Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

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

Hello again!

Please let our room mom know if CAN drive and have open seats and are able to take other students. Katie can help you set up a carpool, but is looking to see who has availability 🙂

Please let us know so we can make sure the kids have rides and our class is able to attend the field trip. We are now good on having chaperones, but are just looking for our drivers and who needs rides. Thanks everyone!

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

Forgot we had no school on the 12th of February.  Let’s move it to the morning on February 10th.  It is a half day that day and then they can just work on their activities.  Sorry about that!

I made a mistake on the times for the Holiday performance on the 10th.  The times should be:

1st group- 6:00pm

2nd group- 7:00pm

Sorry about that! I wrote it down wrong!  Thanks, Lori!

I made a boo boo! The field trip date to The Planetarium is Feb. 18th.  Time TBD

Hello!

Thank Yous:

First off, thank you parents for getting my last minute email about the field trip and getting your child to MMA or Black Island Farms on time!  A big thank you is in order for those who came with us and helped drive some students.  The students had a great time!

Also, thank you Kristy for helping on Friday afternoon with science.

Halloween:

This approaching Friday is Halloween.  It sounds like Jaida is putting together some great activities for the students.  Students will be doing studio in the morning from 8:40-11:30.  We eat lunch from 11:30-12:15.  Our holiday party will take place at 1pm.  I will round up the troops at 12:45 from outside.  When they come in, I’ll have them at circle and then allow the parents who are coming to explain what the activities are.  It works best if a child chooses what they want to do and how long they want to stay.  This has worked out better than a rotation.

Volunteer Opportunities for Reading (Committed Volunteers):

I am great need of some parents who can come in and read and do word sorts with our students.  We have 5 reading groups.  This approaching week I am going to transition the students into doing the Daily 5 reading/writing activities in the afternoon.  Monday is the hardest day since we have PE from 12:30-1:10 and then Spanish from 1:10-2pm. Spanish is split into 2 groups.

Who I Need:

*We have our Middle School helper until 10:30am Mondays and Wednesdays.  Brannock will be taught how to do word sorts this week.  He will be trained this Wednesday from 8:30am-9:55am.  If you would like to volunteer to do word sorts please let me know right away and you can most likely attend the training with Brannock on Wednesday morning. 

* Fluency strip volunteer (Morning) (let me know what time you can do)

* Bob book/Reading for All Learners (RFAL) volunteer (Morning) (let me know what time you can do)

* Word sorts volunteer (Morning and/or afternoon) (let me know what time you can do)

* Afternoon Read to Someone volunteer (1pm? let me know what time you can do)

So, here is what I would like to try (thinking out loud:

Monday: Brannock in classroom to do sorts, Bob books volunteer

Tuesday: Fluency strips volunteer, RFAL volunteer, Word Sorts volunteer

Wednesday:  Brannock in classroom to do sorts, Bob books volunteer

Thursday: Fluency strips volunteer, RFAL volunteer, Word Sorts volunteer, Afternoon Read to Someone volunteer

Starting our Daily 5 reading/writing afternoon work cycle, Ms. LaVonna and I will work with our 5 reading groups.  Groups not with a teacher will be choosing one of the other 4 choice rotations.  We will be doing the Daily 5 from 12:30-1:30.  At 1:30 I will start cultural.  Students who finish cultural or are waiting to do cultural will continue to do their Daily 5 choices.

Homework:

– Have students read 20 minutes (especially Level 1s).  Have them read to you and make sure to stop and ask comprehension questions along the way.  You can create your own home “word wall” too.  If your child doesn’t know a word, write that word down on a notecard/piece of paper and stick it to a wall to practice reading and saying until they learn the word.  Always revisit past words.

-Practice spelling words with your child for their test on Thursdays.  Can they read, say, and spell the word?  Have them alphabetize their spelling flash cards.  Those who want to work on cursive (especially Level 3s) can practice writing their words in cursive.  Have your student make another set of spelling cards and they can then play memory with the two sets- a sibling can help and/or play

–3rd grade parents:  A program called IXL is a program our classroom is using to help 3rd graders practice Common Core Math and Language Arts questions.  If your 3rd grader practices their IXL every week, you will be helping them prepare for their Utah State Tests in the Spring.

Logins for IXL will go out soon once they are activated.

Typing is also great practice.  Your 3rd grader will be doing a new typing program in the classroom called Typing Web.  This can also be worked on at home.  I give your child their login info this week.  You can also have them do the BBC free typing program online.  Google: BBC typing and it should pop up.

– I will be posting the first book report in the next blog post.  Book reports will be DUE: November 17th

Materials Night at MMA!

Welcome back students and families!
I am so excited to start this new school year off with your students. I have missed all our veteran students and cannot wait to see our new recruits! For those of you who don’t know me, I am Ms. Anna and I will be filling in for Ms. Kaley while she has a little R&R with baby Marvel (probably the cutest this on this planet FYI). I can feel the anticipation building through the school as we are all scurrying to get our classrooms ready for Monday. I know the students are also probably getting those butterflies building a little bit, so let’s do our best to work together to make this a wonderful transition back to school.

Just as a reminder, New Student Orientation (incoming level 1’s and any new level 2’s or 3’s) will be this Friday from 1-1:45 PM. Please drop your students off and direct them to Ms. LaVonna who will be holding a big yellow sign with “Ms. Kaley” on it.

School starts Monday the 18th at 8:30 and the school doors open at 8:15. School will be ending at 1:00 every day that week so please don’t forget! 

Below is the link to a We Join In snack sheet. Please make an effort to sign up!

http://wejoinin.com/sheets/cyjjn

Again I am so very excited for this new year. It is such a privilege to work with your children and get to know their individual personalities blossom.
Thanks for all you do!

Ms. Anna

Hello,

Kaley and baby Marvel are going home today. Let’s help them out with dinners. Please sign up at http://wejoinin.com/sheets/ydenl.

Thank you!

Ms. Jalee

Hello All!

Sorry if this is a little late.  April AND May are a free choice project.  Projects will be due the 28th.

April- Free Choice!- Due NO LATER than April 28th

Students of all levels will choose to either do research or do a book report.  As a free choice, they have a creative freedom to how they want to present their project.  If your child chooses a book, please make sure it is a book appropriate for their reading level.

An easy way to present their project is to get a cardboard project board.  The ones that kids use for science fairs.  They are easy to display and there is lots off room to put pictures and information.  However, posters and other means of presentation is completely up to how your child wants to present.

I’ve had some requests for reports on their pet.  If it is a dog it needs to be on a leash and have a muzzle or leash over their muzzle in order to be brought in.  Cats need to be brought in a carrier.  These are the rules, no exceptions.

Thank you!

Cheers!

Ms. K