Shannon Smith

AIMS
Your child will be taking the AIMS test all of next week. Please make sure they get a good nights sleep. I am not giving Saxon homework next week, I'm just asking that they read nightly. They may bring hard candy for testing and I'd ask that they make sure to eat a healthy breakfast. Each year, parents volunteer to bring in snacks (brain food) for the week. I have posted an AIMS snack sign-up link if you would like to volunteer to bring in snack for one of the days. Thank you in advance for volunteering.

GREAT LIVES
I have extended the Rough Draft due date to this Monday, April 16th so they have the weekend to finish up what is needed. I will conference with your child about their rough draft next week. I'd also ask that they bring in all of their Great Lives resources (tri-fold, notecards, research books, materials, etc) next week. When we are not testing, the students will have an opportunity to work on their projects and ask questions when needed. Lastly, the Great Lives Fair has been moved to May 16th. It was originally scheduled for May 9th but we realized the 6th graders will be in Catalina.

OVERNIGHTS
5th Grade:
If you have not turned in your child's filled out and signed Medical Form please do so ASAP. They are not able to attend without that form. I am also sending home a packing list and schedule of events to keep you all in the loop. Your child will need to be at school by 6:00 a.m. on Monday, February 23rd and we will return in the early evening of February 25th.

6th Grade:
Please turn in your child's signed Medical Form ASAP. A packing list should have been sent home. Please e-mailareynolds@villamontessori.comwith any questions.

There is a mandatory Middle School meeting at Oak on April 17th from 6:30-8:30. Only one parent needs to attend.

IMPORTANT DATES
April 23rd-24th- 4th graders attend overnight at Camp Pinerock
April 23rd-25th- 5th graders attend Astrocamp Trip
May 4th and 7th- Early Dismissal at 11:30 and Parent/Teacher Conferences
April 16-20- AIMS TestingApril 17th- (6th Grade Parents) Middle School Meeting at Oak from 6:30-8:30
April 16th- Great Lives Rough Draft is due
May 6th - 9th - Catalina Island - 6th grade overnight trip
May 12th - Annual Auction Dinner
May 16th - Great Lives Fair

Talk to you soon,
Shannon


4/4/12
Hello All,
Unfortunately, most of you read that Whooping Cough has been diagnosed at our campus. Just wanted to let all of you know that I was the one diagnosed. As a result, I am not able to be back in the classroom for a week. I will be returning after a clean bill of health next Wednesday or Thursday. I do want to put all of your minds at ease and let you know that this is my fourth round of antibiotics over the last 4 weeks and it is highly unlikely that your child was exposed. My doctor would rather be safe than sorry and have been go through one more round of antibiotics before I return. I was not informed that I had Whooping Cough until my blood tests came back positive this morning. If your child is not immunized for this illness, please check with your doctor for advice.

I do want to let all of you know that your children are in great hands and have plenty of exciting things to do over the next week. Albert will be in our Outdoor Workspace and Jennifer and Felicity will be inside the classroom giving lessons and one on one help. I know that I have been sick this last month and it pains me to be gone another week but I know that it is best for the kids and myself. Please e-mail me if you have any more questions or concerns.

Lastly, just a reminder, we have a half day on Friday.

Talk to you soon,
Shannon


4/2/12" to schedule you parent/teacher conference the 1st week of May. Your child will attend the 1st 15 minutes of this conference.

 
Great Lives -Rough Drafts and Timelines are due Friday, April 13th


 Students may work on tri-fold boards in class next week, during AIMS week. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, students will need to bring:
Trifold board, colored paper (for backing), printed pictures or graphics.
Working on trifold boards in class is not mandatory if your child wants to do it at home instead.

Upcoming Dates to Remember



April 13th - Great Lives Rough Draft of Paper Due and Timeline

April 16th -AIMS Testing Week-Please don't schedule vacations, doctor appointments, etc. during this week. Thank you!   **Students may work on Great Lives trifold boards in class upon completion of AIMS test. They will also conference with teachers about their rough drafts

April 17th - Parent Middle School meeting for parents of 6th grade students - Oak Campus 6:30 to 8:00.

April 20th - Photos due for 6th grade memory boards.

April 23rd - 4th Grade Overnight Trip

April 23rd - 5th Grade Overnight Trip

April 27th - Icecream Social

April 30th - Great Lives Final Draft, 3-D project, and Trifold Board Due.

