Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello!

Science Fair!

I’ll start with Science Fair!  Friday the kids and I sat down and we talked about Science Fair boards and they told me their hypothesis.  The kids are now on their own to do their experiments, record data, make conclusions, and make their board.  Here is the judging sheet!

Science Fair Rubric  (click on this PDF)

Science projects are due March 24th (a Thursday).  We will start at 1:00pm and go until 2:30pm.  Parents are welcome to come and see projects.  It will be in our room.

Past Week:

In group lessons:

Level 1s: Different kinds of lines in geometry, Mr. Will’s Thursday lesson

Level 2s: Finding angles in polygons in geometry, Mr. Will’s Thursday lesson

Level 3s: MyOn check in, Area and perimeter with difficult shapes in geometry, Mr. Will’s Thursday lesson

Weekly Writing: Facts vs. Opinion

In cultural this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: birds

Level 2s: the nose, the tongue, and the circulatory system. (Circulatory system packet to be completed by this coming Thursday)

Level 3s: Echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea lilies, sea cucumbers)

Friday: Science fair

Spelling stars went pretty well this past Thursday!  We had students rotate between 3 computers.  I’m going to try and figure out to get JUST their list to show up on their end.  All the lists showed up and I had to show them which one was theirs.  Please have your child do their spelling online now at home!  There are a few games that they can play, practice tests, and then there is their real test section.

To find their new list- have them login and then go to TESTS 1st.  They will see which list I assigned to them.  Your child can then find that list in their games and practice to do.

Upcoming Week!

Early out this Thursday!  Please have someone pick up your child at 1pm.  Friday is no school for students.

Wednesday and Thursday, we have important people coming to our school!  Our school is going through the accreditation process this year and they are spending 20 minutes in each class.  I have a lot of meetings this week regarding the preparation of it, so if you need me this week, please know I may end up a day or two behind on emails (just in case).

The Gala is this Friday!  Tickets are still on sale after school or through the MAPA blog (if you buy online).  I hope to see you there!  It is a little fancier than years prior, so dress up and come enjoy a nice night out!

MyOn assignments!  New MyOn assignments will be open this Sunday afternoon!  Level 3s wanted to do a famous person assignment.  It was perfect since we are learning about opinions and just learned facts vs. opinion in this week’s weekly writing. 3rd graders will write about their famous person using facts about them, but also give their opinion.  A new assignment will be up for 2nd and 1st graders too!

I was able to get a computer cart date for March 21st later in the morning.  We will use that date to work with 3rd graders on SAGE practice tests as a group and go over MyOn famous person assignment.  Level 1s will have the computers this time during that morning.  They will be doing MyOn assigned reading that morning and will have to do some in class writing.

Literacy Week!  Our school is having Literacy week the last week of March!  Fun activities and even a Literacy Night at the school (Thursday the 30th) will take place.  My 3rd grade theater groups will have their plays pushed back until April.  Every 3rd grader is staring testing that week!  More on that week coming soon!

Have a great rest of your weekend!  Happy Daylight Savings Time (not!)

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

Past Week:

We had a great week of Dr. Seuss reading and activities.  I was able to do a few group lessons, but we really focused on our fun activities!

Group Lessons:

Level 1s: 2D vs 3D through Whoville town building, health with Ms. Julia

Level 2s: drawing angles continued, health with Ms. Julia

Level 3s: area and perimeter continued, health with Ms. Julia

Monday- Cat in the Hat book, Who was Dr. Seuss, and writing activities

Tuesday- The Foot book.  We drew out and measured our right and left feet.  We then combine the class’ feet and measured them as a group.

Wednesday- Oh! The Places You’ll Go book.  We wrote about places we’d like to go and how we would like to see ourselves in the future.  We also read Wacky Wednesday in the afternoon.

Thursday- The Lorax book.  We focused on recycling and how we resources on our earth are so important.

