Ms. Kaley's Classroom Room 24

Thank you coming to PTC this past week!  We had everyone come!

Past Week:

We spent the 3 early out days doing some social skills and some little classroom games that had them working together.  3rd graders were supposed to do their meeting with Ms. Valerie on Tuesday, but she ended up being sick that day, so we are looking to reschedule. On Wednesday we went over how we all can look and sound during work cycle and that we would do work cycle for an hour and I would just observe.  It gave me a lot of feedback watching everyone for an hour.  We’ll have a group of kids, starting tomorrow, who will need more support than others.  Tomorrow, some students will find that they will be able to choose their own work space and will have that freedom.  The others will be around Ms. Emilee and I so we can help support those students with staying on task, how to choose work, and focus on themselves.

Upcoming Week:

Monday will also be the 3rd grader’s first practice SAGE test from 10:45-12:00.  Afterwards they will eat lunch.  Their recess will be before they go into testing.  They will go outside at 10:15 with me.

Wednesday is our field trip!  Please remember we are meeting at Black Island Farms.  Some students are doing carpools with others.  I will be at the school getting the first aid pack and some name tags for our trip.  I am at the school by 7:30am.  I will be leaving the school by 8am to make it to the farm on time to do attendance and start getting everyone on the hayride.  Ms. Jalee’s class is also going with us, so if you need a carpool and you know someone in her class, please let our room mother know.

This week is also Red Ribbon Week!  I haven’t seen a schedule on any guest speakers, but generally there are a few activities such as wearing red, an anti-drug speaker, and door decorating.  It will be a busy week!

Friday’s Class Party!- Friday is our classroom party!  Alicia has sent out a few emails reminding everyone.  Our students eat lunch at 11:30am and then we should be back inside by 12:40ish to go over the activities.

November’s upcoming report!- If you’d like to get a head start, our November’s project is a book report.  The topic is non-fiction.  I am giving the choice between a person, animal, or something of historical reference (example: Gettysburg, Statue of Liberty, invention of the steamboat etc.).  Please revisit your project choices list for a new project.  DUE FRIDAY NOV. 18th.

Pre-Primer-1st grade Reading Homework will resume tomorrow (Monday the 24th).

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week

Cheers!

Ms. K

Good News!  Ms. Emilee doesn’t have to leave anymore!  Her other job is willing to work around her school schedule, so the assistant search is off!

Reminder of PTC/Home Project!- Tomorrow begins our PTC.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all early outs (1pm dismissal). I have a lot of openings for Monday and some Wednesday.  Tuesday is pretty filled, but some spots open.  Here are the parents that need to sign up still:

Kaulin

Jaxston

Brett

Lili

Anna

Michael

Karsten

Naomi

Lucy

Volunteer to help at our Halloween Party!- Alicia has sent out a sign up sheet for our parents to help out in our class for our Friday October 28th party.  If you would like to contribute in some way, please sign up!

Field Trip Approaching!-  During PTC, I will have the permission slips for our Black Island Farms field trip.  This field trip’s transportation will have you or a carpool drop off your child at the field trip site instead of getting a ride from the school to the farm.  Please be there around 8:40 at the very latest.  This will allow time for our parent chaperones to check in and get the classes onto the hayride to learn about corn and crops.  If you need help setting up a carpool for your child, please contact Alicia Thomas (our room mom).  Her email is at the bottom of our new permission slips!

3rd grade practice SAGE testing!- I just received a schedule for our 3rd graders to get a feel for how the SAGE tests will test them in the spring.  We will start with Language on the 24th of this month, Writing on the 31st, and end with Math on Nov. 7.  If a 3rd grader is absent, they can make up a test on Nov. 14th.  Our testing times for all 3 are from 10:45am-12:00pm.

This past week our class had a harder time, as a whole, giving respect to me as a teacher and with their friends.  Our 3rd graders (primarily) are having a very hard time setting good examples for friendships.  There will be a 3rd grade meeting (during school time) with our school counselor, Ms. Valerie.  She’s going to help them by working on replacing the negative they are giving each other, with more positive social skills.  I will be having those kinds of conversations with parents during PTC.  I hope your family will back me up and support in helping give our certain students the tools they need to function in a Montessori environment.  It’s going to take you and I working together to help give them support, but also come up with consequences that are supported by all.  

This coming week I will be rebuilding some of those forgotten social skills and classroom expectations.  Since we have early outs, I figured it be a great time to go back and review the expectations that are non-negotiable.  

