Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Everyone!

Independence Project!

The Independence Project is coming up!  It is due November 16th!  The project overview, as well as all the project overviews, are in your Back to School Night folder and at the top of this blog under “Projects.”  Your child should pick a project that is about the United States.  We have been learning about the American Revolution time era, so our students should be picking a state from the 13 colonies, or an interest that is from the American Revolutionary time.

This week and next we will be going over life as colonist and provide the students more ideas for what they want to choose or help give more information to help support their project choice.  The Independence project will be our project for the school’s Cultural Festival!  You and any family and friends are invited to MMA between 1pm and 3pm to view projects throughout the school and learn what students have researched and presented during our Independence theme.  After the festival is over the students may leave their projects to share and will take them home once we get back from Thanksgiving Break.

November 16th Cooking Volunteers!  I have a recipe in a colonial american book for kids that has a Johnny Cakes recipe.  The morning of November 16th, I am looking for any you who wouldn’t mind taking a few kids at a time to learn how to make them and then eat them.  If anyone is interested, please email me and let me know.  The recipe is pretty simple and would need a few ingredients and some griddles to cook them on.

I’m considering some little Thanksgiving activities the kids can do too that morning.

Past Week

This past week’s highlights involved the 2nd graders reviewing time to the quarter hour.  This would be a great skills to help enforce and practice at home.  Everyone began Text Time, a small reading passage that has your child answering a few questions and finding supporting details as they read to help them answer the questions.  1st graders who were at school Friday really enjoyed Snake Game Seach for 10 in their lesson.  They set up a line of Montessori’s colored beads and learned how to tackle an equation such as 6+4+5+5+9+1+3+7+2+8=?  The group did well and will move onto a harder snake game this coming week.  3rd graders met with me as the first group to learn about final drafts and what editing and revising means in their writing.

In cultural this past week: History, Zoology, Geography

Level 1s: Kinds of fish, the year 2018 as our place in time

Level 2s: Time review to the quarter hour mark, tectonic plates intro

Level 3s: Cambrian and Ordovician life, Cnidarians (sea anemones and jellyfish)

*Level 3s will be taking a break from Botany until March since their curriculum revolves around flowers. They will continue other extensions and learning in their other cultural subjects, including science specifically for 3rd graders.

Friday- Scientific Method steps.  We did a class experiment with corn kernels.  Students learned to read a question, propose a hypothesis, list materials and read the procedures, record observations, and then draw a conclusion.  The corn kernels were put into a mixture of baking soda and water.  Then, vinegar was added.  The kernels then floated and sank as if they were “hopping.”

Upcoming Week:

This week will be Red Ribbon Week.  We will have a speaker on Tuesday that will help enforce students to make healthy choices for their lives.  On Friday we have an author coming to present to all of Lower Elementary, Gary Hogg.  We will have an assembly from 9-10am on Friday and then in the afternoon from 2-3, the 3rd graders will do a writing workshop with him.

Pizza money is due Tuesday if you so choose to participate

Reading Volunteers- If anyone is interested in being a reading volunteer, please let me know what day you can come in and if you prefer morning or afternoon.  Most volunteers stay between an hour to an hour and a half.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha