Welcome back to school! Well, sort of. Please watch my introductory video (below) and then, at 8:30 a.m., log-in to Google Classroom using your District e-mail and password (just as you did last spring). We’ll start the day by saying hello and doing what Room 15 kids call a “Clicker Question.” It’s a ton of fun (if you’ll chill out and allow yourself to have that much fun!).

At 9:30 a.m. We will have our first Zoom meeting. I will post the invite in Google Classroom and I’ll also send it to parents so they’re aware. We’ll be doing a lot of boring stuff like introducing you to our Acellus math program and reviewing how to get into Lexia, but we also get to see the whole class for the first time this year!  Plus, we’ll be reading an awesome, death-defying article in Storyworks about poison dart frogs. (Don’t worry, it’s short!)

In math all you’ll be doing is taking a pre-test and watching the “orientation” video, which is crazy boring. The trouble is, Acellus won’t let you start your first lesson until you’ve seen it, so you have to do it or you won’t be able to do any math this year and if you go through the whole 5th grade year without doing any math, do you know what happens? Holy smokes! Not a pretty sight! Anyway, I’d like you to watch the video at 10:30, that way you can tell me if you’re having any heart attacks, fainting spells, or regular ol’ problems with math.

For history class, you have your first “entry.” You’ll need a spiral notebook like this one to write these entries down. The notebook is called your “History Journal.” You’ll need it all year, including when we get back to in-person instruction, so make sure you keep up.

We’ll get started on PE, art, science, and other subjects later. No reason to do too much the first day, right?  Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!  I almost forgo!. I’ve also recorded my first read aloud of the year! I’ll be reading from the book Boy: Tales of Childhood. It’s by Roald Dahl. You know, the guy who created Willy Wonka? The guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach? The guy who is responsible for Fantastic Mr. Fox? Boy is a collection of true stories from his childhood growing up in England, and it’s marvelous. The first chapter is called “The Bicycle and the Sweet Shop.” (If this isn’t the easiest part of your remote learning, I don’t know what is. All you have to do is listen!)

Between now and the first day, you might want to explore some of the pages and posts here on The Daily Platypus (DailyPlatypus.org…bookmark it!). You should also check you district email and make sure you accepted the invitations to join our Google Classroom and link to our Acellus account. E-mail me if you have any questions or if you just want to say “hey.”