Alicia!  We had a lot of students interested in crocheting.  Let me know when your person can be available.  Since there are so many, could she do multiple dates so we could break the kids up into small groups?  Let me know what you think 🙂

This Past Week:

A lot of our cultural/afternoon lessons got interrupted this week by having the computer cart or I was spending the whole afternoon working with students on their behaviors and needs

In group lessons:

Level 1s: What is a Personal Narrative

Level 2s: What is a Personal Narrative

Level 3s: What is a Personal Narrative

In cultural this week: Botany

Level 1s: Plants through the seasons

Level 2s: Simple and compound margins of a leaf

Level 3s: Solitary and Inflorescence flowers, Types of calyxes on flowers

Have a great rest of your Sunday and I look forward to meeting with you all this coming week!  Thanks!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hi Everyone!

Assistant Change- It is sad to announce this, but Ms. Emilee has taken a full time position at her other job.  I have not told the kids yet, but I will by the end of this coming week.  If you know anyone who is qualified and would like to apply, please have them send their resume directly to Ms. Stephanie.  The position is posted on teachers-teachers.com too.  We will wish Ms. Emilee the best of luck on her new adventure!   

Mentors- This past week we had our Junior High mentors begin.  They are reading with a total of 4 students for 15 mins each and then they are helping our students with their works for the last half hour they are in our room.

PTC Sign ups!- I posted the sign up sheet for our first conferences!  Please see the post below this one to click on the link and sign up!  See everyone soon!

Project Clarifications- Okay, so to help with any confusion for our first home project, I want to go over some more details.  Their project is not a book report.  The hope is to not confine the students to one project idea, but to let them come up with their own kind of project and presentations.  Our first home project is to help them feel comfortable presenting a project by limiting the “audience.”  This month’s project is all about cultural.  Step 1: Your child is to pick from one of our cultural subjects (History, Zoology, Physiology (only level 2s do this), Geography, Botany (includes Ms. Rachel’s monthly lessons), Australia, Science (from their studio class), and Social studies (from their studio class)). Once they know their subject, they move to Step 2: Picking a lesson they have learned from that subject that has interested them.  Once they know that then (Step 3) they are able to come up with a project idea that they can do. I fully understand that different abilities are going to look varied.  When I mentioned that a piece of writing is needed, that can look like, for example, a picture labeling the parts from a lesson or some simple sentences to explain their project (more of an expectation I would get from a first grader).  However, some students may submit paragraphs or a PowerPoint.  All of these are just some examples that would meet the writing requirement.  The idea is to have the child excited about their learning and have them want to do the project.  

If they would like to replicate one of my lessons, but they get to play teacher with the explanation, then that is fine too.

Your child’s project is due the day you sign up for PTC.  So, if you signed up for Monday Oct. 17th at 4:10pm, then your child’s project is due to me on Monday Oct. 17th during school time (for example).

Please have your child keep their presentation around a max of 5 mins, so that it leaves us time to go over their other areas of learning and development.

Reading volunteers- Ms. Lori began her reading volunteering this past Thursday!  If you would like to help out our classroom with reading, please email me and let know.  Thursdays work well for Lori, so we planned on that day.  If another day works for you, I will work with you 🙂

Group lessons this week:

Level 1s: Great Barrier Reef, the beginning of what a numerator/denominator is in a fraction

Level 2s: Great Barrier Reef, perimeter of quadrilaterals

Level 3s: Great Barrier Reef, word problems, and angles in kinds of triangles

Weekly Writing: Exclamatory, Interrogative, Imperative, Declarative sentence examples

In cultural this week: Geography

Level 1s: Continent review, hemispheres and zones of the Earth

Level 2s: Tectonic Plates and Pangea

Level 3s: Layers of the Atmosphere

Upcoming Week:

PE and Music on Monday.  Please provide some sneakers for PE.

Wednesday afternoon will be our first Computer on Wheels time.  From 12-3 will be our class’ time to do IXL and MyOn while I pull for cultural lessons.

