Hello!

Busy weekend, our school went to The Utah Montessori Conference all day Saturday.  Once again it was a great learning experience and gave us the opportunity to connect with other schools.

This week we were able to book a February field trip to Mrs. Cavanaugh’s Chocolate Factory in Salt Lake.  This field trip will be February 12th at 10am.  The tour will last about an hour and then we will head back to the school.  Ms. Anna and I thought this would be a fun Valentine’s Day treat.  The kids are looking forward to learning where chocolate comes from and how it’s made.

January’s Home Project is due this Monday.  We will take the afternoons this week to share them!  I’m looking forward to seeing the children share their famous person!

February is come to school with your child!  It is also PTC time!  I will be sending out 2 wejoinin.com links for both of these sign ups this week.  For come to school with your child, you will have to sign in with the office so they know you and I have made an arrangement for you to be in the classroom.  Now, this experience is for observation.  If you decide to come, you are there to watch.  The school has asked that you do not interact with your child or another child.  I will have a chat with the students about parents coming in the class.  They are used to observations from administration in the school, so we will go over that they are not to bother you as well.  You may ask questions after your time is up.  I will allow 1 parent at a time since we have the whole month for you to come.  Observation time will commence at 9:30am.  Please keep an eye out for both sign ups this week.

This week in group lessons:

Level 2s: drawing angles and measuring

Level 3s: math review, characteristics of a parallelogram, fractions on a number line

In cultural:

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Reptiles

Level 2s: Teeth

Level 3s: Octopus

Geography:

Level 1s: Map orientation

Level 2s: Volcano facts book

Level 3s: Rain gauge

Botany:

Level 1s: Parts of a plant overview

Level 2s: Leaf rubbings

Level 3s: Medicinal plants

Have a good rest of your weekend and week!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Tickets went on sale for the MMA ski trip today (Friday).  Please see our website or our newsletters for more information.

Please don’t forget that children should be working on their home projects for January and planning for February’s.  See the Home Project tab for more details.  January’s project is due Jan. 27th.

Scales and Tales came this week (Thursday)!  The kids really enjoyed learning about some insects and reptiles.  Because of the time of the assembly, there was no Level 2 Botany this week.  However, their activity was a leaf activity and that is planned on the schedule for a few weeks.  So, they haven’t missed out.

Ms. Kaley is Having a Baby!

I told the kids this week that I am having a baby 🙂 Th baby is due early to mid August, so I will not be present the first few weeks of school for the 2014-2015 school year.  Ms. Anna will be there and there will also be a long term sub, yet to be determined.  My midwife said if the baby cooperates we will be able to find out if it is a boy or girl next month.  Currently, I am 11 weeks.

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Horizontal lines, all coin layout (also an open lesson)

Level 2s: Measuring angles with a protractor

Level 3s: Prewriting, writing a paragraph on a computer, characteristics of a common quadrilateral, math fact review

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Time game to the hour

Level 2s: Mercury

Level 3s: Mesozoic Era

Zoology:

Level 1s: Reptiles intro

Level 2s: Mammal study

Level 3s: Clams

Geography:

Level 1s: Classroom orientation

Level 2s: Volcanoes around the world

Level 3s: Precipitation

Botany:

Level 1s: Care of plants c and d

Level 3s: Edible and poisonous plants

Friday: Studio, Martin Luther King Jr. introduction and activity, Library, classroom desk cleaning

Cheers!

Ms. K

Reminder from Ms. Julia, our PE teacher, please send your child to school on Wednesdays with sneakers.  If you don’t want to have to remember every week, send your child with them and have them keep their shoes in their locker.  Ms. Julia is VERY adamant about children having the proper shoes.

I booked us a May field trip.  We will be going to the American Heritage Center, just north of our school.  Since we are studying our new continent of North America, this will be a fun field trip for the end of the year when our class has gained knowledge in our study.

Ms. Anna and I are trying to book a field trip on Valentine’s Day, so if thus gets booked I will let you know.

Please have your child be working on their projects!  January’s is due the 27th!

3rd graders and I have started meeting regarding testing.  3rd graders will meet with me Mon-Thurs. to learn subject matter on the test.  2 days will be devoted to language and 2 days for math.  The SAGE program is NEW this year.  There is a writing section that will require 2 essays, one that is an opinion and the other is informative.  There is also a reading and response language test and lastly, a math test.  Next week I will have 3rd graders signed up for the practice tests.  3rd graders will be practicing during school, but please have them practice at home too!  The more exposure and practice, the better they will feel and most likely do!

