Jan 28-Feb 1st: Big changes on the horizon!

Hello families! Welcome to another amazing week in Ms. April’s class!

Thanks:

Big thanks this week to Shelby’s, Ruben and Carter’s family for help with snack this week! We very much appreciate your support and continued contributions to the class!

Recap:

Last week was rough with Ms. Taylor in and out with flu, but we started our fun run campaign last week and it has been so fun! Make sure you are updating your pledge information online at www.funrun.com so we can keep track of everything. If you have any questions please get in touch with us. We are so excited to be hosting our very first fun run! We also passed out information and word lists from the school spelling bee last week as well. Specific dates for the spelling bee are at the end of this blog under: upcoming.

This week:

We have some big changes happening in our class this week that we want everyone to be aware of! We have a permanent teacher starting with us on Wednesday! Ms. April has decided to step up and take the position as lead teacher. This is such exciting news and we are so happy to be able to share it with you. With this happening, my last day (Ms. Taylor) will be Tuesday. Never fear I am a regular sub at the school and I’m sure I will run into you guys in the halls!  Ms. April and I have already begun transitioning her as the lead teacher so this will be a smooth and natural transition for the students.  With that in mind be sure to check in with your child and maybe even have a conversation with them so we are all on the same page. We will be working with the students the beginning of this week as well to help them along.

Parent teacher conferences are coming up pretty quick and we can’t wait to meet with all of you and show you what we’ve been up to! To sign up for a conference please follow the link to our track it forward page and sign up for a date!

Feb 13th: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/458053

Feb 14th: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/458055

Feb 15th: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/458056

Upcoming events:

1/29/19 — Chili Cook-off

1/31/19 — Crow Canyon Final Payment due (Jr. High field trip)

2/1/19 — MAPA Meeting 8:45am in the Main Conference Room; MMA Fun Run

2/3/19 — Open Enrollment Closes

2/13-15/19 — Parent Teacher Conferences (Early Release); Book Fair

2/19/19 — Classic Skating Spirit Night; 5:00-8:00pm

2/20/19 — Box Top Store

2/21/19 — Parent Education Night: Executive Function

2/26/19 — School-wide Spelling Bee (more information to come)

3/1/19 — MAPA Meeting 8:45am in the Main Conference Room/ ski night at powder Mt.

3/11-15/19 –Literacy Week (School-wide events)

3/12/19 — Literacy Night; 5:30-7:00pm at MMA

3/15/19 — Professional Development (Early Release)

3/18/19 — Professional Development (No School)

3/21/19 — The Ritchey Science and Engineering Fair; Dee Events Center

3/23/19 — State Spelling Bee in SLC

3/23/19 — 8th Annual Gala at Snowbasin; 7:00pm-9:00pm

Jan 21st-Jan 25th

Hello families!
Thanks:
Big thanks to Karlyn and Carter’s family for helping out with snack this week! We are grateful for your support in helping us keep bellies full and minds engaged.
Recap:
We had such an amazing week with all of our STEM activities and assemblies! We learned a lot and had some fun while doing it; which is a win/win! Well done to our students that brought in their projects and presented on scientists, the scientific method and the laws of motion. We saw some pretty amazing stuff!
This coming week:
As things settle back into routine we are moving on from STEM, with literacy activities, and focusing on math facts, reading comprehension and more. Our spelling will resume this week and words are listed below. Our grace and cutesy this week is showing appreciation and showing respect.
Words:
Apples: (Beginning sounds only)
Shovel, Chair, Wheel, Thumb, Shark, Chick, Whale, Thimble, Shave, Chin
Oranges: net, pen, leg, peg, pet, ten, jet, beg, men, hen,
Bananas: giant, gave, card, center, circle, gym, cell, cub, gem, code,
Limes: less, green, sleep, clean, feet, mean, speak, sweep, week, jeep,
Blueberries: watch, walk, tall, wand, small, wash, chalk, also, calm, wasp,
Watermelons: doctor, rather, solar, father, motor, collar, mirror, after, mother, rumor,
Plum: stranger, cleaner, earliest, harshest, earlier, emptiest, quietest, trickier, murkier, shinier,
Snack:
We have the following weeks available if you can/want to donate snack for the class: Feb 4th-8th , Feb 18th-22nd,  Mar 4th-8th, Mar 11th-15th, Mar 18th-22nd, Mar 25th-29th, Apr 8th-12th, Apr 15th-19th, Apr 29th-May 3rd,   

May 6th-10th, May 20th-24th,
Thanks families!
Gala:
Our 8th annual Gala is coming up, it’s one of the biggest fundraising nights of the year. Tickets can be purchased at this site: https://squareup.com/store/mapa-9/
We will be collecting items for a themed basket, anything you can donate to help out is appreciated. These baskets are assembled and then taken to the event where they are auctioned off. All the money goes back to the school so it’s important to get as much donated as we can. Our theme for our class basket is: fun and games. We are looking for things a family can do for game night that would fit in a basket. Please get in touch with April or I, if you have any questions.
Accountability:
As we move into a steady routine with getting works done during specific times of the day and making sure we are on task, you may see somethings come home or notice more communication from us as we strive to help every student reach their full potential. If there is any advice you can offer or a system that works better for your child we would love to hear from you. We all have the same common goal for our students, which is to see them succeed. Thanks for your continued support.

