Dear parents,

I’m just re-posting the original email from Ms Alisha about the Christmas feast tomorrow, as a couple of you said that they missed the email. We have the South Kiva and will be eating at 11. Please don’t bring candy, soda or excessively sugary foods for the feast. There is also information about “Track it forward” at the bottom.

Thank you!

Hi parents!

I’m Alisha Coakley, the room parent for your child’s class this year! This is our first year at MMA so please be patient with me as I try to figure out how to do this well lol.

Our classroom holiday feast is going to be Wed, Dec 13th at 11 in the South Kiva. I’ve decided to have the theme be “Favorite Things” so please bring your child’s favorite dish and/or drink to share with others. Yes, this is going to be a schmorgusboard of randomness but I thought it’d be fun for the kids. Some ideas would be pizza, cereal, cheetos, celery with pb…anything your child loves to consume! 

We are going to have a fun activity and I’m hoping a small service activity as well (I’m thinking of making holiday cards for the veteran’s home, placemats for Meals on Wheels or maybe pics for the local children’s home) I’m still waiting to hear back from a few places before deciding, but as soon as I know, I’ll let you know. I’d like to stay away from anything that involves donations. If you have any ideas that could be done for cheap during our feast, please feel free to text me at 239-810-7654.

As a side note, I’m also the VP on the MAPA board this year and would like to encourage everyone to take a minute to sign up for Track It Forward. This is the new program we’ll be using to not only track volunteer hours (40 per year per family) but to also take the place of wejoinin (or whatever that thing is called). If you do this, every student in your family will receive a free ticket for the Box Top Store Dec 20th. Just go to www.trackitforward.com/site/Mapa 

Dear parents,

Time seems to be flying by and before we know it, it will be the Christmas vacation! The class is planning to hold a Christmas lunch on Wednesday December 13th in the South Kiva. Ms. Alisha (our room mom) is making the arrangements and she will be contacting you all soon via email with the needs and requirements. It will be held in the morning, at roughly 11 am. All parents are welcome!

We also begin our country and continent report presentations on Tuesday next week. Each child will present a report, usually either by poster and/or PowerPoint, and if they wish, bring artifacts and/or food for the presentation. This is a prelude to the whole-school International Festival, which takes place on Wednesday December 20th from 9-11 am. More specific details about timings and food requirements for the International Festival will follow in the next post.

The school is keen for parents to complete the 2017 Parent Survey about the school. So, if you have a few spare minutes could you follow this link. Thank you!: http://www.advanc-ed.org/survey/public/section/response/begin?surveyConfigId=738200

We keep up with our IXL practice in the classroom. However, it is always good for students to practice at home. Here is the list of areas that can be tackled:

6th grade: A1 – A5 (whole numbers); B1 – B7 (multiplication); C1 – C6 (division); E1 – E9 (factors and multiples); F1 – F9 (decimals); G1 – G4 (decimal addition and subtraction); H1 – H4 (decimal multiplication and division); I1 – I10 (fraction review); J1 – J9 (add and subtract fraction); K1 – K13 (fraction multiplication); L1 – L8 (fraction division);  R1 – R9 (ratios & rates); S1 – S8 (percent).

5th grade: A1 – A7 (place values and number sense); B1 – B7 (addition and subtraction); C1 – C23 (multiplication); D1 – D16 (division); E1 – E3 (exponents); G1 – G17 (decimals); O1 – O4 (mixed operations).

4th grade: A1 – A9 (number sense); B1 – B7 (addition); C1 – C5 (subtraction); D1 – D8, D17 – D27 (multiplication).

Lastly, next Friday December 8th is an early out. School finishes at 1 pm.

Thank you and have a great week!

John

Dear parents,

Here is a list of the first names of students, along with their continent and country:

EUROPE

• Matthew L. (5th grade) – Albania
• Beckham – Andorra
• Matthew C. (6th grade) – Armenia
• Bennett – Austria
• Ximena – Azerbaijan
• Boen – Belarus
• Joseph – United Kingdom

ASIA

• Brylie – Timor Leste
• Skyler – Turkey
• Kaylee – Turkmenistan
• Grayson – United Arab Emirates
• Taylor – Uzbekistan
• Jonah – Vietnam
• Nate – Yemen

AFRICA

• Mia – Mali
• Jordan – Mauritania
• Grace – Mauritius
• Anna – Morocco
• Jasmine – Mozambique
• Beatriz – Namibia

