• a water bottle (reusable preferred) marked with your name on it
• a healthy morning snack in a separate small container marked with your name
• a healthy, "ready-to-eat" lunch with an ice pack, utensils, and a small placemat ~We can't heat food up for children in class!
• a second separate snack if you are in Circle Care after school
• school supplies if you have not already dropped them off Please mark the container you bring them in with your name!
• wear your sunscreen or bring sun protection
• leave toys, electronics, candy, and sodas at home
• come in from the carline, take your things to the front porch of Room 112,  hang up your backpack, then go play on the playground until 8:30 when the teachers will clap and gather their classes for a fun first day

• Orientation Meeting~ Wednesday 8/6/25 at 6:30 P.M. in Room 112  **** It is very important that at least one family member attends this meeting! This meeting is for adults only. 
• Remember that you can always email me at [email protected] with any questions.

Newsflash

Hello Classroom Families,

We are off and running! Your children have done a wonderful job settling in and are beginning to build a lovely community. Thank you all for your support so far. It was nice to see all of you who made it to the Family Orientation night. If you missed it, you can find the information packet on our classroom page on the Villa website (helpful hint: get the Villa app… it will change your life!)

Please remember to check the website form information often. You will be able to find sign up pages for volunteering, conferences, and much more there. You can also find my monthly newsflashes there. All of these items are accessible in the orange rectangle block in the bottom, right handed portion of the page (under my bio and picture). If you need more information, Ashley Meyer will be sending out weekly emails as well. Be sure to check those emails and that they are not getting blocked. 

We have made it through the first four Great Lessons:

Creation of the Universe (scientific story)

Life on Earth

The Gifts of the Amazing Human (Heart, Hands, Mind)

The Timeline of Communication and Writing

The children have all been thoroughly engaged and enjoyed the follow-up activities (experiments, creating fossils, tribes and trading, grinding the wheat we grew in our own garden last year, creating “heavy things sink bottles with a little universe stardust sprinkled in”, writing about changes in communication that could happen in the future, making quill pencils, creating cave art, learning about the stars and planets, looking at bacteria under a microscope, etc, etc.)

We have also been doing assessments. W

We will have those finished and scored by conferences in September. Reading Intervention will begin soon, and ESS services began this week. The children will be receiving their gifts of writing utensils of their own on Monday. They have already received their planners and are beginning to plan. We are also learning to tell time on an analogue clock, so this is something you can work on at home along with reading.

We have a few “housekeeping” reminders;

• Please remember to help you child bring their folders daily
• Snacks must be in a separate container from their lunch with a name on it! We have already had some mix-ups this year.
• We are not a nut free room at this time, so nuts are fine for morning snack and lunch.
• Send a full water bottle with a name on it daily.
• Thank you for signing up to volunteer and sending supplies in. 
• Thank you for getting your t-shirt payments in-we will order in September. If parents are interested in a t-shirt for themselves, please Venmo Lura with the $10 and size needed.
• If your child is struggling or worrying, please email Lura or bring them in to talk with me.
• If you are going on a long vacation, please email Margo and I prior to the vacation. 
• If something out of the ordinary is happening at home, please keep us in the loop, so we can help.
• If your child’s dismissal plans are changing, please email Lura for a ticket to ride the day before… especially on ½ days!!
• Specials began today and are on Fridays, so wear tennis shoes and comfy clothes.
• The 1st Pizza Friday for our class is August 29th. Please send in pizza payments at your earliest convenience or email Lura for payment options. Please let us know if you will not be participating in Pizza Friday and plan to send a full lunch on those days.
• Children need a morning snack every day, including Fridays!
• Look for the Goal Setting Conference sign up on our class page in the coming week to sign up for conferences September 19th and 26th.

Thank you for all of the Helping Hands and offers to help out! We are so fortunate to have such an amazing Villa Community!

Lura Amparan

[email protected]

Link to class page on Villa site: https://www.villamontessori.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=316118&type=u&pREC_ID=2476433 

8/25/25

Hello Classroom Families,

We had a productive week and chose our community jobs. We have just a few reminders for you this week. 

