Ms. Kotie's Class

Announcements:

4th Years  – This week- 2 Assemblies: Utah’s Water Van and Local Government Workshops

6th years – WED. APRIL 18TH, 5:30 pm – FINAL REDWOODS MEETING  – ALL STUDENTS GOING TO REDWOODS & THEIR GUARDIANS NEED TO ATTEND THIS MEETING.

6th – Clark Planetarium – April 24th, 7 am

SAGE – WRITING – 9am Thursday, April 19th

Greetings!

We have certainly had a busy week this week. We’ve learned about symmetry in geometry figures, lines, angles, and a wide variety of geometric shapes. Ellipse, oval and egg sure can be tricky. Some students have been working closely with abstract decimals operations, while others been concentrating on their math facts and square root manipulatives. The map making is moving more slowly; yet it is amazing what five and ten minute checks can do to stimulate and reinforce world geography knowledge.

In addition, students are still developing their physical handwriting abilities (penmanship) as well as developing writing their ideas. This week we performed another practice in free thought writing. Many students still resist the blank page. Therefore, I am pushing them to recognize how many great ideas are already there and that conversation is a wonderful way to hear writing before it’s written. Help your child this weekend to work on their writing with a handout I will be sending home. It will give you a perspective of how their writing is progressing as well as insight into their gratitude.

I am also implementing a student blog writing team each week, starting this week. The writing team will consist of at least one student per grade level. Those assigned for the past week’s blog post writing will write up one paragraph either in email to me or on paper about the grade level’s “experience” for the week. They can choose anything which occurred in our activities: a lesson, an assembly, a visitor, a group’s ability to work through a problem, etc. I’m hopeful this will also spark and drive the writing bug, when they can see their writing distributed. Again, nudge them towards success when it is their turn and support them until then by having them write more sentences for you. Look for punctuation, capitals, and suggest they use a thesaurus to find new vocabulary for words they already know! These are many of the things we’ve been working on.

Another thing we’ve been heavily working on is evidence. We’ve been talking about finding it in text, being able to support our verbal arguments with it, and being able to show it to support our work in class. Have a discussion with your child about it. You and your child could even make a game of it; the student can provide evidence of almost anything you point out! Does Chick-Fil-A sell chicken? How do you know? Prove it to me.

I need to also address two other topics. I am attending the Redwoods trip with the 6th years. Our two assistants (one part-time, the other full-time) will be leading the class. Anyone who is willing and ready to help that week for a couple hours at a time would be highly welcome. Please email me to coordinate.

Also, I mentioned at one point in the year that I was attending school. Between my assignments there and obligations here, home projects and some communication were put on hold or missed. I deeply apologize for this oversight. Thankfully, I am done with the hardest part of it, and it will not continue into next year at this pace. That being said, we will have one home project left for all students and two for 5th and 6th years. Students will have through to May 16th to get them ready. The rubrics will all be sent home and uploaded by Monday, April 15th. Thank you for understanding.

See you Monday!

Last week to order a year book! Order today for $20. Thank you for supporting your child’s memories.

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!

Join us Thursday night for Literacy Night! Reading is a magical and wonderful way to travel into other worlds, meet new friends, explore other environments and learn about every possible thing. Support your child’s literacy by letting them dress-up as their favorite character and come participate in our literacy games Thursday between 6pm and 8pm.

All 5th years will attend JA Biztown on March 14th, 2018. Students are to leave from North Shore at 7:30 am. They will experience commerce, banking, and so much more in this elaborate field experience in Salt Lake City. The cost is $5. It is to be paid through this link or to Melanie in the front office. Students will be applying for “jobs” over the next couple weeks, then will perform the job they are selected for while at the site. Former JABiztown students have thoroughly enjoyed this excursion. We are looking forward to it!

We DO need TWO chaperones with extensive seating to come along with us and drive . Please let me know if you are interested and able.

Students have been given a booklet to work on some of the skills needed and be able to have some of the money conversations with you at home. Some pages will not be completed and that is ok. Thank you!

Check out this flyer!

2018 Literacy Flyer

HERE!

Thank you to all those who have already signed up on REMIND! I’ve started using it and think it will be very effective as time goes on. For today, I will simply put as much as I can here.

Please sign-up soon for Parent-Student (Teacher) conferences. My dates are slightly different due to my absence on Friday the 16th for a conference out of town. Thank you for working with me.

I did not yet receive many entries for Science Fair, please be sure to have your 6th graders ready for Monday with their idea, title, and category. Peruse the material on the tab on this blog, and the material provided them in class.

Fifth years need to be working through their JABiztown books. I will start asking for specific work to be done at home over the next three weeks. Thank you in advance for working with them on these practical skills.

All students have access now to rubrics and examples of projects on the new Home projects page. Today, I have added the Word History Project guideline. Students talk a lot about words, where they come from, and how they are used. Many times they are surprised by the dictionary and thesaurus and their contents. Have fun chatting about word histories while working on this project! It does require a written report. An example of the expectation will be available by weekend’s end.

Do review last week’s post to access the PTC sign up and the REMIND app. Thanks again!