NORTH AMERICA

• Amelia – Belize
• Trey – Canada
• Maelee – Costa Rica

SOUTH AMERICA

• Conner – Chile
• Alexis – Paraguay

AUSTRALASIA

• Charlie – Australia

DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

• Gracie – Norfolk Island (Australia)
• Kennedy – Cook Island (New Zealand)

Thank you, and again, if you have any questions please email me,

John

Dear parents,

On Friday we began our presentations for the Elements home project and I was really impressed by the quality of the work and the time and effort that had been put in to many of the posters and dioramas. Thank you for all your help with these endeavors.

Unfortunately, there will always be more! The next home project is the students’ country and continent report. This is one of the biggest home projects of the year. The students were given a country and a continent on Friday, along with a mini research packet, instructions/rubric and a letter for parents as an explanation. As not all of you will receive this letter, I have copied it into this post:

This letter will hopefully answer any questions you have about what is required for the presentation for the continent and country report. I have sent copies of the requirements and rubric home with the students along with this letter, but to briefly go over the proceedings:

Beginning Tuesday December 12^th, and continuing through Tuesday December 19th, each student will give an approximately 10-15 minute presentation. The presentation will be of a CONTINENT AND A COUNTRY within that continent. The presentation is usually in the form of a poster or PowerPoint. However, innovative presentations, such as, representing tour or travel guides are also welcome. The presentation should include as a bare minimum (see the handouts for more details):

• Maps featuring political and geographical features
• Pictures, collages or photos and information of the continent and country
• If possible some kind of food, music or artifacts
• Other information based on tourism, the people, fauna and flora

Along with the presentation, students should turn in their research packet (the photocopied packet that serves as a guide to where their research should be directed). This research packet should be the starting point for their report and include a research page that states:

• what they find interesting about this continent & country and
• a bibliography

Then, on the morning of Wednesday December 20th, the students will take place in the International Festival. This is where they will give a poster presentation of the country in their continent to the rest of the school. The International Fair is a school-wide event, where all the Upper Elementary classes will be participating at the same time. You are welcome to attend. Therefore, it would be a time saver for your student to produce the poster for the country and use this with the continent and country report presentation beginning Tuesday December 12^th. Of course, they can do a PowerPoint presentation of the continent as well a poster for the country.

If you have any more questions, then please email me.

Many thanks – John

Next week is the last week prior to Thanksgiving break. The school will be closed November 20th through 24th. Next week will be a “normal” week, with the usual math, language, science and cultural classes. We have our botany class on Tuesday and on Friday morning we will be doing Thanksgiving craft activities and in the afternoon playing an English game called “conkers” with Ms. Amity’s class. This game uses horse chestnuts where you try to find the strongest ones while competing against each other.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

John

Dear parents,

Just a reminder that tomorrow is an early out. School ends at 1 pm.

Thanks – John

Hi parents,

I forgot to include this link for the free 4th grade National Park Pass in last month’s posts: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm#CP_JUMP_5088577

Thanks – John

Dear parents,

Just a few things about the Tracy Aviary field trip this Tuesday:

1. Please try to be at North Shore parking lot between 8.10 and 8.15. The bus will arrive at 8.15 and we need to get away to Salt Lake as soon as possible, so that we can register our arrival at 9.30 and begin our tours. Please DO NOT send your child to the classroom on Tuesday morning.
2. Friday dress code of jeans and a plain collared top is appropriate, along with a sack lunch and appropriate clothing for the weather. It is supposed to be a cool and sunny 54F with no rain.  Again, please no Halloween costumes or masks.
3. Please remind your children that cell phones are not allowed on the trip, not even to take photographs. This is a school-wide policy. Cameras however, are welcome
4. We leave the Aviary at 1.15 pm, arriving back at school well in time for normal pick up.
5. Ms. Amy will be the overall teacher in charge (we are going with Ms. Amy’s class), and Ms. Emily and Ms. Dixie will be in charge of our class directly.

Lastly, a reminder that I will not be in school this week, but will be answering emails if you have any queries.

Thank you!

John

Dear parents,

The school is changing over to a new telephone system, which is causing unsuspected problems downstream with the server. This meant that emails going out to parents from Thursday until today, have not been delivered. It may have affected external emails coming in to me, but I am not sure. If you have emailed me since Thursday and not received a reply, can you email me again please. Thanks, and I’m sorry about these technology issues.

