Mahalo nui for taking such good care of our school-issued iPads and charging them up before sending them back to school each week. Please remind keiki to wash their hands before using it and especially to not eat while using it.

Papa Honu iPad Shortcut: You’ve probably already seen it, but just FYI we put a shortcut to our Papa Honu Bitmoji Virtual Classroom on your keiki’s iPad home screen. We’ve talked about this tool for months and now keiki have repeatedly watched us navigate through it to access resources and tools during Zoom so they are familiar with using it. Keiki can tap on certain items on the page that link to story videos, games, songs, etc. If your keiki changes the page by accident, tap the Honu in the bottom right corner to go back to the front page and begin navigation again. Every once in a while, open up the Google Chrome internet browser and close tabs your keiki opened while browsing our Bitmoji Virtual Classroom.

QOTD iPad Shortcut: We’ve also added a shortcut on the iPad to our Question of the Day Jamboard. Jamboard is like a virtual whiteboard, a collaborative tool that is accessible to multiple users both asynchronously and synchronously over the internet. Tapping this shortcut will open the Jamboard in a tab on the Google Chrome web browser and you will see a board with keiki photos along the sides, the day’s question and a graphic across the top, and a blue post-it note at the bottom center indicating today’s date. The board is split into two sections, Yes👍🏼 and No👎🏼. When keiki are not reporting to school, they may use the QOTD shortcut to answer the question of the day before our daily Zoom. Otherwise, Kumu will move their photo for them as they answer during circle time. NOTE: Please stress to keiki that they may only move their own photo, not their friends’ photos. (This is also the rule at school for all of their photo-related things.)

New App: We added another learning app to your keiki’s iPad called Code-a-pillar. It is a beginning coding game for keiki. Coding is basically breaking down instructions to tell a computer what to do. In this case, the code is using directional arrows to direct a caterpillar (the “computer”) that needs to get from point A to point B. Check it out with your keiki when you have a chance.

Yay! Okay, that’s it for now. So hard to believe we are about to start our last month of school. 😱

Just wanted to put everything here in a nutshell for y’all. The March newsletter and calendar were sent to you via email and Seesaw and can also be accessed on our Newsletters, Etc. page.

1:1 iPads

Just a reminder that keiki are expected to bring their iPads back to school on Mondays and Thursdays in their Kuleana Pack (clear plastic bag) along with their Keiki Lending Library Books. The Kuleana Pack will be sent home the following day carrying the iPad and a new pair of books. 

Keiki Books/Papa Honu Readers

Continue to log the books your keiki reads in their reading log folders (which were sent home in the Fall packet) and upload a photo of completed pages to their Seesaw journal. We are still tracking keiki reading progress on a page in our Bitmoji Virtual Classroom and our Papa Honu Readers program is still going on (keiki receive a book to add to their home library for every 200 books they read and log). 

Just for your information and peace of mind, books that keiki return to school from home go into quarantine for a week. They are not lent out to anyone else during this time and sit in a basket separately from the other books. After a week, the books are returned to circulation. Kumu chooses the books for keiki and tries to choose something different each time.

4th Quarter Plans

A letter went out this week to you all explaining our 4th quarter plans. We will continue with our schedule as is until Spring Break, which is March 15-19. The week following Spring Break will be on Zoom only (9:30am daily M-Th, Friday is the Kūhiō Day Holiday), no face to face/in classroom learning during this period. Also, we should be welcoming Kumu Ashly back to Papa Honu at this time. 🎉

The week after that, we remain separated by Hui 1/Hui 2 but the school day will finally be a little longer. Yay! School hours will be 8am-2:30pm starting March 29th, so keiki will need to bring their nap things for their cubby. We will continue with our daily 9:30am Zooms at the same link/meeting ID/passcode.

P4 Summer Extension

Due to the COVID shutdowns and our desire to make sure our kuaʻana (P4) are adequately prepared for kindergarten next year, our preschools have decided to provide a four week summer extension program for the month of June. As far as we are aware, this program is scheduled to run for this summer only as it is directly related to the COVID shutdowns and is ONLY AVAILABLE FOR P4/KUAʻANA keiki, NOT for P3/pōkiʻi keiki.

The P4 Summer Extension Enrollment form is due back to us by March 11, 2021 at the very latest and BOTH PARENTS NEED TO SIGN. If you are waiting to find out if your keiki makes it through Kamehameha’s kindergarten testing process, we would advise you to just request enrollment in our summer extension until you find out your keiki’s status there for sure. You will not be able to enroll in summer extension past the March 11 deadline.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We are reachable by email, phone, text, Seesaw, or if you want to meet via Zoom, let us know and we can set that up, no problem. 😊 Mahalo!

