Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week!

We have our last field trip of the year on Wednesday!  I sent out an email Friday afternoon that outlined the needed information for this field trip.  Please read everything carefully!  Here the information restated:

Wednesday May 1st- Planetarium

Past Week:

Hello!

Our first full week of school days went off to a great start!  This week the students were introduced to their planners, their Scholastic Daily Starter warm ups, and Spiral Math.

Click on this link to see our classroom’s planner: Work Planner 2.0 This year I added little images to help students quickly see the subject area.  This icons will be helpful reminders where to record their work.  The first graders are doing really well with the planner and it will take them a few weeks to get the hang of it.  2nd and 3rd graders are taking to it like ducks to water.  They are old pros and are doing excellent planning themselves when they plan to do their follow up works.

Reminder: if your child isn’t completing their follow up works that are due or part of their lesson I will send a kind reminder email for them to complete their work at home.

Work expectations during normalization: From the first day of school until October 1st is our period of time we call in Montessori “Normalization.”  This is a very important adjustment period for students to learn the classroom expectations.  As the weeks go on during normalization I look at the progress and adjust students work capabilities and also move them to any groups I think they need to be in.  All the groups I have cover most of the same content, but it is just the level of difficulty that is adjusted.  Some times the child is in the right group, but the work needs to be adjusted individually.  Ms. Misha and I always look to see what your child needs.

After normalization ends then I will look at putting together reading helpers.

Field Trip September 21st.: The permission slips are made, we are still waiting to see about transportation.  I have 2 chaperones who emailed me and I can take 2 more chaperone helpers (please email me if you can).  Show is at 12:30pm and should go until around 2:00.

Lessons from this past week:  There are so many lessons I give throughout the week that I cannot mention all of them. however, the schedule that I posted last week and the hard copy I handed out during Sneak a Peak went off to a great start!  I was able to try out our new lesson schedule and all the lessons on that plan were given.  I wasn’t able to complete all the UURC reading tests for the new students, so I am going to work on that this coming week.  Math U See math testing for the beginning of the year began also this week.  All 3 levels were given the 100s chart to see if the basics can be shown.  If your child wrote a number backwards then technically it is marked wrong, but a note is made that they “know” the number and need a numbers handwriting lesson.  I also made notes if your child had to use any of the concrete materials we have in our class to help them complete it.  This week, I will be giving the next tests called the Alpha and Beta tests.  Every level will be given the Alpha first.  It is a test that looks at basic  adding and subtracting using 1 digit numbers (the units).  If your child gets a passing grade on the Alpha and might be able to complete the Beta test, that test has a few parts to it: rounding, multi-digit adding and subtracting, time, and word problems.  Your child will have all of this upcoming week to complete it.

We began working on first writing prompt to see where the kids are.  Our first 12 weeks will be all about writing Narratives.  Each week I will give the class a whole group lesson and then they continue to work on their skills during their writing group and by themselves.

We did History and Zoology lessons this week.

History #1: Big Bang lesson, Story of Time

History #2: Big Bang lesson, Roman Numerals lesson from 1-10

History #3: Big Bang lesson, Clock of Eras

Zoology #1: Living and Non-living

Zoology #2: 5 classes of vertebrates review

Zoology #3: 5 classes of vertebrates review and intro to invertebrates chart

Whole class science Fridays– Intro to Scientific Method and 5 senses walk outside.  Recorded then shared what we saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt.

Next week, the students will be introduced to their next daily expectation work called Word Work.  It is a work that each student has in their binder and walks them through daily activities with word exercises.  The next expectation after that will be Text Time.  Another work that will be in their binder. They will be reading passages to work on for the week and answer reading and comprehension skills.  By the week of September 17th, my hope is to have all 3 expectations going simultaneously.

Have a great long weekend!  Happy Labor Day and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

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!

Past Week

We had a busy week 3!  I was able to get through most of the new students’ reading assessment.  I will finish those new students up Monday and then begin doing our 1st graders.  These assessments are first priority at the beginning of each day.

Tuesday-  We had the Loveland Aquarium for the 2nd graders come to our school.  Our group of 2nd graders went from 9:00am-9:55am and learned about the rainforest and animals that love there.  This was a great resource for them because we are studying South America for our continent study and we will moving into the rainforest this week!  We had a shaky start to PE and Music.  Our Music teacher got the schedule mixed up with the Aquarium’s.  I was able to tell her that this our music time and our students were able to get some of their music class.

*On Tuesdays,  we have PE and Music in the morning.  The students will have recess first thing on Tuesday as they enter the school.  At 8:50, they are called to line up and then cultural lessons are given until it is time to go.  The afternoon will hold the majority of Math and Language lessons.

Wednesday- We had a beautiful morning work cycle and the students got their first monthly Botany lesson from Ms. Rachel.

