Welcome to the last day of the 2013-2014 school year!  I can’t believe it is here already!  The students have been exceptional this year and I am very proud to have such a wonderful class.

Congrats to our graduating 3rd graders:

McKelle

Ben L.

Sage

Julian

Ben N

David

I hope you all have a fabulous summer!

Next school year I will be on maternity leave for a few weeks.  My plan so far is to come back October 6th, which is just is time for Fall conferences.  If that changes for any reason I will let you know!

Ms. Anna will be taking the lead of the classroom and I hired a new assistant, Ms. Lavonna, this week.  She is an experienced teacher with many years under her belt, though she is new to Montessori.  However, she is very excited to begin.  When I come back, Anna will be working in the Office for the rest of the year and Ms. Lavonna will take the place as my assistant.

While I am gone Ms. Anna and Ms. Lavonna will be going over grace and courtesy and classroom expectations.  There will be some basic placement testing, so I can see who still remembers what and where to pick up.  Ms. Kacee, our new curriculum specialist will be in our room helping out with lessons.  Levels and small groups will also be divided in the afternoons so they can get their cultural and great lessons.  I am very confident everything will be taken care of.  My plan is to kick my feet up this summer and plan what should be gone over while I am on leave.  Even though I will be out I will be checking in through FaceTime on the iPad.  I will be getting to know the new ones and conversing with everyone on how they are doing and what they have been learning.

For your calendar prep, September 4th will be Back to School Night.  I plan on attending.  It will be 6:30-7:30

Enjoy your summer and you will hear from me throughout the summer!

Thank you for a wonderful year!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Thank you to everyone, parents and students, for setting up and participating in the baby shower this morning!  It was a lot of fun!  The games were great and the kids said they had a great time.  I can’t thank you enough!  <3

Also, I forgot to add for this Friday that Friday is PJ Day too 🙂  Students may bring a pillow and a blanket since we will probably watch a movie too.

We slowed down work cycle this week and had the students finish up their in class projects.  Level 1s and 2s have been writing their own creative story.  They finished up this week and them typed up and got to illustrate it and have their stories laminated and bound so they can share their stories with you at conferences.  Level 3s created their own board game.  They too will share theirs at conferences.  We also started organizing works and cleaning the room.  We finished up cultural this week in the afternoons so we could enjoy field day on Friday.

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Military Time

Level 2s: Astronomers

Level 3s: Drawing out the Time Line of Life

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Vertebrate review

Level 2s: Brain

Level 3s: Invertebrate review

Geography:

Level 1s: North America packet

Level 2s: Rock review

Level 3s: Weather Reader’s Theatre

Botany:

Level 1s: Parts of a plant salad

Level 2s: Kinds of trees

Level 3s: Flower bookmarks

Friday: Field Day and cleaning

Here is the schedule for this coming week!  Please remember it is 1pm dismissal all week!

Tuesday:

Ms. Kaley’s Baby Shower

Game Day: students may bring board games, card games, and Ms. Stephanie approved our class to bring any Kindles, iPads, iPods etc. to play app games.  If your child chooses to bring an electronic it MUST be okay with you as the parent and it MUST be labeled with their name on it.  I will keep all electronics up at my desk.  These rules worked very well last year and we had no issues.

3rd grade Bridging Ceremony

Conferences starting at 1:30pm.  Each slot is 20 minutes.  Please be on time.  Ms. Anna will not be present this night.

Wednesday:

Crazy hat or hair day

Kickball game at 10:30

Conferences starting at 1:30pm.  Each slot is 20 minutes.  Please be on time.

Thursday:

Crazy sock day

Store Day: students have been earning money all month to use for store day.  Like a yard sale, students will bring in items they want to sell (old toys, games, books, baked goods, etc.).  They will then pair up with a partner and price their items.  One partner will go shop while the other sells.  Partners will then switch.  We created store rules for how it should run and students are aware how this day should be treated.

Conferences starting at 1:30pm.  Each slot is 20 minutes.  Please be on time.

