Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hi Everyone!

Past Week and Upcoming week:

Fun Run Fundraising:

This past week we were all introduced to Boosterthon’s Fun Run.  This was the email I sent you on Friday regarding how we are raising money for our school’s field adventures and field trips.  Our school is looking to raise money for students participating in the 6th and 9th grade field trips so that every child may have the opportunity to get to do those special trips.

Your child is looking for pledges for every lap that they run during the Fun Run.  Every pledge helps our school goal.  As the students help obtain pledges, we get classroom incentives, and your child also gets prizes from Boosterthon for certain goals.  Please help out our class by this Friday.  Thank you for all your donations and help in this event.

Our students finished up Math U See this past week for those who needed to finished up.  Some students were able to complete the pages they have been working on and some students did as much as they know or were able to focus on.  These Math U See mid year examples will be one example in your child’s portfolio.

We went on to learn more about the Westward Expansion in regards to reviewing what the Expansion was and also what the Louisiana Purchase was.  This coming week we will look more closely at who President Thomas Jefferson was and what the Pony Express was.  In Writing, your child will complete a 4 square writing graphic organizer on a person during the Westward Expansion time era or an invention from that era (telegraph, steam boat).  4 square writing allows your child to read an informational piece of reading and then take notes about what they learned and they classify the information into 4 categories.  We will then turn this 4 square practice round into a piece of informational writing.  I am hoping to have everyone complete their writing piece before conferences.  Those who stay on task should have no problem achieving this goal.

Fun Run-  On Friday February 1st, our class will have art with Ms. Trudy and then they will do the glow run at 9:50-10:50.  Our small math lessons we normally do on Friday mornings will get done Thursday afternoon instead.

Last week we got to 2nd Geography and 3rd grade Science for cultural.  This week 1st and 2nd graders will have Botany and History lessons while 3rd graders will do Zoology and History lessons.  3rd graders will be excited to know that we will begin learning about Dinosaurs!  We begin the Triassic Period on Wednesday.

Spelling Bee:  In February, our annual Spelling bee will take place.  This week, since STEM week displays and all that are all over, I will be going over it with the students.  I highly ask that your student try to practice and participate to try and be one of our classroom representatives for the Lower Elementary spelling bee.  Those students who really decide that they don’t want to try will be asked to do a home project with the Spelling Bee words.  Those students can make silly sentences with the words, create a card/board game with the words etc.  (the creative choices are up to the child.)  Those students who try their best and no matter if they make it to the Lower El Spelling Bee or not, will get credit towards participating in the Bee.  The Spelling Bee words are copyrighted and I cannot post or email out a digital copy, I do not have the authority to do so.  Your child will come home with a printed version of the Spelling Bee words.  Those words will actually be the words chosen during the Bee on Feb 26th.  Even students who are working on CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant words) will find that the first column of 1st grade words are CVC words, allowing those students to feel successful in trying to do their best.  Words lists will go out this week.  Happy studying!

Chili Cook Off-  Please visit the MMM email that is sent out if you would like to participate in the annual Chili Cook off or just come and try all the different kinds of wonderful chilis.  It is next week and I believe it is the 30th of January.  Please double check the flyer on the MMM.

PTC- Please sign up on Track It Forward to reserve your mid-year PTC.  This is a student led conference and your child will be showing the work they have completed for their portfolio.  On Wednesday Feb 13th, I have my daughter’s PTC from 1:45pm-2:00pm.  If you sing up for the 1:50pm-2:10pm slot on Wednesday, please know I will be there for half of it, but Ms. Misha will be there too 🙂

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!  Thanks 🙂

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hi Everyone!

Past Week:

This past week we talked about what an Economy is.  To learn how an economy works we are having the students earn fake paper money for tasks during their day.  This last Monday we held a classroom meeting and students talked about how they will earn money.  We all agreed that if you:

1. Do your classroom job you can get a $1.00 (a total of $5.00 if done every day at the end of the week.)
2. If someone borrows something of yours you can charge $1.00.  This will be the same for wanting to have or borrow something that belongs to the teachers or classroom supplies.  It will be the teacher’s decision on how much to charge depending on the item and the frequency of use.
3. Students can earn $5.00 for doing their assigned follow up works on time.
4. Students can earn $5.00 for completing all work goals done for the day
5. Students can earn $10.00 at the end of the week if all Spiral Math, Word Work, Text Time, and any needed writing assignments are in the “done” bins before recess on Fridays.

Students are also learning the business side of an economy.  If a student has completed all of their work goals for the day (Coming to lessons included), then that student may participate in what we are calling Market Time.  A student may open their own small business to sell a skill of theirs to others.  A lot of our students like to craft really inventive things and some students are learning to crochet.  Students who want to participate can then work on things to make and then on Fridays if your student gets to Earned Friday Time they can sell their crafts.