• Please remember to subscribe to our class page by simply hitting the subscribe button. This will allow you to receive a notice when I update the page with new information!
• Thank you for submitting your t-shirt and pizza payments. We will begin Pizza Friday this Friday! Please remember to continue to pack a healthy morning snack on Fridays!
• If any parents would like a class t-shirt, please Venmo me $10 and the size shirt you would like. The class chose mint green for the color this year. @Lura-Amparan
• We are having some challenges with backpack decorations and toys becoming distractions and a reason for children to sneak out of the classroom, so we are asking that those items stay at home. (They also attract lice!)
• Appropriate items for “Share” are things from the Natural World, cultural items, artistic creations or models made by the student, photos of pets, family, places visited, stories about exciting events, etc.. Toys are not appropriate for Share. Your child is always welcome to come ask about their Share.
• We have classroom appropriate fidgets available at school. Please do not send personal fidgets to school for your child to use or hand out to others. If they would like to bring one to donate to the classroom, please ask them to give it to a teacher first. 
• Our class has Specials (Movement and Music, Computers, P.E., and Art) on Friday afternoons from 12:30 to 2:45. Please refrain from picking your child up early on Fridays. It is very challenging for the staff and the Specials teachers when they have to stop and find a child and walk them to the office for early pick up. It is also the teacher plan period, so it is difficult for us to help with this. If you must pick your child up early on Friday occasionally, please email Lura ahead of time. We will then make a plan for a less disruptive early pick up.
• Thank you for all of your volunteer offers and donations! It is going to be a great year!

October Newsflash

Happy Fall Classroom Families!

I hope everyone had a fun and restful Fall Break. I was able to spend some time enjoying the fall colors in my hometown in New Mexico. It was wonderful to see everyone and share goals at the recent conferences. Thank you to everyone who supported our wedding shower for Lindsay! The kids had a wonderful time celebrating her, and Alisia, Ashley, and Katherine went above and beyond with the decorations and food! 

This is the time of year when everything starts happening at light speed! Below is a list of things happening in October. Some of them start this week, so please take a glance at them right away. 

• This week we are having a presentation on Diwali by Eila and her mother, Cady.
• We will be having a soft lockdown practice drill on Tuesday morning. 
• We are planning to plant our garden this Friday morning 10/17. Please see the sign up to help or donate soil for that project. We will buy the plants and seeds with our activity money. 

Gardening and soil donation sign up:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C45AAAC2BAAFBC70-58361595-gardening#/ 

• We will finally be finishing our self portraits and ordering our class t-shirts this week. Let me know by Monday evening if you are interested in an adult shirt… if you haven’t already done so. You can Venmo me $10 and your size preference.
• We will be beginning our study of Asia this week and choosing our topics early next week. You can help your child look at interesting topics (they need to have a choice of five). 1sts choose an animal, 2nds choose a landmark or city, and 3rds choose a country. Information on the research project and presentation will come home in a packet by next week.
• A sign up for presentation dates will be posted on the web page soon. Please choose from the sign up page for your child’s grade. We let the first years go last for their first presentation. Presentations will be in the first two weeks of December, so choose one that family members are able to attend.
• On the afternoon of October 20th we will be making egg rolls with Hazel’s family!
• Vision and Hearing screenings are on October 21st, so please ensure that your child wears their glasses on that day.
• On October 27th we will be having a presenter come in and teach us about Taiko Drumming. 
• The morning of October 31st is our Fall Fun Day. We will learn about the parts of a pumpkin and have some fun! We do not wear Halloween costumes to school at Villa. There is a Trunk-or-Treat event on Saturday the 25th for showing off your costume at school!

Laundry sign up:

November Newsflash

November is a fun and busy month in our classroom. We have chosen our topics to study for Asia and have many cultural celebrations this month. We have been studying the Paleozoic Era, Kingdoms of Life, animal and plant cells, invertebrates, life cycles, landforms, indigenous tribes, and much more! Our Fall Fun morning where we carved a pumpkin and enjoyed some autumn themed snacks, was quite fun. We are planning our first field trip, and our class t-shirts are finally in! Thank you for all of your support so far and going forward. There are a few thighs to remind you about.