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: Kinds of lines in geometry

Level 2s: Protractor introduction

Level 3s: SAGE overview, how to write a paragraph and prewriting, quadrilaterals, perimeter and area

In cultural this week:

History:

Level 1s: Telling time to the hour

Level 2s: Order of the planets

Level 3s: Permian period

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Amphibians

Level 2s: Parts of the tongue

Level 3s: Snails

Geography:

Level 1s: Continents and oceans

Level 2s: Volcano model

Level 3s:how clouds form

Botany:

Level 1s: How to water plants

Level 2s: Parapinnate and imparapinnate

Level 3s: Watercolor of calyx and corolla

Friday: Studio, Physical science with air, movie from the book we finished.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Ms. K

I have posted the details to your child’s projects on the Home Project tab.

Please remember that these projects do NOT have a lot of time in-between due dates.  These next couple of projects are the biggest and most comprehensive (March’s will be our own science fair).  Please work hard and thoughtfully on them as the school will see these projects!

You are invited to The International Festival for Lower El and if you have a child in Upper El.  Dates are posted under the Home Project tab.  Mark our calendars!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Welcome to a New Year!

We had 16 lovelies come join Ms. Anna and I Friday January 3rd.  We spent the day:

1. Talking about our holiday break

2. Clean/switch lockers and desks

3. Play 4 classroom games as a group

4. Talk about our home projects for January and February and the rest of the year

5. Have free time the last little bit of school

The next home project is the Deceased Famous Person home project.  Students are to choose a famous person from the past and do a board or large poster on them.  They also are to dress up as their famous person!  This project is due January 27th.  I will be posting details to January’s project and also February’s this weekend.  If you joined me for Back to School Night in the beginning of the year, we discussed how Jan. and Feb.’s projects don’t allow a lot of time in-between each.  Feb.’s project is for the International Festival due Feb. 5th!  Lower El’s presentations, which you are welcome to come to will be Feb. 6th.  Mark your calendars please!

Hello!

Our school is looking for donations of: coats, hats, blankets, boots, and gloves.  There will be a collection for these items in the glass entryway to the left.  Items donated need to be in by December 20th, the day we get out for Christmas break.

Book reports are due this coming week!  Please have your child do his or her cereal box project and have them in Monday the 16th!  Review instructions under the Home Project tab.

This week our class voted for a free morning on Thursday the 19th, the day of our Holiday Feast.  They will make 3D snowflakes and make graham cracker gingerbread houses along with other Holiday crafts.  We will need:

-White frosting

-Graham crackers

-Assorted candy that would be good to decorate on our “gingerbread houses”

HOWEVER! This crafty Thursday morning is EARNED.  Students and I discussed at our class meeting this week that EACH student will get 3 strikes (like in baseball).  So, if a student is asked multiple times to get on track for something or their behavior is not preferable, they will get a strike.  Students discussed that once they get their strikes that is it.  Those students who strike out will do morning work cycle while others who earn their craft time do their activities.  

Please remember to sign up for our feast and also for attendance!  Our feast starts at noon and will run until 1pm.  Whenever our feast is over we will see if there is time for Botany.

December 20th from 9:30-10am is Lower El’s time to perform their holiday songs.  Our class will be performing Jingle Bell Rock.  You are welcome to come and watch!  We also discussed at our class meeting this week that for our performance:

Level 1s: will be elves!  They will have a name tag for their elf name that they got during Writer’s Workshop last week!

Level 2s: will each be a reindeer!

Level 3s: will be Santas or Mrs. Clauses. Please dress your 3rd grader in red on the 20th!

All students need to bring a pair of sunglasses for our performance.  We will be making the rest of our “costumes” in class.  Dress your kids nicely for our performance!

What we did this week in group lessons:

I did reading testing with all the level 1s this week.  Those who move up to a new group will next week.

Level 1s: 3 dimensions with marshmallows (geometry)

Level 2s: Identifying polygons and cubes (geometry)

Level 3s: Features of a triangle (geometry), What is a thesaurus? (language)

Open lessons: ordinal/cardinal (small math)

In cultural this week:

No History due to our our field trip to the ballet

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Frog life cycle

Level 2s: Parts of the nose

Level 3s: Leeches

Geography:

Level 1s: Naming of the continents

Level 2s: Earthquakes around the world

Level 3s: Wind vane

Botany:

Level 1s: The Very Hungry Caterpillar reader’s theater

Level 2s: Compound leaves: Pinnate and palmate

Level 3s: Gamopetalous

Friday: Studio, Christmas movie since our Australian visitor had to cancel on us at the last minute.

