Archive for the Peace Category

Week 26 Recap

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Hi Everyone!

Past Week:

We took a break from our morning Daily Starters and we read books as a class to get to know some famous African Americans that helped change history and were important figures.  The students worked on choosing an important figure for Black History Month.  We have a few students who need to finish up,  so we’ll work on hanging up their person of choice outside our classroom.  This past Monday afternoon I had a Harriet Tubman puzzle to put in order for each kid to do and also a timeline of Rosa Parks.

This past Tuesday was the school’s Spelling Bee!  The Lower El one was quite the nail biter at the end, but it was fun to witness!  It went for an hour and half and our class did a great job sitting.

Wednesday was our afternoon assembly from WSU’s Story Tellers.  Two storytellers came and told verbal stories to all of lower el.  Before we went to the assembly, our 3rd graders got to experience the dinosaur box I checked out for them from Weber State.  It cast models from real fossils that gave our kids some great fun visuals to see and feel regarding the dinosaur periods and dinosaurs we have been discussing.  The kids loved the box!

Friday in the afternoon we went back to review some scientific method skills and I had them do an activity called, The Cat’s in the Bag.  I had 8 bags and split the students up into small groups.  They had to guess the mystery items in their group’s bag and write detailed notes using as many senses as they could use.  The kids loved this activity and we will revisit it in a different way in the next few weeks.

 

Upcoming Week:

This upcoming week is our field trip to Union Station on Tuesday.  We will have recess at 11am and eat lunch at school at 11:30am.  After lunch we will restore the room and get ready to find rides at 12:30pm.  If you are taking your student or a carpool, please please arrive at the school no later than 12:30pm.  Ms. Misha doesn’t work on Tuesday afternoons, so I will need everyone to pick up their child/carpool at North Shore.  This way I don’t have to hang back with anyone and we can all arrive to Union Station at the same time.  Once you arrive to Union Station, please keep the children in the car until I arrive.  Pick up at Union Station will begin at 2:30pm.  If you have your own child, you don’t have to return back to MMA.  If a student is getting a carpool from you and needs to return to MMA, then they will head back and I will dismiss them from class at regular dismissal time.

We will continue to work on cultural acceptance lessons and skills.  This week we will talk about what does it mean to be a world citizen.

A Message from MAPA:

**Classroom Gala Basket Donations**

Parents, MAPA is in need of assistance for the classroom Gala baskets. We would ask that instead of donating items this year you donate money to MAPA and some of the volunteers will purchase everything for the baskets. We feel that this may alleviate any stress that providing items for the baskets may cause. We would ask you to be as generous as you can with your donation. We also ask that funds be donated by Thursday March 7th.
Thanks!!!
MAPA
March at a Glance:
March will be a busy time.  Next week is Literacy Week for MMA.  I will be doing Dr. Seuss activities each day along with their regular work cycle.  Next Thursday is also Literacy night at MMA.  More to come on Literacy Night soon for our blog.
Next Friday will be an early release on the 15th and that coming Monday the 18th will be no school for students.
March 21st-25th- I will be out of town.  I will be attending the AMS Montessori Conference in Washington DC.  We will have 2 subs that will come in.  Ms. Alicia and Ms. Amber both have Montessori experience.  Ms. Alicia will cover Thursday and Monday and Ms. Amber will do Friday.
March 27th- I will be at school in the morning and then will need to leave by 10:45am in the morning.  I will get the morning Math lessons in before I need to leave for an appointment.  Ms. Misha will cover the rest of the day.
Field Trips- We have the Planetarium planned for May 3rd, but we in the works of trying to plan 2 more field trips before the end of the year.  For Earth Day the lower el teachers are trying to see if we can go to Walker Theater to see the annual Earth Day movie.  I’ve been talking with Ms. Leigh, our Junior High class partner to see fi we can do anything together and she mentioned a farm trip to an organic dairy farm over by the Pepsi plant.  The kids would get to know farm life work and get to help out with some tasks.  I’ll keep you posted as those two field trips will both need field trip forms to sign.
Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!
Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Week 25 Recap

Posted in Classroom, Field Trips, Grammar, Home Projects, Peace, Shared School, Word Study | No Comments »

Hello Everyone!

Track It Forward ride sign up reminder:  Please remember to let me know what your child’s ride will be through track it forward.  Our field trip is next Tuesday on March 5th.  It will be an afternoon field trip.  Pick up is at MMA at the North Shore parking lot at 12:30pm.  Students will eat lunch prior to going.  We will meet at Union Station Museum on 25th street around 12:50ish. Our tours and lessons begin at 1pm and go until 2:30pm.  Pick up will be at the Museum at 2:30pm.

Spelling Bee Tuesday!  This Tuesday the 26th will be Spelling Bee day!  We have our top spellers ready to do their best for Tuesday’s Bee day.  Our spellers will be: Franky, Alex, and Jax.  Joseph is our alternate in case someone is absent or backs out.  The Lower El Bee will be from 9am-10am.  Parents are welcome to come and watch.  Parents with those students in our bee are highly encouraged to be there to support their student.

