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:

Hi Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

Reminder that I will be out of town beginning Thursday.  I will return Tuesday of next week.  I will be attending the annual AMS Montessori Conference being held in Washington DC this year.  There will be 2 subs- Ms. Alicia will cover for Thursday and next Monday and Ms. Amber will cover for Friday of this week.  We will follow a pretty normal schedule for the week.  This Friday I have left Misha some South America lessons and art work to do with the kids in the morning.

A Fire Drill will take place on Wednesday

Gala– The school’s Gala is this coming Saturday!  You can still purchase tickets at the door.  It will be up at Snowbasin this year.

Past Week:

This past week was Literacy Week.  The kids enjoyed the Dr. Seuss story of the day in our class and little activities we had throughout the week.  Thanks to a lot of you who came out for Literacy Night!  I had a great time making bookmarks and seeing their familiar faces!  The themed book for the school was called I Am Peace.  It was a book that talked about mindfulness.  We as a class have talked about trying to incorporate more guided mediations to practice mindfulness in our classroom.

We had Botany with Ms. Rachael this past Tuesday and she went over food chains with the kids.  She even showed pond water from Harrisville Park under her projected microscope and the kids go to witness even the simplest of creatures doing their food chain jobs.  They really loved it!

In cultural this week 3r graders wrapped up all 3 periods in the Mesozoic Era and next time we meet we will go over the theories scientists use on how they believe dinosaurs have gone extinct.  1st graders have been working on time and most have done really well knowing time up to the quarter hour.  This is something you can work on and practice at home.  2nd graders are wrapping up fundamental human needs in relation to world culture and being a good citizen.  We talked about communication this past week and have been going over their research about what countries speak what languages.  1st graders went over external parts of a mammal in Zoology and 2nd graders are working at their own pace towards researching and reading about different kinds of animals.  3rd graders have begun studying each part of a flower and began with the stamen (the pollen producing part of the flower).

Upcoming Events:

The Earth Day movie field trip is a go!  It will take place on April 18th and the movie will begin at 9:15am.  Transportation for this field trip will need to have students dropped off at the Megaplex at Ogden’s Junction next to Fly High.  Please have them dropped off at the front by 8:50am.  Please email me and Katie, our room mom (misskt2558@yahoo.com) if your child needs a ride and pick up to and from the movie theater.  I will email certain families to see if they can chaperone as the movie theater only wants each class to provide 3.  The film should run about 70 mins or so we aren’t 100% sure how long the film is, so please be at the Megaplex for pick up at 10:30am.  Cover letters will be sent out soon!

Our Planetarium field trip is now May 1st.  This will be an all day field trip 🙂  More to come

Have a great rest of your week!  I will NOT be making a post this coming weekend due to traveling.

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello Everyone!

Past Week:

This past Tuesday we went to Union Station for our afternoon field trip.  It was nice a history lesson on some of the topics we have discussed this year.  Thank you for picking up in a very timely manner and having everyone who attended to help out.  Thank you thank you!

Upcoming Week:

We have quite a bit of events and things popping up this coming week! Please read carefully!

Literacy Week begins Monday!

• Please have your child bring in a copy of the cover of their most favorite book.  We will hang them outside of our classroom!  They will get their copy back at the end of the week
• If you have any old books your child(ren) no longer read or want we are doing a book swap all week long!  Kids may bring books to donate and if they see any books they really want they may pick up a book or 2 during the week for the book swap. There will tables located in both kiva areas.

Monday- Dr. Seuss activities begin in our classroom!  We will be reading the ABC book and then students will also be writing their own classroom ABC book to practice alliteration writing.  We will also be going over Limericks in the afternoon and students will write a Limerick by the end of this week.

Tuesday- An eventful day! Literacy Night will be Tuesday night from 5:30pm-7:30pm.  Clean up will begin around 7:00pm.  Come do some fun activities at MMA!  Usborne books will also be there and our class will do the book preview at 8:45am.  We will then read Literacy Week’s themed book for the year when we get back.  Our students will then go see Ms. Rachael for Botany from 9:35am-10:25am.  3rd graders will join in after computers.  Ms. Julia our PE teacher will be out this week and has a sub, however, there will be an assembly for Lower El from 1:00pm-1:30pm.  Out class will plan to be late to PE that afternoon.

