Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Everyone!

On January 31st in the evening there is our annual Chili Cook off.  Our class and Ms. Stef’s will be making chili in the afternoon on Wednesday Jan. 31st.  Any parents who wish to help out, please email me. I am looking for 3 volunteers.  The students will get the COW again on the 31st, so while they are doing their computer assignments, students will be called to help.

President reports due FRIDAY! Jan. 26th– Students who are finished may bring theirs in early to share.  Reports are due by Friday.  Again, all project information is on the Projects tab at the top of our blog.

Class party- Valentine’s Day is approaching!  Our class party will be in the morning on Feb. 14th since it is an early release day (beginning of Parent Teacher Conferences- Mid Year).  Our room mom is working on some activities and will need volunteers to help out.  Please keep an eye out soon for her sign ups

Gala basket- The school’s annual Gala fundraiser night is Sat. March 17th.  Each classroom gets a basket theme then the baskets are bid on through a silent auction.  Our room, Katie, will be needing donations for our basket soon.  Keep an eye out for that email as well!  Thanks everyone!

Past Week:

We focused on Zoology and Physiology this week in cultural.

Level 1s:  Reptiles.  Parts of, facts about, and different kinds of reptiles

Level 2s: The tongue and how we taste.  Parts of a tooth and teeth care

Level 3s: Annelids.  Earthworm facts and built a pillow earthworm for parts of an earthworm

Level 1s and 3s focused on fractions this week while 2nd graders checked in with me on time.  A lot of our 2nd graders are struggling with telling time, so on Monday I will be holding an open lesson to review time.  Any student may attend, but it is an opportunity to review and go over it again.  Level 1s are learning to name fractions based on a picture.  So, if the picture of a circle shows 3 equal pieces and 2 are shaded gray, they are naming that fraction as 2/3rds.  Level 3s are beginning to name fractions on a number line.  This is a difficult lesson and when the directions have an explanation where they have to decode what it is asking them to do, many of our 3rd graders struggle with what they are asking.  Here is the page we worked on this week that a lot of the 3rd graders had questions about:  3rd grade Fractions on a Number Line

Upcoming Week:

Colder this week.  Have your child remember their cold weather attire for recess

Monday– Lexi’s Celebration of Life at 2:30.  Heather, I know Janessa’s was Sunday, so if you want to email me to schedule a time to do Janessa’s Celebration of Life let me know 🙂

Wednesday– COW 12:30-2:30

Friday– President reports are due!

PTC sign ups will be posted next weekend!  They begin Wednesday Feb 14th and run until Friday Feb 16th.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week

Ms. Kaley

Hi Everyone!

This past week a lot of our students began the journey of recording their own work progress in their planner.  I am so proud of them.  They really lived up to the expectations and they feel a sense of pride of taking it over.

Even though the students did not have school on Friday, we were able to talk and learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the week and also discuss fairness- January’s character topic.  For Dr. MLK, each language group read the same passage and our Antelopes language group did listening and tracking while I read and we would stop at certain vocabulary and discuss what they meant.  Words such as segregation, color, violence, and fairness were some of the words that we went over.  The Badgers language group read the same passage, but they completed some sentences that were missing a vocabulary word.  They had to figure out which word fit the sentence and then for the last question they got to pick which one they wanted to use in their own sentence.  The Crocs group read the passage and completed the fill in the blank vocal page the Badgers had, but also there were story questions responses they were asked to complete.

The students also went over fairness.  The students left off their conversations regarding fairness about how fairness is about equality.  The students also discussed how fairness to them meant that everyone gets the same because that is equality- you get what you want and someone else gets that too.  We replaced the sentence “You get what you want” to “You get what you need.”  I showed them this picture:
This was a powerful picture to the students.  It lead to our discussion on how everyone is on a different path and has different needs, so some students or people may need a different approach then the person next to them.

Home Project: President Report- Up top in the Projects tab, I added the links to the President’s report pages.  I also sent home a physical copy this past week.  January’s home project is due Jan. 26th.