Wednesday– Class Pictures rescheduled day!  With the snow last week, we didn’t have everyone.  Again, we will try this Wednesday!  Our class and other the other lower el classrooms will attend a Storytelling festival assembly in the afternoon at 1:30pm.  Any cultural lesson we don’t get to will be made up Thursday.  WSU is also bringing us science boxes.  Our 3rd graders will work with the dinosaur box this Wednesday

Black History Month in Class Project:  This coming week is History Week for our school.  The Junior High is preparing their projects for March 5th’s presentation day, but for our lower elementary each classroom is running activities, lessons, and readings on a topic of their choice.  Our classroom will be honoring February’s Black History Month.  We have been reading Scholastics and we also did a learning on George Washington Carver (the inventor of peanut butter) this past week.  This coming week the students will get to choose an African American to learn more about.  We will hang up our classroom’s research and displays outside our classroom.

As we get into March we will honor Women’s Month.  This theme’s new bucket is Interdependence (Feb 25th-April 12th).  We will focus on cultural acceptance, peace lessons and how things we know and use have progressed over time (clothes, food, inventions etc.).  We will also move from the USA states to begin a South America study.  The last theme, Liberty and Justice for All will be a North America study.

We are reaching a stage in our curriculum where reviews will begin to take place on lessons already learned.  New language lessons pertaining to our word study and grammar towers are tapering off for some levels.  As we get into March I am going to hold lessons on poetry, figurative language, storytelling, and combine what they have learned in word study and grammar into these lessons.  Next week we will get into new writing lessons on opinions as well that will take us to the end of the year.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Week 19 Recap

Posted in Classroom, Grace and Courtesy, Home Projects, Montessori Philosophy, Peace | No Comments »

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

Week 18 Recap

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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

Week 10 Recap

Posted in Classroom, Holidays, Home Projects, Peace | No Comments »

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

Week 5 Recap

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Hi Everyone!

Past Week:

This past week I introduced fractions lessons.  Level 1s are working on labeling the fraction families (whole, halves, thirds…up to tenths family).  Level 2s reviewed naming fractions and did super!  I will be giving them their own practice for this coming week to demonstrate their mastery and work with anyone who needs more time with naming the fractions. Level 3s went over the nomenclature of numerator and denominator and they are in a good place too!  I will begin Geometry with Level 2s and 3s this week and begin learning money with Level 1s this coming week (penny and nickel).

This week in cultural we finished the first cultural rotation with Botany.  We are back to History this coming week.

Level 1s: Parts of a plant, care & needs of plants, what plants give us

Level 2s: Parts of a leaf and leaf venation

Level 3s: Parts of a flower

Language groups were also introduced this week.  I have three groups that are mixed abilities, but each group moves at a different pace.  My three groups are: The Antelopes, The Badgers, and The Crocodiles (Crocs).  Each language group will be exposed to each part of speech appropriate to their grade level and will also learn what their roles are.  We will also go over writing skills, word study lessons, and comprehension.

Thursday was International Day of Peace.  Our classroom and Ms. Stef’s teamed up to color a peace flower.  Our class also went over the importance of peace and examples of peace.

October’s Peacemaker Report:  On Thursday I went over the October home project.  For clarity, your student will get to choose a peacemaker from history.   They can be living or have passed.  I noticed that the project is set to be due Oct. 20th, but that is during Fall Break.  I am moving the due date to October 27th!  Students will fill out the information page, but then are required to present their project.  Some ideas on how they present are: can write a report to read to the class, make a poster of the peacemaker, dress up as the person and tell about them, make a puppet to tell about their peacemaker- the choice is your student’s.  I’m going to attach the information needed for the peacemaker report in the Projects tab.  Print off the template and have your child find the needed information on their peacemaker.  More points for your child’s progress report will be given based on how well they know their person and having a complete project.

Friday we learned about the Morpho butterfly and did a Morpho butterfly craft.  The students then colored two more South American flags (Brazil and Chile) for their country collection.  We went over what earned Friday time is and those students who completed enough of their work cycle works got to take out some of the game, color, or make a paper craft.  Those who missed a few works had those works highlighted in their planners in orange and were asked to complete those works before beginning their Friday time.

Upcoming Week:

Tuesday I have in school all day training for DIBELS (a reading assessment tool).  All the lower elementary teachers are asked to attend.  Ms. Misha and our other assistant will help oversee the day.  The students will still have morning recess, cultural lessons, and then go to specials.  Ms. Misha and the other assistant will also roam for student work check off in the afternoon.

Tuesday from 5-8 is Skate Night in Layton.  A small flyer went home this past week.

