Principal's Message | Kindergarten | First Grade | Second Grade
Third Grade | Fourth Grade | Fifth Grade | Sixth Grade
Computer Lab

Principal's Message

As you were informed a few weeks ago Mount Mahogany Elementary made AYP status for the third consecutive year. We are very proud of our teachers and students in achieving this goal.

One component that hopefully will help us to maintain AYP status is using Monday Early Out Collaboration time. Each Monday from 2:30 – 3:30 teachers meet in collaborative sessions developing strategies and techniques that will enable them to utilize best teaching practices. Specifically, analyzing student achievement data and planning instructional interventions, looking at subgroups and individual students, determining curriculum strengths and weaknesses, aligning instruction to state core, using data to develop individual and group goals, etc.

Our collaboration efforts revolve around the three essential questions: (1) What do we expect students to learn? (2) How will we know what they have learned? and (3) How will we respond to students who aren’t learning?

Each teacher has posted, in their classroom, a poster that lists these three questions to give them a daily visual reminder of our focus.

We hope by concentrating on these questions and utilizing our collaboration time we will be able to continue to assist our students with their learning.

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Kindergarten

September has been a busy month in Kindergarten. We’ve been learning letter names and sounds. We are practicing writing our names. We’ve been exploring math manipulatives, counting and recognizing numbers. We have established our Kindergarten rules. Every child is expected to follow the rules. Consequences are applied for good and bad behavior. We appreciate all your support in our efforts to make school a successful experience for you child.

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First Grade

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Second Grade

The Second Grade is off to a great start! September was a busy month. We learned how to use good habits in the classroom and around the school. We also completed our DRA reading assessment. On September 26th we celebrated Johnny Appleseed day (the birthday of John Chapman) by exploring apples and making applesauce. During October we have several exciting activities planned. On Tuesday, October 11th we will be going on our first fieldtrip to the “Farm Field Day” sponsored by Utah State University and Farm Bureau Insurance. The day will be filled with activities helping us see how many of the things we use everyday come from farms. We will also be celebrating Halloween on Monday, October 31st there will be more information to follow.

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Third Grade

"A hiking we did go" was our theme as 114 third graders, four teachers, and 45 parents trudged up the trail to the majestic Timpanogos Cave. This was a culminating activity for our heat and light science unit. We learned about cave formations, cave habitats and how living organisms use heat and light from the sun. We made s'mores in solar cookers and grew cave coral on briquettes. We have a great group of enthusiastic students. We appreciated the tremendous parental involvement for our field trip.

We began our rotations this week. Our subjects are Map Skills, Native American Culture, Healthy Lifestyles, and Art Appreciation. In connection with our Healthy Lifestyle unit, the third grade classes have been invited to Smith's Food to learn about the importance of fruit and vegetables in their diet. We are looking forward to going on this field trip in October. This year will be exciting and full of wonderful activities.

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Fourth Grade

Fourth Grade News: The fourth grade has started the year running. In social studies we have already studied Utah's Symbols, and we are now working on Utah's Physical Features. As we study these areas, we are starting to build material for our Utah Books.

In math we have just finished our first unit Mathematical Thinking and are now working on Arrays and Shares. Each of our students has a math drill book that they take home each week. This drill book is meant to review and teach basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multipication, and division. They should be working every night on these and have their parents or a family member test them each night. On Fridays they bring the book back to school. Help us encourage them to follow through on this very important home study activity.

In September our genre for reading was Realistic Fiction. In October our focus will be on Mystery and Suspense. Remember to encourage your child to read each night and to report their reading each Monday on their reading logs.

Our first field trip of the year was to the Camp Floyd/Stagecaoch Inn State Park. Our students had a wonderful "hands-on" experience with Uath History. We are also starting to learn the songs that are part of Utah's history. In fourth grade we work hard and also have fun  learning.

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Fifth Grade

The fifth grade teachers are reviewing previously taught concepts of arrays, factors, square numbers, composite numbers, prime numbers, and multiples. Students are also working with place value to a million.

The fifth graders have been participating in a kickball tournament and will be changing to soccer tournaments in the next few weeks. They are practicing kicking and catching skills and learning the rules of play. Fifth graders are also completing the Iowa Basic Skill's Tests during September 19th-October 6th. Please encourage your child to be rested and have breakfast before coming to school each day.

Students will be ordering recorders for their rotations class. Each child will be asked to donate $2.50 to purchase a recorder of his own. They may also choose to use a recorder that a family member owns. More information will be coming about ordering these.

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Sixth Grade

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Computer Lab

I want to thank everyone for participating in our Gold C Fundraiser for the computer lab. It was a huge success, the best year yet. The funds will be used to update the lab and to get new educational software for the whole school. I could not do my job without your support.

I am excited to be here for another year with the great students we have here. It is wonderful for me to see that they have remembered what we learned together last year and we are able to keep moving forward. Kindergarten, first, and second grades are using the computers to help enhance the math and language lessons they have with their teachers. Second grade is also learning all about the keyboard and the special keys. Third grade has begun keyboarding in earnest and is doing great with home row. I am very impressed with how well they are doing already. In fourth, fifth, and sixth grades we are reviewing what they have already learned about keyboarding, improving in both speed and accuracy, before moving on to other things.

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