Homework Tips

How can parents make homework less of a hassle at home? Here are just a few tips for making homework time easier!

• Establish a routine—this involves a regular time for homework each night. In the past parents have commented that working right after school or right after dinner have been good times to complete homework.
  
• Create a work space—Ideally, a flat, uncluttered surface that is well-lit with few distractions.
  
• Provide homework tools—Good to have on hand are pencils and pens, notebook paper, highlighters, glue sticks, colored pencils (preferable to markers), a calculator and a dictionary.
  
• Organization—this involves setting up a space at home where notes and papers go for mom and dad, a place to hang the backpack, and a work space for completing homework. Review the "getting home from school" routine to make sure that kids understand where papers and belongings should go as well as where and when to work on homework.
  
• Be available—Stay nearby to answers questions or provide help as needed. Please offer guidance without giving the answer. Your children may need time to discuss and work through a problem.
  
• (Yes…despite what your kids may tell you, it is okay for you to correct and review completed work!)
  
• Break Time! Kids' attention often wanders after 20-30 minutes. Taking a few minutes break to walk around, get a drink or snack will often help kids recharge and make completing homework easier.
  
• Let Mrs. Perrien know if the homework assignment is especially difficult. Homework should mostly be review (especially in math) of previously learned concepts.

If you ever have questions about homework, please contact Mrs. Perrien.

The end of the first full week!

Everyone went home today looking a little tired and worn out! The first full week is an adjustment for the kids. We spent the last 20 minutes reviewing the week--what we did and all that we had covered, plus we talked about next week.

These past two weeks we've covered a lot of routines and procedures. We've set up the learning environment. We did preliminary assessments in reading and writing and took math tests to determine where we should begin this year. These can all seem tedious because we review and practice, review and discuss. However, the payoff is a well-run classroom with a group of students ready to hit the ground running for the rest of the school year. Speaking of hitting the ground running...next week we will begin with a workplan. Not everything will be on it, but it will be used to further normalize our classroom. I am excited to begin workplans next week!

I have enjoyed getting to know the new students these past two weeks! We have some wonderful personalities joining us this year and I love the diversity in our class.

Thank you again to the new parents for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend the Upper Montessori parent night. Please contact me if you have any other questions. Conferences are just around the corner if you can believe it!

Thank you!

Thank you, wonderful parents, for donating so many of my wish list items for the classroom!

Thank you for the stamps, cups, Kleenex, snack items, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, baggies, and disposable silverware.

I appreciate your generosity! :)

--Mrs. Perrien

Upper Montessori News: Routines

Lots of information in this posting!

Parent Night Reminder: Wednesday, September 16 at 6:30 p.m. We will meet for approximately one hour, maybe less. This meeting is geared for the new Upper Montessori parent but returning parents are welcome as well.

Homework: Students will have homework Monday – Thursday night. We talked about homework quite a bit this week! Each student is responsible for his or her homework folder. Taking the folder home each night, returning it to school the next day…these are all tasks that should be managed by THE CHILD. Requesting a teacher signature and a parent signature…these are all tasks that should be managed by THE CHILD. Managing nightly homework is a simple but powerful task that will help to build life-long responsibility skills in your child. IF your son or daughter forgets the folder at home or in the car, please do not bring the folder to school. When this happens it is much more powerful for your child to accept responsibility for being forgetful and learn from the experience. They are much less likely to forget the folder again if the responsibility for it remains theirs. (From personal experience I can tell you I've walked by the homework folder [and even a lunch box] on the kitchen counter. It's very hard to leave items sitting there but in the long run it's been a great learning experience for my girls.)

Classroom notes and school-wide communication will also be given to students in their mailboxes at the end of each day. Students will be asked to place these in their homework folders to make the school-to-home transfer easier. If you prefer an electronic copy of the school newsletter (distributed on Fridays) please let me know or Mrs. Coney (CONEYS@westottawa.net) know and we will make sure your name and email address are added to the list. Remember that the school news is sent home via the youngest child in your family, or only child if that is the case.

Daily Writing: We begin our school day with "notebooking." Based on relevant writing research, notebooking is a period of time every day when the children "just write." Topics are sometimes offered but usually not required. The children have plenty of personal topic lists ready to use. Two key components of Notebooking: Children must write without pausing for the 5-10 minutes of notebooking. So far, this requirement has been met with excellent results! Also during this time the classroom is silent. The second component is that the children write daily. Behind this activity is the idea that children will write better the more that they write. Notebooking is just one component of our writing program and one the students look forward to and are embracing!

Math Facts Assessment: The upper Montessori students take a quick math fact assessment daily. We do a one minute "speedway" assessment and a weekly five-minute timed test. This plan was developed based on a plea from middle and high school math teachers to make sure that students knew their facts! Our math speedway is a three or four day per week one-minute test with 10 problems. It covers basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Ideally, students move forward each time they take their speedway test. The five minute timed test requires students to move through 100 basic math facts with 100% accuracy. Students do addition and subtraction in the beginning of the year each year as a baseline assessment but the main focus is multiplication and division. For those students that pass out of division we have other five-minute challenges! Students compete against their own score each week. The goal is steady progress in memorizing the facts.

These assessments can be fun and the students look forward to them (That is also why everyone starts at zero for the addition speedway.) Most importantly, they take very little time each week out of the school day but the results are seen in our daily math lessons as well as simple fact recall.

I will be posting more information soon about our September and October curriculum. Stay tuned!

Class Photos!

I haven't uploaded all the pictures to the Photobucket account, but you'll see them soon.We had a great day! I really enjoyed this first day back at school!

Social Networking

I am flattered that I've had several requests from Montessori parents to be Facebook friends! However, I choose not to utilize Facebook for professional networking. I think it's important that I keep my professional life separate from my personal life.

Thanks for your understanding!

--Amy Perrien

First Day of School

Just a few days left until the first day of school! The Waukazoo teachers had a busy week back at school: preparing classrooms, working on lesson plans, learning about curriculum and testing changes, and getting committees and activities ready for the upcoming school year.

As the children prepare for their day I do have a few things for them to keep in mind:

• The Upper Montessori students line up at the 4th and 5th grade door (same as last year). They will need to line up at the painted "P". Please consider letting your child ride the bus (if possible) on the first day. The Waukazoo parking lots fill quickly!
• If students are ordering school lunch on Tuesday they will need to have a positive lunch balance; the lunch program is a prepaid program. Parents may send cash or a check or their may call the West Ottawa Food Services office and use a credit card.
• The students will NOT be able to use snack tickets on the first day of school. At this time we do not have any snacks in the snack cupboard.
• Binders will be needed on the first day. Just a reminder that I do have binders available at school for those students that do not bring their own.
• If your child took home a "Getting-to-know-you" brown bag please bring this back (filled) on the first day of school. Those that did not get a bag will receive one on Tuesday.
  
• Students will have their music special on this first day! Please make sure that all students have gym shoes in school by Thursday.
• Remind your child that we will do a lot of talking and whole class work these first couple weeks. The Montessori workplan does not begin right away as I prefer to do team building activities and also set classroom norms.
  
• It is COMMON for the 4th graders/new students to miss their old teacher, their old class, their old routines. They sometimes are sad about the change to a new classroom, new teacher, new responsibilities! What should parents do? Be positive about the new environment and be supportive of their ability to get used to the new routines! (Remember how scared we parents all were when we started middle school, high school, college...it WILL get better!)
• Finally, PLEASE put them to bed early [enough] on Monday night so they are bright-eyed on Tuesday morning. I will meet all students at their classroom line outside!

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

--Mrs. Perrien