Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Everyone!

Past Week:

This past week we began Geometry with Level 2s and 3s and introduced the penny and nickel to Level 1s.  All Level 1s are working on our penny box 1.  Working with pennies and skip counting by 5s with nickels would be great home activity to do with your child.  Almost all first graders also began learning preprimary sight words.  Some of our Level 1s are working on knowing 3 at a time and some are working on all of set 1.  Sight words are words you can’t necessarily sound out and are the most often words seen in text.  A few of you have asked, “How can I help my child at home?”  Going over sight words (for any level) and reading 20 minutes a day are the most beneficial home activities you can do with your child.  Please visit the site below to work on sight words at home with your child:

Sight Words List.  Click me!  This site also has game suggestions, flash cards etc.

3rd grade Multiplication Goal: This year, the Lower Elementary team made a team wide goal to help support our school goal of improving our student’s math skills.  70% of all 3rd graders (in all of MMA) will know their multiplication times tables up to 12s by the end of May 2018.  My student goal for our classroom is to help support this team goal by having 70% of Ms. Kaley’s/Ms. Misha’s 3rd graders know their multiplication times tables up to 12s by the end of May 2018.  This will be measured in our classroom through the use of Montessori materials, flash cards, game extensions, and through our math facts and monthly multiplication assessments.  3rd grade parents, please begin helping support our school and classroom goal by working on multiplication tables at home.  Start with 0s and then progress up to 12s.  Students are considered mastered in a times table when they can pass off on flash cards on that table in under a minute and can do a times table math facts timed test in under 5 minutes.  I will give each 3rd grade family a copy of the math facts times tables to take home to work on at  Fall conferences.

Fall Conferences are approaching:  I have the Fall Conference schedule ready to go.  Ms. Misha and I have children that attend MMA and we will need to go to our child’s conference too.  I am going to check with Ms. Jen’s schedule and then once I know my time slot I will put up our classroom’s schedule so nobody is double booked.  I should have  the schedule posted by our next post (if not before).

More help/strategies for beginning readers: I attended an all day DIBLES progress monitoring Professional Development this past Tuesday.  It allowed me to look at data and learn to make goals.  My plan is to progress monitor those students who are “red” most often.  If your child is yellow, they will get progressed monitored every other week and those who are green or blue will get progressed monitored once a month.  I am hoping this schedule will help improve reading skills.  For first graders, knowing letter names and sounds were assessed for this Fall DIBELS assessment, but by the middle of the year (January), they are required to start reading a 1st grade leveled passage.  Students who are working on beginning to read really benefit from knowing nonsense words.  Another great resource to have at home to practice with your beginning reader are those nonsense words and to review the letter name fluency.  I will try to make copies for those students to have at home during conferences, but here are my two favorites to use at home

LetterNamingFluency  See how far your child can get in 1 minute.  You can do letter name and/or sounds.  Great tool to use at home for letter practice!

NSFPracticePages  These are nonsense words.  Every month it changes.  We want to see how far a child can get in 1 minute.  Students who start are working on sounding out each sound.  The goal of a nonsense word is to read the whole word.  Very useful to use at home to help beginning readers!

Permission slip: On Friday, I distributed a permission slip.  The white paper has all of our currently scheduled field trips for the year.  If you initial on all those field trips then that one paper takes care of all the field trips for the year!  The pink paper is yours to keep!  This paper is the detail for our upcoming service project with Ms. Steph’s class. Please email our room mom, Katie James, if you would like to help chaperone.  We are only going within a mile radius around MMA, so no transportation will be needed for this field trip.  Please begin thinking about our trip to Black Island Farms at the end of the month.  Carpools, drop offs, and chaperones will be needed for that trip.  Arrival at the farm is at 9:30am.  Please let Katie know if you can drop off your own child, will be a chaperone, and/or will need a ride for your child.  Katie will receive our classroom roster that has ever family’s email.  If you need a ride for your child, she will email everyone who might have an empty seat in their car.  Those who need a ride to Black Island Farms usually meet their carpool at North Shore in the parking lot.  Some families choose to do carpools on their own because they know other families in our class and they go and pick up that student.  If you don’t know any families and need a ride for your child, North Shore is the place for pick up/drop off.  Katie, I would like to know who would like to be a chaperone for our trash pick up by Oct. 9th.  For Black Island Farms, I would like to know the chaperone list and carpool, drop off list by Oct. 23rd.

