Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and some enjoyable time off!

We had a nice past week with our little reset right before the Thanksgiving break.  We enjoyed some group cooperative games/activities together, went over expectations again, and worked on our work cycle.  It was nice to have that right before break.  We still continued with cultural lessons in the afternoon to keep those lessons going.  We introduced some silent reading time and 3 activities to do at afternoon circle, and the day’s circle challenge.  Each day there will be a note on the morning board that states what the day’s circle challenge will be.  This past week we had challenges such as sit by boy/girl, shirt color, and if you could choose questions.  It helped mix our circle seating and put a little fun into the day.  Also, we introduced having an afternoon circle leader who will choose between a song, book, or game to do before we begin the afternoon part of our day.  They all really enjoyed that!

Book Reports were due Friday and we got through 6 of them on Friday.  We will do more projects when the kids get back from Music and PE on Monday afternoon and finish up with everyone’s this week.

Blue Reading Folder– Reminder to have those kiddos who take home a reading folder to have their homework in by tomorrow so I can hand out new hw sheets.  On Mondays when I give them their new hw sheets I leave them to be picked up on our black table outside our classroom.  If your child forgets to pick his or hers up or was absent, the folder will be right there.

December Holiday Feast!- Our classroom does a Holiday luncheon every year.  This year our luncheon will be December 14th.  It will begin at 12pm.  Parents and siblings welcome to come!  A sign up sheet for food to be brought will go out this week.  We’ll have each grade make something for the feast.  1st graders will make a soup, 2nd graders will make a bread, and 3rd graders will make a dessert.  If you would like to help out with cooking, we will be making these dishes the 13th and 14th.  1st and 3rd graders will get theres ready on the 13th and 2nd graders will make theres the morning of the 14th.

International Festival is December’s Home Project!- Every year, our school celebrates different cultures and facts about other countries and continents in the month of December.  On December 20th will be the  lower elementary date.  Upper elementary goes first on the morning of December 19th.  They start at 9am and go until 11am.  Some junior high will also present that day.  December 20th in the afternoon will our time to present.  We usually begin around 12:30 and go until 2:30, but I’ll make sure those times are confirmed for this year.  Projects will be on either the continents of Australia or Antarctica.

Expectations for Lower Elementary International Festival

1. Choose to present a point of interest from the continent of either Australia/Oceania or Antarctica
2. Have a visual presentation (trifold board, diorama, puppet show, etc.) Get creative!
3. Must have topic’s name displayed and be easy to see
4. Must have flag displayed
5. Must have a map displayed and geographical area highlighted that topic lives or comes from. (examples: If the topic is koalas, then the map will display where in Australia koala’s live.  If researching Tasmania, then Tasmania will be highlighted on the map.)  We are wanting students to know where they are talking about.
6. Have at least 10 facts displayed about their interest and know them in case questions are asked.  
7. Be able to give an oral presentation about their project.  
8. Food is allowed, but not required for project. 
9. Project is DUE December 20th.  Families welcome to come and see!

*Please let me know if your child needs support in getting their project completed (email me).  We can have your child work on it in class.

Up next for snack: Jaxston

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hi Everyone!

Snack: Nobody has signed up for snack for this coming week!  Please take a look at our snack link to the right of this blog.

Assistant change: This week was Ms. Emilee’s last week.  Ms. Anna and I met on Friday to discuss what kind of transition we wanted to take place.  This coming week we will go back and do a mini renormalization.  It will help Anna understand the procedures and routines for our class, but also have the kids get used to her expectations that she is going to bringing to the classroom.  We will be doing cooperative team building games amongst work cycle.  The first half of the week will be dedicated to working together and relearning the expectations from the teachers and school rules.  The second part of the week will have the kids do a shortening work cycle to help our students utilize Ms. Anna so that when they come back after Thanksgiving break they know what to expect.  I’m very optimistic for what will transpire from this change.

Upcoming Week:

Monday– Original Art work form (That was handed out around the week of Halloween) is due tomorrow.

Tuesday– Box Top store

Wednesday– COW (computers on wheels) in the afternoon.  There will be another MyOn assignment that the kids will begin in class

Thursday– The school’s Gratitude Feast for members in our community will be going on that day.  It will also be a fire drill for the school. Ms. Lori will be in to read with a few of our students as well.

Friday– Book report #2 is due today!  We will get to around 6 book reports and then have the rest of the kids finish up when break is over.  Anna and I have a great plan for how Friday afternoons are going to go an we wanted to begin that process with the students this Friday.  We are also going to continue weaving.  Ms. Anna and I are thinking about creating a service project for our class that involves weaving.  Please bring back yarn for Friday.

Past Week:

I moved our room around in terms of the layout and the students really responded to that.  Having a change of the environment made for Ms. Anna’s transition an easier step.

Thursday we had the COW and students began their reading assignments from me.  I chose books that would enhance our Geography lessons for each grade level, as well as some Australia books for the level 2s and 3s.  Your child should have these books finished by today.  Most students were able to finish that afternoon, but level 2s and 3s had more books, so a few were still working on them.

3rd graders finished up their practice SAGE tests!  Tomorrow is a makeup day for only 3 students who either need to finish a test or because they were absent on testing day.

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: *No afternoon group lessons because of Botany and COW in the afternoon on their group days.

