Announcements/Dates:
SAGE (Potential to Change): English/Reading – Week of April 9th; Writing – Week of April 16th; Science – Week of April 23rd; Math – Week of April 7th
April 4th Year Assemblies/ Fairs: April 12th – Museum on the Move; April 18th – Local Government Assembly; April 19th – Utah Water Van; UTAH HISTORY FAIR Week of April 13th (Students received information the week of March 20th; Papers are readily available in the red basket in our classroom)
6th Years: April 24th Clark Planetarium (Need Chaperones/Drivers)
Redwoods Important Dates: April 18th 5:30pm MANDATORY; Redwoods Trip – April 29 to May 4th
Parents!
The last month or so has been quite busy. Our students have been involved in so many learning adventures. We started the month with ASTROCAMP and the Science Fair, then Fifth years participated in JA Biztown, learned more about financial literacy, then created their inventions, and then we all enjoyed an assembly with the traveling Opera.
Within the classroom, progress in being made most especially in writing. Students now have a more firm grip (pun intended) on the physical aspect of writing and how to make it most legible and beautiful. Thus, students have been being guided through more of the mechanics of writing paragraphs, essays, and all that this entails. If your student becomes more opinionated (is that possible?) over the next couple months, help them learn how to discuss their views with patience and firmness. The more students learn to communicate verbally, the better their writing can be.
Also, while on spring break, please review with them again our charter’s focus in Montessori. We have been talking about how Montessori’s vision is of a classroom where students drive the interest and do the most work. They teach themselves. The “teacher” is a guide, a material. She or he begins the process, the child progresses through the process on her or his own with the guide available, then an assessment occurs where the student shares the knowledge with another. Then, the process repeats. It is is beautiful and wonderful when the children have that love and drive to learn. I have been working with the children for them to understand THEIR responsibility in the learning process. Will you also? Thank you.
SAGE testing is coming up. We will start next week and have a subject area test each week until Mother’s Day, except the week we are in the Redwoods. We had been practicing some benchmarks in math in previous weeks. And we have been focusing on our reading and writing strategies. I wish to remind all parents that students are at times challenged to perform on these types of tests due to the ability to navigate the system more so than their ability to perform the work itself. I have reassured all of our students that the main thing they need to remember consistently is that they are talented, gifted, and academically on the right path; they simply need to do the work being asked and they will thrive. They do not need to focus on the measure of a number of a test at a single moment in their lives. I ask them to do their best and then keep practicing and learn more. I hope we can all agree on that.
In final news, our classroom has now implemented a team leader system. Each day a team of four to six students guides the events and lessons of the day. Each group has been random and not driven by friendships (though I pride our classroom on its friendships). The students write the schedule, provide the initial lesson of the day, check the note and quote work, and direct the children when they get out of line or are not working. The first few days, I even acted as they do at times, and we had some good laughs while also recognizing behaviors. It’s been fun and is bringing us some interesting community moments.
If anyone is available for volunteering on Mondays, Thursdays or Fridays in the mornings, it would be much appreciated. We could use some one-on-one and small group assistance with some students. Thank you!
Can’t wait to see you all again Monday!