Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello!

Please remember that September’s home project is DUE MONDAY! 9/30

I will give the details for October’s book report this coming week, so look under the “Home Project” tab at the top of our blog soon!

Thank you Level 1 parents for returning your child’s reading!  I call them book baggies…but overall, I am receiving 7/9th of them.  Please make sure you send them back EVERYDAY.  I check the box to make sure you signed off their nightly reading.  Before they went home this weekend I gave them a new book for the week.  Please make sure they are reading it 4 nights out of the week.  I saw some lovely flash cards in some of the baggies, so thank you for helping out your child!  I spoke with Nancy and even if your child finds the book very easy it is very important they still do the reading!  Nancy’s program will get harder, but the goal is to build fluency and speed!

I have been doing reading groups everyday with Level 1s and some other levels.  I call them my pink reading group.  We read in the morning right after Morning Meeting and before time test.

I read with those who are on a Pre-Primer and Primer level 2x’s a week.  Those on a 1st grade level read with me also 2x’s a week. 2nd grade level reads on Tuesdays with Ms. Jill, 3rd grade level on Wednesdays with Ms. Holly, and 4th grade level on Thursdays with Ms. Krista.  Those who are 5th and higher, which is 2 students in our class, will have their own group.  There might be a group later on for those who read at this level, but for now, I will have them read on Thursdays in our class.

We had our 1st Spelling test this week! Spelling tests are every Thursday.

Start thinking about if you would like to come to Black Island Farms on October 24th.  I’d like to know who my certified drivers are, so if you did the background check program since being at MMA, please let me know so I can start working on that.

After lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays is our Writer’s Workshop time.  We have been learning about different methods of story telling for the past couple of weeks.  This coming week we will take a break to make time for all the home projects.

This week in groups lessons:

Level 1s: Polygon drawer

Level 2s: Reflex/Convex angles

Level 3s: Classification of Triangles

In cultural:

History: No History

Zoology:

Level 1s: My vertebrate book

Level 2s: Whales

Level 3s: Jellyfish

Geography:

Level 1s: Hemispheres N & S

Level 2s: Tectonic plates map

Level 3s: Atmospheric layers

Botany:

Level 1s: Food from plants

Level 2s: Blade: Simple/compound

Level 3s: Kinds of flowers overview

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

This week we got a new class pet, a spotted gecko named, Mango.  This kids LOVE her and take great pride in caring and observing her.  She eats crickets and small grasshoppers.  If you have any of these wonderful critters hopping around your property, please give your child the task of collecting some and bringing them in to feed our lovely new addition 🙂

The Upper Elementary elected the new student council for the new school year!  Their first task is to involve the Lower Elementary!

Ms. Anna and I have been assessing how to manage checkoff for the morning while keeping students accountable.  We have decided to try a class checkoff board that will allow students to visually see how many works they have gotten checked off and what is left.  This board will NOT replace work charts, it is a visual tool to help students.  At the end of work cycle, Ms. Anna and I can then divide and conquer with our iPads and input who did what into Montessori Manager.  Doing this will allow Ms. Anna more time to roam and help more students.  Right now, we are consistently using Montessori Manager as we do work cycle.  If a student achieves 4 or more works, they can go outside to recess.  If not, they stay in until they can complete their work.

Starting this coming week: MOST level 1 students will start a take home reading program!  Starting Monday, most level 1’s will get a plastic baggie with a book in it and a list of sight words to work on.  This is kind of like their “special homework.”  We at MMA are asking that the books are to be read MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, and THURSDAY.  The packet MUST BE RETURNED EVERYDAY TO SCHOOL because I will be checking to see if you as the parents/guardian are signing off on their reading.  Every Monday your child will receive a new book!  The list of sight words has a lot on there.  We are asking that you ONLY work on FIVE AT A TIME.  Our lovely and wonderful, Ms. Nancy, who put these packets together for your child, explains things you can do with your child on the letter that is STAPLED to the OUTSIDE of the packet.  PLEASE KEEP AND DO NO LOSE THAT LETTER.  It has helpful information.  

