Archive for October, 2018

Week 10 Recap

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Hello Everyone!

This week we experienced something I never thought I as a teacher would have to experience.  We lost two  amazing students this past week in the horrific car crash on Washington this past Tuesday.  Our school provided support for both students and staff members as the week went on this past week.  Thank you to any of you who provided support and comforted our students and participated in the ribbon tying outside on our fence.  If your daughter happens to be in Girl Scouts, she may wear her Girl Scout’s sash or t-shirt on Monday in honor of Molly Cox who was one of the students who passed.

I taught Molly when she was a 3rd grader during our Studio Friday time.  Back then, I taught theater and Molly was a bright light that enjoyed every minute of my class. She was such a joy to have.  She would always tell me how much she loved theater and always had a smile to show.  She and her brother, Troy, will be deeply missed.  I’m waiting to hear about their services and will decide if I am able to make it.

Past Week:

This past week I did an introduction to what was the cause of the Revolutionary War.  Students learned that America wasn’t free and was ruled by England at the time by a King.  Our students then learned that the King put taxes on products,  who Paul Revere was and his role, and that America wanted to be free with their own form of government.  I went over the meaning of the colors on the American flag and what the Pledge of Allegiance means with 1st graders in Geography this week.  Our whole class then learned what the colors of the USA flag means and then they got to create their own redesign of the American Flag and decided what their door choices meant.  The ideas were beautiful and the students really embraced the feeling of love, peace, protection, and freedom for our country.

My favorite lesson this week went to working with the 3rd graders this week on learning improper fractions.  I showed them how to solve a fraction that has a larger numerator than its denominator with our fraction materials and also using abstract division skills.  The group really enjoyed this lesson and all interested in how to solve fractions like that.  We will continue to continue learning about improper fractions through practice and reviews this week and into next.

2nd graders had a review in time to the hour and half hour this past week and will move onto time to the quarter hour and quarter past.  We talked about the word “quarter” and how that relates to the 4th’s family also this week in their fraction lesson.  If you can point out time to the hour, half hour, 15 minute mark, and 45 minute mark with your 2nd grader, that will help them practice at home.

Everyone worked on a practice narrative this pat week with brainstorming skills and using a graphic organizer that helped all students come up with a topic sentence, have a beginning/middle/end, and a closing sentence.  This week we will talk about transition words like: first, next, last etc. in their writing. Students will then move into how to revise and edit (which some students already got to last week) and learn to write a final draft in their purple notebooks.

In cultural this past week we had Geography, a little Zoology and History, and Botany to catch up on.  With the passing of our two students, emotions were also felt pretty high in our class, so I had students do some reading on books I assigned them that matched their cultural for that day with our COW Wednesday afternoon.

Level 1s: American flag and color meaning, kinds of trees

Level 2s: Layers of the Earth, time to the hour/half hour review, and leaves

Level 3s: Sound waves and vibrations, Electricity and static electricity

 

Upcoming Week:

Tuesday– Evacuation Drill practice.  Pizza money is due.

Wednesday– Our Halloween Party is upon us!  Wednesday afternoon from 12:45-2:30 will be our time to enjoy the holiday.  Please NO COSTUMES to school on Halloween.  Any treats and things the students make at the party will be taken home.  Having a class party is also a privilege to have and attend.  Some students are currently testing boundaries and classroom rules.  We sat down as a class community and the students said we should have 3 goals that everyone should follow in order to participate in the class party.  The students voted on 3 rules:

  1. Do silent clean ups silently (This is done before recess and at the end of the day).
  2. Focus (if you are off task and are disrupting others or yourself then you are not focusing in class on your work or lesson).
  3. Body rule (no part of your body should be disrupting or invading someone else’s.  No pushing, kicking, pulling etc.).

I’m hoping everyone can follow the goals they set as a class and everyone can participate.  Any student who doesn’t follow the goals will do Halloween themed work with me and Misha (we will rotate) and any work needed from their planner.

If you want to help out with our party with volunteering or bringing supplies, here is the link again!

SIGN UP for HALLOWEEN PARTY!

If you are volunteering please come at 11:30-11:45.  We will have our class eat out in the kiva space so stations can be set up.

