Hello Parents/ Guardian,
We are planning to go on a field trip to Black Island Farm Monday, October 10th. We will leave the school at 9:00 am and return to the school by 2:00 pm. Please let me know if you are interested in being a driver and chaperone during this field trip.
Thank you,
Ms. Holly
Dear Parents,
We are finding that students are bringing lunches that are taking 3-5 minutes to cook and we only have a half an hour to eat. We have 30 students and some of the students are barley starting to eat when it is time to clean up. I want to make sure every student has the opportunity to have time to eat their lunch. If you send your child with a heat up, it must be under 2 minutes. Maybe some of the food can be prepared ahead of time, and they can heat it up at school. This will save us time at the microwave. Thank you for you understanding.
Ms. Holly
Home projects will be guided by monthly themes, which are listed below. These home projects are meant to explore questions, find answers, share information with peers, increase academics, and ultimately instill a love of learning.
Home projects are a great way for your child to share information from what they read. Please help your child read if needed. They need to gather information from books, articles, internet, and such. Students will be required to create a final written document (based on ability), provide a visual aid, and present information to their peers. 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 and then have them trace over your writing for good practice. Then, they may orally practice and present without notes. I would really like to encourage all students to practice their presentation. When students know their material and tell the class, rather than read, it really engages everyone and prepares the child for public speaking. Level 3’s will be encouraged to start typing their reports. They will be expected to type on the SAGE test this year and this is good practice.
Sometimes, students will come to class ready to present and simply have a page filled with words they are not able to read or understand. This is a process and should take several days to complete. Copying an article and printing a picture is not what we are looking for in a home project. This defeats the purpose of home projects. Help your child understand what they are learning, so they are able to teach their peers.
I am so excited to see the topics they choose. Projects are due by the end of the month, but please bring them as soon as they are ready. I like to have projects presented throughout the month. I feel the students gain better information from each other when they only have a few project presentations each day. Often times, when we have several at once, they become restless. Although we do not give formal grades for home projects, your child will receive a rubric to help guide their process.
Below are the topics, they are to guide the home project subject matter. For example, September is Zoology, Level 1 students are to choose a topic based on vertebrates. They could choose a broad topic like reptiles or types of snakes, their favorite dog breed, animals found in their favorite part of the world, etc. Level 2 students could choose anything related to the human body, like parts of the body, nutrition, how the body heart responds to elevated heart rate during exercise, and so on. Really, the sky is the limit. Have fun! If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
September: Zoology
Level 1: Animals with backbones
Level 2: Human Body
Level 3: Invertebrate
October: History
Level 1: Personal time line of their own life.
Level 2: Planets, stars, galaxies, etc.
Level 3: Anything from the time line of life.
November: International Festival Preparation
Africa
Each child will chose a country in Africa and prepare a presentation for our International Festival which will take place mid-December. Every child will be required to have their presentation on a tri-fold board this month.
December: No Formal Project
January: New Year, New Learning
In celebration of the New Year, January’s home project will be personal interest based. This is a chance for your child to guide the topic of their choice. Our goal is to teach students to love to learn. The sky is the limit on this project.
February: “I wonder…”
This month our home project is a fun one! Students find an answer to a question they have, research more on the topic, and then come to class and present their findings. For example, a child may wonder, “What is the fastest animal on earth?” They will do some research to find the answer to that question. Once they find the answer, the fastest land animal is the cheetah, they will research more information about their finding, in this question it would be the cheetah. They will then prepare to come to class prepared to tell everyone what their question was and the information they found relating to that question. This home project is to help students develop curiosity and find answers to that curiosity. This is to help develop a love of life-long learning.
Some quick examples of questions:
“What is the oldest living tree on the earth?”
“How are legos made?”
“Who is the fastest runner in the world?
March: Europe
Your child may choose anything in relation to Europe. This could be a country, animals you find in Europe, etc.
April: Our Earth
Earth day is coming up on April 22nd. This is a great opportunity for students to do home projects in relation to our earth. Some ideas could be: ways we can conserve water, endangered species, recycling, botany, how to compost, etc. These projects are due April 28th, but I would really encourage students to avoid the last week of the month.
May: Book Report
We will be sharing one of our favorite books to the class in a fun creative way. Students can make a diorama, create a puppet play, make a time line, design a book jacket, etc. Be creative! This is a great way to keep students excited and engaged in reading over the summer.
You can sign-up here for your child’s celebration of life, or click above.
The school will be providing an opportunity to parents to be background checked between 6:30 and 7:30 during Back-to-School Night. Parents who wish to be certified drivers for field trips, or will be volunteering at the school for more than 1 hour a week, will need to be background checked per the schools background check policy (Background Check Policy). There is a LiveScan required payment of $25.00 due at the time of your prints (cash or check). Please make checks payable to Academica West. A picture ID (i.e., driver’s license, state ID card, passport, etc.) is required for the fingerprinting services. A processing fee of $52.75 to Maria Montessori Academy (cash or check) is required in order for fingerprints to be processed. The fee covers the bill from BCI (Bureau Criminal Identification) which is billed directly to the school.
