Junior Elementary III

Lead Teacher :: Samia Asif :: sasif@mdpsc.org
Classroom Assistant :: Dawn Reed:: dreed@mdpsc.org

May 6th, 2012

The Invention Convention on Friday was a huge success, and so much fun for all. If you have not yet heard, our class WON the coin collection contest. We collected over two hundred seventy dollars. Great job students and parents! Thank you, parents, for letting the children bring in their coins and for helping us to meet both our class’s as well as the school’s goal. The children were so excited to bring in their money, and we even had them count it several times to get an idea of how much we had. This helped to sow a seed of learning that supports students to care for and serve their community.This urged them even more to press on and become the winners. The money will be used toward classroom materials throughout the school.

The children all had some really great inventions, and thank you to all you parents for helping them to get their projects together and into school on time. They enjoyed seeing each others’ inventions and hearing about how they work. They were all very creative with their ideas. Of course we have won the pizza and movie for collecting the most coins. We will be enjoying this the last week of school along with all the other fun events that are planned.Curriculum

Just a few updates on the classroom curriculum. The children have learned about the skeletal system, and we have some fun songs to go along with this study that the children enjoy singing. We have also recently learned about mountains and the different parts of the mountain such as slope, peak, crest, base, etc. This week students will be learning about the digestive system. They will bring home guidelines for their Asia project this Tuesday.

Fun Week

We have many fun events planned for the last week of school. The following is a schedule, so please mark these events on your calendar.

Monday, May 21st, Water DayTuesday, May 22nd. Crazy Hair Day/PJ Day. Also, our class will have our pizza party (at lunch time) and then will view a movie in the afternoon.Wednesday, May 23rd . Classroom Cleaning Day.Thursday, May 24th. Game Day/Middle School Graduation at 11 am in the gym. We will be attending this as a class, and parents are welcome to attend as well.Friday, May 25th. Last Day of School-3rd grade celebration/Early release11:30am.

April 9, 2012

The AIMS testing will be on April 17th,18th and 19th for the third year students.
The second graders will take Stanford 10 tests on April 23rd and 24th.
We have sent to you the sign up links for 1. parent helpers needed with the student breakfasts those weeks; and 2. providing food items. If you are having a difficult time opening the links, please let us know. Providing a nutritious breakfast for the students on testing days is about a number of things – giving their bodies and brains the support they need to do their best, furthering a fun and positive atmosphere around testing, and showing them we are all behind them to support their success. It’s true that it takes a village/community to raise a child. Please take part. We still have many spaces available for volunteer help to prepare and serve breakfast and snack, and provide food items.Mountainside’s Spring Fling will be held on May 4th, and will include the students’ Invention Convention. The students are excited about creating this event! If you have not received the link to the guidelines for the event, please let us know and we can send home a hard copy. With support, all of the children will participate in this project.We have started our annual coin collecting contest in the classrooms. Our campus goal is to once again collect $1000.00 before the Spring Fling, when Midfirst bank will count the coins and match the amount – if we’ve collected $1000!! Please support your child to bring in any spare change to donate! The classroom which collects the most coins will win a pizza party, and movie. The money will go towards school materials. Thanks to the success of this fundraiser previously, the school has been able to order the Montessori Made Manageable Core Curriculum Alignment material for all levels of program, for both Mathematics and Language. This material represents a huge amount of work, aligning our comprehensive Montessori curriculum to the new national Core Standards, and we’re grateful to the people at Montessori Made Manageable for going ahead with it, to benefit Montessori schools across the country.

Curriculum-

In class we have started the study of the Six Kingdoms of Life.The children are already familiar with the six different life forms. They include Plants, Animals, Fungi, Bacteria, Archea, and Protoctista. We will also be studying about human anatomy, and different systems in the body. They have already had a lesson on cells as building blocks.Second and third year students are busy preparing for testing, and are excited to demonstrate their learning.

Last week the students brought home their reading logs for the month of April. Please make sure they are reading every day and logging the time and title of the book they are reading.

March 9th, 2012

Curriculum

This week, children learned to represent fractions on a number line. They made fraction fringes to reinforce the

concept of equivalent fractions. In geometry, they learned ‘parts of a polygon’ and ‘parts of a circle’. Third graders had a lesson on vertex edge graphs.

To strengthen the concept of parts of speech, a lesson was given on changing nouns to adjectives and adverbs.

Continuing with their poetry writing, this week children learned how to write a ‘diamante’.