Hi again! Just a couple things to cover here…

Updated Keiki Wellness Check Procedure

So, a letter went out to you all last week regarding an update to our daily Keiki Wellness check protocol. If you didn’t see it yet, click the link in the header or check the Newsletters, etc. page and a copy is there for you. According to our protocol, COVID-19 symptoms include any of the following that are NOT caused by a chronic medical condition:

• Coughing
• Difficulty breathing
• Fever or chills
• Sore throat
• Muscle or body aches
• Loss of smell or taste
• Headache
• Congestion or runny nose
• Fatigue
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
• Abdominal pain

If your keiki experiences one or more of these symptoms regularly as a result of a chronic medical condition (such as asthma or allergies), you need to submit documentation from your doctor otherwise every time your keiki comes down with one of the aforementioned symptoms, we will need a doctor’s note to readmit them to school after only ONE day of experiencing a symptom within a 14 day window. We know it’s a little much but please understand that we are doing our best to keep everyone safe and healthy. A note from your doctor naming the condition and outlining the symptoms would be very helpful IF this applies to your keiki. Otherwise, please bear with us! We super mahalo your honesty and patience.

School Pictures

We are all set to take school pictures on February 16 & 18. You can order the traditional way using the flyer that was sent home or you can head over to the website and order online. Note: Keiki must bring a mask to wear while waiting to get their picture taken. If your keiki is sick on school picture day, please keep them home. Retakes are TBA by appointment at the studio. The deadline for ordering online is Thursday, 2/18 by 6pm.

100th Day of School

Our 100th day of school falls on February 4th. We will keep you posted on our in-class plans but please start thinking about your keiki’s 100 item collection as the photos are due by Friday, 1/29. (Didn’t get this flyer either? Click on the link in the header or find it on the Newsletters, etc. page too.)

Voluntary COVID Testing

A letter came out today from our Poʻo Kula Shelli Kim with some clarification about the recent COVID testing we offered as well as important information regarding testing going forward. There is also an active link in the letter if you want to request another optional test for your keiki for February. The letter can be accessed through the link in the header or by heading to the Newsletters, etc. page.

Mahalo, mahalo, mahalo for helping to get this quarter off to a great start! We appreciate you! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to text or email us.

Happy New Year! 🎆 We are excited to begin our third quarter hybrid learning model next week. Here are a few bullet points to remember:

• Pay attention to the calendar. Your keiki will be at school for 2 days a week and on Zoom for 3 days a week.
• On your first day back in the classroom, please make sure your keiki has the following items for their cubby (all labeled with keiki’s name): 2 complete sets of extra clothes (bagged by set), one pair of flat rubber slippers, and one jacket or sweater.
• Bring reusable water bottle and lunch daily. Peanut butter is OK! 👌
  • Please refer to THIS POST and check the slide presentation for more info as well as reminders about lunches.
  • NOTE: Water bottles should be 20oz max and have a pop top or straw lid, no screw off tops, please. Keiki lunch bag and water bottle must fit into a bin that measures 5.25″ H, 7.25″ W, 14″ D. See picture below.

• Our scheduled drop off/pick up times at the Todd Avenue gate are from 8-8:30am and 12:30-1:00pm. If you arrive before our start time, you must wait in your car until the area is cleared for our class to use. If you arrive after our end time, you must wait in your car and call the classroom at 982-0302. A kumu will have to meet you at the outside gate to check your keiki in/out. Please, please try not to be late!
  • NOTE: Papa Manō (Rm. 3) shares the Todd Ave gate with us and their drop off/pick up time is the half hour before ours. Just because people are in line when you arrive doesn’t mean that’s our class…look for Kumu Kimi or Kumu Sera inside the gate area and note that our sign in table will be towards the right (or closer to our classroom door).
  • Remember, only ONE adult may enter the premises to drop off/pick up keiki. Any keiki you bring in with you must stay under your immediate control at all times. Masks for adults are mandatory; masks for keiki are optional.
• If your keiki is sick, keep them home. If someone in your home is COVID positive or has been deemed a close contact with someone else who is COVID positive, please let us know. There is no judgement here; we’re all just doing the best we can to keep each other safe and healthy.

