Kyla Burrows
Michael Richards
Submitted by Kenneth Dawson
The Coronavirus Pandemic has had an impact on almost every facet of day-to-day life. School is no exception, as educators and students alike are having to adapt to something entirely new. However, Pleasant Hill Elementary School staff have been hard at work to create the same rich, engaging, and enjoyable activities as they would if we were still in classrooms. I'd like to highlight some of those engagement activities now and show how ingenuity can succeed even in the face of difficult times.
To start, Ashley Cunningham tells me Preschool has been focusing on hands-on activities and building on skills learned throughout the year. The students made their own bird feeders and observed the types of birds that visit, as well as drawing pictures of their families and sharing it with them. They've also been reading and working hard to keep learning in these trying times.
Paisley Harper and Haygan Houchin
In first grade, Katelyn Hardway and Britni Price have given their students choice boards for the week. These contain 9 activities, and the students can select 5 to work on. Some of the options include: read a book and come up with a different ending, write 10 sight words in bubble letters, make a list of nouns that you might find on a farm, count how many doorknobs are in your house and make that number in tally marks, create 5 different addition problems that equal 15, play a card game like Uno or War, and working on iReady for 20 minutes. The teachers want to give students and parents flexible options so they can choose the activities that work best for them.
In second grade, Patty Haught and Jill Trippett have their students working on a timeline of their life for a social studies activity. The students could be creative with it and present it in any way they wanted, if it had at least 5 things on it. Many students submitted pictures and started with the day they were born. One student even made the interesting choice to end the timeline on the day the stay at home order was issued, while others included present day where they are working on assignments from home.
In third grade, Ashley Fox has signed many of her students up for a website called Epic, which has tons of free books to read. It also allows the teacher to see how many books have been read and how much time has been spent reading. The kids have said that there are some fantastic books on Epic. Angie Sims has had her students working on the websites iReady and prodigy as well as numerous science websites, if the students have access to internet.
Lastly, Shelly Mace would like to make special mention of the iReady math site, which will be linked at the end of this article. Students should complete about 45 minutes of work on the website per week. Any question or concerns can either be sent to the student's math teacher, or to Mrs. Mace at sdmace@k12.wv.us
It is also worth mentioning that teachers provide activities for students that do not have internet access as well, so no students are left without engagement activities. In these unusual times, it's encouraging to see our PHE teachers creating excellent engagement activities for their students, and it shows that no matter the situation, our school remains united and strong.
See  i-ready.com
And  www.getepic.com
Brooke Tingler
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