It was a pleasure to read their creative work. Some topics that the children chose to write about included

the American flag, pets, fairies, farms, and sports.

Homework

The following assignments are due on Thursday, March 22^nd.

Third Years:

Vocabulary – Green-Unit page 144 to 148
Math Workbook- week 24 and week 25
Writing Workbook -Voice week 4 and week 5
Test Pro Packet- the part that needs teacher’s instruction can be left out to be completed in school
Asia Research Folder –children can use resources available at home to complete as much as they can; the rest will be done in school

Second Years:

Math Workbook-week 24 and week 25

Writing Workbook-Voice week 4 and week 5
Test Pro Packet-the part that needs teacher’s instruction can be left out to be completed in school

Asia Research Folder- children can use resources available at home to complete as much as they can. The rest will be done in school.

First and second graders should practice spelling at home.

This coming week is our spring break. School will reopen on March 19^th.

Week of February 6th

Feb.10th School Closed Teacher In-service
Feb. 14th Child As Teacher Night 3:30-6:00 p.m.
Feb.20th School Closed for President’s Day
Feb.24th School Open House from 4:00-7:00 p.m.

Language and math lessons are given daily.
In the past week. cultural presentations have included lessons on Matter and Atoms. We have also started gardening again, with thanks to Allison, Talia’s mom. The spinach that they planted in the fall is now ready to be picked. We need some weeds removed from the garden so if any parents would like to volunteer to help with this project, please let us know.
The children also celebrated Chinese New Year, and made Chinese lanterns.

Beyond Math and Language

January 24th is our last Parent Partners Evening of the year. The topic is “Beyond Math and Language“. Parents will get a taste (quite literally!) of geography, and learn how this subject comes alive and connects with other cultural subjects: history, botany, zoology to name a few. Middle School will showcase their current studies as an example of how the geography of a country can lead to turmoil and war.

Senior Elementary will explore Migrations. Junior Elementary will present Biomes. Primary/K will demonstrate land and water forms. There will be materials on display for parents to explore, as well as refreshment ‘surprises’ when the meeting is over. Place: Miss Lofgren’s room. Time: 6pm. Please sign up by Monday, 1/23, with the office if you will need child care.

WEEK OF JANUARY 16TH

UPCOMING EVENTS

January 24th Parent Education Night from 6-7 p.m. We hope to see you all there.

January 25th Early Release at 11:30 a.m., for teachers’ professional development on math

The children’s first week back from break was a productive one as everyone got back to the normal work routine. Plus, the children have been presenting their research projects on Europe. They have been so excited and proud to show their presentation boards, and to teach the rest of the class about the country or animal that they had researched.

Everyone has also enjoyed listening to the presentations.

One homework update for you this week: First grade parents, you have probably noticed the new spelling lists that your child has brought home. Your child’s current list for next Friday has the date on it at the top of the list. You will also be receiving ( via email) a printable ‘cut and sort’ list of those words, so that your child can continue to do the same activities they have been doing previously.

Curriculum

Update: Apart from daily language and math lessons, we reviewed seven different types of triangles in geometry. Children had a lesson on the history of math, which we will continue to study in the coming week. This semester our continent studies and research will focus on Asia. Children are so eager to delve in that some have already chosen their country for in-depth research. In zoology we will be studying invertebrates. In addition to ongoing and individualized work in language, we will be learning about types of poems, and children will practice writing poems in class.

WEEK OF DEC. 6th

CURRICULUM

The children have had lessons on soil and the weathering process that it goes through. They have been learning about the layers of soil,and how it breaks down through the weathering process. They have also had lessons on the carbon and nitrogen cycle. They are learning many facts such as how burning fuel puts more carbon in the air.

They have also had lessons on writing poetry. They all wrote a poem and shared their works at circle time. It was interesting to hear the many different styles and topics that they chose for their poetry. Many of them enjoy writing poems for fun now, or taking a look at poems in books.

HOMEWORK

Just a reminder that homework is due back into class on Thursdays. Also, children should be bringing back their take home folders on Monday mornings. Oftentimes the folders are not returned. It is important that they have the folders at school for taking home each Friday, with important papers and their school work in them.

For first graders please remember to practice and do the spelling word activities throughout the week. These activities will help your child to be prepared for the spelling tests on Friday.

SPECIAL NOTES

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to help out at the Thanksgiving Pot Luck lunch. Also, thank you to all of you for providing the many tasty dishes to make the event possible. The children really enjoyed the time together eating the different foods, and enjoying the company of family members.