Wednesday- Dr. Seuss’ Oh The Places You’ll Go will be read and an activity will take place.

Thursday- Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.  The Antelopes and Badgers language groups will do a rhyming activity.  Crocs are going to work on some cursive skills and work on learning to read some cursive.

Friday- Dr Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat will be read and activity will take place. It is also the Literacy Week Read-a-thon!  Students may bring a few books to enjoy and a small pillow.  They will read from 10am-11am.  Early Release is also this Friday!  Please plan to pick up your child at 1pm.

Next Monday the 18th will be no school for students. It is a PD day for teachers.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week.  Hope to see you during Literacy Night Tuesday!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello Everyone!

Upcoming Week:

We have an extremely busy upcoming week filled with assemblies, activities, and project sharing.  Please look at the schedule carefully to help inform your student.  Recess and Lunch times are also effected by some of the changes and to accommodate them they will come at different times throughout the week!

Monday: STEM Assembly from 10:30am-11:45am.  Lunch is 1st at 11:50am-12:20pm.  Recess will then follow from 12:30-1:00pm.  3rd graders will go off to an assembly on Caves and Rock Stratification from 1:15pm-1:45pm.

Tuesday:  No Computers today (Ms. Megan will be out).  Botany with Ms. Rachael will be from 9:35am-10:25pm.  Recess for everyone will then be after from 10:30am-11:00am.  Everyone will then continue work cycle.  3rd graders will attend another 3rd grade only assembly from 11:30am-12:15pm and it will be on Chemistry.  1st and 2nd graders will get cleaned up at 11:50am and then everyone will do lunch from 12:15pm-12:45pm.  Everyone will then do their normal PE and Music time in the afternoon beginning at 1:10pm.

Wednesday: I will be judging Upper Elementary and maybe Junior High Science Fair projects until after lunch.  Ms. Misha will stay with the class and will do a STEM Shelter Challenge in the morning.  If any parent volunteers would like to help out Ms. Misha this day, please email me 🙂

*We are in need of “building materials” for our STEM challenge!  If you have any of these around your house, please bring them in by Wednesday!

• Cardboard (tissue boxes, cereal boxes etc.)
• Toilet paper/ Paper towel tubes
• Paper plates
• Aluminum foil
• Craft sticks
• Wax paper
• Pipe cleaners
• Rolls of tape

Thursday: We will clean up from work cycle at 10:45pm and then do recess at 11:00am-11:30am.  Lunch will be from 11:30am- 12:00pm.  3rd graders will be going to a Planetarium assembly at 12:00pm.  2nd graders will then go to their Planetarium assembly at 12:35pm and then 1st graders will go last at 1:10pm.  We will do our Library visit early this week at the end of the day from 2:30pm-3:00pm

Friday: STEM PROJECTS ARE DUE TODAY!  We have Art with Ms. Trudy from 8:40am-9:30am.  I don’t need any volunteers this morning for reading because afterwards the students will share their STEM projects in our room.  We will then do a portfolio reflection about STEM week and their projects. A Scales and Tales presentation will take place in the afternoon (we are waiting on our time)

This coming week the students will learn what an Economy is and will decide together how our Classroom Economy will be set up.  I have paper money that can be earned for doing their classroom jobs and how else they want to set up their economy earning.  This financial literacy skill will be to help students understand how earning works.  Part of the activity is event learn how to write a check!  In the coming weeks we will set up a Classroom Market day  where students can work together or individually on selling a skill of theirs (certain crafts, auctioning an item, a baked good or food etc.)

We will also continue our group Geography with beginning the Westward Expansion.  The students have been wanting to know more about the states out west, so we will begin how Early Americans decided to go west and why they wanted to.

