Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

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

Hello Everyone!

Every month the teachers meet for a staff meeting.  December’s meeting happened last night. MyOn became a topic of discussion.  Our school signed up for MyOn as a resource for our students to have more access to books in hopes to improve reading outside of school.  There are still students in all of our classes that have not even logged into MyOn.  Please help us out in having your student get onto MyOn a few times a week.  I have made assignments for each level to do, but also to have students enjoy all the thousands of books that are on there.  They have books starting at the PreK level and it goes up to 6th grade.  All of our students are fully capable of having a book being just right for them through MyOn.

Our hope is to have all students be logged in by Friday.  MyOn works with any smart phone/ipad/kindle etc. device.  I’ve been told it doesn’t need a wifi signal to work!  So, if you don’t have internet at home, but your child has a device that can run MyOn, they can still enjoy the program.

If you need your child’s login again, I would be more than happy to help you with that.  Everyone’s password is “books.”

Always feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.

Happy reading!

Thank you to those parents who came to our field trip on Thursday.  Also, thank you to all parents, carpools etc. for being flexible on the train situation that made us an hour late getting back!  The kids had a great time at the Planetarium!

It is up in the air at this moment if we will have a field trip in April.  April is busy with 3rd grade testing.  Here are the dates:

April 9th- Writing test.

April 15th- Language Arts test

April 17th- Math test

This year is a pilot year for the new SAGE test.  The state is incorporating higher level bonus questions towards the end of the Language and Math tests to see how far Utah students really know.  In conjunction, no test is the same.  Each test will cater to a child’s understanding.  For example if a student is getting division problems wrong, the test will eliminate a percentage of those questions containing division.  This does not mean some kids tests may be easier.  From our understanding there is a percentage of questions  from a category of knowledge (Example: 15% of questions may be asked in Geometry).  It’s only in a portion of the test where if a child is getting problems wrong will the test change up the questions.  I hope that makes sense.  The state of Utah is expecting lower scores this year being that it is a pilot year.  This doesn’t mean our kids are not prepared.  I have been working with our 3rd graders since the beginning of the year and since January when we came back from Christmas break our 3rd graders have a review or lesson together everyday.  Language on Monday and Tuesday, Math on Wednesday and Thursday.  We will see what is to come!

My class is known for a cooked breakfast on tests days.  I am still holding to that tradition.  Our 3rd graders are teamed up with Ms. Jill’s 3rd graders and we will all test in the conference room on those specific days.  I  usually would do scrambled eggs and fruit.  I am looking for some volunteers to help me this year with breakfast cooking in our room

Writing test- scrambled eggs, fruit, 1 piece of toast, apple juice

Language test- waffles, fruit, milk

Math test- scrambled eggs, fruit, 1 piece of toast, apple juice

2 volunteers per day is sufficient.  Please let me know (can be a parent from any level) if you would like to help out and be part of our tradition.  Since starting this tradition it has made our students excited to test.  It also ensures me that they get something to eat in the morning to be able to function and focus during testing time.  Breakfast starts at 8:20am and they have until 8:55am to finish.

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Types of lines, reading comprehension

Level 2s:  Angles test, reading comprehension

Level 3s: Adverb and Pronoun review/worksheets, Geometry with fractions test

In cultural:

History:

Level 1s: Telling time to the 5 min mark

Level 2s: Uranus

Level 3s: Dinos

Zoology:

Level 1s: Birds

Level 2s: Mammal study

Level 3s: Insects

Geography:

Level 1s: Strait/Isthmus landforms

Level 2s: Types of rocks from the rock cycle card matching

Level 3s: Weather bingo

This coming week we will have a bird show on Thursday after lunch, so no Spanish week 28.

Have students be working on their science fair!  I will be setting up other teacher reviewers this week.  They are due 3/24!  No late projects accepted.

Cheers!

Ms. K

Ms. Anna and I have noticed over the past week that the students seem to have “Winter Fever.”  It seems to be that time of year again where the kids are noisy and are losing what they learned with their grace and courtesy.  On Thursday had to reign them back by assigning Level 1 and Level 2s a certain rug place.  Level 1s were overseen by me and Level 2s were overseen by Ms. Anna.  Level 3s were tested to see if they could choose and be independent on their own.  With the rest of the class being overseen, the Level 3s were able to get more done.  In fact, with everyone hunkered down more everyone got more work accomplished.  This structure gives the students the reminder that we need to respect spaces and when each student is working to not bother one another.  We had each student raise their hand when they got a work done.  Myself or Anna would then check it off and they were then allowed to clean up and put that work back to get another.  This process will last into next week.  We want to see what the students are choosing and making sure they are doing quality.  We have witnessed other students copying others, so this process will take care of that too.  This really allowed Anna and I to track their work.  After a week we will dismiss those students who have learned the ability to be independent and have relearned their classroom respect.  Those who need more practice with choosing works or respect will continue to be a part of the circle until the lesson has been taught and practiced.

Ms. Jalee has submitted our field trip to the Planetarium for next month.  Know that I will have 5 free tickets to those parents who would like to come. One ticket will have to be for Heather or Adam Misner, so that will leave 4 extra tickets.  First come first serve.  We are leaving at 8:09am via the Utah Tracks.  We will be returning to the Tracks station at 3pm, so students WILL HAVE TO be picked up at the Tracks station.  Directions, times, and fees will be mentioned on the upcoming permission slip and under our our field trip tab I will provide detailed information in the next coming days.

