MAPA December News

Maria Montessori Academy Parents Association (MAPA) is very excited to announce that effective December 1, 2017 we will be using Track it Forward to schedule and record volunteer hours.

We feel that using track it forward will help us provide the most positive experience possible when signing up for and recording volunteer hours. This program will allow families to track their hours on their own electronic devices, send out reminders for sign ups and help us become a more centralized Montessori family.

Families are asked to donate 40 volunteer hours a year per family to the school. As a member of MAPA (all parents are automatic members) the MAPA presidency is trying to provide as many opportunities to complete this act of service yearly and Track it Forward will allow families to sign up to volunteer.

In sending your children to a Montessori school you are taking the initiative towards bettering your children and families. MMA’s mission statement is “Education for a better world” and by volunteering you are providing opportunities to help make this a better world.

The reason I volunteer is to provide my children with opportunities they may not get at other schools. “Only a life lived for others is worth living.” — Albert Einstein. By volunteering you are giving of yourself to your children and the children of others. Volunteering does not have to be a big sacrifice of time away from the family or money spent, many teacher at the school offer opportunities to volunteer at home and MAPA has opportunities to volunteer where you can bring your children.

Ways you may be volunteering and not even know.

· Attending a MAPA meeting

· Room mom calls and asks you to cut something out or bring something to the class

· Coming into the school and reading with children

· Bringing in food for an activity

MAPA in cooperation with the MMA is trying to say “thank you” to those that have sacrificed time and volunteered this year by giving those families with 10 service hours completed an “act of service.” The details are still in the works but we want everyone to know that we appreciate and value all of those that have volunteered.

How Track it forward works:

You can sign up in one of two different ways. On the website https://www.trackitforward.com/site/mapa or email mapa@mariamontessoriacademy.orgwith your family’s last name and the names of your children and we will send you an invite. Once in you can track your family’s hours and sign up for volunteer hours.

Again we appreciate all that our wonderful MMA families do!!!

Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” — Elizabeth Andrew

Weekly Reflection Sheet/Updating Blog

Reflection Sheet

Starting today, your student will be bringing home a reflection sheet. Each week your student will fill this sheet out and take it home to share with you. The idea is to have your student discuss with you what they worked on this week along with THEIR highlights of the week.

Updating Blog

We have decided, since your student will be bringing how their relfection sheet on Fridays, that our blog will be a spot for IMPORTANT information. Instead of a weekly recap, we will post, as we see fit, important information for you. Important information will consist of, but not be limited to, spelling, home projects, events, volunteers needed, etc.

If you have any questions regarding the changes or anything else, please feel free to email us as LPas@mariamontessoriacademy.org. We value your feedback.

Thank you,

Ms. Lana and Ms. Carolyn

Spelling Test #6: Test on 12.05.17

Weekly Spelling Lists

Please practice the following words at home with your student. We will be testing them on Tuesday, December 5th, 2017. Thank you for your support in this manner.

Apples: focus on short ut/ug/un families

  1. run
  2. cut
  3. tug
  4. sun
  5. shut
  6. bug
  7. jug
  8. nut

Bananas: focus on sh/ch/wh/th review digraphs. We are looking to see if your student understands the digraphs.

  1. shelf
  2. shave
  3. shirt
  4. shot
  5. cheese
  6. chick
  7. chair
  8. chain
  9. wheelbarrow (challenge word)
  10. thimble

Grapes: focus on cr/cl/fr/fl blends

  1. crown
  2. crayon
  3. clock
  4. clown
  5. fry
  6. freezer
  7. flower
  8. float
  9. flashlight
  10. cry

Kiwis: focus on ai/oa/ee/ea 

  1. wait
  2. thread
  3. need
  4. beast
  5. toast
  6. mail
  7. read
  8. three
  9. neat
  10. coast

Blueberries: focus on plural endings: adding es

  1. branches
  2. churches
  3. eyelashes
  4. crashed
  5. foxes
  6. mixes
  7. guesses
  8. kisses
  9. gloves
  10. horses
  11. voices
  12. changes
  13. places
  14. scratches

11.13.17 Classroom Experiences

Dear Families,

There will be NO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK. Please take this time to reflect on all of the things your family is thankful for as you celebrate Thanksgiving.

