A Heartful of Thanks!

Posted on May 1, 2019 by p3teacher

Dear P3 Familes,

We are extremely grateful for all your work and generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you so much for the luncheons, gift cards, letters of appreciation, our take home dinner, yoga and massage treats, and finally, the envelopes filled with the “faces of presidents”! We are truly blessed to be a part of your children’s lives. Thank you for giving us that privilege; we are the luckiest teachers in the world!

We would like to thank the Mota-Gastelo family for spending a morning with us doing a beautiful bird craft with the children. A special shout out goes out to Emma, as well…Happy Birthday!

We can’t believe the end of the year is creeping up on us! However, there are still many exciting events going on between now and the last day of school. Our field trip to Shark Reef is on Monday, May 6th, and we would like to thank our parent chaperones who make this trip possible. Please mark your calendars for the following important dates:

Monday, May 6: Shark Reef Field Trip 9:00-11:00am

Friday, May 10: Mother’s Day Tea: 9:30-10:15am

Thursday, May 16: Primary Field Day: 9:00-11:00am

Friday, May 17: Kindergarten Late Night: 5:00-8:00pm

Wednesday, May 22: Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony: 1:30-2:30pm

Friday, May 24: Last Day of School! Half Day Dismissal 11:15am

May Studies:

Insects

Invertebrates

People, Plants, and Animals of Africa

Sincerely,

Primary 3 Team

Spring Break, You’re Here!!!

Posted on April 12, 2019 by p3teacher

Dear P3 Families,

Spring Break is finally here! We kicked off the month with our third Parent/Child Night, and we would like to thank everyone who took the time to see what your children have been working on. As always, it was a lot of fun talking about all the different concrete materials and seeing parents solving the trinomial cube!

We celebrated Maiz’s and Rosalie’s birthdays. We hope you had a very special day and thank you for celebrating with us!

Our field trip to Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary was so much fun. We want to give a big “thank you” to our chaperones who made our trip possible. Due to space on the bus, we could not accommodate all of our parents that wanted to volunteer that day. However, to those that requested, we have already reserved your spot for the Shark Reef Field Trip in May. Please be informed that parents who did not have a chance to chaperone this school year will be given priority. We will definitely reach out to more parents if needed. We are extremely grateful for our supportive families, so again…THANK YOU!

All the children have been busy learning new concepts and have been working extremely hard for the last stretch of the school year. In addition to learning about South America, Flowers, and Environmental Awareness, new math concepts have also been introduced such as Multiplication and the Snake Game to Pre-Ks and Kindergarteners. We love how excited and proud they are while tackling new works!

Whether you are enjoying a stay-cation or traveling out of town, we wish you a safe, fun, and restful Spring Break! We look forward to seeing everyone return on Tuesday, April 23rd.

Important Dates:

Mon-Fri 4/15-4/19: NO SCHOOL, Spring Break

Mon 4/22: NO SCHOOL, Teacher In-Service

Tues 4/23: School Resumes

Sincerely,

Primary 3 Team

Here Comes the Spring Breezes (Along with the Sneezes)!

Posted on March 27, 2019 by p3teacher

Dear P3 Families,

We have had such an exciting and busy March, kicking it off celebrating Dr. Seuss Day. The children had an excellent time honoring this special occasion by coming to school dressed as their favorite Dr. Seuss character, eating Ms. Alisa’s “green eggs and ham”, and reading such a variety of books while having fun with arts and crafts.

We would also like to thank our P3 moms, Kaitlyn, Ameeta, and Amanda, for reading us stories and making us treats!

Many children have begun to work on multiplication, and our Kindergarten students have been working hard on writing, particularly sentence construction and punctuation. However we continue to have fun with sensorial extensions, learning all about Asia, reptiles, and amphibians. We learned about various Asian countries, and learned to count in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Hebrew, and many more. Ms. Kristen even brought her tadpole family pet, Hopper, to class for the children to observe and complement our studies on frogs and amphibians.

We would like to thank you to all for attending Parent-Teacher conferences! Please know you can email us anytime should you have anymore questions or wish to schedule a follow up conference. Thank you, as well, for the overwhelming response on the volunteer requests for our upcoming field trip on April 11th to the Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary. We will have another field trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay in May. Dates will be posted shortly.