 

Up and Coming Stuff:

1/21/19 — MLK Jr. Day (No School); Open Enrollment Opens

1/29/19 — Chili Cook-off

1/31/19 — Crow Canyon Final Payment due

2/1/19 — MAPA Meeting 8:45am in the Main Conference Room; MMA Fun Run

2/3/19 — Open Enrollment Closes

2/13-15/19 — Parent Teacher Conferences (Early Release); Book Fair

2/19/19 — Classic Skating Spirit Night; 5:00-8:00pm

2/20/19 — Box Top Store

2/21/19 — Parent Education Night: Executive Function

2/26/19 — School-wide Spelling Bee (more information to come)

3/1/19 — MAPA Meeting 8:45am in the Main Conference Room

3/11-15/19 –Literacy Week (School-wide events)

3/12/19 — Literacy Night; 5:30-7:00pm at MMA

3/15/19 — Professional Development (Early Release)

3/18/19 — Professional Development (No School)

3/21/19 — The Ritchey Science and Engineering Fair; Dee Events Center

3/23/19 — State Spelling Bee in SLC

3/23/19 — 8th Annual Gala at Snowbasin; 7:00pm-9:00pm

January 14th-18th: Hooray for STEM Week!!!

Hello families!

We wanted to thank Henry’s mom Gloria for coming in to help out with work cycle Monday and bringing snack last week! We always appreciate your hep and support.
If you would like to sign up to bring snack please sing up on track it forward or let Ms. Taylor or Ms. April know so we can make note of it. Please keep in mind when it comes to snack we have to consider classroom allergies and we ask that no peanut-butter, nuts, or egg products come in! We always appreciate fresh fruit, crackers of any kind and pretzels seem to be a big hit.
Recap:
To recap last week we had some really amazing science lessons with Ms. April about seeds and plant parts. We planted our own pea seeds in class and taped them to the window in zip top bags so we can watch them grow and develop. Feel free to come by and take a look, you can see them from the front of the school or come by the room and check it out! We had some great math lessons with the stamp game and have been working on a lot of review lately since we are still coming off of winter vacation brain. We watched a clip on the laws of motion, had a student presentation on it, and wrote about it for our weekly writing prompt. It was a busy week.
Homework:
Some of you may have noticed that homework got sent home last week. The students are given several hours a day to practice the skills we learn in lessons and have daily expectations of work that is due in the morning and in the afternoon. I start the day by explaining what I need from them during the work cycle we are about to start, then I write it on the board and write what time it’s due (usually 11:15am or 2:15pm). April and I will circulate the room and check on works, as well as remind students of the work they need to complete and redirect students that are off task. To be perfectly transparent, I expect a math work, a language work, their spelling work for the day and if we have a writing prompt I do want them to work on that. If they finish, there are several other things listed on the board for them to work on. If they don’t finish I have begun sending home notices of works that are not completed for them to finish at home. It is not my intention to take up their afternoon with homework, and I always hate to send it, but April and I are in the process of teaching some accountability to our students about managing their time wisely. We appreciate your help and support as we learn together through this process. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact April or myself.
STEM Week:
STEM Week starts this week and we are so excited to be taking part in seeing all the projects throughout the school, going to fun and informative assemblies and have a real hands on experience and celebration of science! We have grade level planetarium assemblies going on at the school as well as chemistry lessons and Scales and Tales visiting Friday! All projects are due Friday, feel free to bring them in as you are finishing them and I can store them in my office.
Imagine Learning:
We have papers that are going to be coming home with your child’s imagine learning passwords and login information on it. The school wide expectation is that all students complete 45 minutes a week on these programs. We are working with them Tuesday mornings in class, but if students are able to work on it at home this would help out immensely! Please keep an eye out for this information! Hopefully it will be in their backpacks this week.

January 7-11

Hey everyone! Welcome to the second week of the new year!

Last week we did a lot of review about classroom rules, procedures, grace,  courtesy and what the expectation is. It was good to review after being gone for so long on winter break. A lot of amazing stories came back this last week. It was neat hearing about what everyone got up to over break.
This week we are back on our spelling words! The following is the list for this week:
Apple (beginning sounds only):
 whale, whistle, thimble, thorn, thought, whisker, thumb, wheel, thermos,   thirteen
Oranges: pot, dog, cot, hop, log, frog, top, jog, pop, hot
Bananas: three, shrink, threw, square, shrank, squash, squint, squawk, squeeze, throne
Limes: fruit, suit, bloom, broom, dude, smooth, built, juice, skunk, crust
Blueberries: claw, draw, haul, yawn, raw, drawn, shawl, haunt, law, vault,
Watermelon: total, novel, vowel, special, cancel, couple, pencil, jewel, metal, fragile
Plum: afterward, forearm, predate, afternoon, preseason, postseason, preposition, postwar, preoccupied, foreword,
A letter/email was sent home to all families about home projects, if you have not begun work on them yet please do so. If you need more information please feel free to contact Mrs. Taylor. Our work continues in class with laws of motion and simple machines this week. We have several discussions, short video clips, and writing prompts to help cement these theories coming up.
Our two grace and courtesy goals this week are focusing on yourself & Ignoring Distractions. We work on one for two days and then move on learning why it’s important and how we can help be better people.
Some of you have asked about volunteering in the classroom. We thank you so much for your continued support. If we have opportunities become available we will be sure to publish them on track it forward and accompany it with an email. If you wish to help out you can always sign up to bring snack, information can be found on this at the same website:
Calendar items:

1/8/19 – MMA Board Meeting

1/10/19 – End of 2nd Quarter

1/11/19 – School closed for Students, All day professional learning

1/14/19 – STEM Week begins

1/18/19 – Intent to Return Closes/ Home Projects Due