All that being said, it is going to take us a while to iron out the kinks of having a Zoom session at the same time we have keiki in the classroom so please bear with us. We are also slightly restructuring our Zoom sessions on Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri. Keiki still log on at 9:25am and we will play the morning meeting slides with a preview of what’s to come. Generally speaking, our schedule will look like this:

• Piko. Instead of the full protocol we normally do, we will only sing one or two songs. Hawaiʻi Pono ʻĪ, Pule Hoʻonani, and the Oli Kāhea will be done earlier in the morning by the keiki who are in the classroom.
• Calendar Math.
• Morning greeting/song
• Attendance
• Question of the Day (in-class keiki will answer this yes/no question when they arrive in the morning, at-home keiki will answer during Zoom)
• Movement
• Daily Activity. Each day will have a short answer question for discussion. “Take a Minute Monday,” “Two Things Tuesday,” “Tell Me Thursday,” and “Finish This Friday.” This activity will be done in small groups (in-class keiki with one kumu, Zoom keiki with one kumu) in the interest of time.

The Zoom session should conclude at around 10am. Wednesday sessions will remain the same as before, with the full Piko Protocol and Letter of the Week modules. Be sure keiki have their LOTW journal and a writing tool handy on Wednesdays. You can take a picture of the journal page and the corresponding Alphabet Collage page and add to your Keiki’s Seesaw journal OR add a page to the LOTW packet Seesaw activity and upload the photos to the new page.

We will continue to assign Seesaw activities this quarter but will alter the scheduling slightly to better support each cohort, or hui, of keiki. For example, Hui 1 is face to face on Mon/Tue so they will receive the two Seesaw activities that support the in-class small group lessons on Monday. Hui 2 is at home on Mon/Tue so they will receive two activities that can be done independently instead. On Wednesday, all keiki will receive the Letter of the Week packet Seesaw activity. On Thursday, Hui 2 will receive the two activities supporting the in-class small group lessons and Hui 1 will receive the two independent activities. Make sense? Please try your best to have all Seesaw activities for the week completed by Sunday.

Before Monday, pōkiʻi families will receive an invitation to connect with us over Remind, a communication platform. Technically, we are supposed to use Seesaw as our primary mode of communication but it isn’t working as seamlessly as we’d like so we’re reverting to what has worked best for us in the past and that’s Remind. You can use Remind in the app, as SMS text messaging, on its web-based platform (remind.com) or even as email (not recommended). For us, it is so much simpler this way as neither Kumu nor parent needs to store each other’s phone number on our personal devices and we Kumu can be reached even when we are away from the classroom phone. Use Remind to let us know if your keiki will be absent or tardy and why, to ask us questions about whatever, or to send pictures. Kuaʻana families are already connected and familiar with the platform.

Whew! That was a LOT of stuff to read through but mahalo again for your awesomeness and we can’t wait to see you all next week!

It’s been a while since our last post and so much has happened since then. In the spirit of the holiday season, I wanted to share three things that I am grateful for:

1. Getting to hang out with your keiki in person. Just like adults, keiki are different people on screen versus off. It’s fun to explore this other side of their personalities. Also, we don’t have to deal with the pesky mute/unmute button while we are face to face. (Although I’m sure some of us, adults and keiki alike, wish people came with a mute button in real life.)
2. Your patience. I know it’s not easy to deal with short school days and the less convenient (but safer) drop off and pick up procedures. Thank you for making it work.
3. Our new playground. You folks barely get to see it from the sign in table but we got a new playground installed this year! Your keiki are getting to know the ins and outs of it and are challenging themselves physically in a variety of ways.

Remember next week is our Winter Dress Up Week and we are looking forward to some fun times on Zoom in the lead up to Winter Break. Please, PLEASE be safe and stay healthy over the break. Let us know if your ʻohana will be traveling off island and click here to request an optional COVID test for your keiki to take before returning to school in January.

Welcome back from Fall Break and mahalo for picking up your keiki’s Fall Packet. You may have noticed that we started Letter of The Week activities this week. Wednesdays will change from “What’s Good Wednesday” to “Write It Wednesday” and our Wednesday activity going forward will be to focus on one letter and its sound. I have to confess that I’ve never explicitly taught the alphabet for reading/writing before; letter of the week activities for us in the past have been more exploration than instruction. However, many conversations during parent conferences revolved around keiki learning the alphabet and you know what? Many seem ready and interested so we figured, why not? For our youngest keiki who aren’t quite ready yet, this year will be good exposure for them and may help them grasp it better next year.

Our alphabet/phonics/reading curriculum is based on Learning Dynamics’ Four Weeks To Read system (maybe some of you are already familiar with it) and the repetitive nature of the scripts and songs are designed to give keiki maximum exposure to the letter sound (while also connecting it to its written format) in less than 15 minutes a day. We can only fit the letter lesson in once a week so we are asking YOU to supplement your keiki’s learning by reviewing the lesson TWICE more through our Virtual Classroom link before the following Wednesday. Wednesday’s Seesaw activity will be letter/sound activities that you can work on and return to over the course of the week.