Lockdown drill– Also, on Wednesday we will have our first lockdown drill.  This past week the kids began discussing the clown incidents.  Friday we sat down at class meeting and I answered their questions about the clown incidents.  I told them that some people find that funny and that’s why we are seeing so much of it across our country.  I told them nobody has been killed and that they were safe here at school.  That lead us into what our drill was going to look like.  For your awareness, a lockdown drill at our school would mean that someone in the office would come over the speaker and say, “Please go into lockdown.”  We have a magnet on our classroom door that covers the locking part of our doors.  I keep our door ALWAYS locked.  A teacher would remove the magnet and shut the door.  Lights will be turned off and blinds closed.  Our language area is sort of boxed in and that’s where our students will gather.  Officer Child’s, an officer that patrols our school often, will be walking around during that time.  The idea is to make our classrooms empty.  If for any reason a lockdown was real, we would do exactly what I described.  When we are told so, each classroom has an emergency  bag with snacks, water bags, and books.  We would leave like we would in a fire drill and go to North Shore parking lot.  Each classroom has a parking space that they sit in.  This is where you would go if ever we needed to evacuate our school and parents had to pick up their kids.

Let’s end on a high note!

Fall Festival– Our annual fall festival is this Friday from 4-7.  Tickets will still be at the school on festival day.  You can visit the Maria Montessori Academy of Utah Facebook page to purchase tickets from home.

Picture Day!-  School picture day is tomorrow, Monday!  A picture order form went home this past week. I have Ashley’s so far.  You can also order them online 🙂

Take home reading homework- Homework for students reading at a preprimary-1st grade level began their take home homework.  If you forgot to turn in your folder, please send it Monday.  I print out the new homeworks and hand them out that day.  Any after that will be marked late.

*Alicia, can you email the Halloween/Fall party sign up sheets to the parents.  I’m looking through my email and can’t find the link you sent me!  Thanks!

Have a great weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Here is the sign up sheet for our first conferences!

Your child’s first home project on a cultural lesson is due the the day you sign up.  Please have your child send bring their project in the morning so I can look at them and put them with their conference folder.

Conference Sign Up HERE

See everyone soon!

Hello Everyone and Happy October!

We are getting a new 3rd grader again.  I want to welcome Calvin to our classroom!  Calvin will begin tomorrow.  Also, Truman started our class about a week ago.  We welcome him and his family too!

Reminders for October:

Fall Festival is on Oct. 14th.  A flyer went home this past week with the wrist band/ticket prices.  There is also a big poster of that flyer on the front of the school on the left sided window.  MAPA will be at school selling these tickets pretty soon.

PTC- Parent Teacher Conferences begin October 17th and go until October 19th.  I will have the sign up sheet posted, hopefully, by the end of this week.

Home Project- DUE when you sign up for PTC!  Your child may pick from History, Zoology (Physiology for 2nd grade), Geography, Botany, Australia, or some of the science we have done.  The project assignment is for them to pick their favorite lesson so far and give a small presentation to you at our first conference.  The presentation can be how they want it to be.  I do expect to see some writing to go along with it, but it can be in any form they want (computer presentation, handwritten, book, etc.).  For example: If you have a 1st grade student, and they really like Zoology the most, we have done living vs non-living, vertebrates vs. invertebrates, and we are starting to get into the 5 classes of vertebrates.  They can pick one of those topics to focus on.  If they liked learning that vertebrates have a backbone, they can pick their favorite animal with a backbone and tell about that animal.  They could do a report on the spine since we learned what a spine was because all vertebrates have one.  On Friday, I will gather what each student wants to do for their project and help explain to them that the project topics and presentations are up to them, but they need to tie in what they learned in cultural.

*You can help your child right now by asking them what has been their favorite cultural subject so far and if they are ready to pick the lesson, have a discussion on what they remember and help guide them to  what would make a good project for this month’s home project.

1st Field Trip Oct. 26th to Black Island Farms.  You will need to drop your child off at the farm that morning.  Drop off at the farm needs to be between 8:30-8:40.  They begin the hay ride to learn about corn crops and pumpkins at 9am.  This time will give our chaperones time to pay at the check in window and get our classes onto the tractors

Upcoming Week:

Reading Homework: Reading at a PrePrimer-1st grade reading level homework will begin tomorrow!  Tomorrow some of our students will be coming home with a navy reading homework folder.  It will have their weekly 1 page homework.  A purple parent letter is in the folder, along with MyOn information.  I have MyOn ready to go for our new students, so if your child doesn’t get reading homework, they will still get their MyOn info.

*Homework goes out Mondays and is DUE BACK FRIDAYS.

Reading Volunteering: Lori Stewart has signed up to help with reading in our classroom.  She will start Thursday around 9:15am.

