I have updated the tab at the top of our blog page with info on home projects. I also sent home a paper copy with all parents who came to Back-to-School Night. Please read this so that you are aware of the home project expectations. Our first project will be due on October 5th.

The theme for the first project is change. We have talked about many different timelines in class: timeline of life, birth of the universe and other timelines like how things change over time, for example: animal life cycle, plant life cycle, how phones of have changed of over time, and computers, clothing, cars, etc.. Your child can choose how they would like to show change/timeline for their home project to present to the class. They will need to have a visual aid: poster board, clay modeling, mobile, power point, diorama, etc.. They will need a written part to be able to report to the class. 3rd graders are encouraged to start typing their reports.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

First up, I forgot a fun part of our second week that I wanted to add here. Our classroom adjoins Ms. Shanan’s Upper Elementary classroom and her students are our assigned Mountain Lion Mentors for this year. The purpose of this program is for all students to feel more connected throughout the school and specifically for the younger students to feel that the older students are there to help and encourage them. As part of this partnership, we will be doing monthyl activities with them as well as interacting informally on a regular basis. On August 31st, we did our first joint activity where we made hats to celebrate Maria Montessori’s birthday. Dr. Montessori was a scientist, doctor and researcher, but she also liked to have fun by dressing up and particularly wearing fun hats. Each of our students got to make a “Maria Montessori hat” and decorate as they chose. We saw everything from military helmets to panda bear hats with pom-pom ears! The kids had fun getting to know their mentor and they all had a great time working together to be creative.

This past week, we had our second great lesson from Ms. Lana where she presented the Timeline of Life. We leard about the different eras of the Earth (Hadean, Protozoic, Neozoic, etc.) and which types of life formed during these eras. All of the children were enthralled with our large timeline and are excited to learn more about the different plants and animals on our planet through our weekly lessons and research projects. We also continued to get more settled into our various curriculum areas and I’m starting to see great daily math practice from the children. This week we will begin spelling assessments so that we can start spelling lists next week. We are also beginning to form reading groups as we finish reading assessments for all new students this week.

As most of you have hopefully seen, our first field trip is coming up on September 21st! We are going to Weber State to watch a Children’s Dance Theater performance. Permission slips were sent home with your student on Friday. If you did not receive one, please let me know so I can send another copy home. We MUST have permission slips turned in by Wednesday, September 19th for your child to be able to attend our field trip. We are also still looking for chaperones and drivers. Please let either myself or Natalie Monsen know if you are available to help with either of these things. We do have multiple field trips scheduled for this year, so we need anyone who is available to support or help (even if it’s just to drive your own child) to do so at least once.

Thank you again for your support!

First, an item of business: permission slips will be going home tomorrow for our first field trip that will be held on September 21st. Students are NOT allowed to attend a field trip if we do not have permission slips returned at least 48 hours in advance. This means that Wednesday, September 19th is the LAST day to turn in permission slips for this trip. If the form is not turned in, your student will have to remain behind at the school that day. Two chaperones have already volunteered, but we are still looking for 2 more (you can sign up here) plus extra drivers that can take students to and from the performance.

We have wrapped up our second full week of school! This past week we began our full-blown curriculum with multiple lesson presentations each day and follow-up assignments to be completed in class. Our second- and third-graders jumped right back into using their work charts and completing their work. Our first-graders are quickly catching on and I’m sure will adjust to the classroom flow soon. As a reminder, if your student is not completing their assigned work in class, I will send home a note with the assignment expectations so they can complete it at home. I know that we have enough time for our students to complete their work if they stay on task and put their assigned work first. It is challenging, but doable and I know our students are capable.

We also started our Great Lessons, which tie together all our curriculum areas and create so much wonder for the students. Last week our lesson was on the Coming of the Universe. We were fortunate to have Ms. Lana come present it to our class. We talked about the Big Bang Theory and other creation stories as part of our understanding of how our universe came to be. Most of the students chose to create a picture of how they envision the starting of the universe or of our solar system. Their work is hanging in the hallway outside our class for you to see during Back to School Night on September 13th.

For anyone who has not yet seen our volunteer sign-up page, please see the link at the top of the blog. There is also an option to subscribe to this blog so that you receive all new posts by email. It can be found at the bottom right of this page.

Thank you so much for your support of our classroom!

We have finished our first week of school! We got to know each other, did community-building activities and started becoming familiar with our classroom setup and procedures. As always during the first week of school, we had a few hiccups, but overall I am very pleased with how the year started. This coming week begins our curriculum and academic instruction.

We have also scheduled our first field trip! The lower elementary classes will be going to a children’s dance theater production at Weber State on September 21st. We need 4-5 chaperones for the field trips, so please sign up as you can. The performance itself is at 12:30 and I have estimated the time needed before and after, but that might be subject to change as we get more information. You can sign up for this via the link at the top of the blog or here. I am excited for this opportunity for the children!

P.S. I have updated the main blog page with several links across the top (procedures, year at-a-glance schedule, etc., link to snack/volunteer signup and more) so that they are easy to reference. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns!

I am so excited for the coming school year together! I have heard great things about our returning students from Ms. Lana and I have enjoyed getting to meet so many of you over the last week. We have a great year ahead of us!

Several of you asked today about snack sign-ups, so I’m including the link to that as well as other volunteer opportunities that will be added later. This link is for all of MMA, so to find the specific events for our class, you’ll want to filter events by “Ms. Christina.”

https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/events

Please note that although I have only put a sign-up on Mondays, you are signing up to bring snack for the entire week and we do ask that each family sign up for two weeks during the year. Our classroom is full at 30 students and we typically have two snack options each day.

If you have any questions, please let me know (email: cmiller@mariamontessoriacademy.org) and thank you to everyone who has signed up already!!