Highlights From the Week

  • We finished our November Hone Projects! Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to learn about your family. We will keep these posters for our International Festival as we have a special project with these.
  • Our Planet Parade was a huge success! Thank you to those families who joined us for this wonderful performance. Our students did a fabulous job with their parts!
  • Habit #5: Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood
  • Tech Sergeant Vega came into our classroom to talk about his experience in the Air Force. Ask your student what they learned.

Upcoming Events/Reminders

  • December Home Project: If you haven’t already, please take a look at the December Home Project so you have adequate enough time for your student to complete this assignment.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break,

Ms. Lana and Ms. Carolyn

Planet Parade/Parent Survey

Planet Parade Presentation

Tomorrow is the big day! We hope to see you all in the South Kiva at 1:30pm. All family members are welcome, but please be mindful when bringing young kids.

Parent Survey

Please take 15 minutes to complete the AdvancED Parent Survey. We value your opinion and incorporating parent feedback is important for our school growth. Plus, we are required to analyze data from this survey to maintain our accreditation. Thank you for your time and effort!

http://www.advanc-ed.org/survey/public/section/response/begin?surveyConfigId=738200

December Home Project

Dear Families,

Our December Home Project aligns with our International Festival. Although we are finishing our November Home Project, we wanted to give you enough time to work on this home project. The International Festival is a school wide event similar to a science fair, but for countries. Our students will be representing the North America, with a focus on the United States of America. For this project, we are requiring students to use a tri-fold poster for their presentation. The tri-folds will be on display for families to view within our classroom. We ask that the posters are done completely by your student. They can choose to type or write their information. We encourage the students to make their posters enticing to individuals. Projects are due in class , Thursday, December 14th, 2017.  The International Festival is scheduled to take place on December 19th ,20th, and 21st. This event is opened to everyone, so please mark your calendar. Below you will find a template for gathering information along with which state your student chose from a box of names. If your student was not present the day of the drawing, we selected a state for them.

State Report Notes

Adalyn: Minnesota
Megan: New Mexico
Zyan: South Dakota
Kaido: Oklahoma
Zach: New York
Brinlee: Arkansas
KateLyn: Utah
Addison: Colorado
Skye: Washington
Andrew: Kentucky
Johnathan: Massachusetts
Lilli: Vermont
Ariana: Virginia
Samantha: Pennsylvania
Celia: Idaho
Bridger: Missouri
Evee: California
Dash: Texas
Caenna: Iowa
Julian: Nevada
Gen:Maryland
Randi: Montana
Mary Jo: Oregon
Aysa: Wyoming
Isaiah: Arizona
Taige: Alaska
Emmy:Hawaii
Carsen: Florida
Madden: Alabama

 

11.06.17 Classroom Experiences

Dear Families,

We are so grateful for you! Our classroom wouldn’t be as peaceful as it is if it weren’t for the support from home.

Highlights From the Week:

  • It has been so much fun learning about each student’s families. Each student’s family tree is unique in its own way. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to learn about your family. We look forward to hearing/seeing the remainder of our students present next week.
  • Our students have been hard at work creating their costumes for our Planet Parade Parent Presentation next week. We are working on our final details of costumes along with rehearsing our lines! We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, November 15th, 2017 at 1:30pm in the South Kiva.
  • We were lucky to have Ms. Rachel present to our classroom this week on producers, consumers, and decomposers. All of our students were engaged in her in-depth lesson that ended with a great discussion of the kingdom fungi! Ask your student what they remember from her lesson.
  • We had a beautiful discussion about Veteran’s Day and what the day actually means. We found out that lots of our students have connections to individuals who have either served or are currently serving in our military. Ms. Lana shared that her husband, Daniel, currently is serving his 9th year in the Air Force. We encouraged our students to thank a veteran. We will be having Tech Sergeant Vega, a co-worker of Daniel’s, present to our students on November 17th about the Air Force.