Junior High Mentors Begin: Our 2 Junior High ladies will begin coming to our classes on their B days.  They will each have 2 students to read with as well as helping out during work cycle.  They start this Tuesday and each have a team building game to teach us, so from 10-11, we will follow their team building lesson plan.

Past Week:

*3rd graders received their dictionaries from the Rotary Club.

*Studio began this past Friday!

*Please remember sneakers for PE on Mondays.

In group lessons this past week:

Level 1s: curved shapes vs non vs both review and introduction to the penny, Ruler introduction to inches and centimeters (we will first focus on measuring to inches 1st).

Level 2s: labeling/naming fractions from pictures, coin review, quadrilaterals family review, time to the nearest 10 mins review.

Level 3s: Morning warm up help with questions they don’t know how to solve, triangles classification by sides

Weekly Writing: Types of sentences, Capitals, Punctuation

Australia: The Great Barrier Reef

In cultural lesson this week: Zoology/Physiology

Level 1s: vertebrates vs invertebrates

Level 2s: nutrition review with intro to reading food labels and plate visual

Level 3s: Cnidarian intro (Jellyfish, Sea Anemones), Parts of a jellyfish/Model, Box Jellyfish close read, Types of jellyfish

Snack reminder for Week 8: Jackson Carlson

Hello Everyone!

This week brought on some extra energy.  We are working on our voices and attention to directions.  It will still take some time, but we will still be working on it and bring up more suggestions this coming Friday at class meeting.  If we are ever late outside to dismissal it is because the students are finishing up cleaning directions.

Reading volunteers:  Normalization lasts 1 more week and then volunteers can start helping out.  I want to first begin with reading volunteers.  Please email me if you can commit 1 or 2 days a week to help me with a reading group and some extra practice for beginning readers.  Let me know what days are best for you.

Friday volunteers: I would love if any of you or family members would like to help teach some practical life skills.  Anything from simple cooking/cutting/prep skills, sewing, knitting/crochet, present wrapping, a craft, etc.  Please email our room mother, Alicia Thomas, at tempygirl@gmail.com if you are interested and also write to her what you would like to offer.  Alicia, if we have interest, please let me know and I can set up a date or 2 for Oct.

Parent teacher conferences are coming up on Oct. 17-19!  It is also the time when the next project is due!  Your child will present a project on one of our cultural subjects on a lesson we have studied.  This can also include our Australia, science, or something from studio lessons.  I will be discussing this project more in-depth with the students this coming week and then next Sunday I will give you the guidelines for their project choice.

Studio begins this Friday!  Every student will rotate to experience 3 classes with other students from different classrooms.   I teach 3rd grade science.  Each lower el teacher will teach 1 specific grade level on either Science, Social Studies, or Art.

Dress Code in the Classroom:   Please remember that jeans are for Fridays.  Also, with the weather becoming chiller, solid colored sweaters with no hoods are allowed in class.  No hoodies may be worn while in class.  They can be worn outside for recess.  Please review the parent handbook for dress code for further explanation.

Hopefully you got to see our school perform for International Peace Day!  It was beautiful!  If you have Facebook, look up Maria Montessori Academy or Utah and our recordings, as well as others who were there, are on that page.  Our school also does updates through their Facebook page too, so give our page a follow 🙂

In group lessons this week:

Level 1s: International Peace Day and craft, geometric solids categorized by curved shapes vs not curved, vs both

Level 2s: International Peace Day and craft, labeling fractions, quadrilaterals family

Level 3s: International Peace Day and craft, addition and subtraction assessment, laws of addition

*Please remember I have your child in a Math group, Language group, and Reading group.  I see your child for math everyday to every other day (depending on the group), twice a week for a language lesson, and everyday to twice a week for reading group on top of seeing each grade level twice for fractions and geometry.  I also meet with your child everyday by grade level for a cultural lesson

In cultural this week: History

Level 1s: Days of the week/month review.  Timeline of my Life.

*Thank you so much for those who provided pictures.  This effort will count towards their progress report.

How can you help at home?  Be helping your child know the days of the week and the months of the year.  For instance, if you are in the car you can ask, “What day of the week is today?  What was it yesterday? What day will it be tomorrow?”  Once they get familiar, move to “What will it be 2 days from today?  What about 3?  What was is 2 days ago?”

Level 2s: Star lifecycle.  We made really cool star lifecycle models with play and plates to help the students gain an understanding of how stars change.  Did you know that hot stars are blue and cool stars are red?