Week of April 30th - Parent/Teacher Conferences - *** I will be with the 6th grade students on the CIMI trip on May 7th, so you will be able to schedule conferences the week before.
Happy April! Just as couple of things.....
1) Outlines for Great Lives was due today.
2) Your child will be doing 20 minutes of Study Island or earning 4 blue ribbons every weeknight for the next 3 weeks instead of Saxon.  I will continue to keep Saxon concepts fresh through weekly assessments but Study Island is great preparation for the upcoming AIMS test.
3) Instead of Wordly Wise, your child will be studying cultural vocabulary. I will quiz them next Monday
                                    Ancient India and Circulatory System System Word List

1.castes: The Western term for the Indian class system
2. deity: a god or goddess
3. edicts: official public announcements of policies and laws
4. karma: In Hinduism and Buddhism, the total effect of a person's actions during      his/her present and previous lives which determine a person's destiny
5. Sanskrit: a literary language of teh upper class in Ancient India
6. harem: a special secluded section in an ancient Indian royal palace, where the kings wives and daughters lived.
7. varnas: the four great social classes of Indian society
8. plasma: liquid part of the blood that is mainly water
9. artery: blodd vessel that carries blood from the heart towards the tissues.
10. blood vessel: tube, such as an artery or vein, that carries blood through the body
11. capillary: microscopic blood vessel that carries blood from arterioles to venules and supplies individual cells.
12.pulmonary circulation: part of the circulatory system that carries blood from the heart to the lungs and back to the heart.
13. vein: blood vessel that carries blood from the tissues toward the heart
14. cardiac muscle: type of muscle found only in the heart
15. hemoglobin: oxygen-carrying, iron containing protein found inside red blood cells



3/29/12
Hello,
Just a couple of items to talk about...
GREAT LIVES (Outline is due Monday, April 2nd)
Make sure your child brings all of their notecards to school tomorrow. We are having a Pajama Day/ Research Day. I have given all of the students outlining lessons and if they haven't already finished their outline, tomorrow is an opportunity to get it done! I'm also anticipating some questions I might be able to answer as they work through the process. I will also be checking off their notecards. I did not give an exact amount of notecards due (although I recommended approx. 50) but the outline is a great tool for them to figure out where there might be holes in their research. Know that this is all a process, and if you are a 4th grade parent ready to pull your hair out, remember that this is their first year completing this fairly complex process and they truly are "pros" by the end of 6th grade. These research days are also full of opportunities for one on one help and answering questions.
OVERNIGHTS
*I still have not received all of the 4th grade consent forms and I need them ASAP or your child will not be able to attend. Please check your child's folder for a bright orange packet with all the overnight details.
* Full payment for the overnights is due by tomorrow. Please call Teri Pitela at 602-381-9967 to make a payment or send in a check with your child. If the trip poses a financial hardship, contact me asap so we can try to make arrangements. I do not want anyone to miss an overnight due to financial constraints.
* More info regarding Astrocamp and CIMI will be distributed 2-3 weeks before the trips.
AUCTION BASKET THEME (GIFT CARDS!!!!!!!!!)
Each year, we are assigned a theme for an auction basket that is sold in our annual Villa Montessori Auction. The auction is an integral fundraiser for our school. All of the proceeds go towards the salaries of the assistants in our classes. This allows us to have the low student/teacher ratios. Not only is it an amazing fundraiser, it is also a blast to attend. If you are able, please donate a gift card towards our classroom Gift Card Tree. You can buy gift cards at a discounted price on the following sites...
   -CardPool
   -GiftCardGranny
   -GiftCardRescue
   -PlasticJungle
Thank you in advance
CLASSROOM
Next week will be filled with inspiring presentations about Ancient China and the Immune System.
They will not have Wordly Wise next week, I will be giving them a list of Cultural Words for our next cycle. Each child will be quizzed individually on their list of spelling words they've been practicing this week. Thank you so much for taking the time to sign their spelling/vocab study sheet each night. I will give them the word, and they will be responsible for spelling and defining the word.

Talk to you soon,
Shannon
3/22/12
Hello All,
Hope your week is going well. I wanted to let you all know that I have pneumonia, and, per doctor's orders, have not been in class this week. I will be back next week but I've been so lucky to have Jennifer and Albert run the classroom so smoothly. Since I have been gone, I wanted to give each child more one on one time to work on their outlines with me so I am extending the outline due date to Monday, April 2nd. If you could make sure that they bring their notecards to school next week, it will make building the outline run smoothly.

The class has been busy building The Great Wall of China, navigating through Immune System webquests, creating timelines, and doing some amazing Work of Water experiments in the Science Center. I have been so impressed with the progress made in math and geometry: concepts that have recently been covered are fractions, decimals, percentage word problems, ratios and proportions, square roots, cube roots, volume of prisms and spheres, area of trapezoids and area of rectangles and triangles. Figurative language and poetry writing has been an emphasis this month. Your child has been writing some beautiful poetry and is now experimenting with that figurative language in short stories. Sentences are being analyzed and diagrammed and, most importantly, I am consistently encouraging each child to devote time in class to work on their independent projects and research.