With the Winter Program and Bazaar quickly approaching we will be starting our crafts this week for the Bazaar. We look forward to this, and thank the parents who have helped come up with the ideas and those who will be helping the children with the special creations.

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 14th

UPCOMING EVENTS

November 23rd- Thanksgiving Potluck from 12:00-1:30. Families are welcome to join us. Sign-up sheet is online. If you are unable to attend please check out the online sign-up and send something for your child to share.

November 24th and 25th- School Closed for Thanksgiving Holiday

December 16th-Winter Program and Bazaar

AUTHOR DAY

Today we had a very special visitor to our class. Wes Jackson, author and musician, came in to share his book “Alien Song” with us. He also sang some of his songs and played guitar for us. The songs he wrote included a song about dinosaurs and one about fish. He was kind enough to leave an autographed copy of his book with a CD for our class. The children really enjoyed this experience. A special thank you to Dario and his mom, Jill, for arranging this visit.

CURRICULUM

The children are currently learning about plants. They had a lesson on the parts of seeds and roots. In language we have been learning about pronouns and the parts of the sentence. They have also had a lesson on writing a book report. Next week we will begin lessons on the history of math.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thank you to those of you who were able to make it to our Child as Teacher Event.

Our class had a really great turn out. We hope you all enjoyed the time that you shared

with your child learning some lessons from them.

We have begun studying amphibians. Children enjoyed researching on frogs. We will now be

learning about internal body functions of frogs. We are continuing our study of the

continent of Europe, and children are enjoying researching on animals of Europe. Playing

the concentration game with flags of Europe is the favorite work in the afternoons.

In geometry, students learned about lines, geometric figures and geometric solids. They

are practicing using materials in class to master these concepts. We will be studying

about parts of a square, parts of a circle, and parts of a triangle in following days.

Lessons on capitalization, proper nouns and suffixes have been given. Children learned

rules of making plurals.

As part of our botany curriculum, Ms. Fouts took children in small groups for a nature

walk. Children were asked to record their observations in their journals.

CURRICULUM

HOMEWORK

Students will bring home home work every Friday. The second and third grade students will be bringing home Math, Vocabulary, and writing. Please be sure that your child completes one unit in the Vocabulary. In Math and Writing, one lesson per day should be done. The completed home work should be returned back to school each Thursday morning. It is your child’s responsibility to take care of their work books, and not to lose them. Continue to have your child read each day. The reading logs that went home in the folders can be kept at home. Please return them at the end of the month, and your child will get a new one for the next month.

Also please be sure that your child returns their take home folder every Monday so that it is back at school to be sent home again on Friday. You will always find the lunch order forms, Scholastic book forms, and any other paper that may need to go home for the week in this folder. Please take the papers out and return the folder only. There is a basket in the classroom on a table by the door where the children should put the folders.

FIRST GRADE HOME WORK

The First Grade students will be bringing home a spelling list. Please observe the following directions in assisting your child with their spelling lessons.

They will bring home a collection of spelling words that will have been introduced to them in class. Each night of the week your child is expected to do a different activity to ensure that these words and the spelling principles they represent are mastered. These activities have been modeled and practiced in school, so your child can teach you how to do them.

Day 1 – Remind your child to sort the words in to categories like the one he/she did in school. Your child should read each word aloud during this activity. Ask your child to explain to you why words are sorted in a particular way, what does the sort reveal about the spelling in general? Ask your child to sort them a second time as fast as possible. You may want to time them.

Day 2- Do a blind sort with your child. Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud. Your child must indicate where the word goes without seeing it. Lay it down and let your child move it if the placement was incorrect. Repeat if your child makes more than one error.

Day 3- Assist your child in doing a word hunt, looking in a book they have already read for words that have the same sound, pattern, or both. Try to find two or three of each category.

Day 4- Do a writing sort to prepare for the Friday test. As you call out the words in a random order your child should write them in categories. Call out any words your child misspells a second or even third time.

Just a reminder about pizza orders. Please have your child bring their form and money in by Wednesday morning. Please be sure your child’s name is on the form with the type of pizza checked that you are ordering. The orders go in the basket which is marked Pizza Money,which is on top of the cubbies.

JEANS FRIDAYS

Every first Friday of the month is blue jeans Friday. Your child can donate a dollar and in return they may wear blue jeans for that day to school. Please be sure the jeans are appropriate, no holes, faded etc. Also your child needs to wear the uniform shirt or one of the Montessori Day School t- shirts with the jeans.