In cultural this past week: History

Level 1s: October calendar, days of the week, months by season

Level 2s: Kinds of galaxies and a star’s lifecycle

Level 3s: Overview of the timeline of life and began making a timeline of life flip book to use when we begin studying each Era and Period

Friday- Knowing that some of our common foods come from the rainforest.  Some students took home a list to play a grocery store scavenger hunt.  We also had a grace and courtesy lesson on please, thank you, and socially acceptable manners such as holding a door for someone and for gentlemen to open and hold a door for a lady.  Students also began studio this past Friday.  They all said they had a great time.  I also believe this was the smoothest running 1st studio we had!

Upcoming Week:

This coming week we have:

Monday– Monthly Botany lesson with Ms. Rachel Bush right after lunch for 1 hour.  Cultural lessons will be afterwards

Tuesday– Author Gary Hogge will be visiting again!  He will be doing an assembly at 9am.  Our students will still have recess first thing in the morning and then they will go to the assembly.  At 1pm, 3rd graders will go to a writing lesson and receive the lesson from Gary.  He focuses on using details to support your story and make it more interesting to read.  He teaches students how to substitute boring words for more details that can hook your reader.  I will most likely be attending this assembly with the 3rd graders.

Phew! That was a lot of information.  Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

Past Week:

May is off to a very busy start!  This past week we had our students do EasyCBM end of the year Math testing.  This information will be shared with you at our last conferences.

Our 3rd graders did their SAGE Math test this past Wednesday and have their ELA test in the Library this coming Wednesday.

We also had two celebration of lives in the afternoon this past week and we have another this coming week

Friday the students learned what Cinco de Mayo is and did crafts.  We had a lot of fun making the crafts and learning what the celebration is all about!

In group lessons:

Level 3s: Area and perimeter with their name on grid paper

In cultural this past week: Geography

Level 1s: Review of landforms and landform cookies

Level 2s: Sedentary rock and rock cycle review, starburst rock cycle activity

Level 3s: Hurricanes

This past week ended the take home reading homework

Upcoming Week:

Since our last parent teacher conferences are coming up quick, I am preparing the sign up.  wejoinin’s website isn’t fully working right now, so I am unable to reset and edit any sign ups.  I will have them up this week and I will email the link to you all.  Please bring your child!  They run this last conference and will share their end of the year fill out on what they learned.

Please remember the last book report on science-fiction or fantasy is due at the end of the month.  Please see the post I made before this one (Week 35).  Is has all the book report options.  Due Date will be May 22nd.

Monday– UURC reading testing for Level 1s. Ashley to do her SAGE Math

Tuesday– UURC reading testing for Level 2s.  Erik and Calvin to shadow in Upper El in the morning.  I have a morning meeting at 9:15.  Kindergarten students will shadow in our room this day in the afternoon.  Daxton’s celebration of life in the afternoon

Wednesday– SAGE ELA test in the Library for all 3rd graders.  Breakfast in the morning.  I’m hoping to do waffles for them with their scrambled eggs.  Since wejoinin is not currently working at the moment, we need some batter and syrup.  We have plates, cutlery, and juice. We do need more cups.

Thursday– UURC reading testing for Level 3s.  Lydia and Ashley will shadow in Ms. Steph’s.  Kindergarten will bring a group to shadow in the morning.

Friday– Art with Trudy, Electricity, and Mother’s Day activities

This coming week is also Teacher Appreciation week!

Teacher Appreciation Week May 8th-May 12th 

Monday– Best grace and courtesy from students and give a high 5, hug, or handshake

Tuesday– Bring a flower for your teacher and assistant teacher.  Flowers may be real, fake, a drawing, or homemade

Wednesday– Make a note/letter for each of your two teachers

Thursday– Bring a drink for each of your two teachers.  I like flavored waters and Arnold Palmers.  I also enjoy coffee and hot teas.  Ms. Anna likes any kind of juice

Friday– Teacher Spirit Day!  Wear your teacher’s favorite colors and maybe donate a classroom supply.  I will hint that we are on our last few pencils!  My favorite colors are aqua, green, and pink. Ms. Anna’s are green and blue

Next week we will do some cultural projects and group activities together for work cycle.  Next week, the week of the 15th, is Spirit Week.  I will review those days in next week’s blog post.

Snack- We don’t have anyone signed up for snack, but we have enough where I think we can go through the extra snack that we have.