Level 3s:  Timeline of life.  Students started a 1 page visual on the Paleozoic Era this week with the Cambrian and Ordovician period and what kinds of early animals and plants were there.  These are going to be our first in-depth lessons next time History rotates back around.

Thank you for those students who brought and presented their projects on Friday.  If your child was absent or out of town and hasn’t had a chance to present, have them bring their projects this coming week to accounted for.

Reading homework/MyOn: Reading homework will go out Oct.3. I am going to work on getting it copied and getting the folders ready with the week’s homework.  MyOn logins and passwords will also then be provided.  MyOn is a school provided program that works like Netflix for books.  It give your child little quizzes and helps keep track of their progress hat I can see.  I also give assignments through MyOn.  We will begin those assignments in Oct.

Have a great upcoming week and rest of your weekend.  Please check snack sign up for who is next!  I know the sign ups stop in October and we will need more parents to sign up!

Cheers!

Ms. K

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

Hello wonderful families!

Past Week:

Things are moving and grooving in room 19!  Thursday was very busy with Gary Hogge, a local Utah author, who came and spoke about writing.  We had his assembly in the morning and then the 3rd graders met with him at 2:00pm for a writing workshop.  Right after the morning assembly I went over to Junior High to interview for our JR High Peer Mentors.  This is a Junior High elective class that sets up our older students for the working world.  I had to interview them, they provided me with resumes, and they even learned to write a thank you card for after you interview.  Talking with Ms. Leigh, their teacher, we will be getting 2 ladies soon.  They have some training and certain assignments to do for their class while they are in our room.  I look forward to working with them and having them help out.

Something to practice at home: Part of grades 1-3 writing is to know how to write their first/last names correctly (Capital letters vs. lowercase), know their address, and their phone numbers.  Please work with your child if they do not know how to write their name correctly (I’m working with them too in class), know their address, and also their phone number.

Reading testing: I have gotten some questions regarding some extra reading help at home.  Ms. Emilee will be officially finished with the University of Utah’s reading assessment tomorrow.  This activity allows us to know what reading level your child is at.  The reading specialists also began DIBELS, a reading assessment for fluency and comprehension at grade level.  They got most of our students last week, but still need to work with 1st graders.  They will be finishing up too.  Once all these score are in, those students reading at a 1st grade level will be getting some take home weekly work.  I have been mentioning this, but it won’t begin for a little while longer.  If you would like to know your child’s reading level, please contact Ms. Emilee regarding their UURC scores.  Her email is etippets@mariamontessoriacademy.org

Math testing:  CBM is a program that works for reading and math.  Our school uses it for math.  I am getting the 3rd graders to finish their pre-tests to see what they know vs. what they don’t on a 3rd grade level.  I will also be doing the same with the 2nd and 1st graders.  We will complete 3rd graders and 2nd graders this week.

Group Lessons:

Level 1s: Geometric cabinet- Triangles
In cultural: Geography

Level 1s: Continents, longitude & latitude, The Equator

Level 2s: Parts of the Earth inside

Level 3s: The Sun

Upcoming

The co-author of the book series Positive Discipline is coming to our school!  She will be here for a few days to do a Parent Education night, a teacher workshop, then an all day workshop.  Thursday September 22nd is the free 2 hour workshop.  It will give a little insight to what the all day workshop on Saturday will be like.  If you like what you hear and see, you can sign up for the all day Saturday workshop.  The all day session does cost a fee.  I’ll double check the prices, but I think there is a poster hanging on the front of the school window as you come inside.  You get all sorts of resources to take home!  The book is fantastic, I highly recommend coming to the workshop.  This is open to anyone who would like to sign up.

The 5K is approaching!  Saturday the 17th is race/pancake breakfast day!

Tomorrow, the 12th, is our first Computer, Music, and PE classes!  Please provide your child some PE shoes that they can keep in their locker. 

September 21st is International Peace Day!  School around the globe are stopping at the same time to sing the same song.  Our stop time is 10am.  The mayor or North Ogden is attending, along with other community members.  Please visit http://singpeacearoundtheworld.com/teach-downloads/ to hear the beautiful song and lyrics.

Please be working on the book report!  Due soon, Sept. 23rd.  Projects are part of your child’s PTC Progress Report!

Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Work cycle has begun!  I am trying out a new schedule that I have made for myself this year and so far it is off to a good start!  I am still working on how I want my work charts to be this year, so for now, the class is using a paper one.