Some students are forgetting winter coats, gloves, snow pants, boots etc.  Please provide these things for your child!

We’ll those who are coming next week at our feast!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Please see under our link to the right of the blog under “Holidays”  You will see Feast Attendance.  Please state who is coming

Hello and Happy (cold) December!

Speaking of cold, please send your child to school with winter gear.  Some children are coming with just a zip up hoodie.  Please send them with gloves, a hat, and boots if there is snow.  Here is the forecast for this coming week:

Monday 9th- high of 19 

Tuesday 10th- high of 27

Wednesday 11th- high of 33

Thursday 12th- high of 38

Friday 13th- high of 36

Monday the 9th is our field trip to the Nutcracker Ballet.  Please don’t forget to pack your child a lunch.  We will be eating at 10:30-11:00am.  Our bus will be here at 11:15am.  We will be picked up at 1:30pm.

This week in group lessons:

Level 1s: 3 dimensions

Level 3s: Parts of a triangle part 3

Open lessons: quarter layout (money)

In cultural:

History:

Level 1s: Grammar and time

Level 2s: Constellations

Level 3s: Carboniferous period

Zoology:

Level 1s: Amphibians

Level 2s: Mammal study

Level 3s: Making stocking earthworms

Geography:

Level 1s: Planisphere map

Level 2s: Jello earthquake model

Level 3s: Day and night breezes

Botany:

Level 1s: There once was a daisy play

Level 2s: Dented margins

Level 3s: Types of corolla (petals)

Friday: Studio, Library, Heat (physical science), snowflakes for junior high

Have your child work on their book reports!  They are due soon!

I will be testing level 1 reading this coming week and will be putting those who are at a higher level in different reading groups.

Please don’t forget to sign up for our Holiday Feast! See the link to the right of the blog.

Take care and stay warm!

Cheers!

Ms. K

Hello!

Please look to the right of the blog and under Holidays.  There you will find the we join link to sign up for our feast!

It will start at 12:00pm and run at least an hour, please plan accordingly.  If you volunteer to bring something please be here at the school no later than 11:30pm.

Didn’t we just bid adieu to October?  Crazy…

Speaking of December, it is a short one and it is jammed packed with lots of things to do!

First thing to take care of is to get your child’s permission slip in when we come back from Thanksgiving Break.  Thank you for those who got there’s signed and back to me the Friday we got out on break, that was most helpful!  Remember, permission slips must be in 24 hours before we go to The Nutcracker Ballet in Ogden.  This field trip will NOT require any parent chaperones.  Please also to make sure to get your child’s $2.00 fee in to the office either through the link to the right of our blog or in person.

December’s project is a book report!  Projects are due the week of December 16th.  Students are to read a book for their reading level.  If your child is seeing Ms. Kathy for reading, she will be doing mid year reading testing the first week of December.  You can email me if you would like those results.  This month’s book report project is called Cereal Box!  Please visit the Home Project tab for more information!

In December we do a Holiday Feast.  December 19th is the date, that is a Thursday.  It will take place at lunch time (12:00pm).  We will need helpers with food/drinks, tableware, etc.  I will send out a we join link for those who want to help.  This is our big get together of year and you’ll DEFINITELY  will not want to miss out!

Now for what we did before Thanksgiving Break!

In group lessons:

Level 1s: Golden bead point to solid (geometry)

Level 2s: Making angles with pipecleaners

Level 3s: Hypotenuse of a triangle

Open lessons: Dime layout, Exchange game (money)

In cultural:

History:

Level 1s: Learning about AD and BC timeline

Level 2s: Life and death of a star

Level 3s: Devonian Period

Zoology/Physiology:

Level 1s: Introduction to amphibians

Level 2s: The ear

Level 3s: Intro to Annelids

Geography:

Level 1s: Mercator map

Level 2s: Earthquakes

Level 3s: Global atmospheric movement

Botany:

Level 1s: There Once was a Daisy reading

Level 2s: Palmate margins

Level 3s: Corolla/Petals

Friday: Family Tree projects, Meaning of Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving crafts

Happy Thanksgiving!  See you all in December!

Cheers!

Ms. K