Dear Capri Families,
In this ever-changing environment, I hope you are all well. Uncertainty and frustration are normal and with this in mind it is our job as adults to provide as much normalcy and predictability as we can for our students. By now, you have hopefully been using the flexible learning opportunities that we have shared with all of you to help your children continue to learn at home. They are available to all on our school and district website under the COVID-19 resources. Over the past week, the teachers and I have been meeting via Zoom and other electronic means to create more targeted learning options for each grade level at Capri to help you to determine activities that are the most beneficial for your students.
As an educational community, we will share information and resources on an ongoing basis to help support this goal, including:
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Ongoing Mondays - Fridays 11:00-12:00: Free to-go lunch and breakfast for students under 18 distributed at Capri. For families without technology, suggested resource packets distributed on Mondays with the food distribution at Capri. Online access is the preferred method, whenever possible.
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Friday Afternoons on the Website and Monday Mornings on SeeSaw: Guidance on flexible learning options and resources by grade level curated by our teachers will be pushed out electronically to families. Our first push was last Friday and we will push out additional options again this Friday afternoon.
One of the most important activities that you can do with your child is to read. Various kinds of reading can be done—you can read books to your child that they will understand, but may not be able to read themselves; you can read books with your child, taking turns with a text at their instructional level that they may require some assistance to read; and you can spend time listening to your child reading. All three different kinds of reading are important and essential to move children forward.
Practice in writing is also important. In the younger grades, working on neat printing, writing their names, and writing sight words will help them. Once they are able to express their thoughts, having them write letters to family or friends, or write stories will help them to develop their ability to express themselves in written form. They can also research a topic and write an informational piece about something that interests them.
One of the foundations of math is automaticity with math facts. For young children, this may be number recognition and counting. As students get older, learning addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts are very important. You can have students use flashcards that you already have at home or allow them to make their own and practice until they are fluent. Make it into a game and challenge each other.
If you have not yet watched Dr. Viramontez’s most recent message to families, please do. She explains how we will be transitioning from flexible learning options to distance learning. As part of the prolonged school closure, we will be moving from providing resources that students can complete at home in a self-directed fashion to a distance learning model that will still be largely self directed.This is different than providing resources because in distance learning we will be having meaningful connections with students virtually on a regular basis. Meaningful connection means that teachers will be more intentional in the learning experiences provided for students.
During chaotic times we tend to rush to solutions. It is alright for families to slow down, find appreciation and gratitude in your time together, and spend some time playing board games, weeding the flower beds, or having an interesting conversation. Learning happens in many different forms and does not stop outside of the school building. Our staff appreciates your support during this time and we will continue to develop and communicate our academic guides as we move ahead.
We miss all of you very much. We are a strong and capable team and I know that we will be able to adapt to whatever changes, mild or extreme, are necessary. We are here for you now and will continue to be as we move forward. We hope you're all safe and staying healthy! Remember to read, read, read!
Link to Online Flexible Learning Options and Resources
Capri Website
CUSD Website for Covid-19