Friday:

Yearbook signing

PJ Day.  Students may bring a blanket and pillow since we will probably be watching a movie too

1pm dismissal

Hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

School is almost finished!  This coming week we will start slowing down work cycle and have the children help with inventory, cleaning the shelves, and packing up.  3rd graders will be taking home their things on Thursday, so if you want to provide them with a large bag so they can take stuff home, I highly recommend that.  I will hold onto Level 1 and Level 2s binders for next year.  Our hope is by field day we will have the room cleaned and packed up.

Sign up for Conferences! Please bring your child with you!

If you would like to sign up for Ms. Kaley’s baby shower on the 27th, please sign up a few posts below.  The baby’s name is Marvel Mae!

If your child is NOT returning next year, please can you shoot me an email and let me know.  That way I know whose binders to hang on to and prepare over the summer and who to send everything home with.

Home Projects are due Monday!  It is a free choice!

Just a few heads up for 3rd grade parents!  Tuesday the 27th is the Bridging Ceremony for 3rd graders being welcomed into Upper El.  It will be a short ceremony outside on the stage.  It will PROMPTLY start at 11:30.  After they are done the 3rd graders will eat lunch and play with the Upper El.  Also, I am hearing that the SAGE results will not be available until DECEMBER!  (crazy, I know).

Next Friday, the 23th, is FIELD DAY!  Our field day will start at 9am and end at 11am.  It takes place on the field and we will be outside all morning.  Your child will NEED: sunscreen, tennis shoes, water bottle, a towel, bathing suit, change of clothes, water shoes/extra shoes to change into.  The fire department will be here in the afternoon towards the end of the day to spray down the whole school in the parking lot.  

Kindergarteners will be shadowing our class Monday and Tuesday for about a half hour.  We have 8 that will visit 🙂

If your child would like extra points, here are the last states.  Tennessee and South Dakota were missing from last week’s so I apologize for missing those.  Here are the rest!

Tennessee- TE

South Dakota- SD

Vermont- VT

Virginia- VA

Washington- WA

West Virginia- WV

Wisconsin- WI

Wyoming- WY

Thank you to those parents who came on our field trip!  We had quite the eventful time when our bus didn’t show up and we had to reorganize.

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Types of angles, binomial cube second lesson

Level 2s: Pin wheel, binomial cube second lesson

Level 3s: Geometry monster

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Sundial

Level 2s: My address in the universe

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Review of vertebrates

Level 2s: Brain intro

Level 3s: Invertebrate review

Botany:

Level 1s: Plant review

Level 2s: Parts of a twig

Level 3s: Flower dissection

Friday: Memory book, states test, science, desk cleaning

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

3rd graders shadowed Mr. John’s class this week.  They spent all morning and came back for the rest of the day.

Thank you for responding quickly to our evacuation drill Thursday!  Our class and Ms. Angie’s class were the first to get everyone to their ride.  We are going to make adjustments as a school with the 7th grade runners and some other small tweaks.  Other than that, it went very well!

May’s Home Project that is a Free Choice is due May 19th!

Thank you to those parents who helped with the 3rd grade party we held on Monday!

This coming week is our field trip!  Most have turned in their permission slips, but please get them in by Tuesday with your child’s $3.00 to the Office 🙂  I haven’t heard from anyone who wants to go, so please email me if you want to be a chaperone.  If you go, your ticket will cost $6.00 to get into the American West Heritage Center.  The address is posted on the blog from this week.

This week is the end of red folders!  We are going to wrap them up for the year.

The next 6 states are:

Oregon- OR

Pennsylvania- PA

Rhode Island- RI

South Carolina- SC

Texas- TX

Utah- UT

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Intro to angles, binomial cube

Level 2s: Find the triangle game, binomial cube

Level 3s: Geometry bingo

In cultural this week:

No History because of the 3rd grade party in the afternoon.