Past Week:

In cultural this past week: History

Level 1s: Learning that clocks have an hour and minute hand and what does that mean. Began telling time to the hour (A great lesson to practice at home on digital and analog clocks!)

Level 2s: The Sun and Mercury facts

Level 3s: Permian period and Mesozoic Era overview

Each grade level worked on their Geometry lessons this past week:

Level 1s: Endpoint/vertex, line, line segment, ray

Level 2s: Identifying angles given to them (right, obtuse, and acute)

Level 3s: Perimeter

Upcoming Week:

This coming week each level will work in different math areas.  Level 1s will work on fractions, Level 2s will go over time, and Level 3s: will do fractions as well.

We will do Zoology/Physiology this week

Thursday- We have a lockdown drill

Have a great extra day off and rest of your week

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

Happy 2018!  Hope you all had a wonderful break. The students came back ready to work and did a great job despite it being a short week.  Our construction team for the new junior high building is busily growing and they delivered the new Early Childhood playground on Friday.  Once that playground is put together then our students will have a chance to play on it until the new big playground is complete.

Home Project- January’s home project is a report on a past president.  Students are to begin researching which president they want to choose for their project and then I will provide a handout for them to record their research on.  Students will need to write facts about their president based on the questions that are on the handout.  For a visual, your child may do a poster, puppet, paper doll, model, diorama etc (again, this is the creative part that the student gets to pick). Due Jan. 26th

There is no school on Friday because of an all day teacher development.  That following Monday is MLK Day which is a no school day as well.

We have the COW (computers on wheels) this Wednesday afternoon

Past Week:

On Friday, we usually have out classroom meeting in the afternoon.  We began discussing fairness and what do the students believe it is.  I gave 5 scenarios and students had to decide whether they believed the situation was fair or unfair.  When there were differences in opinions we heard why those students thought that way.  It was pretty powerful.  This coming week we will continue the conversation of fairness by learning who Martin Luther King Jr was and what he stood for.  As the rest of January continues we will continue our fairness learning in understanding that fairness is equality, but how equality can look different, especially when it comes to people who learn differently or who are differently abled.

Another large part of our class meeting on Friday was the choice to take over the responsibility of planning their own planners.  About 2/3rd of the class were truly interested, so this coming week will be a new lesson in learning how to record lessons from my lesson plan and continuing the independent work they do.  This is a great practical life lesson, especially for the 3rd graders, as they will be going into 4th grade knowing how to take care of a planner and knowing that they need to plan their work from their teacher and for themselves.

We got a chance to do Botany this past week.  Ms. Rachel came in on Wednesday and held her monthly lesson.  On Thursday we had Botany in our leveled groups.  We are back to History this coming week.

1st grade parents: Your 1st grader has so far been introduced to the penny, nickel, and dime coins.  Most are working with adding pennies and nickels.  By the end of 1st grade they should know: pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  1st grade students should know their name, worth, and know some simple adding with these coins.  Coin counting and conversations at home would be great practice for them.  Also, we using the rest of year in History talking about telling time.  We will go over parts of the clock this week and begin to learn how to tell time to the hour.  They will get to practice their time during work cycle next week.  Use any opportunity to you can find to have your 1st grader practice their time to the hour on an analog clock and digital.  Continue the great sight word, nonsense, and letter work at home.  It is showing. Reading at home for at least 20 minutes in each night shows dramatic improvement in a child’s reading growth.  In our classroom, it is best homework they can do

3rd grade parents: the 3rd graders goal are to work on their multiplication facts.  Please check in with your child often and take a  few minutes of each day practicing flash cards or counting objects in groups (if they need a visual).  Most are where they should be, having completed times tables of 5s and are beyond that.

Upcoming Week:

We have rain in the forecast this coming week.  Keep providing warm attire to wear outside.

Tuesday- specials in the morning

Wednesday- COW in the afternoon and Ms Misha has to leave at 12 noon

Thursday- Ms. Misha has to leave at 10am.