When we get to the week of conferences and Valentine’s Day week, on one of those half days we will have what is called Store Day.  If you have been with me in the years past, we have done this activity before.  Students can elaborate on the business they want to run and sell items during that morning with the money they are collecting over these next few weeks.  Students may make baked goods, do hair/nails, sell unused toys they don’t want anymore, auction something they no longer want, but someone else may want, and sell crafts (bracelets, drawings, origami etc.).  We like to debrief with the student after to see how much money they began with, how much they earned through their business, and how much they spent.

PTC- Mid Year is approaching!  Please sign up on Track It Forward for your time slot!  These conferences  are students led.  Each student has a portfolio that they have been doing reflections in and putting in works that pertain to a standard.  If a student isn’t quite achieving that standard then we will show you how they are working towards it.  If your student doesn’t have that piece for their portfolio then that student isn’t abiding by their turn in due dates.  We work with each child in our classroom at their own individual pace and each student works and different rates and paces.  Seeing real work samples of your child’s work will allow you to see how they are doing.  Since your student will be talking and showing their examples it will be a showcase of their current progress and how they want to progress on those standards for the end of the year.  The hope is to show growth and that your child isn’t just a number on a progress report 🙂

This past week was STEM Week.  What a week!  We had assemblies and project presentations throughout the week.  This past Friday we set up our class’s projects like a mini cultural festival and half the students presented and the other half visited the others.  Then we switched.  I was able to make it around to all the projects that were there to hear their presentations.  This week, our 3rd graders will display their projects in the hall on Wednesday.  2nd graders will display theirs on Thursday and 1st graders will display theirs on Friday.  After their display day they can take their projects home.

Home projects are on break for now and the rest of the themes have events to participate in.  The next one in February will be The Spelling Bee.  We will have each student participate in trying their best and then I will test who will represent our class at the MMA Spelling Bee.  Our students will have a month to practice and prepare.  The Spelling Bee will be February 26th from 9am-10am.  The last event will be in March for Literacy Week.

Upcoming Week:

We will be back to a regular schedule this coming week.  We will get into some Geography lessons for cultural and work on learning about the Westward Expansion for our Group History and Geography.  This week we will learn about the Louisiana Purchase.

Remember: Pizza Money is due Tuesdays!

We are in need of some snack!  The next few weeks are not signed up for.  If you can, please sign up for snack support 🙂

Have a great rest of your long weekend. Please sign up for conferences!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

We have an extremely busy upcoming week filled with assemblies, activities, and project sharing.  Please look at the schedule carefully to help inform your student.  Recess and Lunch times are also effected by some of the changes and to accommodate them they will come at different times throughout the week!

Monday: STEM Assembly from 10:30am-11:45am.  Lunch is 1st at 11:50am-12:20pm.  Recess will then follow from 12:30-1:00pm.  3rd graders will go off to an assembly on Caves and Rock Stratification from 1:15pm-1:45pm.

Tuesday:  No Computers today (Ms. Megan will be out).  Botany with Ms. Rachael will be from 9:35am-10:25pm.  Recess for everyone will then be after from 10:30am-11:00am.  Everyone will then continue work cycle.  3rd graders will attend another 3rd grade only assembly from 11:30am-12:15pm and it will be on Chemistry.  1st and 2nd graders will get cleaned up at 11:50am and then everyone will do lunch from 12:15pm-12:45pm.  Everyone will then do their normal PE and Music time in the afternoon beginning at 1:10pm.

Wednesday: I will be judging Upper Elementary and maybe Junior High Science Fair projects until after lunch.  Ms. Misha will stay with the class and will do a STEM Shelter Challenge in the morning.  If any parent volunteers would like to help out Ms. Misha this day, please email me 🙂

*We are in need of “building materials” for our STEM challenge!  If you have any of these around your house, please bring them in by Wednesday!