PLEASE NO HALLOWEEN CANDY IN LUNCHES AFTER HALLOWEEN.  Thanks.

 

Have a great rest of your weekend, upcoming week, and Halloween.

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Week 9 Recap

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Hi Everyone!

Thank you to those who attended Parent Teacher Conferences this past week.  The 3 early outs allowed us to do some cultural lessons we needed to do and for 2nd and 3rd graders it allowed them to begin some new animal research.  2nd graders are beginning research on a fish and 3rd graders have begun research on different kinds of sea sponges (Porifera).  1st graders learned about the external parts of a fish this past week.  We also did some Botany this past week as well.  1st graders did lifecycle of a plant from how they begin as a seed and then transition to a small seedling and then to a full plant.  2nd graders learned about simple leaves vs compound leaves.  3rd graders read a review on seed germination and we will look at seed germination this week when we talk about the cotton plant!

Picture Day is Monday!  Please don’t forget to send in your picture forms with your child!  If you happen to forget, so worries!  Once your child gets their picture taken and pictures are printed, your child’s picture will be printed as a proof.  You can then decide to order pictures once you see your child’s picture.

Box Top Day! Box tops are this week!  According to the Monday Montessori Moments the store will be open on Wednesday from 11am-1:00

Pizza money due Tuesdays!  If you want your child to receive pizza on Fridays, please see the  Monday Montessori Moments Rene sends out.  The forms are on there.  Pizza money is taken down to the office on Tuesdays by 10:30am.

Classroom Halloween Party!  This year our classroom Halloween Party will be held on October 31st and it will be in the afternoon fro 12:45-2:30.  Our room mom has created a link for item donations and volunteers!

Click here to help out our party! 

You can then log in your hours on Track it Forward if you help donate any items or your time!  If you pan on helping out during our party please come between 11:45-12:00 noon on October 31st.  I will have the kids eat in the kiva space while volunteers set up in our class.

Independence Project due November 16th.  Our next project will be due on the 16th of November.  Your child may pick a 13th colony or something they are interested in from the Revolutionary War era (ie: life as an early American colonist, the American flag, important people, clothing, food, battles, war supplies etc.).  We welcome our parents and families to come to MMA to visit our Cultural Fair on the Revolutionary time era from 1pm-3pm.  This is also our last day before Thanksgiving Break.  Your child doesn’t have to present a board, but must have a visual and written aspect to their project.  Students are going to be set up in our classroom or in the kiva spaces so that the tour of all the projects spread throughout the school.

Hope your child had a lovely Fall Break!  This week I will be prepping our Text Time reading comprehension work.  Students will be required to work on it.  I will be also prepping reading take home homework and in class extra reading practice.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Week 8 Recap

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Hi Everyone!

Please don’t forget that this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is Fall Parent Teacher Conferences.  

Monday’s PTC- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439125

Tuesday’s PTC- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439126

Wednesday’s PTC- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439127

Misha and I will be going over normalization observations and talk about goals.  I will also give out Dibel’s reading progress reports that have fantastic information regarding what you can do to help your child’s reading. It shows’s their strengths and areas that might need improving.  I will also have the MMA progress report.  Since our school revamped it’s curriculum and we hoping to show portfolio’s at our Winter PTC, the progress report will only have Executive Functions, Math, and Language progress stated on the report.  The cultural areas on the progress report didn’t align with our new revamp, so you will not see it on this go round.  Please know your child is getting cultural lessons and cultural is one of my favorite areas to teach.  I state what cultural lessons your child gets on our blog, so please keep referring to our blog for updated information 🙂

Thank you parents for helped on our field trip and got everyone there.  The children had a great time even with the weather sprinkling on us a little. Thank you all again.

No school will be held on Thursday and Friday of this week because of Fall Break.  Monday-Wednesday are early release days- 1 pm dismissal.  

The Original Art submission is due to the office on Oct. 12th.  If some student’s need more time or the form isn’t submitted by the 12th, there will be another submission time before October is over.  Please submit those yellow folders with the art and order form in them to our office by Oct. 12th.