I will be doing some AIMS review the next couple of weeks to prepare for their testing. It will not consume all of our work time but I do think it's important that we review test taking skills. On that note, check out the homework schedule because I do have a couple of weeks of homework devoted to Study Island instead of Saxon.

Talk to you soon,
Shannon
2/19/12
Hello All,
HOMEWORK
Hope you all are having a nice 3 day weekend.  Just wanted to touch base on what's going on the next couple of weeks. I am giving the kids a quiz on cultural words for this month (Ancient China and Immune System)  was tomorrow. A list was sent home in their folder and they did spelling/vocab activities at school last week. The cultural vocab quizzes are always matching. I extended the test date from Friday to Tuesday because they did not get the words until last Tuesday. Also, students in 65,76 and 87 will be having a review week starting tomorrow. They will still be doing homework but the work will consist of past concepts covered and I will be able to really individualize with each child and make sure they have mastered all concepts covered. Those in 54 and Algebra 1/2 will continue with their nightly homework.

FIELD TRIPS
We are going to the Halle Heart Center Museum tomorrow. I am looking forward to visiting this intereactive museum, especially since the human body has been a central focus this year.

I will be sending a permission slip home tomorrow to invite all of the 5th and 6th graders to visit the Middle School for their Science Fair. The fair will take place next Monday.

GREAT LIVES FAIR INFO
The Great Lives Fair preparation is underway and now that your child has chosen an individual to research, it's time to hit the library and get at least three books about the individual. Over the next month, we will spend time in class and out of class collecting research. This process is extensive with notecards, outlines, rough drafts, projects, etc. so I will devote two days over the next two weeks for Research Days. This Wednesday, I would ask that your child come to school with their books and any research printed from the internet so we can begin or continue notecards. I will be giving several mini lessons and after Wednesday, they should feel very comfortable with this process. It is paramount that they bring resources this Wednesday. If they come empty handed, we will give you a call to see if you can help them collect the resources and take advantage of this day.
 We will also have another research day next Wednesday where  lessons on outlines will be given.
Research Day 1: 2/22- Please remember books and online resources these days and make sure your child comes with a pack of notecards :)
Research Day 2: 2/29

SCHOLASTIC
If you would like to order Scholastic, please do so by this Wednesday. You can either order online (click on Scholastic link for more info) or you can hand in a paper order and I will order for you.

Hope all is well,
Shannon







2/6/12
Hello All,
 Just a couple of things.....
Great Lives Fair packets are hot off the press. Your child was given a packet today and I'd ask that you sit down with them, go through the packet and make a choice on who your child would like to research by Monday, February 13th. If they have chosen someone who is not on the list, the team of Elementary 2 teachers will get together and decide if it qualifies as a person who has made a major impact on our world. I have set up a link where the packet and list of great lives are accessible. E-mail me with any questions.

It has come to my attention that my homework due date schedule is a little wacky. I started the year off with Lesson 9 in Wordly Wise but we actually began with Lesson 10. Now I'm switching things up again and want to let you know that we will have a Wordly Wise Review week on lessons 9-12 this week and cultural words will be studied next week. A review week consists of your child identifying the spelling and vocabulary words they missed in the past 4 lessons and building/studying that list for a quiz this Friday. So sorry about the confusion.

6TH GRADE PARENTS:
It is Valentine Gram time of year again and I invite your child to help me come sell Valentine Grams at the Main Campus on either Wednesday or Friday this week. I'd ask that they meet me in front of the Main Office by 7:45 and I will drive them to school at around 9:00. Let me know if this is something your child might be interested in and be sure to write a note stating that it is ok that I transport them from the Main Campus to Cheryl.
 
OVERNIGHTS
As you know, our overnights are approaching. The second payment for both Astrocamp and CIMI were due in January. If you would like to make a payment, give Teri a call at 602-381-9967 and she will be able to process any debit/credit card payments. If you would like to write a check, send it to school and I will deliver it to the Business Office.
Currently Due:
4th- Camp Pinerock- $85 (paid in full)
5th- Astrocamp- $250 ($350 is the total trip cost)
6th - CIMI- $300 ($400 is the total trip cost)

Hope you all have a lovely week and feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

Shannon


1/30/12
Hello All,
Past Events


 Last week, students received the following lessons:

History - Ancient Rome
Science - Respiratory System           
Geography - Pin Maps and Free Choice
Writing - Rough Draft of essay- Writing to a prompt
Grammar - Advanced Study of Nouns (4th), Advanced Study of Pronouns (5th), Verbs with focus on Voice and Mood (6th)
Math - Rules of Divisibility, Factors and Multiples, Decimal Multiplication, Percentage Word Problems, Trinomial Square Root and Binomial Cubes
Geometry- Complementary and Supplementary Angles, Circumference of a Circle, Polygons and Plotting Coordinates
This Week

Overnight Field Trips -The second $100 payment is due for 5th and 6th grade students. You can send a check made payable to Villa Montessori or call the business office to pay by credit card. The business office number is (602) 381-0433.