Past Week:

This past week we looked at early American paper money and how paper money was created differently in each of the colonies.  Some money was worth more depending on what colony you went to because of their economy’s success.  Students got an overview that some designs of paper money failed and money went from being private to becoming something all Americans can use within any state.

Students made a money flip book on Thursday to help them remember how much each of our coins we use are worth and how many of those coins tally up to a $1.00.

We began the mid year Math U See assessments on Wednesday.  Depending on how your student did at the beginning of the year was the starting place for them this time around.  I’ve graded the tests they took and then if they can do any of the problems on the other tests they will continue to work on those.  The majority of the tests show a great improvement in adding and subtracting skills.  I’ve noticed that more 3rd graders attempted the rounding problems this time around than they did in the beginning of the year and also tackled more the larger adding and subtracting problems.

Dyad reading is going well and the students seem to be enjoying reading out loud together after lunch.

We continued our 13 colonies 4 square note taking some.

In Cultural: Botany, Geography, and Science

Level 1s: Parts of a root

Level 2s: Different kinds of leaves, The Rock Cycle intro.

Level 3s: Simple machines, compound machines, and how Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion show up in these machines.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your Sunday!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello! Welcome 2019!  Please read carefully for important information!

With the 2 days that we were back we organized binders and added the 2nd half of any papers that are needed that the students do weekly.

We also began a special kind of reading called Dyad reading.  This is something the students will be doing after lunch for 15 minutes Monday-Thursday.  If we can get it in on Fridays we will.  It is a special kind of buddy reading that looks at a student’s exile reading level.  I obtained the information from the recent DIBELS testing that was finished before Christmas break.

What is a Lexile level?

The Lexile^® Framework for Reading is a scientific approach to measuring both reading ability and the text complexity of reading materials on the same developmental scale.

I list the students from highest to lowest and you split the list in half and match the students up.  One partner is the “higher reader” and the other is the “developing reader.”  The higher reader tracks the words and the buddies read aloud together.  The developed reader hears their buddy and sees the word and tries to keep up with them.  The University of Utah has developed positive research behind the reading method and data shows this kind of buddy reading can help significantly help raise reading scores.  The developed reader also reads above their reading level according the research.

Dyad reading is also something you as parents can do with your child.  For more information, please take a moment to look at this:  DYAD READING

We also began another writing piece regarding informational writing. Students are picking a topic of interest from the 13 colonies era.  They are using a note taking skill called 4 square writing that will help them turn their research into a piece of learned writing.  We had the COW Friday morning and some students were able to get started on picking a topic.  The others were working on finishing up their time with Imagine Learning because some of the computers weren’t all the way charged, so some had to wait.

STEM Week is approaching!  Not this coming week, but the week after is STEM Week!  It looks like the project touring day will be Wednesday to see Upper El and Junior High projects.  The Lower El’s project day will be the week of January 22nd (After MLK day).  I would like to have the student’s projects due on January 18th.  We will use this time to share their projects in class with our students.  When it is the Lower El’s turn to show their projects the week of the 22nd, they won’t be standing and presenting.  Their projects will just be on display to see.

The week of STEM Week will also bring lots of assemblies and out of routine lessons.  These workshops might be for the entire class or just for certain levels.  Some of the workshops are at times that go into normal recess and lunch time.  We will adjust recess and lunch schedules to accommodate students’ workshops.  By the end of this week we will know more on what levels and workshops students will be attending.  I will make those updates in next week’s blog post.

An after school event is taking place on Thursday from 6-7:30pm.  The movie ScreenAgers will be shown.  It is a movie about screen time and the effects it has on the developing teenage brain.  It is open to anyone, so if you are interested it will be taking place Thursday the 10th in the Junior High Commons area.

Friday January 11th- No School for students- PD day for teachers.

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello All!

Thank you to everyone for a smooth field trip this past Friday.  The kids had a great time and they said they really enjoyed the workshop on simple machines.

STEM Fair Projects:  LE display the week of Jan 22nd.  Projects Due January 18th.