Friday- No School

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your Sunday!

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

DATE REDOS!

I have some dates to edit!  School will go until December 21st.  I marked until the 20th.  The International Festival will begin on December 19th with the Junior High, December 20th will be Upper El, and December 21st will be Lower El’s presentation day.  The RED paper that went home this past week has all the information regarding the International Festival.  If your child misplaced it, please visit the project tab up top and then click on the link to review the information.  Remember that the project is due by Dec. 21st!  Thanks!

Our Holiday Classroom Party will then be December 20th in the afternoon still.  Our room mom, Katie, will email you with any details she might need for the party 🙂

I am also rescheduling our Class Feast date.  I am moving it to Monday December 18th.  It will begin at noon.  We will have a sign up sheet to bring food to share for this event. After our lunch we will have the students share their research on December holiday/Christmas traditions from around the world.  They all chose their topic this past week in class as part of their December writing prompt assignment.  this week they will begin reading the research and learn to write responses based on what they read to share with you on feast day!

A Note from MAPA (MMA’s parent committee):

Past Week:

Hello Everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and some time off!

Past Week:

Students made decorations for the North Ogden Community Gratitude Feast at our school on Tuesday afternoon.  Our students also did a school survey in the school’s computer lab Thursday morning.

The projects for the fractions family November home projects were FANTASTIC!  The presentations and how they are made made for an excellent focus on your home community and learning about others families.  A lot of the kids liked seeing the similarities and I got to learn some new interests about the kids!

December’s home project is a pretty big one.  Our school does an annual International Festival that focuses on our continent studies throughout the school.  The Junior High will do theirs December 18th, Upper El December 19th and ours will be December 20th.  Lower El usually does theirs in the afternoons, but I will get a confirmation on that soon.  If the plan is still to do Lower El’s International Festival December 20th in the afternoon, the our class Holiday Party will be December 19th in the afternoon since Upper El does their International Festival in the morning.  Our continent is South America.  I will be talking with the students this week about it and will be sending home a project take home sheet this week.  Students are asked to choose an interest about South America.  It can be a city, country, animal, tradition, clothing, landmark…literally anything from South America can be chosen.  Students usually choose to use a project trip-fold board to present their project, but posters and presentations such as PowerPoint or Prezi can also be used.  Some students have done dioramas with a poster, so if your child likes to get crafty, visuals are great for this project.

In cultural this week we did Botany and in group math we did fractions

Level 1s: Food chains both land and water

Level 2s: Pinnate and palmate margins of a leaf’s margin

Level 3s: Kinds of calyx and petals (Gamopetalous/1 single petal and Polypetalous/multiple petals)

Upcoming Week:

This week we will talk about International Festival and begin our December writing prompt: Informational Writing about Holidays around the World.

Ms. Rachel will also be coming Wednesday afternoon for December’s Botany lesson

December Dates to Remember:

December 8th- Early Release 1pm

December 14th- Class Holiday Feast 12pm-1:30 in South Kiva *More info to come 🙂

December 18-20th- International Festival.  Lower El’s projects are due by Dec. 20th.  They may bring them in early, but the presentations are the 20th.

December 19th- Class Holiday Party in the afternoon- 12:45-2:30

*I believe there is a Box Tops those last 3 days before Xmas break.  If I hear other wise I will let you know.

The week is mostly in the 40s, so please make sure students have the attire they need for playing outside.  Tuesday is our day that recess is first thing in the morning and it is colder.  Students might start needing hats and gloves.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley

Hi Everyone!

Past Week:

This past week the kids learned about Veterans Day.  Group Geometry lessons also took place.  The school hired an official music teacher so we are back to having our Tuesday schedule.

1st grade parents- I can tell who is working hard at their sight words and working on their reading skills. They are making some great progress!  After Thanksgiving break I am going to do a letter and sound check in to see the progress growth.  This group of 1st graders are really driven and are doing lots of works in the morning.  Continue working with them as they are making great strides!  My 2nd and 3rd graders who are practicing their sight words at home are also making progress and are getting to new sets on their tracking sheet.  I am very proud of all their hard work and dedication!

