Archives

In the Home Stretch

Apr14

I’m not sure about you, but for me, this year has flown by.  I can hardly believe we are down to the final 7 weeks of the school year.  It has been quite a whirlwind in room 24.  I am so excited to see the progress your kids have made this year.  They have grown so much, both academically and emotionally.   I’m so proud of them and how they have all carved their own niche within our classroom.  Students who were quite shy at the beginning of the year have come out of their shells and students who don’t know what a shell is, still don’t know what it means to be shy, but they lend their boisterousness to make our classroom the menagerie that it is.   I love them all.

Because it is the end of the year, that means testing.  Our class begins  testing next Wednesday, April 23rd.  Please be sure your children are accessing the practice tests at home.   Because lower elementary is also testing,  students do not have much computer time in the classroom.  When I say “much”, what I mean is, next to none.  It is important that they become familiar with the ins and outs of the program, so if you have a computer with internet access at home, please allow your children time to access the website.

This week we are wrapping up a unit on Science Fiction literary analysis.  We will be reading a short Ray Bradbury story, then we will watch a short film with the same title.  The students will analyze similarities and differences between the story and the film.  We watched Wall-E last week and did a character study.  I was quite impressed at everything the children got from the movie.  This unit combined science fiction analysis with Earth Day studies so we will also be doing poetry analysis using lyrics from a song.  When given the opportunity, these kids sure know how to dissect literature!

Tomorrow Lifetouch will be here taking Spring photos as a fundraiser for Operation Smile.  All proceeds will go to this amazing organization.  A flyer was sent home with your students today.  These photos are completely optional.  Photos for our 6th grade students will be taken next Tuesday, April 22.  A graduation photo, if you will.

We have the 6th grade field trip coming up April 27-May 2 and we are all so excited.  We also have a combined class fieldtrip, to the Leonardo Museum, May 6.  If you are interested in being a chaperone and would love to spend your day wrangling our amazing students please contact me.  We need 2 chaperones as we will be taking the Frontrunner and Trax to our destination.  More details forthcoming.

Don’t forget book reports are due April 23rd.  Your student was given a paper with the complete criteria for the book report.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers!

What a Week!

Feb21

 

I hope you all enjoyed the three day weekend.  I can’t believe it’s Friday already.  Whew!  Time flies when you are working hard, like the students have all week.

There are a lot of updates so pull up a chair, pour a warm drink and settle in.

Science Fair was Wednesday and we had some really fantastic projects from our class.  Our very own Hailey, a 6th level student, won 3rd place overall and will be moving on to the Ritchey Science Fair on March 20th.  Congratulations to Hailey!

Today we had a whole class lesson on context clues and how to identify words we don’t know the meaning of by looking for four clues: synonyms, antonyms, explanations and examples.  We watched a short video to help the students understand each on of these clues a little more.  Follow this link, and you can watch the video with them if you would like.

http://www.flocabulary.com/context-clues/

 

We also had a zoology lesson on mountain biomes.  We started watching the BBC Planet Earth Mountains DVD and looked for 3 animals, 3 plants and 3 mountain ranges that were mentioned in the video.  The BBC puts out amazingly beautiful educational films.

Our 4th grade students have been working on improving their sentence writing, learning about decimals and learning how to identify locations on a map given their longitude and latitude.

Our fifth grade students are finishing their unit on Ancient Egypt and have a pyramid project due on Tuesday, February 25th.  They are to create a pyramid from whichever medium they prefer.  It could be clay, sugar cubes, paper, cardboard or whatever materials your have available in your home.  They also created a classified ad looking for workers, instead of slaves, to help them build their pyramids.

In preparation for our DWA Tuesday, February 25th, our 5th level students have been practicing persuasive essay writing.  Please have your 5th level student log on to Utah Write this weekend and practice, practice, practice.  With less than one week to go, any amount of practicing they can do will benefit them greatly.  We have discussed ways to make their writing longer, by using more detail and examples within their writing.

In 6th grade this week, we had two lessons on how to write a short response to a literary passage using “ACE”. Answer the question concisely,  Cite the information directly (quote) or indirectly (summarizing), and Explaining by giving examples from the text.  This is a concept that is a little bit challenging, but with practice will become much easier.  We also discussed some of the causes of the Revolutionary War.  We talked about the Stamp Tax, Townshend Duties, Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.  Next week we will discuss the First Continental Congress.

Next week we have Ballet West coming to do an in school fieldtrip.  They will be visiting with us on Wednesday.  Also coming up next week, we have a Parent Education Night entitled: School Safety for our Generation.  This will be held Thursday, February 27th at 7:00pm.  Representatives of NOPD and North View Fire Dept. will also be there.

Lastly, we have a maturation program for our 5th and 6th level students on March 11th.  A permission slip was sent home with your student this week.   Please sign and return the form with your student by March 7th.  The program is called Growing Up Comes First.  You can see an overview of the program online by visiting www.growingupcomesfirst.org/en/parent-guide

Have a wonderful weekend.

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!

Holiday Fever

Dec13

Last night the spaghetti dinner talent show was a great success. Thanks to all of you who helped make it happen.

Next week we will continue with our regular morning work cycle, Monday through Wednesday, with a slightly modified afternoon routine. Thursday morning is our pancake breakfast. The children wrote persuasive essays regarding “free time” Thursday afternoon. A couple of them were quite convincing, several suggested making a goal in order to have free time, and one even opposed free time. I love seeing their individual personalities come out in their writing.

At 10:30, Friday, we will be performing at our annual holiday program. Please have your children wear clothing that would be appropriate for performing in front of a crowd.

As always, thank you for supporting our efforts in the classroom. Keep practicing those math facts at home, and if you haven’t started, please do. I cannot stress how important it is that your children can quickly recall their multiplication facts.

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.