In January the school will host a STEM Fair display.  I talked to the kids this week on what their focuses will be:

1st grader’s projects:  Research a famous scientist and create a project about their life and what they did for science (what made them famous?)

2nd grade’s projects:  A simple science experiment that the student can do the scientific method on.  2nd graders should be able to: 1. Pick a focus (a topic), 2. Create a hypothesis for their topic, 3.  Conduct the experiment (take pictures/video for presentation display!) *include materials/supply list for experiment! *can the experiment be conducted multiple times? What kind of results happen each time, 4.  Write down observations, 5. Make a conclusion and was their hypothesis correct or incorrect?

3rd grader’s projects:  Choose between a project on a simple machine OR a demonstration that explains one of Newton’s Laws of Motion or a demonstration on how momentum or acceleration works.  3rd graders’ projects should be a display that can explain the meaning of the simple machine or laws of motion, explain why/how it works, and how it relates to real life.

Past Week:

3rd graders were excited to learn about round worms (such as earthworms).  We went over the parts of an earthworm and what they do.  We also looked at other kinds of Annelids such as leeches and how they are parasites.  2nd graders reviewed amphibians and the life cycle of a frog.  Since we have the COW on Wednesday afternoons, some 2nd graders got started on reading and researching on an amphibian of their choice.  1st graders learned what an amphibian is and learned they go through a change called “metamorphosis.”

3rd graders have now had a lesson on division with remainders (such as 67 divided by 8).  We will continue practicing this skill and then will work with a triple digit dividend and then move into division with a double digit divisor.  The 3rd graders have seen division in multiple ways with the use of our Test Tube material and also on a white board.  I’ve tied in their division into their multiplication, so they can see how the two are similar to each other.  A skill that is challenging for almost all our 3rd graders is a missing multiplier or missing multiplicand.  This is also true when it comes to division (ex. A x 6= 24 or 28 divided A= 4.

2nd graders are working towards seeing how addition and multiplication are similar.  This week they saw how when numbers go over 10 in a given place value the steps to solve in either addition or multiplication are similar on our materials.

1st graders have begun what we call dynamic addition.  Dynamic is when a given place value goes over 10 and there is exchanging that is needed.  We are starting basic right now, going up to just the 10s place.  As the skill develops they will work with addition that goes up to the thousands place.  This week we will look at subtraction and begin practicing.  1st graders will then have addition and subtraction skills to practice during the week.  After Winter break they will look at multiplication and see how multiplication and addition are similar.  Subtraction skills will also continue.

We begun an important prompt this past week.  It is the 1st summative writing assessment given this year.  After every 2 themes there is an assigned writing prompt that is used to see if they are applying the needed skills they have learned in their writing lessons.  1st graders should be able to write 3-4 complete sentences, 2nd graders should have a fluid beginning/middle/end to their story, and 3rd should apply what 2nd graders do, but be able to add dialogue to their writing.  This coming week the students are working on finishing up their drafts, edits, and revisions, and move into their final drafts.

Upcoming Week:

There is a Parent Night on December 6th at 5:30pm on how a Montessori Class runs and what expectations your child should be applying.  It will go over what makes a Montessori school different from other public schools and what student life at a Montessori school is like.  Please check out the Montessori Monday Moments that was just sent out.  The flyer is located on there.

Ms. Clarissa, our music teacher, is hosting a Winter Concert on December 17th at 5:30pm.  The flyer for the concert is also on the MMM that was just sent out.  Our child has been practicing for weeks in music class! Mark your calendars!

Please note that on December 10th, next Monday, is an early out.

This week I am going to create a sign up on Track It Forward for our annual Holiday Feast!  Our classroom feast will be December 19th at 12:00pm.  Immediate family members are invited to join your child.  The sign up will be for food.  Part of the sign up will be for each level to make something for the feast.  I should have that sign up out by the end of the week so that gives about 2 weeks of preparation.  Our feast will go until about 1pm.  Some years it has gone over 1pm by just a little bit.  The students also present Winter holidays in December from around the world.  We’ll see if we continue that or we change it up some.  Students are welcome to be checked out after the feast.