There is scientific evidence that if ALL children read for 20 minutes EACH DAY, that there their reading skills, comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling improve.  No matter what level your child is on, please help us by having your child practice reading at home 🙂

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Circle drawer, Numerator and denominator of fractions

Level 2s: Angle introduction and obtuse, straight, acute, right angles

Level 3s: Small math shelves tour, Regular and Irregular Polygons

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Daily timeline

Level 2s: Colder than cold experiment

Level 3s: Rope timeline

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Characteristics of vertebrates

Level 2s: Nutrition

Level 3s: Introduction to Cnidaria

Geography:

Level 1s: Longitude

Level 2s: Earth’s crust- creative drawing

Level 3s: Seasons and sundials

Botany:

Level 1s: Importance of plants C- Things made from plants

Level 2s: Veintation of a leaf

Level 3s: Flip up parts of a flower

Friday: Studio, Simple Machines

Home projects due by September 30th! You have one more weekend!

Academica West is coming on the 25th to do background checks for field trip certified driver’s.  What was failed to be mentioned is that there was a We Join In sign up and they are only taking 9 people that night.  If you have already done the background check it is good for like 5-8 years.  If you are new and want to get it done, Academica West is located in Kaysville, just right off the exit.  They mentioned to the teachers over the summer that you are welcome to go to their office to get it done.  I would call first to double check.

352 N Flint St  Kaysville, UT 84037
(801) 444-9378

This Friday there is NO SCHOOL.  It is Professional Development Day for the teachers.

Take care & Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Hello!

Sorry for the late post, I got home late last night and haven’t had a chance to update!  The wedding was fabulous and it was nice to get a crab cake…

I want to thank Ms. Anna and Ms. Kim Patterson, our wonderful room mother who took over for me Friday afternoon.  Anna said amongst the excitement of it being Friday, they were very good and enjoyed doing the science experiment.

Also, a thank you to Dixie Brenchley and Kim Winward for coming in Thursday to help put together math binders!  Thank you ladies!

The kiddos are getting better at work cycle and those who are first graders and who are new are getting into the routine.  Veteran students are quickly getting back into their lessons.  Normalization ends October 1st and I am happy that I am observing great progress.

Since I am posting this Monday, the start of a brand new week I will let you know that reading groups have started this week.  Some students will read with my every day, some every other, some twice a week, and some students will see other teachers based on where they are at.  If you are interested in helping with reading, please email me!  I will asking you start after normalization.  If you want to help with reading groups please make sure to commit since reading is super important and it a goal for our school to better our student’s reading levels.

In week 4 I focused on individual lessons.  Level 1s met with me for Geometry on learning about rectangles and review on triangles.  They and some other students also got a lesson on a reading work.  I spent the focus of week 4 getting everyone  caught up in their math and where they should be.

For cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Keeping a journal for a week

Level 2s: 3 forms of Matter

Level 3s: Clock of Eras

Zoology:

Level 1s: Story cards of vertebrates and invertebrates

Level 2s: Bats (mammal study)

Level 3s: Sea sponges (Porifera)

Geography:

Level 1s: Latitude lines

Level 2s: Earth’s crust and review of parts of the Earth

Level 3s: Day and night

Botany:

Level 1s:

Level 2s:

Level 3s:

Friday: We started STUDIO!!  It went very smoothly and our class said they loved it!  For science they did a gobstopper experiment to learn about observations and the experiment process of the scientific method.

Reminders:

Please pack your child cutlery!  We don’t have anymore extra forks and knives.  We do have some butter knives, but students are still without cutlery.

On Fridays, for free dress, please no characters on their clothing i.e., no: superheroes, sports teams (bummer, i know…), logos, and cartoons.

Please make sure your child has PE shoes for Wednesdays!

Home Projects are DUE September 30th! Please see the Home Project tab at the top of our blog for details.  I told them NO research on video games and game characters.

Here’s to another great week!

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