Also, in the Fall packet there is an Alphabet Collage book and three envelopes with letters written on them. The letters correspond to the collage materials in the envelope that go with each letter. Please do this activity with your keiki any time after the Letter of the Week is introduced. Ask keiki to find the pictures in the envelope that start with “mmmm” (or whatever the letter sound is that week) and have keiki cut them apart (with supervision). Have keiki follow the direction of the arrows and trace over the dotted lines of the letter of the week with the glue or glue stick then place the collage pictures on top. Leave the book open to dry and snap a picture to send us in Seesaw (add to journal). Be sure to return all materials to the pahu pono kula or packet bag to keep it all together.

So on Wednesdays, here’s what the Letter of the Week lessons will look like in class:

1. The Alphabet Song
2. Lesson, Story, Letter Song
3. Letter Sound Activity
4. Model Letter Formation
5. Keiki writing in the Letter of the Week Journal (pōkiʻi use markers, kuaʻana use pencil) while listening to the letter song again. When the journal page is pau, snap a picture to send us in Seesaw (add to journal).
6. Final Check

To supplement at home, here’s what else you can do:

1. Revisit the letter lesson on the Papa Honu Virtual Classroom TWICE more (at least).
2. Complete Seesaw letter activities that will be assigned each Wednesday.
3. Alphabet Collage activity
4. READ BOOKS with your keiki! 

Okay? Okay. Make your learning time together fun and relaxed, but be in charge. Say, “It’s time for Letter of the Week now.” Do not say, “Do you want to do your Letter of the Week now?” Be consistent yet responsive. If keiki is not having a good day, cut the lesson short (maybe skip the letter formation part at the end). Stay positive, be motivating…best part of all this is the time you get to spend together.

One more thing…in the Fall packet, there was a ziploc bag of cardstock paper cut into strips with a number on the bottom and held together with a paper clip. Those are four separate number strip puzzles and feel free to play with those whenever.

Don’t forget to reply to Kumu Kimi’s email about whether or not you choose to commit to our hybrid learning model. Mahalo nui for your kākoʻo (support), we could NOT do this without you.

Can you believe we’ve been doing this for 34 days now? We are currently preparing an activity packet for your keiki that can be picked up on Friday 10/9 or Monday 10/12 from 7:30-11:30a at our classroom. Inside will be some activities that keiki can do on their own or with you whenever you want but there will also be some activities that are meant to be done on specific days in conjunction with a Zoom class session (non-Zoom-ers, no worry…we’ll keep you in the loop!). Activities will be labeled accordingly.

Another thing we’ll be including in the packet is a Reading Log for keiki. We encourage each ʻohana to read at least 1-2 books together daily. When we return to school, we’ll have books to lend you but for now, please read and log (date + title) whatever books you read at home. You can also log books you read together on Epic! Books online. We were previously planning to share a digital version of the log for you to fill out online (so we could both have access to it and you wouldn’t have to shuttle the folder back and forth between home and school) BUT thought it might be too overwhelming to add yet another tech tool to our toolbox. So, we’re giving you a physical reading log to keep at home. Here’s how it will work:

• Read to your keiki daily. Write the date and title of the book(s) in the log.
• When you fill up a whole page (20 books), send us a picture of the page through Seesaw (tap the green +Add button, then Post To Student Journal, then upload the pic from your camera roll or take a photo of the log page using the Seesaw camera tool).
• For every log page submitted, we’ll add a sticker to your keiki’s row on our tracking chart that you can view through the Reading Center of our Bitmoji Virtual Classroom.
• For every 200 books you read together, you will receive a brand new book to add to your home library. There is no limit to how many award books your keiki can receive.
• If you need more log pages before we return to face to face sessions, we can either email you the file to print at home or send you a new set in the mail.

If you read 2 books a day, 7 days a week…in 4 weeks time that’s already 56 books. Rereading the same book, while tiresome for parents, is perfectly fine to log. In fact, it’s one of the building blocks in the process of learning to read. Anyways, we apologize for sending so many separate communications in the span of just a few days: the weekly check-in, the letter from Kumu Kalalau about the hybrid learning model, this, and in another couple of days, the survey regarding the hybrid model. We know it’s a lot but we really, REALLY want your input so please be sure to fill out the survey when you get the link. We’ll be sending it through email as well as Seesaw just in case. That’s it for now…oh, and be on the lookout for TWO Seesaw activities next week. One is a digital ʻohana book and the other is a digital activity countdown to our return to school. They’ll take a little longer to complete so we are not looking for a daily submission from your keiki, just keep it as a draft and turn it in when you pau. Have fun doing the activities and don’t forget to read together! 📖😃

In case you missed it and was wondering where she disappeared to, Kumu Ashly is currently substituting at our Pāhoa site for a kumu who will be going out on maternity leave soon.