Book Report for September is coming up!  

Can you believe it’s September!  I’m pretty excited.  Our first book report is DUE on SEPTEMBER 23rd (a Friday).  This book report is on your child’s favorite book.  It doesn’t matter what kind of book (graphic novel, comic book, chapter book, non chapter book etc.).  I ask that once your child has reread their favorite book or is ready to present their favorite book that they choose 1 project from this list:

Book Report Presentation Choices

*You may only do 1 choice once

___Book cover (make a new cover for the book)

___Oral report to the teacher and/or class

___1 page written report

___A wanted poster for a character in your book

___Poster advertising your book

___Design a bookmark

___Make a poem about your book

___Create a picture book about your favorite parts from the beginning, middle, and end

___Create a video about the book

___Dress up as favorite character and tell about the book

___Create a mobile with 5 events

___Write and draw an alternative ending

___Create a timeline with at least 10 events

___Draw a map describing places

___Create a travel brochure

___Make a puppet show explaining your book

___Create a board game

___Diorama of a scene

___Do a 1 page report about the author

___Create a week long journal as if you were the character

I am excited to see what everyone’s favorite book is!

Run for the Redwoods 5K- September 17th is the 5K color run at our school.  Please see the link in my previous posts about where to sign up and get all the information.

Local Author- This coming week Gary Hogge, a local Utah author will be visiting our school on Thursday.  He will do an assembly in the morning on writing and teaching our students how to become better writers.  We love having him come and get the kids excited for writing throughout the year!

Pizza Friday- Thank you to those supporting our Pizza Fridays!  Remember that each slice in $1.75 and that money is due by Wednesday!

This week in cultural:

Level 1s: Living and non-living, 5 classes of vertebrates, vertebrates and invertebrates

Level 2s: Nutrition: carbohydrates, fats, proteins

Level 3s: Sea sponges (Porifera)

Did you know that most of our class sat with the Level 3s and learned about how sea sponges filter water?  We watched a video that had a diver explain the different kinds of sea sponges (barrel, fan, tube, vase, and carnivorous) and watched him put a non-toxic green dye around them and saw how they shoot it back out through their osculum (top opening).  They all loved it!

Science- Scientific Method overview and experiment on which ice cube melts the fastest out of room temp. water, salt water, sugar water, and no water at all.  Which do you think melted the fastest?  Most of our class attended the science lesson, a few others were finishing their boomerang Aboriginal dot art paintings

Continent study- We are studying Australia!  Last week they learned where Australia was on the globe.  This week we went over the territories in Australia.  We also played Kai Wed, a game from Australia similar to keep the balloon in the air.  We invited our Upper Elementary mentor class, Ms. Stef’s to play.  They had a great time playing!  I also showed the class how to do Aboriginal dot art.  We looked at a few examples and then did the painting on a boomerang.

We also began our leveled geometry and fractions lessons this week too!

What can I ask my child this week?- Ask your child about how to be a bucket filler and bucket dipper.  Ask them why it is important to be a bucket filler.  Your family can brainstorm ideas on how to be a filler in certain situations

Have a great 3 day weekend and upcoming week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello Everyone!

Great Lessons- We began our Great Lessons this week.  We got through Lessons 1-3, which are: The Birth of the Universe, Coming of Life, and Coming of Humans.  I also explained to them what a theory is and that our school, The Great Lessons are 1 scientific theory out there and that there are many more theories out there, but it will be up to you, as the child, what theory you want to believe, but just know that there are others out there too.  The kids loved learning about what scientists have known so far and then getting to different activity choices based on the Great Lesson of the day.  Students could learn more about the lesson through a few activity choices or they got to tell about one of the theories they believed through the other activity choices.  This coming week, we will talk about The History of Language/Writing and The History of Math in the afternoons.

Work Cycle- Work cycle will begin this coming week!  You child will have daily lessons whether through small groups, by class level, or working on their own.  On the days you child does not meet up with me for a lesson or check in they will be responsible for completing works on the shelves and assignments until their next meet up with me.

Documents for the Year!

Below are the documents I handed out at Back to School Night.  I have all our field trips and home assignments ready to go for the year.  Please SAVE THEM or print them out where you and your child can see what is coming up.  I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to post these earlier on in the week, but here they are!  The attachment for media on the blog won’t attach (grrr…), so here they are copied.