Friday- Bartholemew and the Oobleck.  They built their Whovilles and I made Oobleck for those who wanted to learn how to make it and touch it.  If you want to make it at home it is a 2:1 ratio of cornstarch to water.  2 cups cornstarch and 1 cup water.  Use whatever food dye color you want.  We used 20 drops of green for the oobleck in the book.

In cultural: History

Level 1s: time to hour and half hour review. Quarter hour lesson this upcoming week

Level 2s: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn

Level 3s: Cretaceous dinosaurs, dinosaur extinction theories

Upcoming Week:

Spelling Stars to Begin!

We had a small handful of kids try out Spelling Stars.  They said it was pretty fun.  To make spelling work, students can login at home and practice their lists and do the few games.  On Thursday, we will have students rotate to take their scored test in class.  The program automatically gives them their score.

Logins: student’s first name letter and entire last name (example: kparsons) (Jayce’s is the only exception because there was a user with jlopez.  His is jlopezrm19)

Password: mskaley 

Happy spelling practice!

Monday we will visit Junior High to see their Invention Convention right after Music is over.

Mr. Will is coming in Thursday to do his monthly art lesson and project with our class.  He will come in around 9am.

Due Dates for this upcoming week!

Tuesday: Persuasive recess writing (done in class)

Wednesday: 3rd graders to have worked on area and perimeter game or task cards, 2nd graders to have their writing from last week reviewed.

Friday: Science hypothesis due

Science Fair!

March 24th is our Science Fair!  Projects will be due on 3/24.  This past Friday, our students had their topics due (what they are going to do for their project)  Only a few students didn’t have their idea.  Those kids will have to have their topic AND their hypothesis for me by this Friday 3/11.  This is so I can make sure their project relates to the Scientific Method.  After this Friday students are on their own to conduct their experiments 3 or more times, record their data, and come to a conclusion.

Objective of project: Students are to choose a topic that can follow the steps of the Scientific Method

– Have a topic (what is your project called)

– What is your hypothesis?  (how do you think your experiment is going to turn out?)

– Experiment (students will conduct their experiment 3 or more times to see if they get the same result or different ones.  Either way, they should record what happens and be able to explain why it stayed the same or why it was different

– Data (students should be take pictures, write notes, have recorded explanations through graphs, pictures, measurements etc. to explain what happened in their experiment)

– Make a conclusion (what were the final results?  Was the hypothesis right or wrong and why?

Board: Students will make a project board that explains their project and experiment.  Help them make the Scientific Method steps into categories on their board

Judging: In Upper Elementary, students are judged on their boards, data, and presentation.  I do judge this project for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.  Previous students in my class, who are now in Upper El, have won ribbons doing the Upper El science fair.  It is great practice for them since the Upper El science fair project is a heavily tasked home project.

Visuals: Students can bring in parts of their project if it helps them explain and show their experiment results.

Can I come?: Parents and other classes at our school are welcome to come visit!  We will start at 1pm and most likely go until 2:30.

Upcoming field trip: 4/21 to Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Thank you to all of you for making our field trip a success.  Thank you to those parents who took time out of their day and came with us!  Having that much support made for a smooth trip.  I am happy that everything worked out.  Even though we had to get a different schedule, it really ran smoothly and all the kids had a great time.

Our last field trip will be to the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum on April 21st.  We will be taking the Frontrunner and Trax again.

Past Week:

Due Date Reminders!

-MyOn assignment for Level 1s and 3s- Due tonight (Sunday)

-Favorite food opinion writing due Tuesday.  We had our weekly writing lesson this past Tuesday on opinions again.  The students are writing about their favorite foods and can CHOOSE (not required) to bring in their favorite food to share on Tuesday afternoon.  Some students are making a little paper craft of their food, some just want to bring in their food, and some want to do both.

-Science Fair, for just our class, was talked about on Friday!  We came up with a due date on March 24th.  It will be in our room from 1:00-2:15.  Science Fair topics are due this Friday, March 4th.  The following Friday will be their hypothesis.

