Archive | December 2018

Happy Holidays!

I have so enjoyed our week this week and I have heard so many wonderful compliments from the children that we have had a great week. I appreciate being in a school that respects the whole child and remembers that life requires more than academics. I felt so proud of our class for being so friendly and wanting to have a very large table to sit together and eat at lunch time. Many times through the year so far, I have witnessed how the students have created larger and larger circles to include each other. Granted, there will be times when friends need time apart and we honor that too. Yet, I loved the feeling in our classroom this week with the children coming together as a community and truly using those social skills well.

I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and hope that each of you can enjoy it to its fullest. We will be very busy as soon as we return from break, so it is good to get a rest first! See the notes below for some reminders for the immediate weeks we return.

Jan 3        Return to School!

Jan 10       Parent Education Night-Details to come

Jan 11        NO SCHOOL – Professional Development Day for Teachers

Jan 14-18        STEM Week – (See below for schedule) BE SURE TO BE WORKING ON SCIENCE FAIR (6th) INVENTION CONVENTION (5th) and READ SCIENCE MATERIAL BEING SENT NEXT WEEK (4th)

Jan 18        JA Biztown Field Trip – 5th Years

Jan 21        NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Day

STARBASE:
Monday January 7, 2019
Tuesday January 15, 2019
Wednesday January 23, 2019
Wednesday January 30, 2019
Wednesday February 6, 2019
STEM WEEK SCHEDULE

Monday (14)

  • STEM assembly rotation – LE/ UE (Amy) AM 9-12:00, presenters

Tuesday (15)-

  • 6th years – STARBASE

Wednesday (16)

  • Science Fair 6-8th years (JH Gym)

Thursday (17)

  • Presenters

Friday (18)

  • JA Biztown-5th years
  • Aquarium Assembly – 6th years

 

 

WALK THE STEM MUSEUM (Science Hall Displays)

Monday (14)

  • 5th N (Elementary halls) Invention Convention

Tuesday (15)

  • 5th S (Elementary halls) Invention Convention

Wednesday (16)

  • NO DISPLAYS

Thursday (17)

  • 4th N (Elementary halls) In-class projects displayed

Friday (18)

  • 4th S (Elementary Halls) In-class projects displayed

Winter Lights Celebration for Students – Dec. 20st

The children have been discussing possible celebrations and activities they would like to experience this season. They have elected to have a small soup and bread feast, along with a secret gift giving activity for the 20th. Students will receive a lights celebration assignment to look up and create a small presentation. They can work with the other person assigned to that celebration or they can work alone. They will have some time in class too. Students will present these on the 19th!

They also will be assigned their secret gift giving student. Please keep the cost below $10 and simple gifts are usually the best. On the day of the event, we will bake and have several activities in the morning, then eat our feast mid-day and wrap up with some relevant reading and gift giving in the afternoon. We need hot chocolate, peppermint sticks, soup, and bread roll donations. Anyone who wishes to help with this, please contact me at sellis@mariamontessoriacademy.org or Jen Noyes at noyesbush@msn.com. The children are super excited! Help us make this wonderful!

Busy Times!

PLEASE REVIEW THE FOLLOWING UPDATES!

This month is super busy as I’m sure you know from your own personal lives. There will be several posts today. Please take the time to read each one and see where and how if relates to you and your student. Thank you!

Today is a walking field trip for the 4th and 5th years and a Science Fair movie for the 6th years. All students are working on STEM projects, both in class and as their home projects. Sixth years are working on Science Fair. Fifth years are working on Invention Convention. And 4th years will be working in class with me on their STEM projects. I will send home material to read over break and when we return, we will get busy in class on the experiments of it. Thus, students today are looking for books and materials related to their projects at the library.

 

Dear Families,

Please take a few moments to complete this anonymous Stakeholder Survey before it closes on December 14th. We need your feedback as change only comes when we know where we can improve.

The survey link is https://goo.gl/forms/crazDfVKIu8ENemv2.

If you would like to be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift card, please take a screenshot of the last page of the completed survey and send it to info@mariamontessoriacademy.org.

 

FIFTH YEARS – JA BIZTOWN

Students need to be working through their Biztown books as best they can. Some activities, we don’t get to do, due to the nature of the environment. However, the basics of each skill is something we do get to do. We want to give a huge shout out to  our very own Cyan Mitchell, who has been voted in as Mayor of JA Biztown this year. Our class has two businesses to run: United Way and Smith’s Marketplace. It’s going to be great fun. That said, we need FOUR VOLUNTEERS to go with our group. If you would like to volunteer, please email me at sellis@marimontessoriacademy.org or through REMIND. It is an all-day activity and is on Jan 18th. Thank you!

 

SIXTH YEARS – STARBASE

Dear Sixth Grade Families,
Our sixth grade students have the unique opportunity to attend STARBASE on Hill Air Force Base.  This is a wonderful STEM program offered to very few schools in Northern Utah.  The permission slip has already been sent home and returned to school by each family, thank you.  This is a five day field trip one day a week for five weeks.  The dates for this wonderful experience are:
STARBASE:
Monday January 7, 2019
Tuesday January 15, 2019
Wednesday January 23, 2019
Wednesday January 30, 2019
Wednesday February 6, 2019
It is your responsibility as parents to get your child to and from STARBASE on each of the dates listed above.  I encourage you to carpool with each other.  I would like permission from each family to send out a list of the sixth grade parents e-mail addresses to each of you so you can coordinate rides.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you do not want me to share your e-mail address with the other sixth grade families.
STARBASE in on Hill Air Force Base; we have a few plans to get your students on base.  Other schools hire a bus to get them to and from STARBASE.  A bus costs $500.00 a day so that is not an option for us.
Our first plan is to meet at The Aerospace Museum and STARBASE will send a Hill Air Force Base bus to come pick us up and transport us to and from STARBASE.  The information for this plan is located here. Roy Gate Base Bus   One last thing, I can not press upon you enough not to be late dropping off or picking up. The use of the base bus is a courtesy that has been extended to STARBASE and we do not want to keep them waiting; especially if they have other routes.
The second plan if the Hill Air Force Base cannot come get up for some reason is to have parents transport their child onto base.  In order for anyone to get onto base they need to provide some information.  Please fill out this form with the appropriate information if you think there is any possibility you might drive to or from this field trip one of the days.  TRANSPORTATION FOR BASE ACCESS ’18  STARBASE needs this information by December 20th.  Please get this information to me as soon as possible.  Once this information is turned over to security forces we will not be able to add any drivers.  If you think there is a small chance you may drive your child then please fill out this form.  These are the instructions for getting to the South Gate.  South Gate Contingency Plan ’18
If you have any questions please let me know.
Upper Elementary Team
Currently, we have one driver who has provided her information to the base. Anyone else who wishes to be considered to go on base at any time during the dates of STARBASE needs to return an email with their license number, name, and state issued, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you.
MORE TO COME!