Month: February 2018

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Maturation for 5th grade, 6th grade social dance, 5th grade JA Biztown field trip, Literacy Night, School Gala

Dear parents,

Just a reminder for 5th grade parents that maturation is on  Tuesday March 6th starting at around 8.45. You are welcome to attend, girls are in the library and boys will be in my room (Room 18). The 4th and 6th graders will be either in the Kiva, and/or outside while maturation is going on.

The 6th graders are having a social dance on Friday March 9th from 3.30 – 5. Food is pot luck, 6th grade parents are welcome to provide their child with something suitable.

The JA Biztown 5th grade field trip is on Wednesday March 14th.  There are two 5th grade parents who have volunteered to go as chaperones, but if you are still interested, please let me know. Please return the permission slips to me ASAP and the requested donation/payment is $5. You can pay by cash or check, or through this online payment link: https://secureinstantpayments.com/sip/cart/event.php?EID=1573

Also, this Thursday March 1st is Maria Montessori Academy’s 4th Annual Literacy Night from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. There are door prizes and you will be able to visit some enchanting worlds for Story Time, Trivia, Map Making, Wand Making, Karaoke, Participlay, Grammar Madlibs, Literacy Games, Watercolor Bookmarks, and Sight Word Twister! Lots of different events to go to!

Finally, a reminder that our School Gala is on Saturday March 17th with a St. Patrick’s Day theme. Always lots of fun with good food, friends, opportunities for prizes and lively auctions!

Thanks everybody and I hope you have a great week!

John

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6th grade science fair this Wednesday, spelling bee the following week, maturation, next field trips

Dear parents,

The 6th (and 8th) grade science fair is this Wednesday. Please make sure that your child has their completed poster board installed in the gym no later than 8.40 am. Please do not bring any live animals or plants into the gym. If you have chosen an engineering project then either bring photographs, or if it is small enough the actual apparatus. If you have taken videos, or still shots of the experiment and wish to show them at the fair, then the student is responsible to bring in their own device. There will not be room to charge the device, so make sure it is charged before the fair. Make sure your video is only a couple of minutes long, as judges have a maximum of 10 minutes to spend at each project.

Parents are welcome to come and view the fair after 3 o’clock and we will be ending the open session at 4.30. Please encourage your student to leave their science fair board until the next day, when they can collect it first thing in the morning. Please do not come in to view the fair during the day (from 8.45-3 pm).

The following week on Tuesday February 27th is the school-wide spelling bee competition. Three students will be selected from each class to participate in the competition. Lower el is from 9-10 am and upper el and Junior High from 11-12. There are some very keen students in the class at the moment who are studying hard!

Maturation this year is scheduled for Tuesday March 6th and you will be receiving the permission slips for this event shortly. Maturation applies only to 5th graders.

Our next class field trip is scheduled for Wednesday March 28th to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City. The 5th grade field trip to JA Biztown is scheduled for Wednesday March 14th and usually requires two or sometimes three 5th grade parent volunteers. For the field trip to the museum of Fine Arts we will be asking for parent drivers/chaperones again. More information nearer the time regarding the Fine Arts Museum, but if you wanted to put your name forward for the Biztown trip (held at the Discovery Gateway Museum in Salt lake), please email me ASAP. It’s a great event for the 5th graders and they get a lot out of it!

Thanks everybody! Hope you’re having a great Presidents’ Day weekend!

John

 

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Parent Teacher Conferences this week, Valentine’s Day and science fair next week

Dear parents,

This Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are Parent Teacher Conferences, from 1.30 till 7 with a break from 5-5.30. If you haven’t signed up, please follow this link and create an account, or simply click on “Event Sign-Ups,” find my name and make an appointment. Here’s the link: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/mapa.

This means that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are early outs. School finishes at 1 pm. Likewise, there is no school on President’s Day, Monday February 19th.

Wednesday is Valentines Day. The students normally bring in a box and we exchange candy and cards at the end of the school day (as it is an early out, this will be at around 12.30). Students are not permitted to eat candy in school.

The science fair is on the Wednesday of the following week. The 6th graders are required to be in the gym from roughly 9 – 11.30. They can be excused earlier once they have been judged 3 times. They need to have set up their poster board by no later than 8.40 am. We are still looking for judges, or anybody who is interested in scoring. If you think that you can judge or score, or know of anybody who can, please contact me ASAP.

Again, please email me with any questions.

With thanks – John

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Parent Teacher Conferences sign ups February 14th, 15th and 16th

Dear parents,

Thank you for your patience regarding PTC sign ups. Here is the procedure to sign up using the new Track it Forward website from MAPA (MMA’s PTA):

We hope you all are enjoying the track it forward program. All events whether it is school wide or for the class room will be through track it forward from now on. There is a way to categorize events by teacher, school wide or both together:
1. Login to you track it forward account
( if you have not signed up please do so by going here https://www.trackitforward.com/site/mapa) 
2. Click on event sign ups
3. Click on filter by category (the little blue writing on the sample pictured)
4. You can then select what categories you want to see the calendar for. For example if you want to see only Ms. Joy’s sign ups click on Ms. Joy. If you want to see just Ms. Joy’s and the school wide events click on both Ms. Joy and school wide. You can do as many as you want. 
5. If you do not see your teachers name on the category selection yet, be patient. They have not yet created an event on the track it forward calendar yet. But there next event will be on there. So keep a watch out:) 
6. Sign up for event and your done. Track it forward will email you a reminder 2 days before the event. 
Essentially, you will need to go to the Track it Forward website, sign up, go to events sign up, find my name (PTC Mr John), click on that and then choose your day and time. Due to the number of students in the class, slots are limited to 20 minutes. Your child will be presenting their work and we will be discussing their progress and expectations for the rest of the school year.
Also, MAPA has asked us to place this on our blogs as well regarding choosing a vice president and president for next year:

MAPA Board  is currently looking for a VP for the remainder of the year who will then become the president for the 2108-2019 school year. Please contact heidibradley81@gmail.com if you or you know someone who would be interested.

Don’t know what MAPA is… it is our schools PTA program. The fall festival, gala, book fairs, teacher appreciation, safety, box tops all happen because of MAPA and we want that all to continue to happen, so keep your eyes and ears open for someone who would do a great job! 

Finally, we had a great field trip today to The Leonardo Museum, always an interesting place to visit. Thank you again to our parent volunteer drivers who took us down there.
John
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Field trip Monday, PTC in February, Science Fair

Dear parents,

Thank you to those parents that have volunteered to drive the students to The Leonardo (I will supply you with maps and parking instructions in the Morning). We will be leaving from the North Shore parking lot at 8.30. We start our field trip at 10 am and we will be leaving around 1.45 pm in order to return for 3 pm pick up. Please make students are in a Friday dress code and bring a sack lunch.

I have set up sign ups for PTC through the Track it Forward website. However, I still need to confirm a few issues I have with confidentiality before I post it on the web. I hope to have this posted either by tomorrow evening or Monday. I apologize for the delay.

The science fair is coming up soon and we are in need of volunteers. The school has asked us to put out this request:

We are in need of food, judges, and scorers for the Science Fair on Wednesday, February 21st. If you (or anyone you know) are interested in the opportunity, please sign up here: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/399835.

If you need more information you can contact:
Thank you everybody and again I hope to put up links for the PTC tomorrow or Monday.
John