Thursday-  Thank you to all those who came to the Parent Open House!  I handed out a yellow Field Trip Schedule and 2017-2018 Home Project Schedule.  I revamped the project schedule to be more inline with our Peace curriculum and lessons on building a community.  You can now have access to both of those schedules in the above tabs!  3rd graders also attended their first computer class this past week.  They go every Thursday at 9:45-10:15

Friday- We spent the day learning more about South America.  The students learned the flag colors of Venezuela and Colombia.  I then introduced our first animal from South American, the llama!  The students then did a Peruvian llama art project where they made Peruvian textile patters with black and white crayons and then watercolored over top.  While the background dried, a second paper was used to create the face of a llama.  It was then cut out and glued onto the painted background.  They turned out great!

*Pizza Fridays also began this week!  Please visit our school website or social media pages for the pizza form.  Each slice is $1.75 and you can purchase for multiple dates or single dates.

Upcoming Week/Info:

Accountability program for our classroom- I am almost done designing our accountability program for our students.  We had a set back with Ms. Gaby leaving MMA, who was our part time co-teacher and Ms. Misha had training for 2 of the weekdays.  Misha and I will be making the final revisions and then getting the information out to you all.  We should have it completed by the end of this week.

5K- If you would like to register for the MMA Color Run 5K and haven’t, I have orange registration forms in our classroom.  Have your child bring one home if you would like one. The date is September 23rd.

Skate Night- I saw on our school’s social media that there will be an MMA Skate Night at Family Fun Center in Layton on Sept. 26th from 5-8:30pm.  There are rentals available there if you need anything and they have dinner specials.

Yarn donation needed- We could use some more yarn for our projects.  If you would like, it is not required, please feel free to donate any kind of yarn.

Computers available- Mr. James, our tech/IT specialist scheduled the moveable laptop cart to our class every Wednesday from 12:30-1:30.  These laptops will be great for any research, IXL lessons, SAGE practice, report writing etc.  Sometime I will hold whole class or small group lessons that will need the laptops, but if needed, a student can use one for an hour for educational purposes.

Slippers and placemats- please remember that some sort of inside shoe is required at MMA.  Our school also doesn’t have a lunchroom and we use placemats to keep the desks clean during lunch.  Please provide your student these supplies, if possible.  Thanks.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week.

Ms. Kaley

Hello Everyone!

This past Friday, 10 of the new 1st graders came for orientation!  That’s a great turn out!  Thank you for giving your child that opportunity to see their new classroom, meet me, and prepare for tomorrow.

Back to School Night!

This coming week we have Back to School Night on Thursday the 18th.  If you are brand new to Montessori, I highly recommend you come at 6:30 to our Montessori 101 half hour presentation in the Library.  From 7-8 will be open house style in our classroom.  I usually give out important handouts that will be relevant for the whole year.  It also gives you an opportunity to see our room and ask Emilee and I questions.  I look forward to seeing new and veteran parents on Thursday!

Can I Help my Child to Your Room?

Now that school is about to begin tomorrow, if your child is unable to carry his/her own supplies, we will have your child drop them off at the front of the school since we are beginning normalization and parents will not be permitted to go back to our classroom.  Please make sure your child’s supplies are bagged with their NAMES ON THE BAG.  Emilee and I will be sorting the rest of the supplies tomorrow after school and it is very helpful if a name is on those things that need to be labeled.

Early Out Week

Please remember that this whole week will be 1pm dismissals.  Please pack your child a lunch!

Snack & Lunches

Our school requires health food options for both snack time and in lunches.  No drinks with colored dyes,   sodas, sweets/treats, or food that needs heating up more than 2:00 mins.  Cup of Noodles and Ramen take FOREVER to get soft.  Your child doesn’t get enough time to eat them.  I understand that they are easy to pack, but they need to be PRECOOKED and ready to go if you choose that food for your child.  Easy Mac isn’t as bad, but it still is a food that needs a little bit of cooking time.  If we have half our class waiting for the microwave, then eating time is very limited.  If you can, I recommend a non-heatable lunch.

Snack time is 2 people at a time.  This coming week we will do group snack for a couple of days, but then begin to practice our 2 person snack pull.

• IMPORTANT: We have a child with a nut allergy.  Please no peanut butter or nut products this year.  I will give more info as I get more info from the parents.  Thanks!
• Can anyone bring in snack for the week starting tomorrow? (Email me and let me know.  First come first serve!) I will reset the snack sign up tomorrow after school.

5K Race for the Redwoods Fundraiser

On September 17th, we are holding our annual 5K fundraiser.  This fundraiser helps support the 6th grade field trip to the Redwoods.  This year will be a color run!! Please sign up to race through this link:

 https://www.raceentry.com/races/mma-annual-5k-family-color-fun-run/2016/register 

Take care and have a great rest of your weekend and last day of summer!

Cheers!

Ms. K