This past week I gave out a neon green paper with November’s project details.  Please click below if you haven’t seen this paper as the project is due Friday.  It isn’t a long project to conduct, but will need your input since it is a family project.  Friday the students will share in the afternoon.

Nov home project

In Geometry this week:

Level 1s: 2D vs 3D

Level 2s: Kinds of angles and their naming.  Perimeter review

Level 3s: Perimeter review and parts of a triangle

In cultural this week: Geography

Level 1s: Continents and oceans, maps

Level 2s: Faults and folds

Level 3s: Weather elements and what layer of the atmosphere has weather

Upcoming Week:

Tuesday we have PE and music and then in the afternoon we will be teaming up with Ms. Stef’s class to make decorations for the school’s Gratitude Feast on Thursday

Wednesday we have the COW all afternoon

Thursday is the school’s Gratitude Feast (this isn’t a personal class feast.  Ours will be in December)

Friday is studio and November’s project is due

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley

Past Week:

1st graders worked on pennies and nickels for a money lesson this week. We also talked about the names of dimes and quarters and how much those coins are worth.  If you are a 1st grade parent that would be a great home check in with any coins around the house or while you are out.  Have them count pennies and nickels right now.  Most 1st graders are on counting pennies, but some can count by 5s with nickels.  2nd graders did graphing with bar graphs.  We looked at word problems and had the 2nd graders identify which graph was the correct one according to the data in the problem.  3rd graders worked on some perimeter practice this past Monday and then we reviewed fractions equivalency during our lesson time together.

This coming week will be Geometry for all levels

Tuesday we had the students check out a potential music teacher.  In the afternoon we had our Halloween party.  Thanks you to all the parents who donated supplies and their time to help support our party.  Our next class party will be a Christmas party.  We also do a Holiday Luncheon in December.  More on that to come

The Chili Cook off got rescheduled this past week to Jan 30th, so it will NOT be this coming Tues.

Wednesday we had the local fire department come and talk to the kids about fire safety.  The students also had the COW and their monthly Botany lesson with Ms. Rachel in the afternoon.  She talked about composers and decomposers

Friday we had studio and then in the afternoon we had a classroom meeting

In cultural this past week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: Fish parts and characteristics

Level 2s: The eye and sight

Level 3s: Jellyfish review

Upcoming Week:

We will do Geometry with all the levels this week.

Friday is an Early Release- 1pm

Now that it is November, we will will begin a new prompt.  Our new prompt is, “How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”  Students will write detailed instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  On Friday the students will switch their instructions with a partner and test out the instructions.  Any instructions that are needed will need to be revised.  Students will then make revisions next week and try out the sandwich instructions again.

Friday we will also go over the November project.  I will be handing out the template to take home then.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

Past Week:

Thank you for a wonderful field trip this past Thursday!  We had the most chaperones we’ve ever had for the particular field trip.  The kids had a great time!

This past week was Red Ribbon Week, an anti-drug national campaign.  We had a speaker come in Monday and he presented on loving yourself and taking care of yourself and to be a good friend to yourself and others.  Tuesday the kids received a red wristband to wear as a promise to themselves that they will never do drugs.  Wednesday an owl coloring page was distributed for the kids to color and submit for a coloring contest.  Thursday we missed out on due to our field trip, but it was tie a red ribbon to the fence day.  Friday we decorated our door superhero themed.  Our door reads “We’re too SUPER to do Drugs!  Each kid made a superhero for our door.  We didn’t win the door decorating contest, but we sure made an awesome door.

Each level received Geometry lessons this week.

In cultural this week: History

Level 1s: Days of the week/months review, made a calendar for November, Identifying past, present, and future

Level 2s: Constellations all week

Level 3s: Pre-cambrian and Cambrian life and we began writing facts on our timeline booklet

Friday we worked on getting as many projects as we could presented.  We worked on our door decorating contest in the morning and we began presenting at 9:30.  We have a handful more to do throughout out this coming week. If your child brings in their project this week they still can get some credit for doing their project.  The presented projects will hang up in our hallway to have others read.  I’ve already seen older students stop by to look and read their projects when I hung them up Friday afternoon.  The projects, so far, are wonderful!