3rd Grade Studio Plays!:

* My 3rd graders need to start bringing in costumes, props, etc. for our studio Theater plays!  Ask your 3rd grader what they might need for their theater plays.  We want to start collecting things now.  If you or someone you know is crafty or good at building, we need help making backdrops and scenery for our theater plays.  We know we need a fairly large puppet show stage and a dog house.  Let me know if you or someone would be willing to paint backdrops, help make costumes, props etc.

We are going to perform all 6 plays the last week in March for Literacy Week! Dates TBD.  All props, costumes, etc. should be ready to go by March 25th (Last day of studio).

Group Lessons:

Level 1s: 2D vs 3D for geometry

Level 2s: Grammar/word study story for weekly writing lesson, Drawing angles with protractor for geometry

Level 3s: Grammar/word study story for weekly writing lesson, Area and Perimeter house project

In cultural: Botany and some Geography

Level 1s: Stems of a plant, Scales and Tales

Level 2s: Tree introduction, Geyser experiment, Scales and Tales

Level 3s: Pollination of flowers, Honey Bees, Pollination activity, Scales and Tales

Upcoming Week:

Dr. Seuss week is this week!  March 2nd is the famous author’s birthday and our class will read a Dr. Seuss book every day this week and do an activity or two to go with it!

Our monthly health lesson, with Ms. Julia, will be on Thursday morning.

PE shoes for Monday!  With the weather starting to get warmer, more PE classes will be outside.

That should be everything coming up for this week!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

Important Planetarium Information!:

I have some important information regarding the field trip on Thursday 2/25th.  The Planetarium has made a huge error.  When Jalee scheduled our field trip back in August, we got an email that we were booked and everything was set; we would receive our official confirmation email 4-6 weeks before our field trip.  As we got closer, the confirmation was not showing up.  Melanie in our office and Jalee began emailing and calling.  We never heard back.  Jaleel and I called this past week and again, we still had to leave messages.  I said I would go on Saturday to talk to a real person.  Yesterday, I went up to the Planetarium to find out what was wrong, or if we needed to cancel.  I talked to the floor supervisor and she was appalled.  Our information was never book for our field trip the field trip coordinator.  She and I sat down and created a back up plan to try and save our field trip.  If this plan can be squeezed in, I will get a call on Monday telling me, “yes” we can still go, or “no” this unfortunately will not work out.

Things are going to be a little last minute this week.  Melanie has the payment link ready to go for the chaperone going, but we haven’t posted it yet, for both classes, because of this ridiculousness we have been dealing with.

The supervisor and I planned on this makeshift schedule:

9:00ish-9:30am: Check in

9:45am- Educational and interactive planet discussion

A little after 10:00am- Free to explore the Planetarium exhibits

10:50am- Gather in the front

11:00am- Lunch at The Gateway Food Court

11:50am- Need to be back for IMAX movie

12:45pm- Gift shop and more exhibit exploration

1:15pm- Gather for class count and to walk to Trax and then taken Frontrunner back to Wall Ave.

2:5ish/3:00pm- Arrive back to Ogden Station on Wall Ave.

If things don’t go well, The Planetarium owes and and will reschedule (we hope).  Please be on the look out for emails this week that say “yay” or “nay.”

If things are a go- here is important field trip information:

– Students need to be in dress code.  MMA, no collared, approved shirts are still welcomed

– Pack coat/hoodie to wear in the morning. Dress in layers, the morning are usually really chilly

– Bring a backpack to keep items safe

– Pack a lunch with no heatable items.  Water bottle included!

– Wear comfortable shoes!

– Money for the gift shop is up to you as the parents/guardians

– Please double check what your child wants to bring to entertain themselves on the train.  I told my class nothing expensive.  It is not my responsibility for any item lost or stolen.

I really hope things work out.  Even if we don’t go, they are doing a lot of work to recover what originally planned for us. However, things might be a little out of order from our original plan, so please be flexible with us.