December Challenge!  Now that we are in December I have a challenge for the students!  If everyone completes their Spiral Maths, Word Works, Text Times, and writings before recess on Fridays in December then we can watch a Christmas movie in the afternoon.  Help encourage your child!  Spiral Math is only 1 column a day.  I tell the students to complete it right after circle time in the morning.  Word Work is also a few language exercises each day.  Text time is the shortest.  It is a short passage and then there are 3-4 questions about the reading.  If everyone followed the exercises then everyone would be done by the end of Thursday (All the exercises in Spiral Math and Word Work are Mondays-Thursdays).

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend.  Happy December and for anyone who celebrates or that you know celebrates Hanukkah!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hello Everyone!

Independence Project!

The Independence Project is coming up!  It is due November 16th!  The project overview, as well as all the project overviews, are in your Back to School Night folder and at the top of this blog under “Projects.”  Your child should pick a project that is about the United States.  We have been learning about the American Revolution time era, so our students should be picking a state from the 13 colonies, or an interest that is from the American Revolutionary time.

This week and next we will be going over life as colonist and provide the students more ideas for what they want to choose or help give more information to help support their project choice.  The Independence project will be our project for the school’s Cultural Festival!  You and any family and friends are invited to MMA between 1pm and 3pm to view projects throughout the school and learn what students have researched and presented during our Independence theme.  After the festival is over the students may leave their projects to share and will take them home once we get back from Thanksgiving Break.

November 16th Cooking Volunteers!  I have a recipe in a colonial american book for kids that has a Johnny Cakes recipe.  The morning of November 16th, I am looking for any you who wouldn’t mind taking a few kids at a time to learn how to make them and then eat them.  If anyone is interested, please email me and let me know.  The recipe is pretty simple and would need a few ingredients and some griddles to cook them on.

I’m considering some little Thanksgiving activities the kids can do too that morning.

Past Week

This past week’s highlights involved the 2nd graders reviewing time to the quarter hour.  This would be a great skills to help enforce and practice at home.  Everyone began Text Time, a small reading passage that has your child answering a few questions and finding supporting details as they read to help them answer the questions.  1st graders who were at school Friday really enjoyed Snake Game Seach for 10 in their lesson.  They set up a line of Montessori’s colored beads and learned how to tackle an equation such as 6+4+5+5+9+1+3+7+2+8=?  The group did well and will move onto a harder snake game this coming week.  3rd graders met with me as the first group to learn about final drafts and what editing and revising means in their writing.

In cultural this past week: History, Zoology, Geography

Level 1s: Kinds of fish, the year 2018 as our place in time

Level 2s: Time review to the quarter hour mark, tectonic plates intro

Level 3s: Cambrian and Ordovician life, Cnidarians (sea anemones and jellyfish)

*Level 3s will be taking a break from Botany until March since their curriculum revolves around flowers. They will continue other extensions and learning in their other cultural subjects, including science specifically for 3rd graders.

Friday- Scientific Method steps.  We did a class experiment with corn kernels.  Students learned to read a question, propose a hypothesis, list materials and read the procedures, record observations, and then draw a conclusion.  The corn kernels were put into a mixture of baking soda and water.  Then, vinegar was added.  The kernels then floated and sank as if they were “hopping.”

Upcoming Week:

This week will be Red Ribbon Week.  We will have a speaker on Tuesday that will help enforce students to make healthy choices for their lives.  On Friday we have an author coming to present to all of Lower Elementary, Gary Hogg.  We will have an assembly from 9-10am on Friday and then in the afternoon from 2-3, the 3rd graders will do a writing workshop with him.

Pizza money is due Tuesday if you so choose to participate

Reading Volunteers- If anyone is interested in being a reading volunteer, please let me know what day you can come in and if you prefer morning or afternoon.  Most volunteers stay between an hour to an hour and a half.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hi Everyone!  Important info below!  Please read carefully!

