Archives

Week 9 Update – AWHC Field Trip, Fall Festival, Book Fair

Oct10

With the 4th level field trip to the American West Heritage Center on Wednesday, Fall Festival Friday, and Parent Teacher Conferences next week, we are busy.

4th Level Field Trip – Please drop your child off by 8:05 on Wednesday, October 12 to ensure they are on the bus and ready to go at 8:15.  I will meet your kiddos at the front of the school and  walk them over to the bus at North Shore.  They will need a “sack” lunch and appropriate dress.  They can wear jeans, but must be in dress code shirt.  It will be chilly in the morning, but warm up in the afternoon.  Please make sure they are prepared with a jacket, water bottle and sunscreen.  This field trip is entirely outside.

5th Level Invention Convention – This year 5th level students will be participating in a STEM inspired Invention Convention rather than science fair.  I introduced the project to your students last week and gave them a rough timeline as well as their first assignment for the project.  Unfortunately, the timeline I gave them was quite rough and I have decided to change some of the details.  Please watch for an updated timeline to come home this week.  If you would like to view a digital version, you can see it under the invention convention tab at the top of the blog.

All Parents – During parent teacher conference next week, MAPA will be hosting our first book fair of the year. Please sign up to volunteer during book fair.  This vital event helps fund books for the library as well as pays for the beautiful scholastic magazines that all students receive.  This time will go towards your mandatory 40 hours per year.

 

4th Level IXL Update

Oct7

The IXL assignment B4, originally due this Sunday, has been pushed ahead to next week.  Unfortunately we ran out of time to present the lessons necessary to make this assignment possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

This entry was posted on October 7, 2016, in Homework.

Week 6 Updates

Sep20

Good Evening!  I hope you are enjoying the last two official days of summer!

This week in class your children are busy practicing word problems, new ways of solving division problems, factoring, multiplication, addition and subtraction, fractions and more.  In language they are identifying sentence by purpose, nouns (common, proper, collective, singular, plural, abstract), complete sentence writing and essay writing.  In addition to those things, we have officially begun our Scholastic News and Jr. Scholastic groups as well as our novel study groups.

If that sounds like a lot, it is!  We are doing even more good work in the afternoon.  From rock cycle to erosion, and King Hammurabi to the Black Plague our days are full of opportunities for your children to work and research.

Opportunity is the key word.  Ms. Kari and I work hard to provide lessons and tools necessary for your students to succeed.  Your students have a responsibility to themselves to complete their work.  Please take a few minutes to discuss your student’s work with them.  If you have any questions about their individual work expectations, please don’t hesitate to communicate with me through their planner or email.

Our first field trip of the year is next Thursday, September 29.  You should have received an email from our room mom, Meredith, with information about rides to and from the museum.  You will be meeting your child’s ride at the duck pond at Lee’s Market at 8:15, with a departure time of 8:30.  Student’s will return to school in time for regular pick up.

Week 5

Sep13

Good Evening!

Your kids have been working so hard the last couple of weeks.  I am impressed with their motivation and excitement toward learning.  Please be sure you take a couple of minutes each night to check their planners and ask them about the work they have been doing each day in class.  Those conversations will help them connect what they are doing in school to home and will give you a good idea of how they spend their time.

4th level students have learned a new mnemonic to use as a strategy for opinion essay writing and they used it to outline their first formal essay/paragraph.  Writing is a skill that takes a lot of practice and patience.

5th and 6th level students are learning how to use a “Stoplight” graphic organizer for their essay writing.  Although they have not outlined a formal essay yet, they have worked in partners to practice using the strategy.  I’m excited to see where they go with it!

Ms. Rachael presented our first Botany lesson of the year today.  Your kids were so engaged and polite and I’m so proud of them.  We have the privilege of her lessons once a month this school year.  She is an amazingly knowledgeable Botanist!

6th Grade Expert Project

Please be sure your 6th grader brings their library books to class on Thursday.  We will be using them for our next lesson.  You can find all of the lessons to date at the link at the top of the blog.  I’m excited they are taking this seriously, as it is a lot of work, but it will be an amazing reward when they present their projects in April.

 

IXL Expectations

Aug31

Good Evening!

We have a lot of things happening in our classroom this week, the first of which is your child’s first IXL homework assignment.

Each week your child will be given a math assignment in IXL.  The assignments have several purposes: to review previously learned material (from 3rd or perhaps even 2nd grade), to practice newly taught material in a format different from that they see in the classroom, and to practice skills using math language that they will see on end of year testing.  This homework is by no means “teaching to the test” nor is it meant to drill your children to death.

IXL homework should take, on average, 20 minutes each night.  If your student is not able to earn the “badge” at the end of each session, or score a minimum of 80,  within that amount of time, please help them write a note in their planners letting me know that they may need more help with a particular concept.

IXL logins are in the back of your child’s planner (along with Utah Compose and SAGE which we have not accessed yet).  The link to login can be found here as well as at the top of the page under IXL.   Please do not allow your child to reset or change their passwords.  If they are unable to login, please let me know and we will troubleshoot from school.

In addition to being written in your child’s planner, the IXL homework will be posted at the IXL page weekly.   Typically homework will be given Monday and is due Sunday evening.   As discussed in class, this homework is not optional.  The school has purchased a license for each student to be able to practice and it is an expectation that they are following through.  As with all homework and home projects, any that are not completed on time, will receive a pink slip notifying you they are not complete and asking your child to create a plan for completion.

If you do not have internet access at home, please let me know with a note in your child’s planner and we will make arrangements for your child to practice IXL during class time.