May 2021

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KINDERGARTEN - Ms. Edwards, Miss Smith

We have had an amazing year! We have become great writers and readers! We are finishing our year by talking about plants and animals.&nbsp; We also loved having our science day, lunch in the cafeteria and we have caterpillars and ladybugs in our classroom. We have loved kindergarten in our first year at Antelope Canyon!

We also learned about diversity by having a Same Day. In order to learn the importance of diversity we had a day where everything was the same. We dressed, ate and did our activities throughout the day as much the same as we could.

As we have been running to Disneyland we have passed through several Indian Reservations. We wrote informative papers about Native Americans and the 6th graders plastered our faces to make Indian masks.&nbsp;

We threw Miss Sellers the most exciting surprise party of her life! She was so surprised and we had so much fun being silly together and talking about why birthdays are important.

We have a few more activities for the end of the year like our Sports Day (5/20) and Field Day (6/2), but we’re excited to finish some of our math and reading goals, make some fun art projects, and spend more time with our friends here in class before the summer break! PSA: The materials used this school year will be available to parents over Canvas to use over the summer if they would like academic resources to support student learning from this year. An email will be coming out with information regarding access and additional information can be requested at any time from Miss Sellers (<a href="http://mailto:natalie.sellers@jordandistrict.org">natalie.sellers@jordandistrict.org</a>).

It's been a great year and we are looking forward to next year with you and your children!

DARE Graduation &amp; Chalk Art

FIRST GRADE - Mrs. Freestone, Mrs. Jarvis, Mrs. Pearson

In science we finished learning about sound by creating a spoon-gong system.&nbsp; This experiment helped us learn how sound moves through solids.&nbsp; Then we explored shadows and why shadows move throughout the day.&nbsp; Finally in science we learned about air and weather.&nbsp; We loved making windsocks to see how strong the wind was blowing. 

It was so fun to see the creativity of our children hard at work while making their class pets for the story we were discussing in the Academic Communication classes.

These puppets have helped us to learn where to put our tongues to produce sounds, and to retell the stories we learned in class. It’s been so fun to get to learn along with all of our students this year!

Adaptive PE with Mrs. Larson is always the highlight of our week!&nbsp;It is so much fun and a great way to practice skills like following directions, working as a team, and having good sportsmanship.

We have had such a wonderful year and I am so proud of my students and their ability to persevere with a great attitude, even when things are challenging.&nbsp;They make me smile and fill every day with fun and laughter.&nbsp;

Art is another favorite activity in our class and the students made the cutest cards to give to their moms and grandmas for Mother’s Day!

SECOND GRADE - Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Novak, Mrs. Roach, Mrs. Simmons

We have been learning about friendship and caring for our classmates.

We have been learning about the life cycle of animals. We had chicks and butterflies hatch in our classes.

We learned about the life cycle of plants and grew our own bean sprouts!

We have been learning about time and rocks. 

Math: We wrapped up division and started learning about fractions. We began by comparing fractions using 5 different comparing rules. We then moved on to learning about equivalent fractions and how to find them. Now we are hard at work discovering that fractions can be greater than one whole and are learning how to convert mixed numbers into improper fractions. Fractions can be tricky since it is an entirely new number system, but your students have been doing an excellent job!

Music has been bittersweet for the end of the year! Students said good-bye to Mrs. Bawden, Mrs. Elliot's student teacher, who graduates from the University of Utah in May. She has been with Antelope Canyon since the end of January, and helped every child prepare for their programs. We wish her the very best on her next adventures! To finish out the year strong, Pronghorns will take part in writing the school song! The last week of music class will be spent learning to sing it! Ask your child to perform it for you in June.&nbsp; It has been my pleasure to be your child's music teacher this year, and I hope every family enjoys the end-of-year programs we will be sending home. Have a safe and happy summer!

In Antelope Canyon’s Robotic Class, we learned to build a Lego Mindstorm Robot and program the robot to follow commands from the chromebooks. Students worked individually, but willingly helped each other figure out how to build and program. I was so impressed with how students problem solved, persevered, and worked together to create a robot that was unique and showed off his/her creativity!