Upcoming Week:

Monday– Permission slips for our field trip Tuesday are DUE!  Please make sure you have emailed our room mom, Katie James, to let her know if you are:

1. Taking your own child to and from the field trip on our wejoinin sign up sheet (that way I can see who is going with who)
2. If you have extra seats and are willing to do a carpool (please also do that on our wejoinin)
3. Email Ms. Kaley to let her know if you are chaperoning (if you haven’t already)

Tuesday– Please drop your child at regular time.  We will have a small work cycle in the AM and 3rd graders will do their computer class.  If you are driving, please be at MMA no later than 9:45am.

1. Please make sure your child has a collared shirt on.  Jeans are allowed! (no holes).  Comfy shoes on
2. Is dressed for the weather outside.  It is in the 50s this week, so hoodies, jackets etc. are welcome!
3. A sack lunch.  We will be eating there at the farm
4. Backpack to hold everything
5. Water bottle

If you are chaperoning I have groups that our class is split into.  When we get to the farm I will put the students into their groups.  I am hoping to use colored stickers for the groups too.  Chaperones are responsible for watching those children in our classroom to make sure they stay in their assigned group.  We will congregate at 1:40pm to have students catch their rides.

Taking your child home after the field trip (if you are): PLEASE PLEASE call the office in the AM to let them know if you are checking out your child right after the field trip.  If you are returning to MMA after our field trip, you may also come in and sign your child out.  Have your ID ready 🙂

Pumpkins on the field trip are for purchase. If you would like your child to purchase a pumpkin you may provide them with $1 or $2.  I’ve been told that for every 5 pounds it costs $1 more.  1st and 2nd grade students who purchase a pumpkin will keep it in class for the week.  I have a fun scientific method activity they will be doing on Friday.  Students can also weigh, measure, and make stories this week on/about their pumpkin 🙂  3rd graders will be doing a candy corn STEM scientific method activity this Friday 🙂  3rd graders are totally welcome to still purchase a pumpkin and join in on measuring, weighing, and writing about their pumpkin this week too.

Wednesday– Since Tuesday we are on our field trip, we will be missing our normal PE/Music time.  Ms. Jalee and I have switched our days so that our classes can still have PE and Music.  Wednesday our class will make up their PE class from 10:50am-11:20am.  Lunch is after PE and then Music is from 12:20pm-1:10pm.  Cultural lessons afterwards and then we will restore early to provide an end of the day recess for our class.  Please let your child know that this Wednesday will be a little different.

Friday– Fall Festival after school starting at 4pm!  Come join in on the fun!  Purchase your wristbands and tickets to play the games and have your child enjoy the bounce houses and slides!  Food trucks on site for dinner 🙂   CHANGE PROJECT DUE TODAY!  Thank you to those students who brought in their projects early!  We will start sharing them and then display them outside our classroom.

PTC Sign Ups are Ready!

Parent Teacher Conferences are upon us!  Beginning October 15th we will have early outs.  Conferences run in 20 minute increments and begin at 1:30pm.  PTC days are on Oct. 15th, Oct. 16th, and Oct. 17th.  No School on October 18th and 19th.  Please sign up on Track it Forward!  

Monday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439125

Tuesday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439126

Wednesday- https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/439127

Original Art!

A yellow folder went home on Friday that I’m pretty excited about!  Every year, we do a special fundraiser that goes directly to JUST OUR CLASSROOM.  This year, we made a special piece of art for our classroom community- The Red Maples.  Students who are done, brought home that piece of art in the yellow folder.  Student who have been absent or are almost done, will bring their leaf art home very soon.  Your child’s classroom art can be turned into anything on that purchase sheet.  This is also a great time to think about Christmas gifts for family members 🙂  Please please review the papers carefully.  The purchasing is not online this year 🙁  It will be on the purchase form also provided in the yellow folder.  Money raised for our classroom will either go towards:

1. a field trip for just our class
2. materials/works for our classroom

Past Week:

This past week our students worked on a writing prompt about which Great Lesson was their favorite and what they liked best about it.  This coming week our students will write a formal assessment also related to the Great Lessons since our time with the theme of CHANGE has now come to an end!  We will now welcome the theme of INDEPENDENCE and students will work on learning about states in the eastern region of the USA, the 13 colonies, and intro to The American Revolution.  We will also look at Eli Whitney as an inventor and continue our study on the scientific method.

