Well, we’ve made it through the first six weeks of school!  Amazing!  We’ve come such a long way already.  We’ve built a wonderful classroom community and we are fully immersed in our learning experiences.  We focused this week on relearning some forgotten math skills, as well as learning some new math lessons.  We also began working on spelling/vocabulary and Scholastic News.  With the end of the first six weeks comes the end of Normalization.  At this point, if you would like to schedule a time to come and observe our class, please let me know.

We’ve been practicing writing a narrative essay on Utah Compose.  For those of you you might not be familiar with Utah Compose, it is a site we use to practice writing essays.  Students can use a graphic organizer, watch lessons, and type essays.  Once they submit an essay, they will receive a score as well as suggestions on how to improve their writing.  They can revise and resubmit their essay many times.  Right now, our goal is to get everyone to a score of 20 out of a possible 30.  This is quite a challenge for a lot of students, but it will become easier with practice.  Just so you are aware, there is always an essay assigned for your students to be doing on Utah Compose.  They get limited time to work on it in class, so it would be beneficial for them to spend some time at home working to improve their writing.  The login information should be written on the front page of each student’s planner.

Two weeks ago, the students were assigned their first home project.  It was originally due on Monday, October 2nd.  Although we talked about it in class multiple times, I realized that I forgot to post it on the blog, so I am extending the deadline to Friday, October 6th.  This home project is free choice.  It can be about anything that the students are excited to learn about and share with the class.  Some of the projects I have heard about are horses, Leonardo Da Vinci, special effects, Disney, and the history of dance.  I would like one page of research and information on the topic.  This can be typed or handwritten, depending on your student’s current abilities.  I would also like a poster, model, power point, or some other visual representation of their topic to share with the class.  The students will present their topic to the class.  I am hopeful that the projects will come in throughout the week so that we don’t have to try to do all of the presentations on Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend!  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Please use my school e-mail address for communication kgonzales@mariamontessoriacademy.org.

Kirsten

Hello!

Things are progressing quite nicely in our class.  This past week was amazing!  I hope you don’t find it creepy in any sort of way when I say, I am so in love with our class!  What a wonderful group of children.  I feel so blessed to be able to spend time with them every day. Thank you for sharing them with me.  We started work cycle this week where the children began working more independently.  It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to see.  They were anxious to get to work and accomplish all of their tasks.  They were engaged and focused and enjoyed their work.  Amazing!  I’m not the only one to notice how fantastic your children are.  Our music teacher, Ms. Rachael, was very impressed with how well our class listened, participated, and followed directions in class on Thursday.  They were able to do things that the other classes weren’t able to do because of how well they listened.  I was so proud of them I almost cried!

Now, I realize that I would be naive in thinking that things will always be wonderful and that your children will always be perfect.  We got together as a class and decided on some expectations that we have for each other.  It mostly boils down to respect.  The students decided that they will respect each other by being kind and not bullying.  They will respect each other’s right to learn by speaking quietly and not disrupting the learning process.  They will respect the teachers by following directions the first time and listening to all teachers equally.  They will respect everyone by being honest.  They will respect our environment by cleaning up after themselves, doing their classroom jobs, and taking care of our materials.  In the event that they struggle to meet these expectations, they may be asked to fill out a behavior think sheet and contemplate how they can change their behavior.  They may also receive a letter home for their parents.

There are lots of things happening this coming week!  We will be intensifying our work cycle and increasing our expectations.  Hopefully we will get our spelling and reading groups going.  Check your child’s planner for a list of their current spelling words.  There is a school wide evacuation drill scheduled for Wednesday.  I will also be in a science training on Wednesday and will not be at school.  Your children will be in the very capable hands of Ms. Petra and Ms. Brittanee.  Thursday is the International Day of Peace.  Friday is an early out day and school will be dismissed at 1:00 PM.  Saturday is our school’s annual 5K color run and pancake breakfast.  If you haven’t already registered, please do so!  This is a wonderful event and a lot of fun for the whole family.

Many children have been asking to bring in their pets to share with the class for share and teach on Fridays.  I would only like to have one animal each Friday, so please let me know if you plan to bring in a pet so that we can come up with some sort of a schedule.

I want to thank all of the parents who volunteered and drove for our field trip on Friday.  It got off to a bit of a rough start with all of the rain.  I apologize that the departure wasn’t executed as smoothly as I would have liked.  After we got going, though, everything was great!  Thankfully the weather mostly cooperated and we had a great time!  I thought it was very interesting and would definitely take the students again.