Parents/guardians that are coming with us will have a small group of students to manage.  You are free to take your group wherever in the Planetarium, but please bring your group, on time, to when we need both classes to meet.  The chaperones I have are:

-Lori

-Kristie

– Linda

-Rachel

-Danny

– Enrique

– Alicia

– Michelle

– Chris

– Mandy

– Ashley

– Janai (I had a question mark next to your name.  Let me know if you can’t go)

* Ms. Emilee and I will have a group or two also.

Past Week:

We continued to work on organization and bettering the student’s grace and courtesy of the classroom.  While there is still improvement to be made, things are getting a bit better.  Emilee and I tried not having work checked off right after your child completes a work.  This has helped Emilee keep students more in task to their work and leave her time to help students.  We’ve made some work turn in areas and have students better utilizing their Math and Language binders.  We gathered our groups of 15 students each on Thursday afternoon and asked each student to prove what they did.  This worked out great.  It left us time to chat with those students about what they are accomplishing and what more they could do or new lessons they may need.

Reading groups have also improved.  We have every reading group reading on Wednesdays and Thursdays and just a few of the groups reading on Tuesdays with Emilee.

I have reorganized group lessons too.  Here is the schedule for when I need just levels

Mondays- All 3 levels of cultural and Level 1 Geometry

Tuesdays- Level 2 Geometry and Level 3 Language/Writing lesson.  Weekly afternoon Writing lesson after lunch with whole class.

Wednesdays- Level 3 Geometry and Level 2 Language/Writing lesson

Thursdays- Level 1 Language/Sentence Writing and Level 3 Fractions + open fractions help.

Upcoming Week:

Monday: We have PE and Music tomorrow, so please remember some PE shoes for your child

Tuesday: School wide drill in the morning

Wednesday: Scales and Tales in the afternoon

Thursday: Planetarium (hopefully)

* With the Planetarium field trip coming up, I am saving Spelling for next week.  We will try out the new Spelling Stars system next week and see how it goes.

Those who wanted reading/math homework will have those print offs/MyOn assignments tomorrow

MyOn assignments for Level 1s and 3s will be posted today!  Students will have a week to complete their at home assignment.

Have a great upcoming week!  Hopefully see a good group of you on Thursday.

Cheer!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Hope your kiddo is enjoying the long weekend!  Our reset/back to basics of grace and courtesy went well for the short week.  Emilee and I will continue to focus on some basics and also help those students learn/regain Montessori independence.

Thank you to all of you who signed up and came to conferences!  It was so nice to see all of you again!

Online Spelling: I am working on having our students do their spelling online through www.spellingstars.com  I can upload all of our rainbow boxes for early readers and spellers.  I’ve been working on the first grade list since I didn’t like the preloaded 1st grade one.  I have made everyone a login and password and students can take their spelling tests through a computer (or still handwritten) on spelling test day (Thursdays).  the site has some fun little games such as: word search, fill in the blank, and catch the right word.  I know a lot of you wanted your child’s spelling to come home, but lists weren’t making it.  I am planning on having it up and fully running by next week.  I still have some tweaking to do.  If you want to poke around the site or save it now, it is www.spellingstars.com

Past Week:

Monday, on our only full day, we worked a lot on grace and courtesy in the classroom.  We skipped cultural for the week and focused on watching the students, wrote down notes, and discussed how we can better the rest of the year.

Our Valentine’s Day party was a great success!  The students did such a great job with the activities and keeping the crafting mess to a manageable situation.  Thank you so much to many of you who came to help out and for planning all the activities!

Mr. Will’s art project, on Thursday, was a great little activity that went great with our grace and courtesy mentions.  He talked about community and how our classroom is a community even though we have many differences, we still are one.  They made their names out of pipe cleaners and Mr. Will made a strong “castle” that they put their names in it to support it.

Upcoming Week:

We have a pretty uninterrupted week.  The following week has a few things going on.  Next week we have Scale and Tails visiting on the 24th and then the 25th is our field trip to the Planetarium.  I have the majority of the permission slips.  I will have those students who need to sign them to get those signed this coming week.