Pizza order forms are due by Tuesday this year.  This will allow MAPA to have all the money in to order on Wednesdays.  Our class will submit their money to the office at 10:30am on Tuesdays. After Tuesdays, any order forms will have to wait until the next week.  Order forms are on the Montessori Mondays email that Rene sends out.  I also had order forms go home this past Friday.

Past Week:

Picture order forms went home Friday.  If your child happened to not get one, you can order online once your child’s picture is taken or you can ask the office for another order form.  Please note that picture day is October 22nd.  Please have your child in school dress code and have their picture order form turned into Ms. Kaley.

1st graders are working knowing pennies, nickels, and dimes coin names and their worth.  I have them adding up pennies with one of our shelf works, but any student needing more will then be moved onto adding up nickels.  I have the first graders also learning to identify the coin’s faces on both sides.  2nd graders are working on measuring length and learning to compare and contrast, but also learn to explain their reasoning on why they believe one object is longer or shorter than the other.  They are learning word problems as well where they are putting lengths together, but also finding the differences too.  3rd graders will get their lesson on bar graphs this Monday.

All three levels focused on triangles this week in geometry.  2nd graders got to learn the Detective Adjective game in a language lesson this week, but it tied in their geometry too.  Some 1st and 3rd graders sat in on the lesson or watched.

In cultural this week: History and Zoology

We had our monthly Botany lesson on Monday with Ms. Rachel.

Level 1s: Timeline of their life

Level 2s: BC/AD timeline

Level 3s: Stratification of rocks

Level 1s: 5 classes of vertebrate sorting

Level 2s: Internal parts of a fish

Level 3s: Porifera (sea sponges) external parts and their role

Friday– last Art session with with Ms. Trudy.  I had a funeral to attend Friday afternoon, so our students worked on scientific method this week with their mentor class from Junior High.  1st and 2nd graders teamed up to observe, predict, and experiment on the pumpkins bought on the field trip.  3rd graders had the challenge of building candy corn towers that were free standing with just the materials they were given.  I heard they had a great time and enjoyed the activities.

Welcome INDEPENDENCE!  Change projects were due Friday and we started presenting them.  Our new focus will be getting to know the 13 colonies of the early USA and knowing the eastern states of the USA in our group geography lessons we do on Thursdays.  I had the students get to know what states were the 13 colonies and I read them a book on the 1st colony, Virginia.  We will be taking a look at each colony more in-depth and working on learning what the Revolutionary War was and why it took place.  As your child reaches Upper Elementary the cycle of the USA will come back and then your student will learn more detail about that time period.

This coming week we will get to part of our schedule.  It will also be a great catching up week.  

Please visit the book fair after school this week and I’ll see you during our PTC this week!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Week 7 Recap

Posted in Classroom, Field Trips, Home Projects, Reading, Shared School | No Comments »

Hi Everyone!  Important info below!  Please read carefully!

Upcoming Week:

Monday– Permission slips for our field trip Tuesday are DUE!  Please make sure you have emailed our room mom, Katie James, to let her know if you are:

  1. Taking your own child to and from the field trip on our wejoinin sign up sheet (that way I can see who is going with who)
  2. If you have extra seats and are willing to do a carpool (please also do that on our wejoinin)
  3. Email Ms. Kaley to let her know if you are chaperoning (if you haven’t already)

Tuesday– Please drop your child at regular time.  We will have a small work cycle in the AM and 3rd graders will do their computer class.  If you are driving, please be at MMA no later than 9:45am.

  1. Please make sure your child has a collared shirt on.  Jeans are allowed! (no holes).  Comfy shoes on
  2. Is dressed for the weather outside.  It is in the 50s this week, so hoodies, jackets etc. are welcome!
  3. A sack lunch.  We will be eating there at the farm
  4. Backpack to hold everything
  5. Water bottle

If you are chaperoning I have groups that our class is split into.  When we get to the farm I will put the students into their groups.  I am hoping to use colored stickers for the groups too.  Chaperones are responsible for watching those children in our classroom to make sure they stay in their assigned group.  We will congregate at 1:40pm to have students catch their rides.