Project Schedule for Ms. Kaley’s Classroom

September- Book Report on favorite book

DUE- Friday the 23rd

October- Project to present to PTC on any cultural subject from the classroom

DUE- When parent signs up on either 17^th, 18^th, or 19th

November- Book Report on Non-fiction (Animal or Person/Historical)

DUE- Friday the 18th

December- International Festival

DUE- Tuesday the 20th

January- Book Report on any Fiction choice

DUE- Friday the 27th

February- Project and will be a free choice

DUE- Friday the 24th

March- Book Report on Fractured Fairy Tales or Poetry

April- Project on science – DUE Friday the 24th

*3^rd Grade Science Fair- DUE Thursday the 23rd

May- Book Report on Science Fiction or Fantasy

DUE- Thursday the 18^th

When we have book reports, here are the presentation options:

Book Report Presentation Choices

*You may only do 1 choice once

___Book cover

___Oral report to the teacher and/or class

___1 page written report

___A wanted poster for a character in your book

___Poster advertising your book

___Design a bookmark

___Make a poem about your book

___Create a picture book about your favorite parts from the beginning, middle, and end

___Create a video about the book

___Dress up as favorite character and tell about the book

___Create a mobile with 5 events

___Write and draw an alternative ending

___Create a timeline with at least 10 events

___Draw a map describing places

___Create a travel brochure

___Make a puppet show explaining your book

___Create a board game

___Diorama of a scene

___Do a 1 page report about the author

___Create a week long journal as if you were the character

Field Trips for Ms. Kaley’s Class 2016-2017

September– Gary Hogge author visit (in school)

October– Black Island Farms on the 26^th @ 9:00am (meet there)

January – Nature Center Date TBA

February– Reptile Scales and Tails Show (in school) on the 8^th

March– Birds Scales and Tails Show (in school) on the 29^th

April– Discovery Gateway on the 26^th, taking UTA, meet at Wall Ave. UTA station at 8:10am

May– Ogden Botanical Gardens and Dinosaur Park

*Another field trip MAY be added.  It is being worked out.

Looking for in class speakers for:

• Meteorologist
• Nurse
• Doctor or specialist
• Dentist or hygienist
• Bee Keeper

Please email me if you know someone in these fields!  I would love to have more professional presenters comes in and help extend our cultural programs!

Pizza Friday is Coming! On Friday, a Pizza Friday form was sent out with your child.  Have them check their backpacks.  I only had a few that stayed behind in our classroom, so let me know if you would like another one.  The form is for the whole year (if you would like).  Pizza starts in September and is $1.75 PER SLICE.  You are welcome to buy as many slices as you would like 🙂

5K- Please sign up for the 5K MMA Color Run that is happening on September 17th!  There’s a pancake breakfast after!

Past Week- I got to begin cultural lessons this past week.  We started with History.

Level 1s: Calendar parts (days of the week, months of the year, writing the date)

Level 2s: Matter (solids, liquids, gases)

Level 3s: Story of Life, Eras intro with the Clock of Eras

Science Fridays- Cohesion

Reading Groups also began this week.  Emilee and I split our time between 5 groups.  They are groups A, B, C, D, E, and F.  You child is not permanent to one group.  They can go from one group to another as progress has been built.  Groups A and B are seen Mon-Thurs.  Groups C, D, E , and F are seen 2x a week.  Groups E and F are reading their own leveled book, but are following the same responses.  Groups C-F went to the Library to get their reading group books.  If you signed up at Back to School Night to help with reading, that help will begin after October 1st.  I want to try and get those interested to come in after school one day so I and maybe someone from the reading team can get trained on some tools we use for beginning reading

Reading Homework will also begin in a few weeks.  The reading team has a week long reading homework page that will be for readers on the 1st grade reading level.  So, if you have a 3rd grader reading on a 1st grade level, this homework will come home with your child.  In order to help our school improve on their Literacy Plan, it will be up to your family to have your child work on that weekly homework and turn it in on Fridays.  The reading passage will go out on Mondays and will need to be returned on Friday.  I will be contacting the families who’s children will be going home with this extra practice as soon as reading levels are established.

First Book Report is DUE SEPTEMBER 23rd.  Your child is to present their favorite book through one of the book report presentation choices.  I highly recommend they reread their favorite book again in order to remember what they might need for one of the presentation choices.

Take care and have a great rest your weekend and upcoming week

Cheers!

Ms. K