A couple of you requested to have reading/math work practice to come home.  I will start that the week of February 22nd.  This will be the same for the next round of MyOn assignments.  There’s a few new reading group/fluency groups I want to focus on this coming week and have a schedule work out for those groups and students.

If anyone wants to come in and help with reading, please email me and let me know!

Have a great upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

3rd grade parents,

Here are the 3 SAGE dates posted.  All 3 tests are to begin at 12:00pm and the students go until 3:00pm. 3rd graders will have an early lunch and recess that day.

Language test- March 31st

Writing test-  April 19th

Math test-  May 10th

Hi Everyone!

Level 2 and Level 3 parents!  Your child has an assignment that they started this morning that is due on February 8th.  It would be even better if I had all of them submitted by Sunday evening.

Level 2s read 3 books on Mercury, Venus, and Earth.  They have 25 questions to answer based on those 3 books.  Most students are typing out their answers by copying the questions into the writing section and then writing their answers.  PLEASE REMEMBER TO PUSH THE SAVE BUTTON!!!  The save button is at the top of the page.  If your student chooses to handwrite their response, that is fine too.

Level 3s read 2 books on The Mesozoic Era.  They are writing a 3 paragraph essay on the comparisons and contrasts between the Triassic and Cretaceous periods. They need to discuss the similarities and differences between dinosaurs, how the earth was, plants, events etc.  It may be helpful for them to do their 2nd paragraph 1st to help them set up their beginning, 1st paragraph, and their closing paragraph-the 3rd one.  All of their expectations and clues to the set up are on their instruction page.  I have no problem if you sit your child down and go over it with them.  This piece of writing is going to be printed for our conferences next week and their 3rd grade file that gets passed along to upper el.

Happy reading and writing!

Level 1s will have their turn on the computers with an assignment next week.  3rd graders will get another assignment and Level 2s will do regular work cycle off their work charts like the Level 1s did today.

Hello!

We had a pretty uninterrupted week.  This coming week we will have a few extra things going on.  February is going to be busy.

I posted the Winter Parent Teacher Conference sign up sheet on Friday afternoon.  Please look at the post below this one and sign up!  I look forward to meeting with all you again!

Past Week:

Group Lessons:

Level 1s: Writing sentences and language practice, fractions

Level 2s: Protractor intro and protractor measuring

Level 3s: Fractions, area and perimeter

In Cultural lessons: Botany

Level 1s: Roots, roots parts, and foods that are roots

Level 2s: Leaf mosaic activities

Level 3s: Filament and Androecium of a flower (reviewing parts of a flower that holds the pollen)

Upcoming Week:

Monday we have the cart of computers.  I will be working with Level 3s on typing/formatting paragraph responses through the MyOn program.  Level 2s will also be working on a MyOn assignment Monday morning.  We have the computers until 10:00am and then students will switch to works off their works charts as I do cultural lessons.

Wednesday morning we have our monthly health lesson.

We started a new artist, Henri Matisse.  We talked about him this past Friday and are preparing to do a 3D paper vase project to display for the mini art show that will be going on during PTC.  While you are visiting the Book Fair, please take a moment to look at the art going on in Upper and Lower studio classes.  Ms. Trudy (Mr. John’s assistant) is putting on this mini art show.

The Junior High is selling carnations as part of a fundraiser for their 9th grade field trip.  Here is what I know:

February 1^st, 2nd, 3rd 4^th, and 5^th both before and after school they will be on sale near the front office. Carnations will be delivered to the recipient’s classroom on February  8th, after 11:30 am. 

Hello Everyone!  I realized that last week was supposed to be Week 19, not Week 20.  This past week was Week 20.  I made the correction on last week’s title as to not post 2 Week 20s.

Our Open House on Tuesday night went really well!  Thank you for passing the word along!

Our Sees Candy fundraiser has 1 more week.  Get those candy orders into me by Friday.  They are picking them up by mid morning on the 29th.