Have a great upcoming week everyone!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Thank you everyone for getting your child to the the UTA train station on Wednesday!  The kids had a great time.  That is all for field trips this year!  That’s a wrap!

We had some great science projects from the 1st and 2nd graders come in this week!  We only have a few kiddos left who need to share!

Upcoming Week:

LAST Project of the year! Book report on either the genre of Science Fiction or Fantasy.  We will be talking about this genre in the month of May.  Students will choose one more option from the book report list that they haven’t done.  Here is the list again:

Book Report Presentation Choices

*You may only do 1 choice once

___Book cover

___Oral report to the teacher and/or class

___1 page written report

___A wanted poster for a character in your book

___Poster advertising your book

___Design a bookmark

___Make a poem about your book

___Create a picture book about your favorite parts from the beginning, middle, and end

___Create a video about the book

___Dress up as favorite character and tell about the book

___Create a mobile with 5 events

___Write and draw an alternative ending

___Create a timeline with at least 10 events

___Draw a map describing places

___Create a travel brochure

___Make a puppet show explaining your book

___Create a board game

___Diorama of a scene

___Do a 1 page report about the author

___Create a week long journal as if you were the character

2nd SAGE TEST- 3rd graders will take their 2nd SAGE test on Wednesday.  We are 9am-12noon again.  Please make sure your student is on time to eat breakfast and that a snack is packed for them that they can take into the testing environment.  Here is the second sign up for breakfast!

Breakfast Sign up!  

Teacher Appreciation Week May 8th-May 12th 

Monday– Best grace and courtesy from students and give a high 5, hug, or handshake

Tuesday– Bring a flower for your teacher and assistant teacher.  Flowers may be real, fake, a drawing, or homemade

Wednesday– Make a note/letter for each of your two teachers

Thursday– Bring a drink for each of your two teachers.  I like flavored waters and Arnold Palmers.  I also enjoy coffee and hot teas.  Ms. Anna likes any kind of juice

Friday– Teacher Spirit Day!  Wear your teacher’s favorite colors and maybe donate a classroom supply.  I will hint that we are on our last few pencils!  My favorite colors are aqua, green, and pink. Ms. Anna’s are green and blue

Ms. Anna is PREGNANT!  She is due around Thanksgiving time.  She doesn’t know what she is having yet and is hoping to find out at the end of the month

This week marks the start of end of year reading and math tests for all students.  I am having the students accomplish their end of the year CBM Math computer test this week.  DIBELS reading will also begin on our side of the building this week. Next week I will be doing UURC (University of Utah Reading Clinic) reading level tests

3rd Graders will begin Upper Elementary shadowing next week and into the 3rd week of May in Ms. Stephaney’s class.  Her classroom will also be our partner on the day of  3rd grade bridging.

Starting Monday May 1st our class will begin earning classroom coins and dollars.  This will be income practice for our Store Day that will happen May 18th.

Store Day is coming! – May 18th from 9am-11am will be Store Day!  Our kiddos will earn classroom money (and also possibly owe) over the next few weeks that will be used on Store Day.  It works like a yard sale and it become the student’s business.  Students may bring in items to sell (toys, books etc that they no longer want, treats/snacks, or crafts.  A lot of other Upper Elementary classrooms participate and we team up with them.  After Store Day is over we all debrief after to talk about successes and who earned what.  This is a favorite end of the year event, so mark your calendars!

Past Week:

This past week we had the local fire department come and present on Fire Safety.

In group lessons:

Level 1s: Partitioning circles, squares, and rectangles 

Level 3s: Area of shapes

In cultural this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: Review the 5 classes of vertebrates and Endangered animals

Level 2s: Muscular system, Nervous system, and introduction to the brain

Level 3s: Spiders 

Dates for May:

Hard to believe it is May already.  I don’t feel like it is the end of the year yet, but it will quickly come!

Snack: Alden has snack again this week

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

The zoo came this past week for 2nd graders and all went smoothly.  Class pictures also took place that afternoon and were completed for the upcoming yearbook.