March’s home project is our Science Fair.  The students will be focusing on the scientific method along with their proposed question.  I will post more info on the science fair under Home Projects this weekend.

On the 27th, parent night will take place (Safety in the school).  A flyer went home this week as a reminder.

This week in group projects:

Level 1s: Divergent, convergent, and parallel lines

Level 2s: Triangle angle star

Level 3s: SAGE practice math test, multistep word problems

In cultural:

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Birds intro

Level 2s: Circulatory System

Level 3s: Sea urchins

Geography:

Level 1s: Compass rose

Level 2s: Igneous rocks

Level 3s: Recording weather

Botany:

Level 1s: Parts of the stem

Level 2s: Cross stitching

Level 3s: The stamen

Friday: Studio, Library, Science fair talk

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Thank you to those parents who came and also drove on Wednesday for our field trip!  The students really enjoyed going!

Our next field trip will be to the Clark Planetarium on March 13th.  We will be riding the front runner since it drops off right at The Gateway where the Planetarium is.  We will be going with Ms. Jalee’s class.  This will be an all day field trip.  Mark your calendars!

February 27th is Parent Education Night at MMA.  The topic will be about school safety and how can our schools become more safe nowadays?  Please visit this month’s newsletter on the school’s website to obtain more information.  There are also flyers on the front doors of the school.

This Tuesday, when we come back from President’s Day, the Upper Elementary will be holding their annual Science Fair!  3rd graders are invited to visit as to prepare them for next year when they will participate.  It will also give them ideas for our next and last assigned home project.  Our class will have its own Science Fair.  We will invite other classes to come and view when the project is due, which is March 24th.  I will be posting details in the Home Project tab soon.  1st and 2nd graders will be participating!  This project will also be evaluated.  Students will evaluate their own project as well as their peers will evaluate their projects.  Students will be looking to see how well they follow the directions, how well they know their topic, and how much of their project came from them.

This week in group lessons:

Level 3s: Editing a paragraph, multi step word problem solving (adding and subtracting)

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Time to the half hour game

Level 2s: Mars

Level 3s: Dinosaurs from the Jurassic Era

Zoology:

Level 1s: Reptiles book

Level 2s: Mammal study

Level 3s: Starfish

Botany:

Level 1s: Kinds of roots

Level 2s: Leaf sewing

Friday: Myth of Cupid, Who was Saint Valentine?, Valentine’s crafts

Remember to get your pizza money in!  You can pay through the online link!  Money is due on Wednesdays before noon to get your order in for that week.  Please let me know if you have paid online to make it easier for the 6th graders to distribute the slices.  I’ve had to hunt down pizza because I didn’t know a student paid online.  Thank you!

Happy President’s Day!

Cheers!

Ms. K

To the right of our blog, where you find our links, I added the Pizza Friday payment link.  Instead of having to bring a check in, we now offer online payment!

$1.75 per slice.  You may order as many slices as you want your child to eat.

Money is due on Wednesdays

No Cash

Can pay up to 4 weeks at a time.

Cheers!

Ms. K

This coming week is busy!  We have the International Festival Wednesday and Thursday.  Lower El’s presentations are on Thursday. It is all morning, starting at 9am.  Please have their festival projects in on Wednesday so we can set up the classroom!  You are welcome to attend the festival on both days if you wish.

Parent teacher conferences are also this week!  Starting Wednesday and ending Friday.  Please sign up if you haven’t.

Monday begins Come observe our classroom month!  Each parent gets a half hour to view what work cycle is like.

Both sign ups are to the right of this blog!

3rd grade parents!  I got someone from Academica West to come out and help set up our 3rd graders SAGE accounts.  I’ve been working on it for sometime with them and your child’s name was not being linked to me.  Everything should be fixed by this week and I will start them on practice tests.  It is imperative that they practice at home as well!  There will be 3 sections: a writing sections with 2 small essays (informative and opinion), a language arts section, and a math section.

Pizza Friday is BACK!  Each slice is $1.75.  Money must be in by WEDNESDAY! No exceptions.  Money this year must be in check form.  NO CASH PLEASE! You may also pay up to only 4 weeks in advance.  All these reasons helps keep things orderly and counting quicker.  Pizza Friday begins this week, I believe!

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Point in geometry with artist Seurat

Level 2s: Angles in art with artist Mondrian

Level 3s: Editing a paragraph, homophone practice, characteristics of kites, perimeter robot

In cultural:

History:

Level 1s: Time to the hour game

Level 2s: Venus

Level 3s: Triassic period

Zoology:

Level 1s: Kinds of reptiles

Level 2s: Marsupials

Level 3s: Make an octopus

Geography:

Level 1s: Compass game

Level 2s: Geysers intro

Level 3s: Temperature

Botany:

Level 1s: Parts of a root

Level 2s: No botany because of SAGE set up, however, the level 2s worked on their leaf rubbings

Level 3s: Birthday and state flowers

Friday: Classroom games, Chinese New Year, Library

Hope you have a great week and hope to see you this coming week!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Please sign up for the mid year Parent Teacher Conference!

I will see you next week!

Click the link off to the right of the blog!

Thank you!