Monthly Archives: October 2017

Announcements:

Material-making Sign-up (Sign-up to help with making materials the classroom needs)

November 13th     Timeline Home Projects Due/ November 16th       Timeline Project Presentations to the class groups

November 14th @ 6 pm               Class Game and Pizza Night – Come have some fun with your child and his/her classmates! Sign up here if you’d like to help with the planning.

Good day, all! I hope you thoroughly enjoyed our Fall Festival on Friday; I sure did. I got to enjoy dunking by both our own classroom students and many others. Our students certainly enjoyed dunking me and watching me get washed by ice cold water!

In class news, we have been learning methods of doing historical research, the calendar (months, years, centuries, B.C./A.D., B.C.E./C.E), and well-known people in history. We have also been wrapping up knowledge of our Work of Water in science.

In geography, students are learning more concretely their continents, what countries are included there and the people who live there. The Fundamental Needs of Humans are very relevant here and would be a wonderful dinner topic: how people all over the world have the same needs and how they fulfill those needs.

Students are also delving into their individual math, language, and handwriting goals. In handwriting, some students have started using watercolor paints to practice their hand control; another suggestion has been to do structured art, where students look at a particular item and draw what they see, not what they think they see. It can get tricky but we’ve had some fun trying it in class.

We’ve gotten a new assistant this week! His name is Carl and he is amazing. We will all be aiding him in acclimating to our environment and learn our routines. The students were wonderful in showing him works and teaching him how to do certain activities in the classroom this past Thursday and Friday. So excited to have him with us!

We have many things coming up. Be sure to re-check the announcements and get in on helping your child’s classroom. Thank you!

This Friday is the Fall Festival! Please come support MMA’s efforts to provide all our amazing in-school activities. (Plus, I have signed up to be dunked! Maybe your student would like to dunk his/her teacher!)

My request? I need some help material making (cutting, gluing, laminating, copying, a little bit of woodwork, etc.). I have both, things that can come home and be created and things that you can join me to create on a Friday or Saturday afternoon. If you are willing and interested in helping me with these things, please email me your home or school and timing preferences at sellis@mariamontessoriacademy.org. I will definitely be doing Fridays from 3-5 the next three Fridays, and Saturdays the next two. Thank you!

Portraits (school pictures) will be on October 11th, this Wednesday!

Look at the Conferencing page/tab on this blog to know which day and week to expect a conference between your student and myself. If for some reason we miss our conference due to absence, we will strive to make it up within the week; otherwise, we will make it up the next Monday. Thank you!

Good afternoon, parents and students. We had some beautiful moments of work this past week and I am so very proud of our class for being as normalized as it is, considering we are still searching for the perfect fit assistants for our classroom. They have some things to improve upon (restoration of the environment and volume); however, I can see things coming together overall.

Second conferences occurred for some students this past week; please ask your student for a green or pink slip to determine how well they are using their time. The green means they completed their chosen and assigned goals; pink means they have some items to catch up on and need to get them done, as well as better plan their time in the upcoming weeks. Conferences are an important part of the child and teacher both being held accountable to the learning process. It helps bring to light the need for personal engagement.

This past week, fourth years attended a weather assembly and fifth years attended a assembly on energy. Please ask them about it. They appeared to enjoy the assemblies! Also, a reminder that fourth years have a field trip coming this Thursday to the American Heritage Center in Logan, a wonderful introduction to Utah and US Expansion History.

In class cultural studies this week, students investigating erosion by rain, ice, sea coast, and more. We also discussed weather, its causes, dynamic phenomena,  and measurement tools. In addition, novel studies also began this past week for some. It’s exciting to figure out how our world works and what patterns exist both in our language and numbers.

Please peruse the donations page; we are in need of yarn, sewing, knitting and crocheting supplies. Also, donations towards novel purchases are welcome.

Parent-Teacher Conference Sign-ups are ready!

Thank you for all you do to aid your child in their education! Remember to have them help you add up the bill for groceries or read the signs to go to a new fun place. No effort is wasted!

Please sign-up for a twenty-minute conference time here. This first conference we will cover mainly the establishment of work routines and the first portion of learning for the year. The student is urged to attend and will present a small sample of work, as well as introduce parents to the expectations of our environment. See you soon!

Greetings! Cooler weather is here and the rains have been coming too. This has been great, seeing as how we are currently studying all sorts of cycles and systems related to water and weather. All students are participating in the Work of Water lessons; some will delve deeper than others this year, yet all will be involved in some way. This upcoming week we even have an in-house assembly for the 4th years on weather. So exciting!

The 5th years also have an assembly this week by the Rocky Mountain Power group. They will be bringing items home with them to share with their families; look for that.

All students have now had at least one conference; each has a current work chart to progress through. I’d like to share some reminders: Each child has access to Utah Compose and is asked to write what they can (improving of course with each attempt) on the assigned weekly prompt. They begin in class on Wednesdays and it is due on Sunday night/Monday morning. Some students now have a novel which they are using for literature study, word studies, grammar studies and sentence construction studies. This is their own book which they are to write in and perform their work within. If you wish to donate $5 to the purchase of their books, it would be much appreciated. Other students will be receiving short novels as well, as time moves forward and they have shown their conscientious work ethics (completing the grammar boxes, word study boxes, and so forth prepares them for this greater work.)

As for the other software interests, these are up to the student’s and each one’s personal interest and time. I expect students to invest at least an hour per week engaged in a math activity on either IXL or Kahn Academy. Kahn Academy has videos to assist in the student’s understanding; therefore, if your child needs extra assurance in math, I would veer him or her towards this program. It will require your assistance in setting up an account. DuoLingo also would require your assistance in setting up an account; yet, this program is one which all the children are very excited about. In class, they are allowed only 20 minutes per week. Thus, allowing them to do ten minutes a day at home will surely help them progress more rapidly and retain better. Studying other languages typically helps in understanding one’s own language better.

In sum, ten minutes a day in language learning, one hour per week in math exploration, and whatever time necessary in preparing one written response to a prompt on Utah Compose are the software program expectations. These all have the potential to be done in class too, if the child manages his or her time adequately. Sometimes that’s a challenge when we have so many wonderful lessons occurring!

Speaking of lessons, we have many occurring: prime versus composite numbers, migration studies, abstraction of square roots, squaring, mastery of math facts, exposure to diverse dance genres, and much more. This past week we had some beautiful moments where children asked questions and sought answers of their own accord (about WWII, Vietnam, and even Christopher Columbus.) This is what Montessori education seeks to promote: spark the interest and let the child explore. And while, yes, some pieces of education are the responsibility of all to know (reading, writing and arithmetic), the cosmos is ours to explore… I look forward to the sparks continuing to fly!

REMINDERS: Field trip forms for fourth years are due! (Donations of $7-10 are being accepted)

DEAR AMERICA PROJECTS DUE OCTOBER 2nd! Reading Responses are due Monday, October 2nd. Students’ presentations will begin on Thursday, October 5th. A schedule will be posted in the classroom on Monday for children to know when to dress up.

ALL STUDENTS NOW KNOW THE PARAMETERS OF OUR CLASSROOM STRUCTURE; A NOTE WILL BE SENT TO PARENTS WHEN A CHILD IS NOT MEETING THAT EXPECTATION-I HOPE TO WORK WITH EACH PARENT AS A TEAM TO PROMOTE THE CHILDREN’S GROWTH IN LEARNING TIME MANAGEMENT, SELF-CARE, CARE OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT, AND ORGANIZATIONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS. THANK YOU!