Field Trip update!:  Ms. Anna and I booked Mrs. Cavanaugh’s Chocolate Factory in SLC for Feb. 23rd (a Thursday).  We will have the permission slips to sign at PTC.  This field trip will require parent drivers.  We will start out at school and won’t leave until mid morning.  During that time, we will learn about chocolate’s origins and process.  At 10:00am, we will start packing up.  We want to leave by 10:15am.  We are due a the factory at 11:00am.  They will have an hour long tour and education on how chocolate is made.  At noon, they will eat lunch there.  After lunch, any parents who wish to come and students can shop in the chocolate store.  We will gather at 1:00pm and then leave shortly after.  Any students returning back to MMA will wrap up with cultural with us and then leave when the bell rings at 3.  Please email Alicia Thomas and also let me know if you can drive and/or set up a carpool with other parents who can’t make it or take their child.  This field trip will require a $1.00 for any parents who come.

Money due from Nature Center:  Awkward to state, but due to all the many chaperones that came to the Nature Center in January, the Nature Center sent an invoice back to our MMA office paying for everyone.  Ms. Jalee forgot that the budget would cover only 3 chaperones per class, so we used more than we wanted to.  The kids are always covered, but we could use budget back from any of the parents who went on the field trip.  If you attended, a $3.00 cover should be dropped off to Melanie in the office. I am also going to post a donation link for the chocolate factory if you wish to contribute $2.00.  I will email out that link and post it when Melanie emails it to me.

PTC sign up: Currently, we have 17 families signed up to come to Mid Year PTC. They are NEXT WEEK!  Wednesday-Friday. Please bring your child with you and we will have them show you a favorite work they are doing and continue making/improving goals for the rest of the year.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Valentine’s Party: Please keep an eye out from Alicia, our room mom, about our Valentine’s Party.  Kiddos are allowed to bring Valentine’s for everyone.  If a small treat is part of the exchange, please make sure it is wrapped.  All treats will go home and will be eaten after school.

Past Week:

I had a few meetings this past week during the school day and with the zoo, a bit of our schedule for afternoon group lessons had to be skipped.

In group leveled lessons:

Level 2s: Piet Mondrian introduction.  He was an artist that worked with only squares and rectangles and 2nd graders are using their angles knowledge to apply his art.  They will begin the art project this Wednesday on their Geometry day.

Level 3s: Fractions on a number line.   3rd graders used IXL and on worksheets to apply their knowledge. Fractions on a number line is something you can help them with at home.  They are working on ordering fractions that come in-between 0 and 1 whole.

In cultural this week: Botany

Level 1s: Roots and parts of the root.  Ms. Anna brought in rainbow fingerling potatoes that were sprouting lots of roots for them to examine and see in real life.  Try it at home!  Take 1 potato and keep it in a dry dark place (pantry).  See how long it take for it to begin using its nutrients to shrivel and begin growing.

Level 2s: Leaf art and parts of a leaf review

Level 3s: Birthday flowers, Valentine flower meanings, and the review of the stamen.

Snack this week: Daxton.  We have an available spot open next week.  Please check our snack sign up link to the right of the blog 🙂

Have a great upcoming week and Super Bowl Sunday!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

Book Reports:  We have some students that still need to turn in their book report.  Please have them turn it in as soon as possible so they can get credit on their progress report for completing it.

In school 2nd grade Zoo presentation rescheduled:  The zoo had to reschedule this past Thursday due to weather.  They are coming this coming Thursday Feb. 2nd.  Please have students bring back their games. We still stuck to the schedule this past Thursday and the students really well.  We made popsicle stick puzzles that were related to their geography lessons this past week.  We also had the marble maze open and then the board/card game area.  Students are welcome to bring in board and card games (no Pokemon/Magic or trading/collecting cards.  Also, please no electronics such as tablets etc.)

*The morning assembly on internet safety was also cancelled this past Thursday morning and will be rescheduled.

Parent Teacher Conference sign up:  Please sign up, if you haven’t already 🙂

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

Class pictures makeup:  With the 2 day 2 hour delay that happened this past week the Yearbook Club didn’t do class pictures this past Tuesday afternoon.  They are wanting to make it up this coming Thursday.

Valentine’s Day Party:  I know that Valentine’s Day isn’t this coming week, but we will be doing a little party on February 14th from 1:00pm-2:30pm.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentine’s Day cards for their peers.  Students whose cards have a piece of candy can be brought, but all treats will have to wait to be eaten at home.  If you want to make a Valentine’s mailbox ahead of time and bring it in that is fine.  Student’s will make a bag or box for their cards at the party if they don’t make their own personal one.

Snack Sign up!: We don’t have anyone for snack this week or next.  If you guys could look at the sign up and do the 2nd half of the year, we have a lot of open slots to fill.  Snack has been going really well and working out nicely, so thank you all for your generous contributions!

