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Principal's Message | Kindergarten | First Grade | Second Grade There will be two positions open on our School Community Council for next year. We are seeking participation from patrons who are supportive and interested in helping by serving on this council. The council is advisory in nature and integrates with the school’s Professional Development Team (PDT). The purpose of the council is to work with the PDT in developing a school improvement plan, Trustland proposal and a staff development plan. The council evaluates UPASS data, identifies the most critical academic needs and recommends actions to address the needs. If you are interested in serving on this council an application can be picked up at the office from March 1 – 4. Voting will take place at the office during March 7 - 11. We also need to project what our upcoming kindergarten enrollment will be for next school year. Therefore, if you were unable to attend kindergarten registration on February 23 you can still register. If you have a child who will be five years of age on or before September 1, 2005 and will be coming to kindergarten at Mount Mahogany, would you please contact the school as soon as possible? Did you know that you could make a donation to help us provide books for the Mount Mahogany Take Home Reading Library? Did you also know that you could contribute to enhance the educational program in a specific teacher’s classroom? Make a difference in the lives of our students. Write a check to the Alpine Foundation, and designate it for the Mount Mahogany Home Reading Program or to an individual teacher’s classrooms. Details can be obtained at the school’s office. Also, if you have neighbors who will have their first child entering school next fall, would you please convey this information to them? Thank you. ONE HUNDRED DAY Thank you parents for your help on One Hundred Day. We had a GREAT time. We appreciated the treats the children brought to add to our trail mix. Your contribution helped make this day fun for the Kindergarten children. MID-YEAR ASSESSMENTS. Another thank you to parents for bringing your child to school for the Kindergarten mid-year assessments. Almost every child came, and we felt it was a very successful. READING Please continue to help your child learn the upper and lower case alphabet letters, and the letter sounds if they do NOT know know them. If your child is reading, please practice reading in the PTA books that are sent home. We want each child to read at the highest level possible by the end of Kindergarten, and we need your help to do this. The First Grade teachers would like to thank all the parents who came to Parent/Teacher Conference. We strongly believe that education is a cooperative partnership between the student, the teacher and the parents. We have started our final rotations for the year: Mrs. Christiansen will teach a unit on water, Mrs. Nielsen--Australia, Mrs. O'Bryant--friends and family relationships, Mrs. Williams--continents, Mrs. Adamson--plants, and Mrs. Pack--map skills. Our new mathematics unit, Number Games and Story Problems, helps build a solid understanding of numbers. We are also working on time, money, and place value. We would like to thank all the parents who take time from their busy day to come into our classes to help out with reading, switching books in the PTA library, etc. Please remember to read the PTA books with your child and send them back to school. KEEP READING!:-) March is a great "learning month". It felt good to meet with parents at Parent Teacher Conferences. Hopefully, as a team (with the same information), WE will be able to help your child make a strong academic finish for the remaining months of school. Just recently, second grade began implementing a new Art program entitled "Arts Attack". Arts Attack is a video-based art curriculum that teaches the elements and principles of art and drawing in a developmental and sequential way. Its emphasis is on self-expression. On March 2nd, our grade level (along with the entire school) will commemorate Dr. Seuss' Birthday by participating in various Reading and Writing activities. Dr Seuss truly knew how to write books that would entice readers (both young and old) to want to read more. In addition to St. Patrick's Day, we will recognize Easter by involving the children in a variety of "egg activities". On Friday, March 25th, each child will be asked to bring to school two hard-boiled, decorated eggs for these events. February was a busy month for third grade! We started the month with visits from some very ‘special’ guests - Amelia Earhart, Princess Diana, Walt Disney, Christa McAuliffe, and Ronald Reagan. What a great kick off for our study of biographies! The students enjoyed learning about biographies and were able to read and report on a biography of their choice. Valentine’s Day was filled with friendship and kindness, and lots of fun in the third grade! We also want to congratulate our third graders who chose to participate in the school spelling bee. They worked really hard and did a fantastic job. Keep up the hard work! The fourth grade is bringing March in like a lion as they are working hard on celebrations, musicals, and curricular projects. Last month, the fourth grade was responsible for the character development performance at our student of the month assembly on trustworthiness. We sang songs about the importance of telling the truth. Mrs. Hillman played a villainous, moustached thief, and Miss Nevins, dressed as a liar, liar, pants on fire, and got a pie in the face from Mr. Spencer! It was a great show! As a fourth grade, we continue to be committed to literacy. On March 2, the fourth grade will participate in the school wide celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday. Several classes are performing Reader's Theaters taken from his classic books. Our genre for March is Folk tales, fairy tales, and fables. This is a fun month for reading, so hit that library! We want to remind everyone to keep drilling those math facts in the daily folders! It is important for them to have practice and have their facts memorized as much as possible. The students AND teachers are going strong with our science units. As you know we teach in a rotation style. The teachers present each unit 5 times. We have designed our tests to correlate with the State Core Tests the children will be taking in May. We hope that this will be beneficial in preparing them for those tests. Keep your fingers crossed, and study, study, study! We are geering up for our fun Utah Book Project coming up. This is a wooden covered book that contains all of the work we've done in our Utah studies throughout the year. We have asked for a $6 donationg to make this activity possible. Thank you so much for your support. Any questions about the specifics, please notify your teacher. Lights, camera, and MUSICALS! We are all busily preparing for the greatest shows on earth. Well, at least in Pleasant Grove! Mr. Spencer's class will be participating in the travelling show and the rest of the fourth grade classes will be performing in our Here's To Utah musical. These will be happening in April, so stay tuned and look for next month's newsletter for details. Fourth grade....OUT! Fifth Graders and Mr. Spencer's class are beginning to practice for the Traveling Show. Students are being encouraged to try out for singing, dancing, and narration parts for the program. Parents are welcome to volunteer to help with this musical! Please contact your child's teacher or Mr. Miner to find out how you can help. Congratulations to our 6th graders who went on to the district science fair on Feb. 22. We're very proud of all of them. We've finished up a great unit in math on probability and will start back in on fractions, decimals, and percents. In Social Studies we're getting ready for our World Fair. Be sure to check with your student about timelines and deadlines for assignments related to their projects. Science, Language, Reading, and Writing all continue as normal. The 6th grade will take its first end of year test very soon. It is the Direct Writing Assessment. We've been writing all year in preparation for it. Here's to great essays. Finally, please be aware of the following important dates for 6th grade: Jr. High registration-March 8th. Parents are encouraged to register with their student on that day, but it is not required. Paperwork will be sent home prior to registration and specific times will be announced later. Social Studies World Fair-March 17th, report cards sent home-March 25th. It is hard to find any job these days that doesn’t require computer skills of one kind or another. That is why we stress keyboarding so much in third through sixth grade. Starting in third grade the students learn about home row and what finger is responsible for which letters. Ask your children about it, watch what they do at home, and help them practice and see you doing it as well. In May, the state asks that we test all fifth graders for both accuracy and speed on the keyboard. We are starting to really prepare for that in fifth grade now with weekly timed tests. For the test in May, they will have to type at least 25 words per minute with three or fewer errors. If you would like a copy of the test paragraph to practice with your students at home, let me know and I will be happy to provide it for you. |
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