Upcoming Events/Reminders

  • November Home Projects will continue next week. Below are the remaining students. If your student was to present last week and did not turn in their project, they are scheduled for Monday, November 13th.

Monday, November 13th, 2017        Tuesday, November 14th, 2017           Thursday, November 15th, 2017

  1. Randi                                               1. Aysa                                                       1. Mary Jo
  2. Dash                                                2. Andrew                                                  2. Sam
  3. Emmy                                             3. Caenna                                                   3. Skye
  4. Isaiah                                              4. Carsen                                                    4. Brinlee
  5. Ariana
  6. Jonathan
  7. Taige
  8. Lilli
  • We have our spelling test on Tuesday, November 14th, 2017. Please make sure your student is prepared. We will not have spelling again until after Thanksgiving Break.
  • Our Parent Presentation will be held on Wednesday, November 15th at 1:30pm in the South Kiva. We hope to see you there as all students have been practicing hard!
  • Picture retakes will be held on Wednesday, November 15th, 2017 at 9:00am.
  • Community Gratitude Feast will be held on Thursday, November 16th, 2017. If you are able, MAPA would appreciate volunteers. Here is hte link to sign-up: http://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/seweq?next=true
  • Original Works: This is a fundraiser that goes directly into our classroom and helps support supplemental materials for our lessons.  All orders will be delivered to the school on December 1st.  Ordering instructions were sent home last week. If you have questions, please let us know via email.
  • Cold weather is upon us! Please make sure your student has a jacket for recess.
  • December Home Project information will be sent out on Monday, November 13th, 2017. We are sending it out early as it is a much bigger project than we have had. This will give you 4.5 weeks to complete the project.

As always, thank you for your continuous support.

With gratitude,

Ms. Lana and Ms. Carolyn

Spelling List #5: Test on 11.14.17

Weekly Spelling Lists

We have adjusted our groups based on data we have taken over the last four weeks. For your convenience we have listed the student’s names for each group. Please practice the following words at home with your student. We will be testing them on Tuesday, November 14th, 2017. Thank you for your support.

Apples: focus on short et/eg/en families

  1. net
  2. peg
  3. leg
  4. ten
  5. men
  6. wet
  7. pen
  8. hen

Students: Jonathan, Gen, Brinlee, Megan, Carsen, Bridger, Ariana, Madden, Taige, Zyan, Skye

Bananas: focus on th/wh digraphs

  1. thermos
  2. thimble
  3. thorn
  4. think
  5. whip
  6. whistle
  7. whisker
  8. whale
  9. wheel
  10. thirteen

Students: Zach, Adalyn, KateLyn, Kaido

Grapes: focus on pl/sl/bl blends

  1. plug
  2. pliers
  3. sled
  4. sleeve
  5. slipper
  6. blindfold
  7. block
  8. blade
  9. blouse
  10. blanket

Students: Lilli and Celia

Kiwis: focus on short e/long e

  1. when
  2. breath
  3. trees
  4. each
  5. head
  6. queen
  7. east
  8. street
  9. seat
  10. reach

Students: Evee, Addison, Randi, Dash, Emmy, Isaiah, Aysa, Andrew, Julian

Blueberries: focus on unusual past tense

  1. sleep
  2. slept
  3. keep
  4. kept
  5. say
  6. said
  7. drive
  8. drove
  9. throw
  10. threw
  11. sweep
  12. swept
  13. draw
  14. drew

Students: Sam, Mary Jo, Caenna

Reminders

We have two reminders:

  1. We have early out this Friday, November 10th at 1:00pm
  2. Please check to see when your student is to present their November Home Project on the November Home Project post. We apologize that we did not have set presentation days until Friday.

Thank you,

Ms. Lana and Ms. Carolyn