School Gala class basket donations:  Our school gala is coming up on March 25th.  Each class is to have a basket to auction off.  Our basket theme is Rainy Day.  If you have any donations for our basket, please contact our room mother, Alicia, at tempygirl@gmail.com.  She is putting the basket together.  I can send anything home with her son too if need be.

Past Week:

This week in group leveled lessons:

Level 2s: Interior and exterior angles in geometry

Level 3s: Fractions on a number line “I have…Who has” card game

In cultural this week: Geography

Level 1s: Compass review, compass map activity, continent game with compass dice

Level 2s: Volcanoes: what are they, parts of a volcano, volcano model

Level 3s: Water cycle: what is it, sequence

Have a great upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

Book Reports are DUE FRIDAY the 27th!

Assemblies: We have the Hogle Zoo coming this Thursday for just 2nd graders.  They are going to do 2-1 hour rotations and our room and Ms. Marleen’s room will be used for their presentation.  This puts our 1st and 3rd graders without a room for a little bit.  I’m reserving our kiva space for them to be in to do some cooking with Ms. Anna.  If anyone would like to come in and help or provide some board games for them to play during this time, we would greatly appreciate it.

Thursday morning is also the Net Safety assembly from 8:45-9:15.  This yearly presentation is given to all students about the importance of internet safety.  Ms. Lori, please come after this time 🙂

Studio resumes this Friday!  With the exception of early outs, studio will go until March 31st.

Class Pictures: Tuesday will be class pictures for the yearbook.  Our class is signed up for Tuesday at 12:45pm.  This picture will be the whole classroom together, not individual pictures.

Winter Parent Teacher Conference Sign Ups!:  It’s that time again!  Please click on the link and sign up for your spot.  Please bring your child.  They will share a few favorite pieces of work.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERNCE- SIGN UP HERE!

Past Week:

We didn’t have any afternoon math groups this week because we had some celebrations of lives or I had to take care of school issues since Ms. Stephanie and Ms. Kacee were out of the building a few days this week.

We did get to:

Weekly writing: Review of MLK and what are the student’s dreams for the future?  Each student made a poster and they are hanging outside our room

Friday: We read Dr. Seuss’ ABC Book because it has great alliteration examples!  We went over alliteration and each student got a letter of the alphabet and an animal to focus on.  They made a funny fictional alliterative piece of writing, but also a non-fictional page for their animal.  Once they are all complete, we will laminate the pages and make a classroom alliteration book!

In cultural this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: Reptiles: what is a reptile and different kinds of reptiles

Level 2s: The nose, the tongue, and teeth intro.

Level 3s: Mollusks: what are mollusks, the 3 classes of mollusks, clam facts and model

Snack this coming week: Erik

Have a great upcoming week!  Please email me if you want to come in on Friday 12:30-2:30 to help 🙂

Cheers!

Ms. K

Good News!  Ms. Emilee doesn’t have to leave anymore!  Her other job is willing to work around her school schedule, so the assistant search is off!

Reminder of PTC/Home Project!- Tomorrow begins our PTC.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all early outs (1pm dismissal). I have a lot of openings for Monday and some Wednesday.  Tuesday is pretty filled, but some spots open.  Here are the parents that need to sign up still:

Kaulin

Jaxston

Brett

Lili

Anna

Michael

Karsten

Naomi

Lucy

Volunteer to help at our Halloween Party!- Alicia has sent out a sign up sheet for our parents to help out in our class for our Friday October 28th party.  If you would like to contribute in some way, please sign up!

Field Trip Approaching!-  During PTC, I will have the permission slips for our Black Island Farms field trip.  This field trip’s transportation will have you or a carpool drop off your child at the field trip site instead of getting a ride from the school to the farm.  Please be there around 8:40 at the very latest.  This will allow time for our parent chaperones to check in and get the classes onto the hayride to learn about corn and crops.  If you need help setting up a carpool for your child, please contact Alicia Thomas (our room mom).  Her email is at the bottom of our new permission slips!

3rd grade practice SAGE testing!- I just received a schedule for our 3rd graders to get a feel for how the SAGE tests will test them in the spring.  We will start with Language on the 24th of this month, Writing on the 31st, and end with Math on Nov. 7.  If a 3rd grader is absent, they can make up a test on Nov. 14th.  Our testing times for all 3 are from 10:45am-12:00pm.