We took our first state tests in reading and math and we crushed it! Students did an excellent job remembering their strategies and were able to whisper their fears and concerns to their testing dinos. ;)&nbsp;

We can't wait to end this year with all of the fun theme days that we have planned! While this year has been challenging it could never MASK our excitement and joy to be with your children in school. We have struggled and grown immensely&nbsp;through the various challenges of teaching and learning during a pandemic. While we may look back on this year and be very grateful that it is over, we will always look back with fondness for the bonds we were able to develop with one another. We are grateful for the support you have given us and the students this year.&nbsp;

JUST FOR FUN.....We've come a long way!

FIFTH GRADE - Miss Anderson, Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. Thacker

Dear Parents &amp; Friends of Antelope Canyon Elementary, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Fifth-grade has been doing so much! In math, your children have now learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. In addition to fractions, the kids have learned all about multiple-digit&nbsp;multiplication and division,&nbsp;as well as identifying how to solve all of the above in word problems. They've really come so far this year in math! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another way in which our students have grown immensely is through their writing. Over the last few months, they've written 5-paragraph essays on: The Causes of the Revolutionary War, How People are Helping Endangered Sea&nbsp;Turtles, and How People are Helping Pandas. This prepared them for the DARE Essay Contest, which was an essay all about the different things they learned about the ten-week program run by Officer Russell Petersen. Each class had a winner who was able to read his/her essay at the graduation program, and they did amazing!&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Having "Specials" at Antelope Canyon has been such a treat! Mrs. Elliot, our music teacher, had us making new lyrics up to Yankee Doodle. These lyrics had to do something with U.S.&nbsp;History. Mrs. Palmer's class created words from the Westward Expansion, Mrs. Thacker's class did the&nbsp;Trail of Tears,&nbsp;while Miss Andy's class learned all about The Underground Railroad. Mrs. Elliot has done so much for the kids this year, and we are super lucky to have her!&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Thank you to all those parents who have supported us so far this year! Teacher Appreciation Week was awesome! Your fifth-grade teachers were spoiled&nbsp;rotten and we are so appreciative. On another note, our PTA ROCKS! They TOTALLY outdid themselves this year! Thanks for showering us with yummy treats and lunches throughout this last week.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This year has been a whirlwind of crazy! However, as a community, we have persisted and overcome. Look at where we've been! Your kids amaze us every single day. With creative read-a-thons, themed rewards, multiple science experiments, and various other activities and online field trips, we hope your kids will remember more than just Covid this year! Thank you for allowing us to take a small part in the lives of your children.

THIRD GRADE - Miss Harris, Mrs. Poteki, Mrs. Saunders

We have almost survived one of the most challenging&nbsp;school years we have ever experienced! There were so many unknowns coming into this year with a brand new school - but we made it!&nbsp; Math: We have learned multiplication, division, subtraction and addition with 3 digit numbers, fractions, graphing, time, geometry and measurement! We got to celebrate mastering our math facts with a delicious&nbsp;ice cream sundae party. The students worked hard all year to learn their facts and were deliciously&nbsp;rewarded. Writing: We have learned about how to write 3 different types of informational paragraphs, an opinion paragraph and how to write a narrative story!

Reading: We learned the 6 syllable&nbsp;types to help us to decode words. We have focused on each student's individualized phonics needs and helped give them the instruction they needed. We've focused on main idea, central message, supporting details, inferencing, cause and effect and a plethora of other reading strategies.&nbsp;

Our students have made great strides in guidance this year in regard to social emotional health and wellness! Students have learned many different skills that they will be able to take with them for the rest of their lives. To wrap up the end of the year, students are continuing to practice their skills and making connections for our final few weeks of groups.&nbsp; I wish my 6th graders all the best as you move on to middle school! I hope everyone has a great summer! If you would like to have access to my virtual calming corner or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at <a href="http://mailto:haley.kirk@jordandistrict.org">haley.kirk@jordandistrict.org</a>

We learned about Eric Carle in April.&nbsp;He uses painted paper to create collages for his illustrations.&nbsp;We painted papers and created art like Eric Carle.&nbsp;We loved making big sheets of painted paper in all colors to prepare for making our collages.&nbsp;We created collages for the hallway.&nbsp;We even used the extra paper to make get well cards for Mrs. Bird and Mother’s Day cards for our moms.

