1. Work Logs: These logs are sent home on Friday showing how your child did in completing their work last week.
- If your child gets a sticker on the top of their Work Log, along with 5 smiley faces next to the days of the week, it means they finished all work for the week. Celebrate with your child in their accomplishment. Our goal is for each child to work out their own strategy for finishing their work.
-If your child has not been as successful finishing their work, please do not despair. Everyone is learning or reviewing the routines of our classroom and it could take another month before some children are comfortable with meeting their weekly work goals. Celebrate what work they did complete and maybe ask them what they could do differently the next week to be more successful (e.g., choose to sit in a quieter spot, move away from friends, ask a mentor to help them with time management, ask a teacher to help prioritize). Ideally, I would love for parents to help their child work towards a solution. There are natural consequences built into the Work Log system - finish the work = privileges, not finishing work = working during Catch Up week; punishments are not necessary.
2. How to read the Work Log: As an explanation for new parents and a refresher for returning parents, I wanted to share how to look at the work logs so you can better support your child completing their weekly assignments.
a. The work log is split into 4 days of work followed by Grammar, Geometry, and Writing, due at the end of the week
b. One day a week each child is in the ODE (outdoor environment) with Ms. Lisa to do art, science, and other projects that extend the classroom lessons. They will get a smiley face for the day and the assignments for that day will be 'X'd.
c. For the other 3 days the children are responsible for completing 3 works a day: a Math assignment, a Spelling choice and one Language, Reading, or Novel Study choice. They will get a smiley face for each day they complete their work correctly (each work completed must also be signed off by a teacher in order to get a smiley face).
d. The 3 choices in the Language block and the 3 choices in the Spelling block must each be completed over the course of the week (i.e., a child cannot do the same spelling choice each day).
e. After Math, Spelling, and Language/Reading/Novel Study are completed, the rest of the work time is open for choosing additional assignments from geometry, grammar, cultural and writing.
f. Fridays are catch all days. The kids take weekly tests, have specials, ceramics and guest presenters. If time permits, there is also some work time to finish weekly assignments.
g. At the end of the week, any work assigned but not completed will be highlighted, documented and the log will be sent home for parents to see.
h. Once a quarter (or more often if I feel it necessary) we will have a "Catch Up & Cultural Week". This week is for catching up on all the highlighted items still outstanding from the quarter. Finished students will enjoy cultural activities during the week. For those not finished, we will work with them to finish their work by the end of the Catch Up Week or make arrangements for some assignments to be completed at home and then returned.
-I hope this clarifies how we use the Work Log system in our class. If you need additional help, don't hesitate to email me or stop by the classroom.
-Also note: we are trying to send the Work Logs home on Fridays but they may come home on Mondays. I'll inform you through our Weekly Updates as to which day to most likely expect the Work Logs as we get our routines better established over the coming weeks.
3. Spelling Lists: They are now On-Line!! Look for your child's list by clicking the Spelling Lists link on our class website and then entering your child's Id # (first initial and last name. All lower case and no spaces, hyphens or apostrophes). If you have problems retrieving your child's list, email me and I can confirm their ID # as well as send you their list if you still have problems.
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Reminders
-Water Bottles: All students need a water bottle at school. Preferably a reusable one but a plastic disposable one they can use for the week would do. We are blowing through water cups way to quickly (some students are using 10+ per day by taking a quick sip and then throwing away their cup and getting a new one each time) and it is costing our school a lot. We’d like to save where we can and by using reusable water bottles it will help a ton. Also, it will help students get back to work quicker and prevent them from hanging by the water cooler to keep refilling their little cups. Thanks for your help with this matter.
-Pizza Parents: The web site is being updated with the parents who signed up at Parent Night. We ask that the parents of each participating child please sign up for a week to provide enough sides and drinks for 27 students. We have had parents ask what is expected of a Pizza Parent so here are some guidelines.
- Please provide a variety of items both fruit and vegetables plus 100% juice boxes. The weekly cost can range from $20 – $30 depending on the sales or shopping at a bulk store like Costco, Sam’s Club or Smart and Final.
- It’s easiest if the snacks are either cut into easy to distribute sizes or are prepackaged in baggies already.
- Also, carrots are brought almost weekly so if you can provide another vegetable, the kids would love it.
- You are invited to come and distribute your items with your child during our scheduled Pizza time of 12:15 (setup) and 1pm (close of lunch). If you are unable to stay to help with Pizza Friday, we will be happy to help your child.
- If you are not able to purchase items for your scheduled week because of travel or other commitments that come up unexpectedly, please let us know. We can arrange to shop for you if we are notified early enough in the week.
- A sample week provided by a previous parent consisted of all of the following items:
- Grapes (cut into smaller bunches)
- Cut strawberries
- Bananas cut in ½
- Snap peas
- Small peppers (small red, orange, and yellow peppers)
- 100% juice boxes
-Wuzzy Bear: Our Beary Special Friend program will start this coming Friday when our first student takes Wuzzy Bear home. If you did not yet sign up your child for a weekend slot, watch for the web page coming soon. Wuzzy will come home on the Friday your child was signed up for along with the Beary Special Friend box to decorate the paper balloons that will be enclosed. Be as creative as you like. Please refer to the sheet that was enclosed in the Parent Packet for more details.
-Birthday Books: When your child has their birthday or ½ birthday if a summer birthday, please let us know it is coming. If you would like to provide a healthy birthday treat, please let us know so we can arrange a time for our birthday song and interview prior to having your child serve their treat. Also, we’d love it if your child can select a new book to be read to the class in honor of their birthday and then donated to a children’s charity at the end of the year. Books can come from our Scholastic Book orders if that helps. This is purely optional but we’d love to see how many new books we can collect over the year to share with children who might not have books of their own.
-Box Tops: Start collecting! We are shooting for our second year in a row as the top box top classroom. The kids love to cut down the box tops during their ODE day and Ms. Lisa submits the packs of 50 to the office as soon as they are bundled. Just since summer our class has approximately 300 to turn in! So get those box tops in as soon as you can in a baggie in your child’s communication folder. Thx!
-Postcards: We are looking for blank postcards to be brought in for the kids to record on during our morning line. If you are traveling for business or pleasure, please pick up some for us if you can and just send in with your child. We’d greatly appreciate them and they go well with our history tally mark lesson.
-PE on Tuesdays: Your child needs to wear tennis shoes to PE or they will be asked to sit out for their safety. Also, please send them with a water bottle.
-Helping Hands: We have items listed on the web site available to be sponsored. Also, I am attending the AMS conference in CA October 15th – 18th and would love to purchase items there as many vendors give great discounts at the conference. If you would like to donate funds for this purpose, you may submit a check made out to Villa Montessori and please put “Helping Hands” in the memo section. I will send you a receipt sharing what I was able to purchase with your donation. Thank you in advance for your help!
-Spelling List Password on the web site: Your child's spelling password was sent home on their list today if your child was a new student. In case you didn't get it, its in all lower case and is your child's first initial and full last name. No apostrophes or hyphens or spaces are included. Ex. jkraynik would be my sample password. If you have trouble, let me know.
Also, if you see a bunch of 0's instead of words on the web site, then your child may have missed their Friday test and I need to test them before I can determine their new list. In the event of 0's, I will attempt to send home a hard copy of the list or will update the web site and will let you know when the list is available. FYI, Spelling Tests are held on Fridays. If your child will be gone on a Friday, we will be happy to test them Thursday afternoon so their test can be ready when they return the following week.