• Cardboard (tissue boxes, cereal boxes etc.)
• Toilet paper/ Paper towel tubes
• Paper plates
• Aluminum foil
• Craft sticks
• Wax paper
• Pipe cleaners
• Rolls of tape

Thursday: We will clean up from work cycle at 10:45pm and then do recess at 11:00am-11:30am.  Lunch will be from 11:30am- 12:00pm.  3rd graders will be going to a Planetarium assembly at 12:00pm.  2nd graders will then go to their Planetarium assembly at 12:35pm and then 1st graders will go last at 1:10pm.  We will do our Library visit early this week at the end of the day from 2:30pm-3:00pm

Friday: STEM PROJECTS ARE DUE TODAY!  We have Art with Ms. Trudy from 8:40am-9:30am.  I don’t need any volunteers this morning for reading because afterwards the students will share their STEM projects in our room.  We will then do a portfolio reflection about STEM week and their projects. A Scales and Tales presentation will take place in the afternoon (we are waiting on our time)

This coming week the students will learn what an Economy is and will decide together how our Classroom Economy will be set up.  I have paper money that can be earned for doing their classroom jobs and how else they want to set up their economy earning.  This financial literacy skill will be to help students understand how earning works.  Part of the activity is event learn how to write a check!  In the coming weeks we will set up a Classroom Market day  where students can work together or individually on selling a skill of theirs (certain crafts, auctioning an item, a baked good or food etc.)

We will also continue our group Geography with beginning the Westward Expansion.  The students have been wanting to know more about the states out west, so we will begin how Early Americans decided to go west and why they wanted to.

Past Week:

This past week we looked at early American paper money and how paper money was created differently in each of the colonies.  Some money was worth more depending on what colony you went to because of their economy’s success.  Students got an overview that some designs of paper money failed and money went from being private to becoming something all Americans can use within any state.

Students made a money flip book on Thursday to help them remember how much each of our coins we use are worth and how many of those coins tally up to a $1.00.

We began the mid year Math U See assessments on Wednesday.  Depending on how your student did at the beginning of the year was the starting place for them this time around.  I’ve graded the tests they took and then if they can do any of the problems on the other tests they will continue to work on those.  The majority of the tests show a great improvement in adding and subtracting skills.  I’ve noticed that more 3rd graders attempted the rounding problems this time around than they did in the beginning of the year and also tackled more the larger adding and subtracting problems.

Dyad reading is going well and the students seem to be enjoying reading out loud together after lunch.

We continued our 13 colonies 4 square note taking some.

In Cultural: Botany, Geography, and Science

Level 1s: Parts of a root

Level 2s: Different kinds of leaves, The Rock Cycle intro.

Level 3s: Simple machines, compound machines, and how Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion show up in these machines.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your Sunday!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello! Welcome 2019!  Please read carefully for important information!

With the 2 days that we were back we organized binders and added the 2nd half of any papers that are needed that the students do weekly.

We also began a special kind of reading called Dyad reading.  This is something the students will be doing after lunch for 15 minutes Monday-Thursday.  If we can get it in on Fridays we will.  It is a special kind of buddy reading that looks at a student’s exile reading level.  I obtained the information from the recent DIBELS testing that was finished before Christmas break.

What is a Lexile level?

The Lexile^® Framework for Reading is a scientific approach to measuring both reading ability and the text complexity of reading materials on the same developmental scale.

I list the students from highest to lowest and you split the list in half and match the students up.  One partner is the “higher reader” and the other is the “developing reader.”  The higher reader tracks the words and the buddies read aloud together.  The developed reader hears their buddy and sees the word and tries to keep up with them.  The University of Utah has developed positive research behind the reading method and data shows this kind of buddy reading can help significantly help raise reading scores.  The developed reader also reads above their reading level according the research.

Dyad reading is also something you as parents can do with your child.  For more information, please take a moment to look at this:  DYAD READING

We also began another writing piece regarding informational writing. Students are picking a topic of interest from the 13 colonies era.  They are using a note taking skill called 4 square writing that will help them turn their research into a piece of learned writing.  We had the COW Friday morning and some students were able to get started on picking a topic.  The others were working on finishing up their time with Imagine Learning because some of the computers weren’t all the way charged, so some had to wait.

STEM Week is approaching!  Not this coming week, but the week after is STEM Week!  It looks like the project touring day will be Wednesday to see Upper El and Junior High projects.  The Lower El’s project day will be the week of January 22nd (After MLK day).  I would like to have the student’s projects due on January 18th.  We will use this time to share their projects in class with our students.  When it is the Lower El’s turn to show their projects the week of the 22nd, they won’t be standing and presenting.  Their projects will just be on display to see.

The week of STEM Week will also bring lots of assemblies and out of routine lessons.  These workshops might be for the entire class or just for certain levels.  Some of the workshops are at times that go into normal recess and lunch time.  We will adjust recess and lunch schedules to accommodate students’ workshops.  By the end of this week we will know more on what levels and workshops students will be attending.  I will make those updates in next week’s blog post.

An after school event is taking place on Thursday from 6-7:30pm.  The movie ScreenAgers will be shown.  It is a movie about screen time and the effects it has on the developing teenage brain.  It is open to anyone, so if you are interested it will be taking place Thursday the 10th in the Junior High Commons area.

Friday January 11th- No School for students- PD day for teachers.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha