Category Archives: Home projects

Gala

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Families, recently your child brought home a paper reminding you about our 5th Annual Gala event, taking place on Saturday, March 21st.  This is our big fundraising event for the year.  This is a great time to have a night out for a great cause, your children!  Money raised helps provide funds for your child’s school.  Ticket prices will go up after Parent Teacher Conference.

Reminder that Parent Teacher Conference sign up is currently posted.  If your child works with both myself and another teacher, please sign up at the same time on both schedules and we will all sit together for conferences.  Students are encouraged to attend this round of conference, it is a great way to discuss their accomplishments and create accountability.  Reminder that next week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, are all early out days for conference.  School will be off  Friday the 13th and Monday the 16th.

Student will be able to bring Valentines to exchange on Thursday the 12th,  Any treats will need to be in sealed envelopes to enjoy after school.  Please know that Valentines exchange is completely optional.  For those who wish to participate, I will get a list of our class names to send home with the students in their folders for next Monday.

Home projects were fantastic for January!  Please get started soon on this months assignment.  We will soon be discussing rubrics as an evaluation tool for our home projects.

As always, questions, concerns, or celebrations, please email me.  Thank you, to those of you who have been supporting your students on their IXL, this weeks lessons are posted.  Also, thank you to our third grade families for supporting your child on Utah Compose.  I wish we had more computers to accomidate more time during class for these computer based assignments.  So please, remember to attend our Gala, this money helps to fund our technology and create more computers for our classrooms.

I look forward to visiting with you soon.

Homework

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We have several students who have not completed their home projects for January and Friday is the last day of the Month.  If you have any questions regarding which State your child signed up for in February, please send me an email.  They should have brought home their paper in their folder.  We have had a big decline recently in homework folders being returned.  Please know this is a great way for me to communicate and send papers home.

Level 3’s have been working on Utah Compose.  I wrote the web site and log in, with their user name inside their folders.  Students who did not bring their folder were sent home with a card with the information.  They are to be working on the roller coaster writing prompt.  I would like to have these all completed and ready for editing by Monday.  The students have had class time, but it is very limited in the time they are able to use the computers.  I have encouraged the students to work on their prewriting with paper and pencil, verses doing it on the computer.  They just do not have the typing skills at this point to make it time efficient for them.  They do need to have their final draft typed into Utah Compose.  When I say final draft, this is the draft ready for editing and lesson building. It will not be perfect, but should be their very best work and effort.

I hope everyone noticed IXL homework was updated yesterday.  Things have been so busy, I didn’t even have a chance to send out a blog saying it was updated.  I know many families were grateful for the extra time to catch up on missed assignments.  Please know students are very welcome to complete assignments outside of what is assigned weekly. The more exposure the better, just don’t let their be tears of frustration.  I know several students are having so much fun with it.

State Report

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Hi Families,

I sent home a paper today stating the assigned state your child has and some information to guide their research.  The is only a start for ideas.  Help your child cultivate creativity with this project.  Remember the state report is due by the end of February.  Also, don’t forget January is coming quickly coming to an end and home projects for this month are due.  We had several children who did not bring their folders today, so I hope this paper made it home safely.

Sees candies fundraiser is due Friday.  Checks need to be made to MMA.

Jr, High open house is this Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.

I did not get a chance to post IXL homework today.  I left my list at school.  I will try and have that up tomorrow, sorry.

Third grade students are scheduled for their SAGE essay test, Tuesday, February 17th.  Please mark your calendars and arrange schedules in order for your child to be present for this important event.

Thanks, as always, questions, concerns or celebrations, please email me.

 

Homework and Upcoming dates

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IXL homework is posted for this week on the classroom blog page, please help your child complete this work.  Remember to log into the IXL Maria Montessori sign in.  If you just google: IXL Maria Montessori, it comes right up.

Home projects  are due at the end of this month.  Students have until Friday to choose their state of choice, for February’s project.

Thursday at 7 p.m., is MMA’s Arts Night.  The Jr. High and Upper El studio orchestra will be performing, as well as, the MMA Drama club.  Certain studio classes will have artwork displayed.  This Friday is early out at 1:00 p.m.  There is no school on Monday.

Welcome Back!

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I hope everyone had an enjoyable break.  I know my own children have mixed feelings about returning, but one thing is for certain, I am excited to see those smiles I have missed these past few weeks.

Remember, homework folders are to be returned Monday morning with completed reading logs.  We also have P.E. on Monday mornings and students will need athletic shoes for inside the gym.  We do not have anyone signed up for snack the next couple of weeks.  If you have not signed up to provide snack, please consider choosing a week to help, we have several open weeks between now and the end of the year.  Another reminder that January home projects and IXL lessons are posted on the blog.  In February, we will be studying the 50 states for our home projects.  I will start this process by allowing students to choose a state, on a first come basis.  Please be thinking with your child, which state they may wish to present.  I will complete sign ups between now and January 16th, after that point, I will have students draw from a hat which state to complete a project on.  I will send home their assigned state, in their take home folders, the following Monday.  As always, please contact me with questions or concerns.

 

Reminders

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Don’t forget Box Top store is tomorrow.

Thank you for sending home projects and homework folders.  I still have a few students who still need to bring theirs to class.  Homework folders included handwriting packets for several students to complete over the break.  Please help your child do their best work.  I included reading logs for the next few weeks.

Families are welcome to attend the International Festival on both Wednesday and Thursday.  Our class will be visiting the upper el on Wednesday morning from 9-11 a.m. and you are welcome to do this with your child.  Then, Thursday afternoon from 1-2:30 p.m. the lower el with be presenting to their projects, everyone is welcome to come and see our classes projects.

Don’t forget, our classroom Holiday program this Friday from 8:45-9:15 a.m.  We will be performing in the library.  We hope to see you there!

Shoes, Pants, and Reminders

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We have P.E. on Monday mornings.  With the change of weather, many students are wearing boots to school.  Please remind your child to bring an extra pair of shoes for use in the gym.

Also, a quick dress code reminder that pants must be free from holes in the knee.

Don’t forget homework folders and home projects for tomorrow.  We have seen some great projects so far this month.  Thank you for your help with this fun event.

I know several students are ready to start their project for January.  Please see our blog page for next months topic.

Continue reading →

Take Home Folders

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Today your student should have returned home with a take home folder.  Included is a letter, reading log, and information to access IXL.  IXL is an online math program that covers skills students learn in each grade level.  I will be creating a blog page which will list weekly IXL homework assignments based on ability/grade level.  If you have time tonight, help your child log on and practice lesson A.1 according to their grade level.  I do realize that all children are at different ability levels in multiple areas and I will be working a system to insure that time is not wasted and that progress is in place.  At times, I may have students working on multiple grade levels in order to fill in any holes.  This applies especially to younger students who are progressing quickly.  I first want to make certain everyone is able to log on and understand how to get started.  Please let me know via email if you have any troubles.

Also, please work to complete the reading log with your child.  November home projects are now in full swing.  I will create an easy access page to follow the monthly topics.  I was optimistic that I would have this all in place today.

Don’t forget next Wednesday the 12th we have Get down and dirty with Montessori Materials night.

Time is Flying!

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I cannot believe how quickly time is flying!   It felt like yesterday that I was sitting meeting with all of you for conferences.  October is almost over, this is our last week for October home projects. Please help your child complete this project before Friday.  We have a large number of students who have not yet completed this project and the last day of the month we are flooded with projects.  This Friday we will be very limited on time for presentations.  I hate to eliminate another day out of the week for projects, but I will be out of the classroom on Tuesday for my daughters surgery.  I would really prefer to be present for your child’s project and I know how excited they are to present the day they bring them to class.  If you could help avoid Tuesday, I would appreciate it.  Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would all work great.

It was my great intentions to get homework folders ready this week, but it didn’t happen with the extra busy week we had.  I was so excited to see families send back reading logs, although I had not formally put them into action.  Please make certain you and your child are setting aside 20 minutes for reading daily.  This is especially important for students who are not yet reading on a 3rd grade reading level.  Students below this level are still learning to read as opposed to reading to learn.  If you missed conferences with me and are uncertain of your child’s current reading level, please contact me.

Our level ones were sent home with a paper for their November home projects this week.  All levels will be focusing on their history studies for home projects.

Level 1:  Personal time line of life.

Level 2: Anything relating to this years history studies which includes: galaxies, stars, planets, etc.

Level 3: Anything relating to the time line of life.  I explained this project to the students this week and they are aware of their choices.  This could be a certain era, trilobites, dinosaurs, etc.  Here is a link for an overview to draw ideas from.

December is our big International festival.  I like to think of it as the science fair of cultural studies.  The entire school is involved.  All students will need a display board for this home project.  Our class will be doing our presentations on Australia and Antarctica.  This could be anything about these countries.  Information on the country as a whole or more detailed about the animals, people, food, etc.  I wanted to let you know now, as this is a busy time for everyone.  We would like to start presenting this earlier in December to the class and I will store the projects until the festival.  The festival will be held right before winter break.  I will be sending out more exact details.

 

 

October Home Project

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It’s here, October!  Time is flying by.  We really enjoyed getting to know each other more during our September home projects.  If your student has not yet completed this assignment, please encourage them to do so.  Now is the time to create study habits for the future.

This month we will be focusing our home projects around our Zoology studies.  This is a great transition into helping your child gather information from what they read.  Please help your child to read and gather information from books, articles, and the internet.  Make certain they are using words they know how to read and understand in their final written work, and are not just copying information.  If your child is not yet fully reading, please read with them and have them dictate to you what they want to write.  Then have them trace over your writing for good practice.  Then, they may orally practice and present without notes.  This is much more interesting and makes their project their own.  Often times student will copy something from the internet and have a friend read it for them.  This defeats what a home project is meant to be.  Home projects need to have some sort of visual aid and a written paper equal to your child’s ability level.  Level 3’s need to be typing their own reports.  They will be expected to type on the SAGE test this year and this is good practice.  We hope, as a school, to have a new typing class in place in the coming months.

LEVEL 1’s -Please help your child find a vertebrate they are interested in.  Level 1’s are studying vertebrates all year long.  They have begun identifying the different classes of vertebrates.

LEVEL 2’s- Anything to do with the human body.  This can include nutrition, exercise, skeleton, brain, etc.  Make it fun!

LEVEL 3’s- Any invertebrate of their choice.

This home project is due by the end of the month.  Please make this a quality learning experience with your child.  We want this to be their work, but they will need some guidance.  It isn’t a project you complete in one night, it should be a process, and an enjoyable one.