Archives

Science Fair

Feb6

 

 

 

Whew!  February sure is a busy month.  With parent teacher conference, the international festival, science fair, and……Wait!  What?  Science Fair?  Already?

I understand how stressful some of these projects can become, especially when they all come due so closely together.  I hope that your students have been having fun with their experimentation and are putting the final touches on their projects.

I have included a link back to the timeline for science fair (it also has a permanent presence on the top of the blog page), and if your students have been following the timeline, they should be in pretty good shape.  If, on the other hand, they have been procrastinating, this weekend means crunch time!  Monday is the deadline for project titles.  We have to submit the title of the child’s project, which will then be set in stone (no changes will be allowed), and submitted for judging criteria.

Please work with your students this weekend to finish up (or begin and finish) their science fair projects and create a title for their board.   Science Buddies (www.sciencebuddies.org) is an amazing resource to guide you and your student in putting together their tri-fold board.

 

http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/amity/science-fair/

 

Cheers.

 

 

International Festival

Jan20

The school’s International Festival is coming up soon! It will take place on February 6th and 7th. Lower El will present on the 6th from 9:30 – 11:00 AM and Upper El will present on the 7th from 9:30 – 11:00 AM. Be aware that those are the same days as Parent/Teacher Conferences.

International Fesitval is Coming Soon

As part of our geography studies, your child selected a continent and country to research extensively. With the guidelines provided, and their own creative touches, I expect we will have quite a collection of amazing work.

The International Festival is a way to explore other cultures from around the world and develop an awareness of our own place in the world. We celebrate the differences of people everywhere, as well as those things that we have in common that bring us together as a global community.

Students need to have a display board, but they can also bring artifacts, clothing, music, and food from their continent or country. Each student will have the opportunity to go from classroom to classroom and experience all of the cultures as they see the presentations prepared by their schoolmates.

Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.

Cheers!

Happy New Year

Jan3

I hope you all had a relaxing holiday season with your family. I know I did.

Here we are back at school, it’s 2014, and there is so much work to do. We started out the new year talking about goals and resolutions, both academic and personal. The children started compiling their portfolios for the upcoming parent teacher conference. Each child is working on writing goals for each of our major content area with a specific, measurable method for attaining these goals. In addition to goal writing, some children began working on a resolution mobile that we will hang in our classroom.

We chose specific countries to accompany the continent study the students have been working on. This assignment was given the beginning of November, and while the students have been given some time in class to work on them, these are long term at-home projects and are due January 30.

At the end of this month, level 5, students will be attending JA Biztown in SLC Monday, January 27. Each student will apply for a job within one of our two class businesses. They will experience a real job interview, learn how to write checks and balance a checkbook. In addition, they will become registered voters and vote for mayor, treasurer and United Way Director. In order to make this happen for our class, we need at least two parent volunteers who can spend the entire day with us in SLC. We will also need parent drivers (with background checks), to drive our students and pick them up. If you are interested in volunteering as a chaperone, driver or both, please email me as soon as possible. There will be a small fee for this field trip.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cheers.

Talent Show, Pancake Breakfast, Service Project and Important Updates

Dec8

I hope you all have had a wonderful and safe weekend.

First off, our sixth grade fundraising committee has been working hard to put together a spaghetti dinner/talent show with all proceeds going to the field trip to the Redwoods this upcoming April.  If you have a child who is in the talent show, please be sure and support them by making sure they are on time and ready to go.   If you don’t have a child participating in the talent show, take a night off from cooking dinner and entertaining the kids, and support our 6th grade class.

MMA Holiday Talent Show and Dinner

Date: Thursday December 12th, 2013

Time: 5:00 – 7:00pm

Price for tickets:

  • $5 Individual
  • $15 for family of 4
  • $20 for 5
  • $25 for 6 & 7
  • $30 for 8

Dinner will include Spaghetti and Salad.

Seating will be first come first serve.

Make checks payable to MMA – Hand in to the front office.

 

Second, we are having a class pancake breakfast on Thursday, December 19th and we need your help to make this happen.  Please follow the We Join In link and sign up to help out and donate food.  This will be a nice way for the students to kick-off their holiday break.  In addition to the pancake breakfast on the 19th, our class is participating in the school holiday program on the 20th.  More details about the performance to follow in the next day or two.

Thirdly, our room mom, Lacey Wolfinger, is spearheading a service project to help those in need this winter season.  We will be collecting gently used coats, hats, gloves, boots and blankets to donate to a local shelter.  Please start looking through your closets and consider donating anything you are not in need of.   A flyer with details will be coming home soon.

Fourth, please be sure you are practicing spelling with your children.  Each Monday, your child records their spelling words in his/her planner.   The students practice their words through a variety of activities, in class, on Tuesday and Wednesday and we have our spelling test on Thursday.    In addition to the spelling practice your child should be practicing their multiplication facts at home daily.   If they don’t know their multiplication facts, we cannot move on to the more difficult concepts that they need to know.   It is vitally important that you are also practicing with them at home so they can do their best.

Lastly, your children need to come to school with clothing that is suitable for going outside.  Unless there is a red air quality restriction, we go outside everyday for recess.  Children should come equipped  with snow gear, we use natural consequences at school and a forgotten coat results in a chilly experience at recess.   Also, if your child has been sick and isn’t well enough to go outside for recess, they should stay home from school.  We do not have assistants who can watch children in the classroom, and I use recess time to prepare what is needed for afternoon lessons.

Cheers.

Utah Write and Continent Reports

Nov18

Good Morning!

Last week, all level 4 and level 5 students were instructed on the log in process for Utah Write.  We walked through all of the steps for pre-writing and writing together and they all have their first assignment.  This assignment is due Thursday, November 21.  The students have some time in class to utilize Utah Write, but due to the limited resources and time within the day, I have asked them to spend 20 minutes a night writing at home in order to prepare for the DWA in February.    Most of the children who have spent time on the website in class love it and I don’t anticipate it being much of a chore for them at home.

In addition to Utah Write, continent packets have been handed out.   I have re-written the expectations so that they are a little more clear and will send the new page home today.  The continent project includes a display board for a specific country located on the continent your child has chosen.  The continent report can be a power-point presentation though the specific country report MUST be on a display board of some type.  The students will be participating in an international festival and will not be able to share a power-point presentation at this time.

This is a big project, though a really fun one for the students.  The due date for these reports is January 30, 2014.