• The class t-shirts are finished and will be coming home this week. If you ordered adult t-shirts, I will send them with your child too. Please help keep your child’s t-shirt in a safe place throughout the school year. We will wear them for field trips to help us keep track of our class when we are out in public. 
• This week is the Book Fair. We will visit the library to view the books on Tuesday morning, and students who have money placed on their accounts will be taken to shop throughout the week by bookfair volunteers. You are also welcome to take your child to the bookfair before or after school. I have asked the children to remember that items other than books or books that do not support school topics and language be enjoyed at home.
• Thank you for signing up to take children shopping, pick up pizzas, donate flowers and do laundry for our class. We are in need of someone to take the children shopping on 11-24. Please sign up if you are able to help.
• If you have not received the Asia presentation packet from your child yet, please email me. Everyone should know what their topic is and be actively researching their topic and preparing for their presentation the first week of December. 
• The presentation and pot-luck sign ups have been posted. There will also be a sign up coming shortly to help with the Gingerbread party in December. The biggest thing we need help with is making the icing. It requires a good mixer and your time. Please email me if you are interested in taking this project on. 
• We will read the book, Stone Soup, the week before Thanksgiving. We will then put up a sign up for ingredients to make our own Stone Soup the Monday before Thanksgiving, which we will eat as a class feast the next day. The whole point is that it takes teamwork to make a good feast and everyone must do their part to bring a little something to contribute. Please ask your child what they signed up for and help them remember to bring it by Monday morning. We will make the soup with whatever we have. 
• Finally, I want to make sure that each of you know that we have support available in our community should you face food insecurity during this stressful time. Villa is creating a food pantry, we are creating a snack pantry and reminding students not to waste food, and many people have generously offered to help anyone in need. Please do not hesitate to reach out if needed. 

December Newsflash

Hello Classroom Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! We had a Stone Soup Feast fit for a king last week! Your children were so helpful, and everyone tried and enjoyed the stone soup. Thank you to all who made and sent in food. 

Unfortunately, we will be starting the week out with some sad news. Today Lindsay will be letting the kids know that this will be her last week with us. She is moving back home to Washington with her husband next week. She is very sad to leave us, but her husband received an offer for his dream job, and the goal was always for them to end up back in Washington. We will miss her more than she will ever know, and will be taking the time to say goodbye this week. We are also working hard to find a replacement for Lindsay. Larry and I will hold down the fort until we find the best fit. Luckily, we have some good options on staff already.

It is mind boggling that it is already December and the end of the semester! We have a packed schedule in December, so please take a look at the dates and reminders below.

• Asia presentations began today and will happen every morning and afternoon for the next few weeks. Please help your child show respect for their classmates by arriving on time each morning to be an audience for each presentation. 
• This Friday, December 5th is a ½ Day for all students.
• Our Asia Luncheon Celebration will be December 12th from 11:30 to 1:00. Thank you to everyone who has signed up to help! If you would like to sign up to bring a dish to share, you can visit the sign up page on our class webpage. With Lindsay being gone, I will really need helpers to clean up and set up as well.

 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C45AAAC2BAAFBC70-59994576-copy#/ 

• This week our class will host two middle school interns, Calvin and Jackson. Both boys were students in my class when they were in E1. 
• We will take our mid-year assessments this month. 
• We will be taking our first field trip on December 15th to Cosanti. Please remember to send your child in their class t-shirt and comfortable walking shoes with a disposable lunch and their booster seat if they require one. We leave a little after 9:00 in the morning and return after having lunch in a park nearby.
• We will have pajama day on December 18th and enjoy hot chocolate and a movie in the afternoon. We will probably watch The Wild Robot since we just finished reading all three books in the series!