Upcoming Valentine Grams -We need Hershey's Kisses donations for our annual Valentine Grams.  Please send in with your child before February 10th. Thank you! 

Volunteers are needed on February 10th, 13th, and 14th.  This is a fun volunteer opportunity run by Stacy Vivas . She is looking for someone to take over next year since her son, Anderson, is moving on to middle school.  Thank you Stacy!

Great Lives Fair -Our yearly research project this year will be the Great Lives Fair. Students will choose a person who has contributed to society in a positive way to research. Packets will be sent home next Monday, February 6th.  I will post more info in next week's newsflash.

Scholastic-I'll send out packets tomorrow. If you are interested in ordering, order online or on paper by Friday February 10th .\\

Homework: 

 Reading- All students should read 30 minutes per evening. Please let me know if your child is refusing to read so that we can problem solve together. It is very important that your child reads every night  

 Math- Saxon homework this week (check out homework schedule for more detailed information)! 

CLASSROOM NEEDS(I would really appreciate it if these items could be brought in over the month of January)
-Petsmart gift cards- any donation would be appreciated we only have $50 left for the year. If you haven't donated a gift card for the year, it would be so appreciated if you did now.
-Clorox or Kirkland Wipes
-Box of Ticonderoga Pencils
- each child needs to bring in a new composition book as their planners are almost full
- 2nd half of Pizza Friday payment if you haven't already paid in full



Upcoming Dates to Remember

February 9th- Field Trip to Gammage Theatre from 9:00-12:00

February 14th - Valentine's Day Class Party; Valentine's Grams - If you would like to volunteer please sign up on our webpage

February 17th - Hats on Day!

February 20th - No School - President's Day

February 21st - Halle Heart Center Field Trip - 9:30 to 1:00 - We are taking the bus, so we don't need drivers for this one.

March 5th - 11th - Spring Break

March 13th - Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center Field Trip - 9:00 to 1:00

March 16th - Early Dismissal - only all-day contracts after 11:30

March 18th - Annual Family Picnic - 11 am - 1 pm



1/9/12
Hello All,
Just a couple of things...
Since we don't have enough drivers for the field trip, I reserved the bus to transport us to the Science Center tomorrow. If you did volunteer to drive, you can just meet our class at the Science Center entrance at 9:15 and I will have you take a group of students to chaperone for the day. Thank you so much in advance and e-mail me with any questions.

I am also posting our Cultural Vocabulary for the week.  They will be tested on these vocabulary words this Friday:)

 AncientRome and Respiratory System Vocabulary
1. Aqueduct: specially built channel (underground or raised) through which water was brought into Roman towns.
2. Catapult: Military machine used by the Roman army during siege warfare for hurling stones and darts over enemy walls.
3. Democracy: A system of government in which all people being governed have a voice, usually through elected representatives.
4. Emperor: Absolute ruler of an empire, making “emperor” a higher rank than “king.” Augustus Caesar became the first Roman emperor in 27 B.C.E.
5. Gladiator: Trained fighter who battled other gladiators in public contests, sometimes to death.
6. Hypocaust: Central heating system installed in grand Roman houses that worked by circulating warm air from a fire under the floor and through cavities in the walls.
7. Republic: A state where power is held by the people or their representatives, rather than by an emperor, monarch, or tyrant.
8. Toga:Formal garment worn by male Roman citizens, which consisted of a length of fabric wrapped around the body and draped over one shoulder. Togas were usually white, those worn by senators had wide purple borders.
9. Alveoli:Microscopic air bags inside the lungs through which oxygen enters, and carbon dioxide leaves, the bloodstream.
10. Aerobic Respiration: Release of enery from glucose that takes place inside cells and requires oxygen.
11. Anaerobic Respiration: Release of energy from glucose that takes place inside cells and does not use oxygen.
12. Carbon Dioxide: Gas that is a waste product of cell respiration, which is released into the air from the lungs during exhalation (breathing out)
13. Cilia: Microscopic, hairlike projections from certain cells that beat in a rhythmic, wavelike manner to move things, such as mucus, across their surface.
14. Diaphragm:Dome shaped sheet of muscle that separates the thorax (chest) from the abdomen and plays a key role in breathing.
15. Exhalation:The movement of air out of the lungs, also called expiration or breathing out.