Monthly Archives: September 2016

Peaceful Place

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We had a busy week last week.  We enjoyed the peace celebration and focusing on what peace means in many different aspects.  We experienced what peace sounds like, looks like, and feels like, when we are working in the classroom.  We had conversations about perspective and created watercolor artwork which represents how everyone can look at the same thing and see something different.  We talked about how this relates to our interactions with others and to be respectful of others thoughts and opinions, because we all “see” things differently.  We celebrated our differences and created a unified peace symbol that related to our geography studies. The students have been holding classroom meetings where they take time to compliment one another and problem solve class issues as a team.  They individually offer solutions and then we review them to see if they are related, realistic, and respectful.  Students then vote for which solution they feel will work best to solve the problem we are experiencing inside the classroom.  The students solved their first issue, visiting with friends at circle, they voted to create a seating arrangement.  I love that the students know that the classroom is their work environment and they take ownership of that environment.  They write their own class rules, learn to problems solve, recognize the wonderful things that are happening, hold each other accountable, and take care of the classroom in which they work.

Reminder that this week is the last week of September.  Home projects need to be completed and presented by Friday.  Please do not wait until Friday.

We will start our studio classes on Friday.  Students will visit 3 different classrooms during our studio rotation.  They will be grouped according to grade level with other lower elementary classes.  They will enjoy classes focusing on art, science, and social studies.  This is a great opportunity for the students to create friendships with students outside of our classroom.

Original Work Art Fundraiser

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Get your children’s art printed on everyday items.  This fundraising opportunity is fun and all money raised goes directly into our classroom for educational items, field trips, books, etc.

Check out http://www.originalworks.com/fundraising-items/all-products/ to see all the products you can buy with your students’ personal artwork.  These items make great gift ideas for family members.

Students have completed an original piece inside the classroom, but If you want to work on something at home, or have a special keepsake piece in your collection, please see the guidelines:  original-works-guidelines  .  All entries are due September 21.  Purchase dates will be sometime in October.

Week of September 12th

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We had a wonderful week.  We started the week with our first P.E. and music class and third graders were invited to work in our new computer lab.  Third grade students will be working on keyboarding skills every Monday morning throughout the school year.  Our culture studies for this week were focused on botany.  We spent some time in our garden and made mojitos with our fresh mint.  (If you would like some mint to make your own at home, please let us know, we have more in our classroom garden).  This year our level 1 students will focus on the whole plant, level 2 student will become experts with leaves, and level 3 students will gain a greater knowledge of flowers.  We have begun our home project presentations.  I have really enjoyed the thoughtful questions they ask each other in regards to their research. We are continuing to build our morning work cycle and establishing our classroom community.

If your child does not have a water bottle here at school, please consider sending one labeled with their name.  Students have a place where they can be stored and it minimizes the need for students to continually ask to leave the classroom.

On Wednesday, September 21st we will be celebrating International Day of Peace. We will be singing at 10:00 a.m. with children all around the world.  I would like to encourage you to engage in conversations with your children in relation to this celebration.

 

“RUMBI Wednesdays!!”

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Beginning Wednesday, September 21st, MMA will be offering our families the opportunity to purchase a rice bowl from Rumbi Grill every Wednesday for their child’s lunch. All proceeds from the purchases will go towards our 6th and 9th grade end of year fieldtrips. Your choices will consist of:

Teriyaki Chicken & Veggie with White Rice- $4.00

Orange Chicken with White Rice- $4.00

To order a rice bowl on Wednesday’s for your child, please follow the payment link below:

https://secureinstantpayments.com?Event=2375

Orders must be submitted by the Monday prior to Rumbi Wednesday. Any orders submitted after Monday, will be added to the following week’s order. For any questions regarding Rumbi Wednesday, please contact Melanie in the front office.

A great week

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Last week was a wonderful week.  Our highlight was our visit from local author, Gary Hogg.  We have been reading one of his book in our classroom and were really excited to have him come and visit our classroom and help us improve our writing.  Third grade students were also invited to an additional workshop with him.  My favorite moment was inviting one of our second grade students, who has a strong love of writing, to the additional workshop.  Our cultural lessons were focused on history.  Level 1 students focus on the concept of time and have been reviewing days of the week, months of the year, and completing a monthly calendar.  Level 2 students focused on the birth of our universe and the different states of matter.  Level 3 have started their focus on the time line of life.  They worked together to build the large time line and focused on how old the earth was before life began.  I have been busy completing math and reading assessment.  This has been an added obstacle to our regular work cycle and a key part of our normalization.  I am pleased to announce they are now complete and we are working hard toward a full regular work routine.  The reading team is still working to complete our dibles testing and we are gearing up to send home reading assignments for students who are reading at or below a first grade reading level, so please be on the look out for these assignments.  These reading assignments will be in addition to our monthly home projects.  Reminder that these are due and should be brought in as soon as they are completed.

Reminder that you can visit our classroom page at anytime to see our monthly projects and view our dates for field trips, etc.  We will be adding a few more dates as students complete their ideas for service learning opportunities and such, but this does offer a good idea of what is coming.  I also wanted to extend an invitation to any families or friends who have lived or visited countries in Europe.  We will be studying Europe between now and winter break and I would love to invite guests into the classroom who have personal experience.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or celebrations, please send me and email.

One last thing, if you have magazines that are classroom appropriate that we could use for some cutting work, would you please send them in.  We will be using them for finding letters.  Thank you.

Working towards a routine

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We had a great week last week. We introduced work charts and students began their time during morning work cycle choosing work and getting back into the routine of work cycle.  We completed our great lessons and started into the review of many of our key lessons.  Some of these key lessons are introductory for students who are new to our classroom.  Our grammar focus was on nouns and articles.  We reviewed measurement, sliced apples for fractions, and discovered how big a million really is in relation to a unit.  We honored Maria Montessori’s birthday by studying a time line of her life.  My favorite quote of the week came during this lesson when we talked about the glass classroom (if you are not familiar you can learn a little here) and one student shares, “Ms. Brittany, that is just so creepy and stockerish!”  He had a point.  We completed our study of the great lessons with the history of language.  We spend a few days reading different versions of classic fairytales and the students concluded with their own written stories, many adapted from the classic stories.  They participated in their first authors chair for the year and it was delightful to see their creativity and enthusiasm as they shared their writing with each other.  We are continuing with our math and reading assessments and hope to have those completed in the next few days and well on our way into a regular work routine.  Along with our regular routine is our afternoon culture lessons.  We briefly started our study of zoology and wanted to remind everyone that September is here and our first home project is due by the end of the month.  Please review our home project page for guidelines.

The week of September 5th marks the start of our PE and music classes.  Our class attends on Monday mornings at 10:30 a.m.  Please make certain your child has proper shoes for PE.  This is especially important during the winter months when students attend school in snow boots.

I also wanted to make you aware, we will be spending a great deal of time in our outdoor classroom throughout the year.  Please make certain your child is dressed for the weather.  A favorite quote of mine, “There is no bad weather, just bad clothing.”   Poor air days, severe winds, hail, and heavy rain, will stop us from heading outside, but cold weather and drizzle will generally not keep us from exploring and learning outdoors.