Another round of illness seems to be going around the school again.  It got to me, so I was out on Thursday.  Mr. Will, luckily, was scheduled to come in anyways that morning to do his monthly art lesson with our class.

Studio started back up for its last 8 classes.  Studio classes on Friday will go until the end of March.

Valentine‘s Day Party: I would love to schedule our class party for the afternoon of February 12th.  I will be getting in touch with our room mom to see what we can plan.  Elena Hess has ordered our class little boxes the class can color and put things in.  If you come across a cute craft or have an idea, let Jaida or I know.

Past Week:

Group Lessons:

Level 1s: Correcting sentences, Capitals, Punctuation

Level 3s: Multiplication SAGE practice test (only some were able to start this past week)

In cultural: Geography

Level 1s: Continuation of the compass rose with directions

Level 2s: Parts of a volcano and how volcanoes work

Level 3s: Intro to the water cycle

Upcoming Week:

Still could aways use reading and spelling helpers.  Email me and let me know what days and times you would like to help!  Thursdays we do our spelling tests starting at 9am.

Since I was out this past Thursday, students will take their spelling tests on Monday and then, as usual, get their new or repeated list by the afternoon when they come back from PE and Music.

Please remember sneakers for tomorrow (Monday for PE in the gym) and also winter gear to play outside in at recess!

Please look at our snack list!  I know as we move forward with this last half of the year that there are still openings.  Tae’Lynn’s turn for snack is this coming week and next week and then it will be Nicholas.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Happy 2016!  I had a funeral last weekend, so sorry to not post.

Hope you are having a nice long weekend! The kids came back to school ready to go.  This past week it seems they are falling into that antsy in your pantsy time of year.  Emilee and I are really maintaining the grace and courtesy of our classroom, with some students, and are still going over reminders and procedures to keep everyone still working as a team community.

Past Week:

We had our first round of computers this past Monday.  Our school is now offering a whole computer cart to go to a classroom for an hour and half.  We used that time to take the mid year math assessment, 3rd grade practice fraction SAGE test, and MyOn.  In February, I have signed us up to have it once a week.  I will take 2 grade levels at a time to work on: writing/SAGE skills with 3rd graders, typing/writing skills for 2nd graders, and reading skills with 1st graders.

In group lessons:

Level 1s: answering the 5 questions (who, what, where, when, why in a story)

Level 2s: answering the 5 questions (who, what, where, when, why in a story)

Level 3s: Topic sentences, answering the 5 questions (who, what, where, when, why in a story)

In cultural lessons: Zoology

Level 1s: Reptiles

Level 2s: Manatees and Dugongs

Level 3s: Mollusks and Clams

Upcoming Week:

Tomorrow, Tuesday 1/19 from 7-8: Do you know of someone who wants to know what Montessori is?  Maybe wants to send their child to MMA, but needs to know more?  Here is the chance!  From 7-7:20, have someone who would be interested, come and learn the basics of “What is Montessori?”  After the presentation, each Lower and Upper teacher will take a few parents to their rooms to give a quick tour of the classroom and then answer one on one questions.  Arrive a little earlier to watch a slide show and get a parking space!

I mentioned that our classroom does a Science Fair and a lot of the students are super excited.  I mentioned it will take place in March, but some students have some BIG ideas they want to explore.  If your child is talking about or seems to be more into science, have them start exploring 🙂  We will start going over that project in February.

I’d like to do a classroom Valentine’s Day party.  If you have any ideas or want to help, let our room mother, Jaida, know.  Right now, we haven’t planned anything, but will be in talks about it soon!

Winter Gear:  Some students are not coming to school with much cold weather gear.  Students go outside for recess.  Please make sure your student has boots, gloves, and a coat that keeps them warm.  Mondays are still PE days.  Please make sure your child has sneakers too to run around the gym in on Mondays.  Boots can be uncomfortable (so the kids tell me).

That should be about it.  If anything else comes up, I’ll give another post!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K