JA Biztown

Hello 5th grade and new 6th grade parents!

Just a reminder that our field trip to JA Biztown will be this Thursday, January 29th.  Students and volunteers need to be at school by 7:30 AM.  The parent volunteers need to be at the Discovery Gateway between 8:15 and 8:30 AM for training.  We will all be going together and the students can bring card games or books to keep them entertained while they wait for the training to be over.  I plan to have Haylen ride with her mom and Isaac ride with his mom.  Austin, Julian, Andrew, Emily, Griffin, Gracie, and Brayden will ride with Austin’s mom, who is a certified driver.  Please let me know if I need to make adjustments to these plans.  Students will need to bring a sack lunch to eat at Biztown.  They should also plan to dress appropriately for running a business.  At a minimum, they should be in dress code.

If you would like to pay for this field trip online, you my do so through this link:

https://secureinstantpayments.com/sip/cart/event.php?EID=1573

If that link does not work, please contact Ms. Anna at the front office for assistance.  ahafen@mariamontessoriacademy.org  You can also pay by check at the school.

We have been busy preparing for this amazing field trip!  The students have filled out job applications and been interviewed for their jobs.  They have also calculated their business expenses and filled out the paperwork for a loan from the bank.  Today we learned about how to write checks and fill out a check register.  The three businesses that our class will be running are University of Phoenix, Maverik, and Larry H. Miller.  Each student has a job as either a CEO, CFO, Sales Manager, or Academic Adviser.  It should ve an exciting and educational day!

Kirsten

 

 

Reminders

There are several things I need to remind you of:

The permission slips for the 5th grade field trip to Biztown need to be turned in ASAP.  I still need permission slips from Austin, Julian and Haylen.  I also sent home forms for the parent volunteers to fill out and I need those to come back as well.  Also, if you would like to make your $5 donation to pay for the trip online, you can use this link  https://secureinstantpayments.com?Event=1573

The Black History Month reports were due today.  Only about a fourth of the class came prepared.  I sent home packets again today for the students who said they lost theirs.  Please help your students complete this assignment and get it turned in.

I want to remind you that it is very important that your children are spending time at home doing Utah Compose, Spelling City, and IXL.  I am only seeing a few students taking the time to practice these skills at home.  We do not have the time or resources for everyone to get adequate practice in class.  Only a handful of students completed their assigned essay on Utah Compose last week.  Our SAGE Writing Test is coming up fast on February 4th.  I also had many students only complete 1 of 6 assignments on Spelling City last week.  If you do not have access to a computer or internet at home, please let me know.  Also, please let me know if your child needs me to write down their usernames or passwords for any of these sites (again).

The See’s candy fundraiser is in full swing!  I want to remind you that the orders are due this Friday, January 23rd.  People may pay with cash or checks made out to MMA.

This Thursday from 7-8 PM is our MMA Jr. High Open House.  Please invite your friends and neighbors and come learn more about our amazing Jr. High!

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns or if you need more information about anything.

Kirsten

 

Black History Month Report

Just a reminder that the students have a Report due on Tuesday, January 20th.  They were given the papers for this assignment on Monday.  Please let me know if you have not seen these papers come home yet.  This report has three parts:  a research paper, a map, and a timeline.  It is all clearly detailed in the papers they received.  If you have any questions about this assignment, please let me know.

Utah Compose

Our class will be doing their SAGE writing test on Thursday, February 4th.  To help prepare for this test, we will be doing a lot of practice on www.utahcompose.com.  Each student has an account set up and they began practicing at school.  I wrote their usernames and passwords down for them and begged them not to lose them!  Hopefully they still have them.  I can not stress to you enough how important it is that your child practice this EVERY DAY!  They will be given time in class to work on it, but it will not be enough.  Each student began writing a free choice essay this week just to get a feel for how the program works.  Only two students finished and submitted their essays.  I have now added a new essay assignment for each grade level.  It should show up when they log in to their account.  They should have this essay completed and submitted by Friday.  I would highly recommend exploring the site with your child and looking at the lessons and other resources that are available to help them improve their writing.  The students should also submit their essays and then take the time to go back and try to correct their mistakes to improve their scores.  They will likely need your help and support with this.  I understand that it is hard to find the time to do this every night.  With Utah Compose, IXL, spelling city, and the SAGE Formative practice that all need to be done on the computer, there just isn’t time to do all of these things in class.  If your family has limited access to a computer, or doesn’t have internet access, please let me know and we can make arrangements for your child to have extra time with a computer at school.  I really appreciate your help and support with this!

Kirsten

JA Biztown

Our 5th Grade (and new 6th Grade) students have a field trip scheduled for Thursday, January 29th to JA Biztown located at the Discovery Gateway Museum in Salt Lake City.  This is a wonderful learning opportunity and the students always have a great time!  To find out more about the program, please go here:  http://ja-utah.org/programs/jacity/

So far, I have had two parents volunteer to go with us.  Yeah!  It would be good if we had at least one more, so please let me know if you would like to come.  Just so you are aware, the parent volunteers will be helping the students run their businesses, so expect to be busy all day!

I will be sending permission slips home at the beginning of the week, so be looking for those!  These papers will have all of the information you need about time, place, transportation, cost, etc.  As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!

Spelling

Hello!

As you know, I have moved our spelling practice to an online program located at www.spellingcity.com.  It went really well for many of the students this week!  However, I noticed that only about 9 of the students actually got on and took their spelling test.  Its not too late!  They can still get on this weekend before I get the new list up for Monday.  They should all know their login information, but you can e-mail me if they forgot and I will send it to you.  As I said before, with limited time and computers, the students will need to spend a few minutes working on their spelling at home each day.  I set up specific assignments for them to do each week.  You can also print their list at home for extra practice.

Thank You!

Kirsten