2017-2018 Year in Review

Dear Third Grade Families,

WE MADE IT!! As I type this, Room 119 is officially CLOSED! Thank you all for your kind words and gifts in the last week of school! I really do appreciate it. There's no tired like "end-of-year" tired but we made it! I do hope you and your children will pop in to Room 119 next year on your way to your third grade classrooms!

Many have asked about how to avoid the "Summer Slide" which is what we teachers call what happens in the fall when your child comes back to school. The saying is true, "If you don't use it, you lose it~" and your child will lose some progress if they do nothing over the summer.

To help you with this, I have created a summer blog with fun ideas that you can view by clicking HERE.

And of course don't forget to READ!!!!

I hope to see you in the fall. I will be checking my email on occasion over the summer but not regularly. I have only had 8 responses to my ONE QUESTION end of year survey. I hope you will still take a moment to give me some feedback. You can access it by clicking HERE.

And finally,  please don't forget to access your child's report card and celebrate the growth they made this school year! We are all works in progress striving to be better tomorrow than we were today (myself included). I think it's safe to say that each one of your children made tons of progress this year. I'm so proud of them and you should be too!

Enjoy the summer! You deserve it!

~Laura Doran

Thanks for the great End-of-Year Party!

We had so much love from our Thoughtful Thursday projects! Thank you!

Congratulations to my former first graders turned 5th graders! Wishing you the best and hope you'll keep in touch!

How did this happen? I guess I'm a bit older than I think I am... ;-)

Week 38 in Review- CAMP KIKI-WAKA

Greetings from Room 119 which was transformed into "Camp Kiki-Waka" for our last full week of school. Mrs. Doran took 200 photos for the week all of which you can see on our Class Facebook page. If you've never visited that page, you can access it HERE. Feel free to visit and leave us a review by clicking on the 3 dots next to the share button (You can do this on our Thoughtful Thursday page too).

 We had a recipient planned for Thoughtful Thursday but our contact person let us know that at this time they were not quite ready for a project, which we certainly understand. You can see all the projects Room 119 does on our Thoughtful Thursday Facebook page HERE or revisit them on the blog. We were surprised when Mr. Mitch came to visit us and came with #TeamShaverHoorah bracelets and Oreos! We also got some mail from Mr. Eric who thanked us for his project. Please keep Room 119 in mind in years to come if you know someone who could use some encouragement. Most of the recipients Mrs. D. doesn't know and come from people in the community.

When we arrived Monday, Room 119 didn't look the same. It had a picnic area, tents and tons of trees. We added to the decor by making vines. We had our own bonfires and when it was night the stars came out. On day one of camp, we voted on a name and "Camp Kiki-Waka" won!

Counselor Doran made us camp journals with all sorts of fun academic stuff in them as well as songs. Each day we took a hike and sang those songs. We loved getting out in the fresh air!

At night the sun went down and we read under the stars to the sound of the crackling bonfire and occasionally we heard sounds of owls and wolves in the distance. We stayed nice and safe and really enjoyed this time.

Of course we got in curriculum too! We had a great math review and even took our last Unit Assessment in camp. Since Skyward is closed to parents, you will see our tests when they come home on Monday. We will take one final end of the year assessment next week.

A highlight of the day was when we had "mail-call" after lunch. We so enjoyed reading the letters from family and friends! Thank you also for all the amazing care packages! Counselor Doran doesn't think we've ever had so many and is still working on thank you notes. We had 5 or more care packages each day! Thank you!!!

At camp we did a lot of fun crafts (most of which dealt with our air and weather science unit). We made windsocks, pinwheels and parachutes. We also did experiments with water, made sit-upons for around the campfire and made bird-feeders and necklaces! It sure was a busy week!

Some of us opted to make camp shirts while we were away! If you'd like to do this at home, all you need are some sharpies and rubbing alcohol in a squirt bottle to make the colors spread.

We ended each day by writing home and letting our families know all about our camp adventures. We hope you enjoyed hearing from us!

It's hard to believe that we only have 3 1/2 days left! Just a reminder that Thursday is a half day for students. We still have many things coming home next week so don't forget those backpacks. Please also remember to send in Everyday Folders!

Week 37 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We had a great week and packed a lot of learning into it even though it was short! We made time to lift up an amazing 17-year-old for our Thoughtful Thursday project. You can see the project we made for him by clicking HERE.

We had so much fun this spirit week from dressing like twins, "Wacky Wednesday" and students dress like their teacher and teachers dress like the students! Thanks for participating!

Happy Birthday to our friend, Isiah who turned the great eight this week. We had fun celebrating! Sto lat!

We will be finishing our reading of the second book of "The Secret Zoo" next week. If we want to read further, be sure to visit our public library and grab a copy to read to us. When you read to us and model those awesome thinking strategies that readers do we take them on too! Don't forget all library books are DUE!

This week we studied Fairy Tales! We read them and looked at the things that they had in common so we could write our own.

We are finishing up publishing the fairy tales we wrote. Some of us rewrote a classic fairy tale, others wrote a twist on a classic and there were still some who created their own original fairy tale. Ask us what our story is about!

In math we spent some time on money and of course spent time reviewing all the skills we've learned this year. We'll be having a test on Unit 9 next week during camp so look for our journals to come home!

And finally we had an amazing Field Day. Click HERE to get a taste of what our day was like. Mrs. D. posted all of the pictures from the video on our class facebook page. Special thanks to Mr. O and all the amazing volunteers who made our fun day possible!