This past week our class had a harder time, as a whole, giving respect to me as a teacher and with their friends.  Our 3rd graders (primarily) are having a very hard time setting good examples for friendships.  There will be a 3rd grade meeting (during school time) with our school counselor, Ms. Valerie.  She’s going to help them by working on replacing the negative they are giving each other, with more positive social skills.  I will be having those kinds of conversations with parents during PTC.  I hope your family will back me up and support in helping give our certain students the tools they need to function in a Montessori environment.  It’s going to take you and I working together to help give them support, but also come up with consequences that are supported by all.  

This coming week I will be rebuilding some of those forgotten social skills and classroom expectations.  Since we have early outs, I figured it be a great time to go back and review the expectations that are non-negotiable.  

Alicia!  We had a lot of students interested in crocheting.  Let me know when your person can be available.  Since there are so many, could she do multiple dates so we could break the kids up into small groups?  Let me know what you think 🙂

This Past Week:

A lot of our cultural/afternoon lessons got interrupted this week by having the computer cart or I was spending the whole afternoon working with students on their behaviors and needs

In group lessons:

Level 1s: What is a Personal Narrative

Level 2s: What is a Personal Narrative

Level 3s: What is a Personal Narrative

In cultural this week: Botany

Level 1s: Plants through the seasons

Level 2s: Simple and compound margins of a leaf

Level 3s: Solitary and Inflorescence flowers, Types of calyxes on flowers

Have a great rest of your Sunday and I look forward to meeting with you all this coming week!  Thanks!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Here is the sign up sheet for our first conferences!

Your child’s first home project on a cultural lesson is due the the day you sign up.  Please have your child send bring their project in the morning so I can look at them and put them with their conference folder.

Conference Sign Up HERE

See everyone soon!

Hello Everyone and Happy October!

We are getting a new 3rd grader again.  I want to welcome Calvin to our classroom!  Calvin will begin tomorrow.  Also, Truman started our class about a week ago.  We welcome him and his family too!

Reminders for October:

Fall Festival is on Oct. 14th.  A flyer went home this past week with the wrist band/ticket prices.  There is also a big poster of that flyer on the front of the school on the left sided window.  MAPA will be at school selling these tickets pretty soon.

PTC- Parent Teacher Conferences begin October 17th and go until October 19th.  I will have the sign up sheet posted, hopefully, by the end of this week.

Home Project- DUE when you sign up for PTC!  Your child may pick from History, Zoology (Physiology for 2nd grade), Geography, Botany, Australia, or some of the science we have done.  The project assignment is for them to pick their favorite lesson so far and give a small presentation to you at our first conference.  The presentation can be how they want it to be.  I do expect to see some writing to go along with it, but it can be in any form they want (computer presentation, handwritten, book, etc.).  For example: If you have a 1st grade student, and they really like Zoology the most, we have done living vs non-living, vertebrates vs. invertebrates, and we are starting to get into the 5 classes of vertebrates.  They can pick one of those topics to focus on.  If they liked learning that vertebrates have a backbone, they can pick their favorite animal with a backbone and tell about that animal.  They could do a report on the spine since we learned what a spine was because all vertebrates have one.  On Friday, I will gather what each student wants to do for their project and help explain to them that the project topics and presentations are up to them, but they need to tie in what they learned in cultural.

*You can help your child right now by asking them what has been their favorite cultural subject so far and if they are ready to pick the lesson, have a discussion on what they remember and help guide them to  what would make a good project for this month’s home project.

1st Field Trip Oct. 26th to Black Island Farms.  You will need to drop your child off at the farm that morning.  Drop off at the farm needs to be between 8:30-8:40.  They begin the hay ride to learn about corn crops and pumpkins at 9am.  This time will give our chaperones time to pay at the check in window and get our classes onto the tractors

Upcoming Week:

Reading Homework: Reading at a PrePrimer-1st grade reading level homework will begin tomorrow!  Tomorrow some of our students will be coming home with a navy reading homework folder.  It will have their weekly 1 page homework.  A purple parent letter is in the folder, along with MyOn information.  I have MyOn ready to go for our new students, so if your child doesn’t get reading homework, they will still get their MyOn info.

*Homework goes out Mondays and is DUE BACK FRIDAYS.

Reading Volunteering: Lori Stewart has signed up to help with reading in our classroom.  She will start Thursday around 9:15am.