Upcoming Week:

Tuesday is our Halloween Party!  Here is the sign up for a few more items we need for our party!

Halloween Party Supply Sign Up!

Tuesday morning we will still have early recess, PE, and then our kids are going to check out a potential new music teacher!  Ms. Rene asked if our class could be the demo class so Rene can see her music lessons.  For the Halloween party, it will be in the afternoon.  Lunch is from 12:00-12:30.  If you are coming in to help and set up, please come at 11:30am to set up.  We can eat out in the kiva while set up is happening.  I will try and reserve the kiva space for any other activities.  We can begin our activities at 12:45 when the kids are back from cleaning up their lunch and we will stop around 2:30 to restore the room.

Wednesday we have the COW and Ms. Rachel is coming in for monthly Botany lesson at 1:50.

Looking at November!

Our school does a Chili Cook off every year.  It is coming up on November 7th.  Some classrooms and individual families like to participate.  If any our families would like to participate, the chilis are submitted that evening in a crockpot.  It begins at 5pm.  Our class and Ms. Stef’s class will be cooking that afternoon on our entries.  If any of you would like to help oversee, we could take a few volunteers to help with the food prep!

The school’s gratitude feast is November 16th.

November’s Home Project focuses on family.  Each student will take home a form for you all to complete as a family.  Students’ presentations will be about their families and us celebrating the similarities and differences in each of our families.  DUE NOV. 17th.

Take care!  Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

Past Week:

Thank you for a great Fall Parent Teacher Conference!  Our early outs were busy getting in as many lessons as we could before Fall Break began.  We were able to get everyone’s Fraction lessons, math facts, and everyone’s language group in.

I checked in on our October writing prompt: Tell me a time you were scared.  1st and 2nd graders are writing and 3rd graders are typing on Utah Compose.  Utah Compose can we worked on at home as well.

1st graders got an introduction to numerators in a fraction, 2nd graders identified the fraction through a word problem, and 3rd graders began identifying fraction segments on a number line

We got our one day of Botany in on Tuesday morning.

Level 1s: Plants through the seasons.  They drew a tree going through it’s transitions through the 4 seasons.

Level 2s:  Simple and Compound leaves.  A simple leaf is a a single leaf and a compound leaves are multiple leaflets

Level 3s:  Solitary and Inflorescence flowers.  A solitary flower is one flower that grows and inflorescence are when multiple flowers are grown off one stem

Upcoming Week:

This upcoming week is Red Ribbon Week.  It a national recognition educating students on how to say no to drugs and be a healthy you.

Monday morning we will have a speaker.  Lower El’s time will be 9am-9:40am.

Tuesday: We will go over 2 more peacemakers when the students come back from PE.  We will go over, briefly, on Gandhi and the Dalai Lama.

Thursday: Back Island Farms field trip!  Please remember to meet at Black Island Farms at 9:30am.  The chaperone cost is 4 dollars.  All our students are covered.  Please make sure your child is dressed for being outside.  They can wear jeans and non collared shirts on this field trip.  They should have comfortable shoes, a back pack, water bottle, lunch, and sweater/jacket.  For those needing to return to MMA, we will be leaving at 2pm.  If you have your own child with you and you are not needing to drop another student back at MMA, you don’t have to return to the school.

Friday- No studio this day.  We will share the October peacemaker projects.  Throughout the morning and afternoon we will decorate our door for Red Ribbon Week.

Classroom reminder:  Ms. Misha and I have seen multiple students with holes at the knees in their pants.  If a child has hole on their pants, they cannot wear those pants to school.  Please check your child’s pants and if they can be repaired with a patch or sewn, then they can wear them back to MMA.  If not, please do not let them wear them to school.  Also, a lot of students need a water bottle.  This reduces our students needing to leave the classroom and to have their water needs nearby.  We keep our water bottles in our kitchen and we only have a few of them there.  Please make sure your child is using a refillable water bottle.  Thank you!

