with lessons on adding mixed numbers, adding tenths and hundredths, and solving an open response problem.

• Writing:  We will be working and presenting on a combination writing/social studies activity about Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Social Studies: We will continue Geography Unit and work on the MLK project above.

• Science: We will continue Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.  We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  We'll also be talking about ways to show our personal best!

Week of 1/22

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on finding the author's message in our books.

• Math:  We will begin Unit 5 with lessons of fractional parts, parts of a whole, and adding fractions with like denominators.

• Writing:  We will be working on a combination writing/social studies activity about Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Social Studies: We will continue Geography Unit and work on the MLK project above.

• Science: We will continue Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.  We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  We'll also be talking about ways to show our personal best!

Message from our Art Teacher

Please see the following message below from our fantastic Art teacher, Mrs. Fineberg!

Mrs. Fineberg is collecting thin cardboard boxes for a recycled art project for Youth Art Month. Cereal and cracker boxes are perfect. It would be helpful if you could flatten the boxes and even more helpful (but not required) if you cut along the folded parts of the box before you drop off in the office or art room. Thank you

Week of 1/13

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus on finding the author's message in our books.

• Math:  We will review Unit 4, take the Unit 4 assessment, the Middle of the year Assessment and a pre-test for Unit 5.

• Writing:  We will start our Persuasive writing unit and write a response after watching Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

• Social Studies: We will start our Geography Unit, looking at absolute and relative location and longitude and latitude.

• Science: We will continue Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.  We'll also study rock formation and the rock cycle.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  We'll also be talking about ways to show our personal best!

Week of 1/6

Here's what we'll be doing this week of school in each subject!

• Reader's Workshop:  We will focus how books are organized in different genres.

• Math:  We will continue Unit 4 with money number stories, Partial Products Multiplication, area models and multi-step number stories.

• Writing:  We will start our Persuasive writing unit.

• Social Studies: We will continue Economics Unit, with lessons market economy.

• Science: We will begin Project Lead the Way, our amazing STEM program that will be co-taught with Ms. Danziger.

• Team Building:  We'll meet with our Reading Buddies and share books!  We'll also be talking about ways to show our personal best!