Students in our class wrapped up learning about the states in the northeastern region will now see how some of those states will be applied to the 13 colonies.

We made up some cultural lessons in Geography and Botany this week and learned about the Water Cycle as a whole class in science this week.  We also made our first Library trip too this past Friday.

Geography

Level 1s: Zones of the Earth

Level 2s: Zones of the Earth

Level 3s: Heat energy

Botany

Level 1s: Parts of a plant

Level 2s: Parts of a leaf

Level 3s: Seed germination

Reading Volunteers!

If you have signed up to be a reading volunteer for our classroom I am ready for you to come in!  Please email me if you can come in 1 day each week to help our students with reading goals.  I have sight words, group books, games, and materials for you to help our students with.  Please email me your best day and time you can come in and help out.  Helpers will work with students out in our kiva space or at the student’s work space.  As I gather the list of volunteers and their day they can come in I can then begin our reading volunteers after Fall Break 🙂 Thanks!

Picture Day!

Picture day will be Oct. 22nd.  Forms will be coming soon!

Hi Everyone!

Change Project:   Our 1st theme is almost at an end- ending on October 5th.  At Back to School Night there were large manilla folders given out.  If you didn’t attend then your child should have brought it home.  In that folder is project outlines for the year.  Our first project is on change itself.  Please refer to that print out or I have also included it under the Projects tab at the top of our blog.  The due date will be October 12th.

Monday September 24th is an Early Release date.  Please have your child picked up at 1:00pm.

Past Week:

All students are working on writing convention skills and are being taught to use capital letters at the beginning of their sentences, proper spacing, and the role of what a period does for a sentence.  Some writing groups have been working with knowing what a subject vs a predicate is in a sentence.  All students have been part of that conversation, but the practice for all students will continue into this coming week.  I’ve noticed some students needing some extra attention in writing lowercase letters when they are using uppercase letters and sometimes vice versa.  If you see your child not starting their letters at the top or are using capital letters when they should be using lowercase (or vice versa) please bring it to their attention and work on those skills at home too.

Something fun to do to help with your child’s writing and kinds of sentence skills is to hear your child do their 20 minute a day reading and while they are reading aloud have them say *Ping!* when they get to the period that ends their sentence.  As we get into question marks and exclamation marks too, I’ll give you some fun onomatopoeia for them too.  Doing this will allow those readers who read fast to remember to slow down and take a breath and also allow students to see that the sentence being said is a statement.

In cultural this week: History and Zoology

Level 1s: 1st kinds of calendars

Level 2s: Past, present, future writing and sentences. (They all did awesome at this!)

Level 3s: Precambrian life

Level 1s: Vertebrates and invertebrates

Level 2s:  Animal research graphic organizer

Level 3s: Phyla of animals

This coming week I will introduce the mobile cart of laptops for students to work on a reading and math program called Imagine Learning.  This year, it is offered to all levels.  Students complete about 20 minutes each week (more is allowed and encouraged) and this program can also be used at home!  We will have the COW (computers on wheels) every Wednesday afternoons to get the students time in.

Friday we will team up with our Junior High mentor class and learn how to make salsa!

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Ms. Kaley and Ms. Misha

Hi Everyone!

I have made sign ups through Track It Forward!  You will probably be seeing a few emails come through inviting you to sign up!

I have made both 3rd grade breakfast sign ups for May 1st and May 7th.  The 3rd grade parents received those email notifications that they have been posted!  For the breakfasts, the school provides me the eggs from our MMA chickens and I make the 3rd grade students scrambled eggs.  The rest of the breakfast is up to you guys! Please sign up to contribute to our breakfast if you can.  Thanks!

