Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Everyone!

Happy 2018!  Hope you all had a wonderful break. The students came back ready to work and did a great job despite it being a short week.  Our construction team for the new junior high building is busily growing and they delivered the new Early Childhood playground on Friday.  Once that playground is put together then our students will have a chance to play on it until the new big playground is complete.

Home Project- January’s home project is a report on a past president.  Students are to begin researching which president they want to choose for their project and then I will provide a handout for them to record their research on.  Students will need to write facts about their president based on the questions that are on the handout.  For a visual, your child may do a poster, puppet, paper doll, model, diorama etc (again, this is the creative part that the student gets to pick). Due Jan. 26th

There is no school on Friday because of an all day teacher development.  That following Monday is MLK Day which is a no school day as well.

We have the COW (computers on wheels) this Wednesday afternoon

Past Week:

On Friday, we usually have out classroom meeting in the afternoon.  We began discussing fairness and what do the students believe it is.  I gave 5 scenarios and students had to decide whether they believed the situation was fair or unfair.  When there were differences in opinions we heard why those students thought that way.  It was pretty powerful.  This coming week we will continue the conversation of fairness by learning who Martin Luther King Jr was and what he stood for.  As the rest of January continues we will continue our fairness learning in understanding that fairness is equality, but how equality can look different, especially when it comes to people who learn differently or who are differently abled.

Another large part of our class meeting on Friday was the choice to take over the responsibility of planning their own planners.  About 2/3rd of the class were truly interested, so this coming week will be a new lesson in learning how to record lessons from my lesson plan and continuing the independent work they do.  This is a great practical life lesson, especially for the 3rd graders, as they will be going into 4th grade knowing how to take care of a planner and knowing that they need to plan their work from their teacher and for themselves.

We got a chance to do Botany this past week.  Ms. Rachel came in on Wednesday and held her monthly lesson.  On Thursday we had Botany in our leveled groups.  We are back to History this coming week.

1st grade parents: Your 1st grader has so far been introduced to the penny, nickel, and dime coins.  Most are working with adding pennies and nickels.  By the end of 1st grade they should know: pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  1st grade students should know their name, worth, and know some simple adding with these coins.  Coin counting and conversations at home would be great practice for them.  Also, we using the rest of year in History talking about telling time.  We will go over parts of the clock this week and begin to learn how to tell time to the hour.  They will get to practice their time during work cycle next week.  Use any opportunity to you can find to have your 1st grader practice their time to the hour on an analog clock and digital.  Continue the great sight word, nonsense, and letter work at home.  It is showing. Reading at home for at least 20 minutes in each night shows dramatic improvement in a child’s reading growth.  In our classroom, it is best homework they can do

3rd grade parents: the 3rd graders goal are to work on their multiplication facts.  Please check in with your child often and take a  few minutes of each day practicing flash cards or counting objects in groups (if they need a visual).  Most are where they should be, having completed times tables of 5s and are beyond that.

Upcoming Week:

We have rain in the forecast this coming week.  Keep providing warm attire to wear outside.

Tuesday- specials in the morning

Wednesday- COW in the afternoon and Ms Misha has to leave at 12 noon

Thursday- Ms. Misha has to leave at 10am.

Friday- No School

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your Sunday!

Ms. Kaley