Just a reminder to please get your permission slips for the Tracy Aviary back to me before the end of the week. This is because I will not be at school next week, as I have to go back to England to deal with some family issues. Ms. Emily and Ms. Dixie Brenchley will be in charge and it’s not easy for them having to chase up permission slips. This is because they will not have full access to parents’ emails and phone numbers without going through the front office. Of course I can access any general queries you may have via email.

The schedule for next week will be:

Monday AM: work cycle and computer lab. PM: science

Tuesday all day: Tracy Aviary field trip.

Wednesday AM: work cycle and computer lab. PM: Day of the dead art and celebration.

Thursday AM: Work cycle and PE. PM: cultural work (either rainforest projects, or history and geography).

Friday AM: Either Native American Heritage and/or Veteran’s Day art project. PM: Possible readathon.

The returning times for the field trip have changed slightly, in that the bus has to leave Tracy Aviary at 1.15 pm. This will not affect pick up and I am still hoping to leave at 8.20 am in order to make full use of the tours beginning at 9.30 am. Ms. Amy will be the teacher in charge on the day.

I’m not sure  if I have made this clear, but there is an expectation that students do at least 30 minutes of IXL math a week at home. Below is the list of which subjects can be tackled. Some of these we are about to start on this week, so the students may, or may not be comfortable with all the problems:

6th grade: A1 – A5 (whole numbers); B1 – B7 (multiplication); C1 – C6 (division); E1 – E9 (factors and multiples); I1 – I10 (fraction review); L1 – L8 (fraction division);  R1 – R9 (ratios & rates); S1 – S8 (percent).

5th grade: A1 – A7 (place values and number sense); B1 – B7 (addition and subtraction); C1 – C23 (multiplication); D1 – D16 (division); E1 – E3 (exponents); G1 – G17 (decimals); O1 – O4 (mixed operations).

4th grade: A1 – A9 (number sense); B1 – B7 (addition); C1 – C5 (subtraction).

Thank you everybody and please remember the Fall Festival this Friday October 27th from 4-7! Bouncy castles, games and lots of fun for the students!

John

Dear parents,

Here is the online payment link for the Tracy Aviary field trip if you wish to donate this way:

https://secureinstantpayments.com?Event=1152

Many thanks – John

Dear parents,

There have been issues regarding pictures and files on the blog that were resolved over the weekend. You may have received older posts from the beginning of the year via your email (I received emails about posts on August 19th and 20th, then September 25th and October 8th) and I apologize if you did. During the restoration, the blog’s feedburner must have been tripped to send out what it thought were updates.

PTC is going on at the moment, along with the book fair. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up, or missed your slot today, there are still slots open Tuesday and Wednesday to sign up for (https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/dqvad). If you haven’t been to the book fair, please check it out. It’s open from 1-7 pm and there are so many wonderful books out there for children. It’s great to see how much children still love their books!

The next field trip is coming up to Tracey Aviary on October 31st. The children will be receiving the permission slips on Tuesday, and, as usual, please try to get them signed and returned ASAP. We will be traveling by First School Bus, which is scheduled to leave at 8.20 am from the North Shore parking lot. The tours at Tracey Aviary begin at 9.30, so we need to be there in a timely manner. The students will need to have a sack lunch and wear appropriate clothing according to the weather. Even though this is Halloween, as per the school dress code, costumes are not allowed to be worn. Friday dress code with jeans is appropriate.

The cost of the trip is approximately $6/student and donations towards this cost are gratefully received. There will be an online payment link set up, if you wish to donate that way. Otherwise, donations can be made through the front office by cash or check. Here are the cover letter and permission slip, if they don’t make it back to you:

Tracey Aviary cover letter. Tracy Aviary permission slip

The children also received their next home project. This one is called, “All about the elements” and asks the  students to research an element and present their research in the form of either a poster OR a diorama. The handout suggests they do both. This is incorrect – they need to do one or the other, but no PowerPoints! Each student has received their element (please email me if they don’t know what it is and they forget to ask me) and this presentation is due November 10th.

The school Fall Festival is just around the corner on Friday 27th from 4-7 pm and MAPA (the school’s parents association) have asked the teachers to post the following information:

Lastly, there is no school on Thursday and Friday.

Thanks and enjoy the break!

John