Level 2s: Naming angles

Level 3s: Fractions equivalency

Weekly writing- graphic organizer was due

Monthly Botany: Ms. Rachel’s monthly Botany lesson took place this past Tuesday afternoon

This week in cultural: Geography

Level 1s: About maps and kinds of maps, continent and oceans naming on map

Level 2s: Faults and folding of the Earth from tectonic plates moving

Level 3s: Atmosphere review, 7 weather elements, and kinds of fronts

Reminder that towards the end of this week (Thurs. and Fri.) the weather will be getting chilly.  Please provide coats and outside garments for your child to wear at recess.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend.

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

Ms. Anna and I have noticed over the past week that the students seem to have “Winter Fever.”  It seems to be that time of year again where the kids are noisy and are losing what they learned with their grace and courtesy.  On Thursday had to reign them back by assigning Level 1 and Level 2s a certain rug place.  Level 1s were overseen by me and Level 2s were overseen by Ms. Anna.  Level 3s were tested to see if they could choose and be independent on their own.  With the rest of the class being overseen, the Level 3s were able to get more done.  In fact, with everyone hunkered down more everyone got more work accomplished.  This structure gives the students the reminder that we need to respect spaces and when each student is working to not bother one another.  We had each student raise their hand when they got a work done.  Myself or Anna would then check it off and they were then allowed to clean up and put that work back to get another.  This process will last into next week.  We want to see what the students are choosing and making sure they are doing quality.  We have witnessed other students copying others, so this process will take care of that too.  This really allowed Anna and I to track their work.  After a week we will dismiss those students who have learned the ability to be independent and have relearned their classroom respect.  Those who need more practice with choosing works or respect will continue to be a part of the circle until the lesson has been taught and practiced.

Ms. Jalee has submitted our field trip to the Planetarium for next month.  Know that I will have 5 free tickets to those parents who would like to come. One ticket will have to be for Heather or Adam Misner, so that will leave 4 extra tickets.  First come first serve.  We are leaving at 8:09am via the Utah Tracks.  We will be returning to the Tracks station at 3pm, so students WILL HAVE TO be picked up at the Tracks station.  Directions, times, and fees will be mentioned on the upcoming permission slip and under our our field trip tab I will provide detailed information in the next coming days.

March’s home project is our Science Fair.  The students will be focusing on the scientific method along with their proposed question.  I will post more info on the science fair under Home Projects this weekend.

On the 27th, parent night will take place (Safety in the school).  A flyer went home this week as a reminder.

This week in group projects:

Level 1s: Divergent, convergent, and parallel lines

Level 2s: Triangle angle star

Level 3s: SAGE practice math test, multistep word problems

In cultural:

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Birds intro

Level 2s: Circulatory System

Level 3s: Sea urchins

Geography:

Level 1s: Compass rose

Level 2s: Igneous rocks

Level 3s: Recording weather

Botany:

Level 1s: Parts of the stem

Level 2s: Cross stitching

Level 3s: The stamen

Friday: Studio, Library, Science fair talk

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Yay!  We are up and running.  Welcome to our classroom blog, The Enterprise.  This is where I do weekly posts, so please regularly check here regarding any information.  I will also be giving the guidelines for the 1st home project under the Home Project tab this weekend.  Remember that the first home project will be due at the end of September.

This week we focused on The Five Great Lessons:

1. The Birth of the Universe

2. The Timeline of Life

3. The Coming of Humans

4. The History of Language

5. The History of Mathematics

These great lessons set up overview for our cultural lessons and gives the students an insight into a variety of perspectives, histories, and cultures on how we got to now.

Each day this week we focused on one of the great lessons.  Activities relating to those great lessons followed.  A favorite activity this week was on Thursday, The History of Language.  Out of the 4 choices the students chose 2.  A group wanted to go with Ms. Anna to do Chinese writing and a group went with me outside to try and make their own ink and own writing tools.

In the afternoons this week we did our first week of cultural.  Here is our schedule:

Mondays– History

Tuesdays– Zoology/Physiology

Wednesdays– Geography

Thursdays– Botany

Fridays– Science and Continent Study

PE started this week too!  PE is on Wednesdays at 1:30pm-1:55pm.

This coming week work cycle will start!  Those who have been in our classroom I will help them pick up where they left off and see if any reviews are needed.  Work cycle the first few weeks start off slow as new students and first graders adjust.  All first graders and new students have been tested in reading and I should be getting their reading placements back this week.  For new students in 2nd and 3rd grade this year I will be doing some basic placement testing with them so I know where I can start them in our shelf works.  The kids are DYING to get into the works, so I know they are excited to come in this coming week and start getting lessons.  We’ll take it step by step so quality is taught and organization is taught.  The system I take in our classroom allows for more practice.  In your child’s Language binder we have a 3 step system for Grammar and Word Study:

1. Layout the cards from the box you are working on.  We call this “Layout.”  The child must master the layout before moving to the second step.

2. “Write down.”  The child lays out the cards from the box he or she is working on.  The child is then asked to write down their layout on specifically designed paper for that box (new this year!)

3. “Sentences or Story.” Once a child has completed the write down, he or she will then pick a few words from their box and depending on their writing skills, the child will be asked to write a sentence using those words or a short story.  This allows us to see if the child can use the words in the right context.

*Something new this year will be some activities related to our Grammar and Word Study boxes.  They can be used help solidify a concept, assessing before moving on, and if some students need a change of pace once and while.

Math this year will see more activities as extensions to a lesson or work a student is on.

Jobs will start this week!

Here’s to a great year!  The kickoff has begun!  Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIA MONTESSORI

Cheers!

Ms. K