In math we are learning about measurement, time and money.&nbsp; We had a great time measuring things and friends around the classroom.

Academic Communication Support Classroom 1-3rd - Miss Sellers

We are awesome! We have worked so hard this year to try new things and think outside the box when faced with challenges. We’ve practiced including others in sports and recess games. And we are so good at helping and being friends to others!

We have loved finding different stories and adventures at the library. We love books so much and we love talking about some of our favorite ones (Arnie the Doughnut and Clark the Shark). We’ve also worked really hard at being a team and helping friends through hard things both inside and outside of class.

SIXTH GRADE - Mrs. Nielsen, Mrs. Sanchez, Mrs. Sears

Sixth grade has been working hard to write informational essays and learning how to use success criteria&nbsp;to provide positive feedback.

We have learned about different types of weather, and have been able to experience a variety of authentic weather patterns as we have enjoyed the springtime!&nbsp;

FOURTH GRADE - Miss Amis, Mrs. Barney, Mrs. Clayton, Mrs. Tovar

Reading: Over the past few months, we have been working hard on informational and opinion writing. We wrote an informational paper about how birds catch fish as well as an opinion paper about why natural disasters are dangerous. Your students have become excellent writers this year and have worked hard! We have also spent time talking about figurative language, text structures, grammar and more! This has helped prepare our students for our upcoming RISE Reading test which we are confident they will do well on!&nbsp;

Science: We kicked off our Earth and Sun unit talking about the moon and tracking the moon’s cycle over the course of a month. We talked about constellations and the planets, as well as the rotation and revolution of the earth around the sun. We took the Science RISE test and they did their best and we are proud of them!&nbsp;

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Dear Parents and Guardians, What an eventful year! We started with many restrictions, mask wearing being one of the most difficult. It wasn't fun but the students, staff, and YOU handled it with patience and grace. Thank you!! It is such a delight to be wrapping up the year in such a positive place! The students have done well and the staff is top notch. I hope you enjoy our final book of the year. We've worked hard to bring you into the school virtually and we hope you've felt a part of us. Life is Good! Tami Bird Principal

National School Lunch Day with Mrs. Barlow and Mrs. Lampear. 

Academic Communication Support Classroom 4-6th Mrs. McNees

We have had a busy few months!&nbsp; In April we finished our Solar System unit.&nbsp; Each week we learned about a different planet and painted a new piece of our mobiles.&nbsp; It was very exciting to finally complete the project and the students are looking forward to taking them home to hang in their rooms.

Our class has been working hard on writing, and we have been using informational texts to create paragraphs.&nbsp; This is a difficult skill for many students in our class, and I am so proud of the progress they have made!

STEM - Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Oakeson

We've been having so much fun in STEM this year! Some of the things we've done this year are: lego mazes, building bridges, chain reactions, coding, engineering boats, and experiments using the scientific method. The students have loved using fun tech tools all year, like Ozobots, Little Bits, Makey Makey and Sphero Bolts. It's been a fun year of hands-on learning and we're looking&nbsp;forward to next&nbsp;year!

Learning Lab (Resource) - Mrs. Cooper

Thank you for making this year a great one! I have enjoyed working with Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Wiggins, and all of the students that come to Learning Lab. I can't wait to start next year again with all of you again! Mrs. Cooper

We will have summer packets if any parents or students are interested. Please request them at darinka.cooper@jordandistrict.org.

Thanks for being such great speech students! Parents if you are interested in continuing to support your children’s speech this summer let me know by sending me an email (<a href="http://mailto:cassen.gardner@jordandistrict.org">cassen.gardner@jordandistrict.org</a>), and I will happily send you access to my virtual classroom. It has many resources to continue to support your child’s speech at home. Have a safe and happy day, and know you are awesome!

We had a fun afternoon, enjoying a sidewalk chalk party.&nbsp;We hope everyone saw our positive messages and creative drawings.

We are wrapping up our final math unit of the year, and have been collecting data for analysis in our Statistics and Probability Unit.&nbsp;&nbsp;

We are happy to report that Rise Testing will be over soon, and we look forward to some fun activities to end the year.&nbsp;Our students are ready for middle school, and although we have mixed emotions about sending them on, we are so proud of their hard work and dedication this year at Antelope Canyon Elementary!

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