Zoology:

Level 1s: Tracing vertebrates from x-rays

Level 2s: Elephants

Level 3s: Scorpions and crab cakes

Geography: 

Level 1s: North America packet continued

Level 2s: Hardness scale

Level 3s: Weather review

No Botany because of evacuation drill

Friday: Cultural student led packet, Library, Mother’s Day activities, States test

Have a great Mother’s Day and weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

To the right of the blog I have just posted the sign up link for Spring STUDENT LED Conferences!  Please bring your child with you to the conference!

You can start signing up and we’ll see you then!

I am copying permission slips this afternoon (Monday 5/5).  I forgot to add on Friday that each student needs to turn in $3.00 to the OFFICE drop box for this field trip.  This fee will provide half of their admissions and the other half will be covered by MMA.  This three dollars helps our field trip fund cover the needs of the bus.

Please let me know if you would like to go.  Parents who would like to go may need to take their own car to the American West Heritage Center

The address is:

4025 S. Hwy 89-91, Wellsville, UT 84339

The bus will be leaving at 9:15am.  We are scheduled to arrive and have our time at the center from 10am-2:30.  We will return to MMA a little after 3.

Hope that helps!  Please have permission slips in ASAP.  Slips must be in 24hours before we go.  Jen, I know you guys are on a trip.  You may sign Ben’s slip the day he comes back.

Happy May!!  Countdown to the end of school already can you believe it?!

This week I took the time to do University of Utah reading level testing.  I will have their end of the year levels at conferences. The reading teachers also pulled our students out this week to do state DIBELS testing.  That information will also be available at conferences.  Since conferences are coming up at the end of the month, just know that the last conference is student led.  Today (Friday) our students started the first part of their packets to share with you.  They will also have a story or game design to share.

I have submitted our American Heritage Center field trip information to the office.   Our field trip will be May 14th.  A bus is coming to pick our class and Ms. Jalee’s class up at 9:15.  We are scheduled to arrive by 10:00am.  We are scheduled to be done by 2:30 at the Heritage Center.  Lunch will be eaten there.  Since we will be outside make sure your child has comfortable tennis shoes, sunscreen, a water bottle, picnic lunch, and maybe some sunglasses.  They may wear jeans or shorts that come to their knees.  We will be getting back to MMA via the bus a smidge past 3pm.  You are welcome to come on the trip, just please email me to let me know you would like to come 🙂

Next week our 3rd graders are due to shadow!  They will be spending the morning in Mr. John’s room.  Two 3rd graders will go per day.

THURSDAY 5/8 is the EMERGENCY DRILL!  Remember you will be getting a call to pick up your child between 12 and 3pm.  Your child’s things will be left at school overnight.  If you notice your child doesn’t have any slippers on when you pick them up that is a natural consequence since we cannot stop to have a child to put their slippers on.  

This past Thursday 5/1 started our money earning for our Store Day at the end of the month!  Students made the rules for how much “Maria Dollars” they earn for being on task, how much work they do, and how they behave.  They also made the rules for owing money if they had a consequence.  Store Day is very similar to a yard sale.  Students will bring things in they no longer want and will price their items for sale.  Other classmates will then shop at their set up (their “store”) and they will use the money they earned.  Students can bring in popsicles or bake sale items as well to sell.

There was only Level 1 group lesson on Monday because of reading testing this week.  Level 1s had their last line review.  They will start their introduction to angles, and will continue to learn as Level 2s.

States for next week are:

New Mexico- NM

New York- NY

North Carolina- NC

North Dakota- ND

Ohio- OH

Oklahoma- OK

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Time to the minute

Level 2s: Comets and asteroids

Level 3s: Timeline of plants

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Painting of clay mammals

Level 2s: Muscles

Level 3s: Crab intro

Geography:

Level 1s: North America packet

Level 2s: Metals and nonmetals

Level 3s: Blizzards

Botany:

Level 1s: Plant reading comprehension

Level 2s: Adopt a Tree

Level 3s: Positions of the ovary in a flower

Friday: States test, Student Led Packet part 1, project sharing, movie

Have a great warm weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K