If you wish to be a certified driver, the office will also need to keep a copy of your driver’s license and an up-to-date copy of your auto insurance card on file. You can call the front office for more information or email ahafen@mariamontessoriacademy.org.
If you can’t make it to be background checked during back to school night, there will be an opportunity on October 18th during Parent Teacher Conferences.
I have updated the snack sign-up sheet. Please choose a week or two you would like to help provide snack. You can click on where is says snack sign-up sheet above, or for future use at the top of the page titled Snack Sign-Up Sheet.
Snack is a great way for the children to work on practical life skills in the classroom. Preparing snack and cleaning up from snack. Of course, their favorite part is eating snack.
Thank you in advance for providing snack for our classroom experience.
Greetings Parents/Guardians,
I hope you are having an amazing summer! I look forward to seeing you soon! Below you will find the supply list and other important dates to calendar.
We will be having our Annual Back to School Pool Party on Tuesday, August 2nd from 7-9 at the North Shore Aquatic Center.
If you are new to our classroom, please subscribe to our classroom blog http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/holly/. You can subscribe by visiting the blog and looking at the menu on the right hand side, (scroll all the way to the bottom on tablets and phones to find the link) click the link, in blue, where is states subscribe, fill in the fields, and then check your email for a confirmation, important: you must open the confirmation email and click confirm. The blog is our primary source of communication between home and school. Please also take the time to subscribe to our school blog -http://www.mariamontessoriacademy.org/?page_id=5392 . Our school weekly newsletter, Monday Montessori Moments, are send out through this link. Please take the time to read the recent newsletter.
First grade and new student orientation for our classroom will be held Friday, August 12th from 1:00-1:45 p.m.
School starts Monday, August 15th and will be early out at 1:00 p.m. all week long.
School supply list can be found at http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/holly/school-supply-list/on or on our classroom blog at the top of the page.
Our school dress code can be found here – http://mariamontessoriacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dress-Code-Guidelines-Updated.pdf.
School spirit shirts can be purchased here – https://squareup.com/store/beeyouteesfundraising It is my understanding you will be able to see samples of the school spirit shirts at the pool party.
Our annual MMA 5K color fun run fundraiser information and registration can be found here – https://www.raceentry.com/races/mma-annual-5k-family-color-fun-run/2016/register.
I am thrilled to announce Ms. Sara as my assistant this year. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to email me. I look forward to seeing all of you very soon.
I am so excited to see everyone!
Ms. Holly
Below you will find the school supply list for the 2016-2017 school year.
Please do not label items with your student’s name unless indicated.
12 Ticonderoga pencils – I am requesting this specific brand because, though they are slightly more expensive, the quality makes a huge difference. Other brands rarely even sharpen correctly or the lead is broken all the way through.
1 Hand held pencil sharpeners, again quality is important. Please label with you child’s name.
I box of colored pencils
1 box markers
2 sponges
3 or more dry erase markers
Small dry erase board, labeled with your child’s name. The dollar store sells cardboard ones that would be perfect.
2 glue sticks
1 pair of scissors. Please label with your child’s name.
1 Primary K-2 composition notebooks. These are the 9.75 x 7.5 inch black and white ones with the larger line spacing. Please label with your child’s name.
1 Heavy quality plastic folders (not binders) with three prongs. Five star is a strong heavy quality that I would recommend. (Please note the color needed for your child’s grade level: First grade is green, second is blue, and third is red). Please label with your child’s name.
I package/notepad practice handwriting paper. This is the larger type that has the dotted lines through the middle. This helps with penmanship practice and cursive writing. The dollar store is a perfect place to find this type of paper.
Zipper pencil pouch with 3-prong holes. Please label with your child’s name.
1 container of Clorox/Lysol wipes
1 Tissue box
Paper towels (select-a-size is ideal to prevent excess waste)Your child will need their own lunch box, water bottle and inside slipper shoes. If you have questions about inside slippers, please feel free to email me directly.
Additional items are helpful:
Magazines
watercolor paint pallet
Ribbon
Gallon zip lock bags
Sandwich size zip lock bags
Modeling clay
Earth Clay
Seeds
Beads
Colored construction paper
NOTICE: THE ITEMS ON THIS LIST WILL BE USED DURING THE REGULAR SCHOOL DAY. THEY MAY BE BROUGHT FROM HOME ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS. OTHERWISE, THEY WILL BE FURNISHED BY THE SCHOOL.
Hello Parents,
Come celebrate another wonderful year over breakfast in the south kiva. The kiddo’s will perform a song or two. Sign up for food or supplies and # of guests attending here.
P.S. it’s pajama day
The 3rd grade plays are this Friday.
The first plays will begin at 10:00am. They may come in costume for the morning performance (in fact, it is highly recommended). They will perform: The Nightmare Before Christmas and Little Red Riding Hood
The next plays are at 1:00pm. They will perform: Peter Pan and Aladdin
If you have any questions about the 3rd grade plays, please contact Miss Kaley at kparsons@mariamontessoriacademy.org