Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Parents,

Past Week:

We had a busy week filled with activities that related to the Great Lessons!  We finished up the Great Lessons of the History of Writing and Math and extended the learning for the lessons on The Coming of the Universe, Coming of Life, and Coming of Man.

Our students also go to meet our Upper Elementary partner class (a mentorship), Ms. Stephaney’s and Ms. Ali’s class.  We spent an afternoon doing a partner group game called Saving Fred.  Students had to work together to save a gummy worm who capsized his “boat” (a turned over plastic cup) and put on his “life vest” (a gummy saver).  The kids loved it!  As our classroom and Ms. Stef’s classrooms normalize we will have the ability to send our kids to work with their mentor and also have some lessons in her room (if needed).  The same is with her students.

Cultural lessons began slowly this week. This week we began with History:

Level 1s: Months of the year and days of the week, made a calendar for September

Level 2s: What are the 3 States of Matter

Level 3s: Timeline of life overview and the Clock of Eras

Friday: South America and What is Matter?

Upcoming Week:

This coming week will be very busy!  I am excited to start giving lessons and begin the kids on their independent journey.

Monday- No School- Labor Day

Tuesday- The Loveland Aquarium is coming for just the 2nd graders at MMA.  All 2nd graders will attend a 55 minute class about the animals of the rainforest and the rainforest itself.

PE and Music begin on Tuesday!  Please make sure to have your child wear or bring sneakers to run around in!  This year, each special is an hour long.  Our time is at 9:50 and goes until lunch time.  To make the schedule work, students will be going straight outside for recess until 8:50am.  Once we come in then I will cultural lessons until it is their time to go to PE and Music.  After lunch, the students will do their math and language works as they usually do in the mornings of Mondays, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Wednesday- Hour long monthly Botany lesson with Ms. Rachel Bush in the afternoon 1:50-2:50.

Thursday- Computer class begins for 3rd graders only in the morning.  9:50-10:15

I will be doing the new students who are in 2nd and 3rd grade reading assessments first thing in the morning.  It has scheduled out to be 2 a day.  Next week, I will begin doing 1st graders.  The reading team will also begin their state DIBELS reading assessments too this week and into the next.

Reminders:

I will be sending home a bright orange form for the MMA 5K and Pancake Breakfast that will take place on September 23rd.  If you would like to be in the race, please fill out the form out and have your you or your student turn it into the office

Pizza Fridays will be starting!  You can find the pizza forms on our social media and I believe through the website.  Please have the forms filled out by Wednesdays in a sealed envelope with your student’s form inside and their name and teacher on the front of the envelope.  MAPA comes by our rooms and picks up the envelopes early Wednesday mornings.

Reading Volunteers- I am ready for you!  I have Wednesday scheduled for you all.  If you can’t do Wednesday, please let me know and I can make that work.  Please come at 9am.  We will be finishing up circle at that time.  Since I have more volunteers this year, some of you will see the first graders to check letter and sounds and begin nonsense words (ref, mak, tep etc.).  Some other students will need that kind of practice and some will be working on fluency to work towards grade level.  I should have a sheet for you all by Wednesday.

Consequence Program- My team and I are putting together a consequence program that helps students be accountable for their actions.  We wanted to design something that wasn’t a punishment program, but would allow them to see what goal they aren’t following in our classroom and levels that they can follow to help them work towards following all classroom and school rules/goals.  We will send out a parent letter soon with more information about it

The students are working on showing their circle rules when present during circle time.  There are 5 and the students know them pretty well.  It is getting everyone to follow them that is important.  Sitting next to a friend is a privilege.  Some of our students are consistently talking out of turn and will have to have an assigned circle space until they can follow that goal.  This is part of normalizing our class and laying a consistent foundation for our year that all students are held to the same standards.  On Friday, our class voted on their top 5 classroom community rules.  We have been talking about community within the school and within the world and how to be a good community member.  The goals that they made will be apart of our consequence program.

Yarn- Most students in our community are learning to finger knit.  They are getting faster and pretty good!  Some are ready for more weaving works and want to learn the beginnings of crocheting and/or knitting.  Ask your child if they are interested and if so, have them provide their own yarn.  Again, I have some, but to make your child’s project more efficient and organized, having their own would be ideal.

Have a great Labor Day and rest of your Sunday!

Ms. Kaley