Important Dates:

Saturday, 3/30: Middle School Parking Lot Sale, 7-11 am

Thursday, 4/4: Parent Child Night 4:15-5:00 last name A-M, 5:00-5:45 last name N-Z

Thursday, 4/11: Gilcrease Field Trip 8:45-11:00 am

Friday, 4/12: Half-Day Dismissal 11:15 am, SPRING BREAK BEGINS!

Monday, 4/15-Friday, 4/19: NO SCHOOL, SPRING BREAK!

Monday, 4/22: NO SCHOOL, Teacher In-Service

Tuesday, 4/23: School Resumes

Tuesday, 4/23-Friday, 4/26: Teacher Appreciation Week

April Studies:

Environmental awareness, recycling, and care of the earth

Geography, South America: people, plants, animals

Parts of a flower

Birds

Rainforests

Sincerely,

Primary 3 Team

Posted on February 27, 2019 by p3teacher

Dear P3 Families,

February has been a very busy and fantastic month with a bonus snow day! The children were able to take turns playing outside in the snow as it was coming down pretty steadily, and they had the time of their lives! Definitely an experience they probably won’t get until high school! Thank you Ms. Alisa, our east coast native, for braving the cold weather for our children!

We celebrated Valentine’s Day in our class by doing a gift exchange, and it was a wonderful time! The children truly enjoyed all the stickers, balloons, and pencils. Thank you to our parents for helping sign all those cards, as 31 is not a small number at all!

Parent-Child Night this month was a success. Thanks to all who took time out of their very busy days to visit our classroom to see what your children love to do. We were happy to answer all the questions about the work, and we hope you have a better understanding of the Montessori materials.

We celebrated a few birthdays this month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our friends, Cammi and Nyah! Thank you for celebrating with us!

We would also like to thank Kaitlyn, Alison, Jin, and Amanda for spending time to volunteer for our class. As you know the children love your stories and all the projects you share!

To supplement our studies on Australia (Oceania), Brigid did a wonderful presentation on her native country of New Zealand. It was interesting to know that birds were the original and only inhabitants of the country! It was also fascinating to learn about the kiwi bird, rugby, and cricket. The children loved taking home their very own New Zealand flag and kiwi fruit. Thank you so much! Your time and effort to share was extremely invaluable!

Spring conferences are coming up, so please mark your calendars for March 21 and 22. Sign up sheets are already outside our door, so please don’t forget to reserve your time and date. On Friday, March 1st, we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss Day! It will be a fun-filled day reading Dr. Seuss books, doing crafts, eating green eggs and ham, and lots lots more! If your child has Dr. Seuss books to share that day, please feel free to bring them in. However, don’t forget to label them with your child’s name. In addition, please inform a P3 teacher if your child cannot have any eggs and/or ham.

Important Dates:

Friday, 3/1: Dr. Seuss Day (Come dressed as your favorite Dr. Seuss character!)

Saturday, 3/16 PTO 5K/1 mile Fun Run 8-11am (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society)

Thursday, 3/21 Half-Day Dismissal @ 11:15am, Parent/Teacher Conferences

Friday, 3/22 NO SCHOOL for students, Parent/Teacher Conferences all day

March Studies:

Reptiles and Amphibians

Dinosaurs

People, plants, and animals of Asia

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Primary 3 Team

Goodbye Icebergs, Hello Coral Reefs!

Posted on January 31, 2019 by p3teacher

Dear P3 Famlies,

We are concluding our studies on the Solar System, Antarctica, and Polar animals. The children have really enjoyed our January themes, and have been busy putting space puzzles together, making planet books, and learning about all things Antarctica and the North Pole. In addition to our cultural, language, and math studies, many friends have been working on a variety of extensions with the Sensorial materials. This area has started to become a favorite in our classroom!

The Sensorial area in the Montessori classroom is far more than what it seems. Its purpose is to refine the child’s senses and to give them a proper foundation for future academic studies. Sensorial materials teach children to sort, classify, and categorize. For example, the red rods give them a visual sense of length discrimination. It encourages students to create order, observe patterns, and comprehend properties of three dimensional masses (wide/narrow/short/long). This is crucial for them to understand their physical environment, and ties in with mathematics, physics, the arts, etc. We encourage you to explore the Sensorial area with your child during our upcoming Parent/Child night!

The Kindergarten children have also been working with Green our Planet, and have been working on their green thumbs. They are planting eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and their beets have sprouted! The broccoli planted a few months ago has also been transferred from the greenhouse to the garden. Such great fun!