Taking your child home after the field trip (if you are): PLEASE PLEASE call the office in the AM to let them know if you are checking out your child right after the field trip.  If you are returning to MMA after our field trip, you may also come in and sign your child out.  Have your ID ready 🙂

Pumpkins on the field trip are for purchase. If you would like your child to purchase a pumpkin you may provide them with $1 or $2.  I’ve been told that for every 5 pounds it costs $1 more.  1st and 2nd grade students who purchase a pumpkin will keep it in class for the week.  I have a fun scientific method activity they will be doing on Friday.  Students can also weigh, measure, and make stories this week on/about their pumpkin 🙂  3rd graders will be doing a candy corn STEM scientific method activity this Friday 🙂  3rd graders are totally welcome to still purchase a pumpkin and join in on measuring, weighing, and writing about their pumpkin this week too.

Wednesday– Since Tuesday we are on our field trip, we will be missing our normal PE/Music time.  Ms. Jalee and I have switched our days so that our classes can still have PE and Music.  Wednesday our class will make up their PE class from 10:50am-11:20am.  Lunch is after PE and then Music is from 12:20pm-1:10pm.  Cultural lessons afterwards and then we will restore early to provide an end of the day recess for our class.  Please let your child know that this Wednesday will be a little different.

Friday– Fall Festival after school starting at 4pm!  Come join in on the fun!  Purchase your wristbands and tickets to play the games and have your child enjoy the bounce houses and slides!  Food trucks on site for dinner 🙂   CHANGE PROJECT DUE TODAY!  Thank you to those students who brought in their projects early!  We will start sharing them and then display them outside our classroom.

 

PTC Sign Ups are Ready!

Parent Teacher Conferences are upon us!  Beginning October 15th we will have early outs.  Conferences run in 20 minute increments and begin at 1:30pm.  PTC days are on Oct. 15th, Oct. 16th, and Oct. 17th.  No School on October 18th and 19th.  Please sign up on Track it Forward!  

Monday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439125

Tuesday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439126

Wednesday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439127

 

Original Art!

A yellow folder went home on Friday that I’m pretty excited about!  Every year, we do a special fundraiser that goes directly to JUST OUR CLASSROOM.  This year, we made a special piece of art for our classroom community- The Red Maples.  Students who are done, brought home that piece of art in the yellow folder.  Student who have been absent or are almost done, will bring their leaf art home very soon.  Your child’s classroom art can be turned into anything on that purchase sheet.  This is also a great time to think about Christmas gifts for family members 🙂  Please please review the papers carefully.  The purchasing is not online this year 🙁  It will be on the purchase form also provided in the yellow folder.  Money raised for our classroom will either go towards:

  1. a field trip for just our class
  2. materials/works for our classroom

 

Past Week:

This past week our students worked on a writing prompt about which Great Lesson was their favorite and what they liked best about it.  This coming week our students will write a formal assessment also related to the Great Lessons since our time with the theme of CHANGE has now come to an end!  We will now welcome the theme of INDEPENDENCE and students will work on learning about states in the eastern region of the USA, the 13 colonies, and intro to The American Revolution.  We will also look at Eli Whitney as an inventor and continue our study on the scientific method.

Students in our class wrapped up learning about the states in the northeastern region will now see how some of those states will be applied to the 13 colonies.

We made up some cultural lessons in Geography and Botany this week and learned about the Water Cycle as a whole class in science this week.  We also made our first Library trip too this past Friday.

Geography

Level 1s: Zones of the Earth

Level 2s: Zones of the Earth

Level 3s: Heat energy

Botany

Level 1s: Parts of a plant

Level 2s: Parts of a leaf

Level 3s: Seed germination

Reading Volunteers!

If you have signed up to be a reading volunteer for our classroom I am ready for you to come in!  Please email me if you can come in 1 day each week to help our students with reading goals.  I have sight words, group books, games, and materials for you to help our students with.  Please email me your best day and time you can come in and help out.  Helpers will work with students out in our kiva space or at the student’s work space.  As I gather the list of volunteers and their day they can come in I can then begin our reading volunteers after Fall Break 🙂 Thanks!

Picture Day!

Picture day will be Oct. 22nd.  Forms will be coming soon!