• December 19th is our annual Gingerbread House Party from 9:30 to 11:00! Please sign up to bring an item on the list below. All items should be at school on Thursday December 18th. Thank you to Soulie Segovia for offering to make the meringue icing! We can use as many helpers as possible on this day! Please join us if you are able.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C45AAAC2BAAFBC70-60755343-gingerbread#/ 

• January conference sign ups will be posted soon, so please visit our class website and sign up for a Portfolio conference. Children run the first part of this conference, so sign up for a time that they can attend with you.
• Just a reminder that every child needs a healthy snack and a water bottle every day. Many children are forgetting their water bottles lately.

January Newsflash

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed some time with family over the break. I can’t believe we are starting our second semester! Please remember to sign up for a conference if you haven’t already. Here a few other reminders:

• Conference dates are January 16th and 23rd. These are half days for all children not enrolled in the Circle program. Please sign up for a conference through the link on the class web page if you have not already. These are portfolio and goal progress conferences, so your child needs to attend with you. We will all view your child’s portfolio together, talk about their goals, and then they will set up a material to show you while we talk for a few minutes. Please remember that the portfolios are “working portfolios” designed to show progress and highlight work your child is proud of. They will have mistakes in them, but that is how we show growth. It is best not to point the mistakes out, but rather point out where they did something better in another work sample.
• It looks like we need pizza shopping chaperones, pizza delivery volunteers, and flower delivery volunteers. Please sign up if you are able.
• Please send in your pizza payment for the 2nd half of the year if you chose to pay by the semester. If this is creating a hardship for you, please email me to discuss options.
• School is closed January 19th in observance of Matin Luther King Day.
• We will be taking a field trip to the Pioneer Living History Museum on February 11th. A link to the permission questionnaire will be emailed out shortly. Please sign it at your earliest convenience. 
• We will begin our study of North America and choose our topics at the end of the month. The 3rd Years will vote on whether to do North and Central American countries or National Parks this year. 1sts will choose animals, and 2nds will choose landmarks and major historical figures and events.
• The sign ups for presentations during the weeks of March 2nd-6th and March 16-20 will be posted on the class web page shortly. The pot luck luncheon celebration will be March 20th from 11:30-1:00.
• We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday February 13th this year. A list of names and procedures will be sent out shortly to allow time for children to write names on valentines. Your child may choose any type of valentine they wish… as long as they are the same for everyone in the class.
• Please remember to send a full water bottle, a healthy morning snack, and a hardy lunch with your child each day. If your child stays for Enrichments or Circle after school, they also need an afternoon snack.
• 3rd Years will receive new homework packets with a QR code for the answer key the first week back. Please help them get back into the routine of doing and checking it nightly. They should also be practicing multiplication and division math facts and typing at home each day!

January Classroom Update

Practical Life:

Classroom Agreement Review

Portfolios/Conferences

Reviewing Goals

Cooking with Lisa’s class

Cultural Studies: 

The Year and Its Parts

BC/AD Timeline

Decades & Centuries

Calendars

North America

Light and the Human Eye

Amphibians

Lifecycles

Moss and Fungi

Ferns, Roots, Leaves

Carboniferous Period

Permian Period

Economic Chart of Interdependence

AZ Products (5 Cs)

Martin Luther King

Human Needs

AZ 1st People - Hohokam, Mogian, Anasazi, Sinagua

Math & Geometry:

Measurement/Units of Measure

Fractions

Perimeter and Area

Quadrilaterals

Polygons

1st: Addition-multiple addends

       Addition & Subtraction Fact Families

2nd: Multiplication as repeated addition

        Bead Bar Layout

        Part Part Whole

3rds: Missing Factors multiplication and division

         Division Bead Board

         Multiplication/Division Fact Families

ELA: 

Open Syllables

Compound Words

Articles

Commas in Addresses

Commas with Quotation Marks

Synonyms/Antonyms

Contractions

Homophones

Conjunctions

Simple/Complex Sentences

High Frequency Word Spelling/Reading

Phonetic Rules (Individual Level)

Writing:

Planning, Drafting, Editing, Revising, Publishing

Opinion Format

Citing Text Evidence

“What Is Your Dream For the World?” ~ MLK study

Linking Words

Creating a Sense of Closure