Speaking of driving on field trips, I would like to remind our wonderful driver volunteers of our school’s wellness policy.  Students should not have candy or soda during school events.  If we are on a field trip and will not be returning to school and you have the permission of the parents of the children riding in your car, you may get them treats on the way back from the field trip.  Please do not make stops on the way to field trips or provide the students with candy or soda in your car.  Thank you!

Don’t forget to sign up to bring snack!  The link is on the right side of the blog page.

Enjoy your weekend!

Kirsten

Hello!

Our field trip to the Freedom’s Light Festival to celebrate Constitution Day is this Friday!  I’m looking forward to it!  At this point, I have all of the permission slips except one (you know who you are).  We have enough drivers to transport all of our students.  Thanks for all of the volunteers!  The drivers I have listed as attending are:  Edgar Renteria, Claire Huking, Mandalyn Penrod, Shanna Klaasesz, Jody Gold, Krista Naylor, and Nicole Hodgson.  I also have Josie, Ashley, and Carson who are riding with their own parents.  Please let me know if I have made a mistake.  We are meeting at North Shore at 8:15 AM so that we can be sure to leave no later than 8:30 AM.  Students need to bring a lunch, a snack, and a water bottle.  At this point there is a 70% chance of rain for Friday, so please dress appropriately for the weather, including bringing an umbrella.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Kirsten

Hello!

I can’t believe we are already two weeks into the school year.  Its been an awesome two weeks!  I have enjoyed reconnecting with my returning students and getting to know my new students.  I love our class!  We have a really great group of students.  I have a good feeling about this school year!

So far we have been doing lots of getting to know you and team building activities.  It is important that we build a strong community and learn to work together.  We have done really well at sharing ideas, compromising, and working out solutions to problems. We are focusing a lot on being kind and filling each other’s “buckets”.  We are determined to have a class that is positive and treats others with respect and kindness.  I think we are off to a great start!

We have had two of the Montessori Great Lessons.  We joined our lower el mentor class for a lesson about the Birth of the Universe and followed it up with a fun art project.  We also learned about The Coming of Life.  We learned that bacteria was the first life to appear on Earth.  We swabbed different things around the school and are growing our own bacteria in a petri dish.  We will hopefully see something really cool (and a little gross) when we come back to school next week.

We read a book about Maria Montessori and learned about her amazing life.  We celebrated her birthday on August 31st and remembered all the great things she accomplished.

We started learning about the 7 Habits and focused  on the first one which is Be Proactive.  Being proactive means that you are in charge of your actions, attitudes, and moods and you don’t blame others.  We learned about being proactive versus reactive.  We also learned that each of us has a circle of things that are in our control and a circle of things that are outside of our control.  We actually had a really great discussion and learned a lot!  We will continue learning about the 7 Habits in the coming weeks and try to implement them throughout the school year.

We have started doing some assessments in math, spelling, and writing.  Next week we will continue with more math, reading, and language.  We are establishing a baseline of what the students know and getting an idea of where we need to start lessons this year.  I’m hearing a lot of, “I forgot how to do this!”  from the students.  Hopefully we can recover from the summer slide and start moving forward soon!

We started doing planners this week and so far it has been a struggle.  Please help your student remember the get their planner signed every night and bring it back the next morning.  This is a great way for you to see what your child is doing at school every day and a way for us to communicate with each other.

Also, there are still some students without inside shoes.  Please do your best to make sure your child has slippers or inside shoes when they return to school next week.  Also, just a reminder that jeans/denim are only allowed on Fridays and that shorts should be below the fingertips when your arms are extended down the sides of your body.  Also, leggings should not be worn as pants.

Thursday, September 7th is Back to School Night from 6:00-7:30 PM.  From 6:30-7:00 there will be a Montessori 101 presentation in the gym for those that would like to learn more about a Montessori education.  This night is meant for parents only please if possible.

There is a parent meeting on Tuesday, September 12th at 5:30 PM in the library for 6th grade students attending the Redwoods field trip. Sixth grade students and parents should plan to attend this meeting.

One last thing:  Please sign up for snack if you are able.  It is an important part of our day and we only have a few weeks filled for the school year.  Thanks!  https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/qgsbx

Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.  kgonzales@mariamontessoriacademy.org

Kirsten