Mahalo for your flexibility in switching to email check-ins! We know scheduling Zooms has been rough but hopefully this will keep us more connected. Just know that Zoom is always an option! 👍🏼😉

Fall Break is coming up soon so no daily Zoom meetings from October 3-12 but we will schedule a packet/materials pick-up sometime over the break so stay tuned for that. We are still not sure what’s happening after Fall Break but will let you know when we know. We will also send out another Google survey soon to gauge your folks’ thoughts on reopening. For now, plan on resuming our 9:30am Zoom meetings on Tuesday, October 13.

Not sure if you noticed, but our daily Zoom meetings have built up in duration from 10-15 minutes up to a whopping 40ish minutes! And our keiki are ROCKING IT every day! 💖 We feel so blessed to be able to spend time with your keiki and we super mahalo you folks for making it happen. And to our ʻohana that aren’t able to make it to the daily Zooms, we miss you and are always thinking of you!

That’s it for now…we’re waiting a bit before we send you an October calendar but don’t forget to check out our Bitmoji Virtual Classroom and finish up your Seesaw activities! 🤗 (Also, if you previously saved the link to our Bitmoji Virtual Classroom on the home screen of your keiki’s device, please delete it and save it again…we had to update the link.) Mahalo! 🌺

Part of the reason for our weekly ʻohana calls (kumu+parent) is to make sure you folks are doing okay. As we all know, things are kinda crazy right now so really…it’s okay not to be okay. We also know how hard it can be to ask for help, but NO BE SHAME! There are so many resources available in the community that we could connect you to. In the meantime, take some time to check out Kumu Whitney(our school counselor)’s Padlet of resources. Ranging from child care services information to food assistance to self-care, she’s done a lot of research on our behalf. ❤️

We updated the September calendar so you know when keiki should come to the daily Zoom with their pahu pono kula or wearing a particular color (Wednesdays/Fridays). This updated calendar and the handouts from Kumu Whitney are linked under the blog tab Information > Newsletters, etc.

Virtual Classroom update: in the new Blocks center, when you click on the building blocks on the table, it will prompt you to save a copy of a Google Slides file. If you don’t already have access to Google Drive, go ahead and create an account (drive.google.com). It is free and you don’t have to open a gmail account to use it (I have a personal Google Drive account which I registered with my Hotmail email account). The file is a virtual building blocks playmat with built-in instructions on how to use it. We set it up this way so your keiki does not have to share the space with others and it can be used at your leisure. While sharing with others is a skill we definitely encourage at school, in this technological format it could cause deep frustration for users and would honestly be more trouble than it’s worth. 😅

A few reminders:

-Check your email for your weekly ʻohana call appointment day/time and Zoom link (sent Sunday, 8/30). Let Kumu Kimi know if you need to reschedule for whatever reason.

-Class Zoom sessions happen daily, Monday-Friday at 9:30am (keiki are admitted at 9:25am) Note: Kumu will “Mute All” as necessary so keiki can hear the story/song/kumu talking. Please stay nearby in case the “Unmute All” button doesn’t work for kumu and you have to manually unmute your keiki. 🤫

-A Seesaw activity is assigned daily and is expected to be completed by Sunday at the latest

–ʻOhana Digital Citizenship training was due September 4th, if you haven’t done it, PLEASE DO IT! (Password: keiki)

-NKK EH2 Parent Conference Information sheet (survey) was due September 4th. PLEASE DO IT! (Conferences will be held during our regularly scheduled weekly ʻohana call on the week of September 14-18…we will have regular class Zoom sessions on Sept 17-18)

-NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 7th. Enjoy your Labor Day holiday!

Once again, Papa Honu ʻohana, mahalo nui for being flexible and for rolling with the punches. We know it isn’t easy to support your keiki’s learning at home right now while you still have to work AND mālama your other keiki and family members ON TOP of all your other regular kuleana so please know that we super appreciate you. ❤️ And we super appreciate all the kupuna and ʻanakē and ʻanakala that are stepping in to help fill the void for your keiki. 🤙🏼

Mahalo also for your patience as we kumu are learning the tech as we go and we learn something new every day (sometimes by accident 😅). If you haven’t done it yet, please fill out this quick survey by Sunday to pick a day and time for our weekly ʻohana contact.

Take time now to explore our blog and find where we store the newsletters and handouts we sent you. Also, find the page with the link to our virtual classroom. We had fun creating them; we hope you have fun exploring them.