Junior High Mentors Begin: Our 2 Junior High ladies will begin coming to our classes on their B days.  They will each have 2 students to read with as well as helping out during work cycle.  They start this Tuesday and each have a team building game to teach us, so from 10-11, we will follow their team building lesson plan.

Past Week:

*3rd graders received their dictionaries from the Rotary Club.

*Studio began this past Friday!

*Please remember sneakers for PE on Mondays.

In group lessons this past week:

Level 1s: curved shapes vs non vs both review and introduction to the penny, Ruler introduction to inches and centimeters (we will first focus on measuring to inches 1st).

Level 2s: labeling/naming fractions from pictures, coin review, quadrilaterals family review, time to the nearest 10 mins review.

Level 3s: Morning warm up help with questions they don’t know how to solve, triangles classification by sides

Weekly Writing: Types of sentences, Capitals, Punctuation

Australia: The Great Barrier Reef

In cultural lesson this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: vertebrates vs invertebrates

Level 2s: nutrition review with intro to reading food labels and plate visual

Level 3s: Cnidarian intro (Jellyfish, Sea Anemones), Parts of a jellyfish/Model, Box Jellyfish close read, Types of jellyfish

Snack reminder for Week 8: Jackson Carlson

Hello!

There has been a SAGE test change date for our class.  The May 10th Math test has ben moved to May 5th.

Conferences

I have 5 families who still need to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences.  I told your child on Friday too

I am missing:

– Nicholas

– Cael

– Lucy

– Sophia

– Anna

I understand things come up and some families can’t make it.  Let me know if you can’t make it this week and we can meet another time.

Upcoming Week:

I had scheduled the cart of computers for this coming Monday.  However, our class is at a very moody point of the year and they have forgotten even the basics of the classroom (pushing in their chair, putting works away, sitting together as a group quickly and quietly).  It is just time for a reset and going back to review basics (normalization).  I still will be making assignments through MyOn, since it is such a great tool to have students use and practice their reading and writing skills.

*Please remember that Level 2s and Level 3s have assignments have assignments due no later than Monday evening.

Wednesday is our Valentine’s Party!

I have quite a few of you coming in and have also emailed me asking what they are doing.  Here is what I have gotten emailed to me and who is coming:

Helpers: Jamie, Alicia, Janai, Michelle, Enrique, Jaida (If I missed you, I apologize.  Just email me and remind me).

We will have:

– Valentine’s box decorating (thanks Elene!)

– Card making (decorating supplies from Michelle)

– Colored paper plate hats (activity from Janai)

– I *heart* you this much paper craft (activity from Janai)

– Pin the lips game (activity from Alicia)

– Heart hop (activity from Alicia)

– Funny Valentine’s Game (activity from Alicia)

*I will have some little paper crafts to do as well

* If you are coming in to help out, we will begin our activities at 9:00am.  You are welcome to come in at 8:30am to help set up anything that is needed.  If you want to take your child with you after the Valentine’s Day activities (if you are there to help), please just let me know before you check them out.

* Clean up will begin at 11:15am (possibly sooner)

* Recess will be at 11:30am

* Lunch will be at 12:00pm

Thursday- Mr. Will, Anna’s grandpa, who comes in once a month, will be doing an art activity with the students on Thursday morning.

Field Trip to the Planetarium!

I have the permission slips ready to go!  The public transportation information is attached for you to rip off and keep.  The permission slips will be signed during PTC.  Since the Planetarium has strict field trip rules, they do not pay for parents, so if you are wanting to come with us, there will be a link posted soon, that will have you pay $6.00.  This fee is regarding the IMAX movie fee since they reserve the seating for our group.  They said they let 1 parent for the IMAX in free, so that will be reserved for our room mother’s family, should one of them go.

Here is who is going (if I missed you, please email me and remind me):

– Alicia

– Lori

– Kristie

– Linda

– Melissa

Past Week:

In leveled group lessons this week:

Level 1s: winter sentence writing, time practice

Level 2s: worked on winter poem, MyOn assignment

Level 3s: worked on fractions on a number line, area and perimeter problems, MyOn assignment

In cultural this week: History

Level 1s: time to the half hour

Level 2s: Venus and Earth + MyOn planets assignment

Level 3s: Jurassic period + MyOn Mesozoic comparison and contrast assignment

I think that is everything!  Have a great week and I’ll see you soon!

Cheers!

Ms. K.