May PTC sign ups are ready!  Please sign up through Track It Forward.  Once you are into the program you will click on Event Sign-Up and you will see a calendar.  Be careful to find our classroom sign up as ALL of the school will be posting their sign up sheets on these 3 days.  So far, it is just Ms. Marleen and myself already to rock and roll for sign ups.  During the dinner times there is a date where they make us a nice end of the year dinner.  I might have to adjust one of the spots once I know the date!

May Spirit Week Events! May 14th- May 18th

Monday- Store Day AND Crazy Sock Day.  We will be outside with Ms. Stef’s Class for Store Day (please provide sunblock!).  It works like a yard sale!  Students will be earning classroom dollars to use towards buying things from others during Store Day.  Students may bring in things to sell:

-Sell books and toys they no longer want, but think someone else may want to enjoy

-Sell a treat: Otter Pops, muffins, cookie, etc.  Must be wrapped up to take home

-Sell a service/craft: origami, play a game, make a craft, sell a craft etc.

Students should bring their own blanket to be able to set up their own store items and also bring a bag to do their shopping with.  We plan on being outside if it is nice out.  It could be hot so please allow them to bring sunblock, sunglasses, and hats.

Tuesday- Crazy hat or Hair Day!

Wednesday- PJ and Movie Day.  Pillows and blankets allowed

Thursday- Occupation Day!  Dress like the occupation you want to be when you grow up or any occupation!

Friday- FIELD DAY! It is also dress down day.  We have ours in the morning.  It is outside too and will be in the parking lot.  Please prepare your child for running around outside and for the weather.

Upcoming Week:

The 6th and and 9th graders are on their big field trips.  Some teachers and SPED teachers are helping chaperone and will be out of the building.  We will have Ms. Nikki’s assistant, Ms. Missy, on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

I will be leaving for Charlottesville, VA on Thursday and will be out Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday (May 7th).  Ms. Lori will be subbing for me.  Our schedule will run as it normally does.

Volunteers needed!- Friday the students will be doing Cinco de Mayo learning and activities.  I would love to have a parent or 2 come in and help make homemade salsa for snack.  If would like to help out in the morning and help the kids prepare salsa, please email me ASAP! We will also need tortilla chips donated too.  If you can’t make it, but want to help donate chips, please let me know and send them in with your child this week.  Please email me at kparsons@mariamontessoriacademy.org if you can help out on Friday or help donate food supplies!  Thanks!

DIBLES- Our end of the year reading testing has begun!  Monday (tomorrow) and Tuesday the reading teachers will be testing our students on end of the year DIBELS testing

SAGE Writing- 3rd graders will take their SAGE Writing test Tuesday May 1st.  They will have their special breakfast in the morning and then begin testing at 9am.  They will miss PE and Music this day.

I will be doing 3rd grade end of the year UURC reading level testing this week.  UURC states what reading level your child is reading at.

There will not be any Geometry/Fractions/Measurement lessons this week as each level will work on Problem of the Month with me instead.

No blog post will be posted over next weekend.  Here are some May dates to be aware of:

May 7th- 3rd grade Breakfast and SAGE Math 9am.

May 8th-May 10th- 3 3d grade students will shadow in Ms. Stef’s Upper El class for the day to see what Upper El is like.

May 10th- 3d grade party 1:30-2:30

Past Week:

Thank you to a lot of you who attended the field trip with us Thursday.  We had beautiful weather and everyone had a great time!

Every language group this week continued to work on their parts of speech with me.

1st graders worked on learning pictographs this week, 2nd graders continued to work on their graphing skills too, and 3rd graders used Tanagrams to solve fraction problems to help their equivalent fraction practice.

In cultural this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: Endangered Animals

Level 2s: The Nervous System and the Brain

Level 3s: Arthropods and Spiders

Friday- Boat building STEM project.  They loved it!

Have a great rest of your weekend, upcoming week, and next week!

Ms. Kaley