Parent Teacher Conference

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held February 13th, 14th, 15th.  These will be early out days for students.  You can find sign up times on our school Track It Forward.  The link can be found here. This will be a student led conference, so they should be present. I look forward to visiting with you and celebrating your student’s progress.  .

Fun Run Weekend Challenge

Parents,

Thank you again for supporting our school through the Maria Montessori Academy Fun Run!

This weekend we are issuing a special challenge! Your child can earn a bonus prize simply by getting a qualifying pledge this weekend only. Check out funrun.com for details!

And if you’re looking for the easiest way to ask for a pledge, just upload a photo of your student to funrun.com to create a personalized Student Star video. This fun, hilarious video starring your child can be shared by email or social media to connect with sponsors and ask for a pledge.

Thank you again for helping our class!

P.S. – If you haven’t registered your child on funrun.com, use our school registration code: 747234

Spelling Bee and Our New School Wide Unit of Study

Connections January 15th– February 22nd

Spelling Bee February 26th   

The theme CONNECTIONS is what your child will be studying during our fourth thematic unit.  During this time, we will be focusing on growth, division, reunion, and industrialization in the Americas mainly during the 1800s but not limited to this time period.

During this theme our school will celebrate a Spelling Bee week which will include class spelling bees, lower and upper el spelling bees, and a school wide spelling bee. All students are encouraged to participate in the spelling bee that will be held in their classroom. We want all students to work with the words used in the spelling bee to help build their vocabulary and spelling knowledge.

However, if your child is not comfortable participating in this event, they can also participate in other ways. If your child decides not to take part in their classroom bee, they will need to use the spelling bee words in another way to share with their classmates. Some of these ways include but are not limited to writing a story using as many of the spelling bee words as possible, creating multiple funny sentences using the words, create a board game using the words, create a game involving good, physical activity with the words, create a classroom scavenger hunt with the words.

When words are involved, the possibilities are endless!

Scripps National Spelling Bee lists were sent home today.  Please check with your student, you will need these words in hard copy form, since we are not authorized to post these words digitally.

Reading Homework

Please check with your student to see if they were given a new reading homework passage.  These are the same passages you were given during our Parent Teacher Conferences.  Reading at home makes a huge difference.  All student are expected to read for 20 minutes each day outside of the classroom.  This reading can be done in a variety of ways.  One way that we read within our classroom is by completing “buddy reading” our classroom term for Dyad reading.  One partner is the “higher reader” and the other is the “developing reader.”  The developing reader tracks the words and the buddies read aloud together.  The developed reader hears their buddy and sees the word and tries to keep up with them.  The University of Utah has developed positive research behind the reading method and data shows this kind of buddy reading can help significantly help raise reading scores.  The developed reader also reads above their reading level according the research. Here is a wonderful resource from the State Office of Education on how you can utilize this type of reading within your home.

 

Home Projects

Reminder that our home projects are due Friday, January 18th.  Next week each grade level will be displaying their projects school wide.

Our display schedule:

Level 3: Wednesday, January 23rd

Level 2: Thursday, January 24th

Level 1: Friday, January 25th

The students have been having an amazing time with all of our fun STEM activities this week.  Thank you for your support with these home projects.

Snack

Our cupboard is completely bare and we are asking for help with snack sign ups.  Our hope is that every family will donate at least one week worth of snack during the school year.  If you are able to provide 2 weeks, this helps even more. Snack sign up can be found on our school track it forward web site here.  Our class sign ups can be found on the Monday of each week.  If the box is blue, this means we still need snack for that week.  Thanks so much for your support.

Screenagers

On January 10th from 6-7:30 PM, MMA will be screening the documentary SCREENAGERS for all interested parents, students and friends of the school in the Junior High commons area.

SCREENAGERS – The average child in America spends more time consuming electronic media than going to school, with many teenagers going online “almost constantly.” In SCREENAGERS, physician and filmmaker Delaney takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into family life to explores parental struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant and funny stories along with insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.

Happy New Year

I want to wish everyone a wonderful New Year!  We have had a great start after our winter break.  We have been reviewing the 7 habits and setting goals for the remainder of our school year.  This week we officially make our mid-year mark.   We have been reviewing our grace and courtesy and the importance of working hard and stretching our brains.

We will not have school on Friday, January 11th.  This is a professional development day for teachers.  Reminder that our upcoming home projects are due the following Friday, January 18th.

Thank you for your continued support, especially with reading within the home.  Our goal is 20 minutes each day outside of the classroom.  I see a huge difference with those students who read outside of the classroom.