Friday is the beginning of studio!  The mornings are dedicated to the three rotations that students attend.  In the afternoon, we will continue talking about the rainforest and how common foods we eat come from the rainforest. We will also do a grace and courtesy check in and go over what are socially accepted norms (saying please, thank you, holding doors etc.)

Have a great upcoming week,

Ms. Kaley

Week 4 Recap

Posted in Classroom, Peace, Shared School | No Comments »

Hello Everyone!

Past Week

This week we got Math Facts up and running.  Math facts are 5 minute “time tests”.  I have split up everyone to go on different days during certain parts of the day.  These results are recorded and the information is used to make sure facts are being understood and if any reviews are necessary.

This week we had Geography in cultural:

Level 1s: Naming the continents, longitude and latitude, hemispheres

Level 2s: Parts of the Earth (inside) all week

Level 3s: The Sun’s size, Sun’s energy, and how we get day/night and seasons

Math groups have been going well and this coming week I will be adding Fractions lessons and begin language groups.  Students do their own independent language works that they need to practice, but the purpose of our language groups will be to go over follow ups to the shelf works, writing lessons, and reading/comprehension lessons.  I meet frequently with each student multiples times a week to make sure learning is being practiced and any adjustments to lessons/individual works are planned according to where it is needed.  Ms. Stef W’s class, our mentor class, will also play a part in some of those lessons.  Our mentor goal is to work together to give all students the lessons that are needed, no matter what age or grade.

 

Upcoming Week:

On Thursday, it is International Peace Day.  To honor this day, our class and Ms. Stef’s will do a craft in the afternoon.  Cultural lessons will still be given, but students will work on the craft until they are called.  Our craft will be a peace flower.  As a home extension you could have a conversation with your child about what peace means to them and why do they think peace is important to teach and practice.

Mr. James, MMA’s IT Specialist, is working on making everyone’s accounts for IXL and Imagination Learning.  This year my classroom will only receive IXL accounts for 3rd graders.  1st and 2nd graders will get accounts for Imagination Learning.  Once Mr. James has all the accounts updated we will begin our use of the Computers on Wheels (COW) every Wednesday afternoon for an hour will begin.  This will also be a time that 3rd graders will receive Utah Compose lessons and SAGE skills.

MMA’s 5K is coming up!  Reminder that it will be Sep. 23rd.  If you need a form I have a few extra.

Anyone been to South America?– We are learning about South America!  If you know anyone who has spent some time in South America and would like to come in one Friday afternoon to share their experience please let me know!

Studio Fridays begin!– Studio Friday is upon us!  Studio is an experience that allows each child to get an hour lesson on science, art/music, and social studies.  Studio begins at 8:40 am and ends at 11:30am.  Each lower elementary teacher teaches one of the 3 subjects for a certain grade level.  My role for studio is to teach 3rd grade science.  I will see all 3rd graders of every grade through 3 separate rotations.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week.

Ms. Kaley

Week 5

Posted in Classroom, Peace | No Comments »

Hi Everyone!

UPCOMING WEEK:

Book Report/Early Out: Just as a reminder, September’s book report is DUE FRIDAY!  Friday is also an Early Out day.  I look forward to seeing all the different presentations!

Positive Discipline: This Thursday is the free 1 hour Positive Discipline preview. Come by if you want to check it out and then see if you want to sign up for the all day Saturday course.  I found out the price for the Saturday course.  It is from 9am-5pm and it is $95 for 1 person and $150 for a couple.

International Peace Day: Is this Thursday!  We will be singing with children across the world!  We will be singing at 10:00am.  Our class is going to make Peace Doves to hang and have a discussion on what is Peace and what are examples of global peace.  I will be presenting this in the afternoon.

In class History project for 1st graders: 1st grade parents!:  This week we are going to have each 1st grader make a timeline of their life.  Could you please send in 1 picture (print out or actual pictures) for each year of their life so they can make an in class project.  Please send in by this TUESDAY.

PAST WEEK:

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Naming fraction families, geometric solids introduction, 1/2 of students completed Math assessment- other half this coming Monday

Level 2s: Naming and writing fractions, line review, time to quarter/half hour review, all 2nd graders completed Math assessment

Level 3s: Numerator and denominator review

 

In cultural this week: Botany

Level 1s: Lifecycle and parts of a plant

Level 2s: Parts of a leaf and how veins work on a leaf

Level 3s: Parts of a flower

2nd graders enjoyed going outside this past Tuesday and got to pick their own leaf. We then learned how to do a leaf rubbing and got to work on labeling real leaf parts from the rubbing.  2nd grade students enjoyed seeing real veins on a leaf and I showed them the little tubes in the main vein of a piece of lettuce  because it’s veins coloring was purple.

 

Our room mother, Alicia Thomas, is going to be working on Fall/Halloween party and will be needing help.  Please keep an eye out from her as she will be looking for parent and supply/decor help.  Thanks!

 

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week

Cheers!

Ms. K