Class update: we will be getting 2 new 1st graders!  We are expecting one of them to begin Monday and the other Nov. 6th.  This will put us at 30 students.  We moved our large table outside our our room on Wednesday afternoon and rearranged some desks and shelves around to help accommodate more floor space, but also the need that some students either want or need a more personal space.  We will also be able to spread out into the kiva a bit more with our table outside our room.  This will help when it’s math facts time for a group, or when we need to cultural lessons.  Ms. Nikki and her assistants can also have the space to work at when she’s servicing students.

Thanks everyone!  Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!  Looking forward to seeing some of you at our field trip.

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

A reminder that Parent Teacher Conferences begin Monday afternoon.  Monday-Wednesday are early outs at 1pm.  Please make sure you have signed up as well.  Students do not have to come to ours for this conference round, but if they come with you they can sit out in the kiva or choose to join us.

I have printed out Nonsense words and Letter names/sounds fluency practice, as well as sight words up to 3rd grade and multiplication practice to give out at conferences.  You will receive a packet to take home if your child needs to work on these items at home.  Even a few minutes a day working on reading and math skills can make a drastic difference in your child’s learning.

Past Week:

Wednesday we tried out having the laptops all afternoon.  I checked in with 3rd graders on Utah Compose and then everyone worked on Prodigy Math.  The students are really enjoying the game!  There are parts in the game where your child will come across an item to buy.  This isn’t necessary at all and doesn’t effect the assignment I give them that they are accomplishing.  Your child should just X out and continue in the game.  A few minutes a day on the game helps and allows me to see if anyone needs any extra support.

Thursday we had the Utah Rotary Club come and give the 3rd graders their dictionaries.  We also had our Fall Trash Pick Up community field trip.  Thank you thank you for those parents who came to chaperone.  The kids really had a good time!  Our kids were still even looking for trash on the playground after we had gotten back to the school.

Friday we went over tattling vs an needed comment to the teacher.  We also learned about Mother Teresa.  Some students mentioned who their peacemaker is going to be.  Peacemaker projects are due Oct. 27th.  We don’t have studio that day, so we will share projects that morning.

In cultural this week we did Geography:

Level 1s: Continents and zones of the Earth

Level 2s: Tectonic plates

Level 3s: Earth’s Atmosphere

Geometry was the focused leveled math lesson this week.

Level 1s: Types of shapes (circle, triangles, quadrilaterals, curvilinear shapes)

Level 2s: Introduction to angles: their parts and acute, obtuse, right, and straight angle

Level 3s: Angles in triangles

Upcoming Week:

We will focus on work cycle in the mornings.  As far as I know, we still have PE Tuesday morning. We still don’t have a music yet.  Therefore, on the progress report, you will not see music filled out.  If other areas are blank on your child’s progress report then we have not gotten to it yet.

Our progress report is on a 1-4 grading scale.  4s are absolute mastery.  The child not only knows the content, but applies it on other areas of learning, can explain it, teach it, and have gone beyond the expectations.  Most students are in the 1-2 range for this time of year.  Please don’t read our scale as 1s=poor,  2s=satisfactory, 3s=good, and 4s=exceptional.  The way to view the scale is based on how much you child can do/remember the work by themselves and show the learning through independence.  Our scale is on the report and if you have any questions, please ask at our conference time.

We will get one day of Botany (Tuesday morning) to get our cultural in.  Fractions will also be the math subject of the week for each grade level.

There is no school Thursday and Friday.

Friday Oct. 27th is also our annual Fall Festival!  Here is a note from MAPA:

• Wristbands – allow access to bounce houses, dunk tank, and climbing wall – provided by Custom Events
• Tickets – allow access to all other events and goodies, including haunted house, root bier garden, cotton candy and more