Week 5 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We continue to work on our transitions (which are sucking up quite a bit of our time). One thing we continue to do is lift up others through our Thoughtful Thursday project. You can see our latest project HERE. If you know of someone who could use some encouragement, email Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org.

Reading continues to be a favorite part of our day. Mrs. Doran is reading, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to us as our read aloud. Please do NOT watch this movie until we have finished if possible. Mrs. Doran has started reading with individuals too. She loves listening to us read.

In math we learned some new games, had a great review and did a wonderful job on our assessment! Assessments and checklists came home Friday and are also in Skyward. We did a great job!! You can log into EDM's site at any time to check out what lesson we are on,  find homelink help, and play games that support our learning.

We didn't get in as much writing as we would have liked this week. We are trying to take our iReady Assessments, but their site has not been cooperating. We are hoping that everything will be working next week. Reflection Journals will be coming home next week so you can see what we thought of September!

On Friday, students from WLC (including members from the drum-line) marched through our hallways! We had so much fun seeing them and one of us even got to wear Mrs. Doran's old Varsity Jacket from WLC!

We love celebrating birthdays in Room 119! Trent turned the Great Eight!! Sto Lat!

We ended our week with our FIRST Mystery Reader! Gianna's Aunt came and read us "Miss Nelson is Missing" and we were a bit mind-blown by the twist at the end. She did a great job! To see Gianna's reaction to learning the Mystery Reader was HER aunt, please check out our class FB page. Don't forget to check out the blog for available Mystery Reader times and contact Mrs. Doran with a date that works for you!

Wishing you a great week and a Happy Rosh Hashanah to those families who celebrate!

Week 4 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We've had kind of a loud week. Our learning times are AMAZING! We get right to work and have some great thinking going on. Our transitions are really tough. It is something we will continue to work on. Ask us how we're doing with the card system and if we are pulling any cards. This information will come home to you at the end of each month.

Of course a highlight of our week was the 20 minutes we spent lifting up someone else. You can see this week's Thoughtful Thursday project by clicking HERE.

Did you know that it was Constitution Day on the 17th! We didn't know too much about the Constitution before the day began but it was fun to see how our learning grew! We learned that the Constitution is the "Highest Law of the Land" and also focused on the preamble and its meaning.

We have really been doing awesome in our reading and Mrs. D. was able to start reading with some of us individually. On Friday, we were unable to meet for buddies, so we asked Mrs. Doran if we could read for 30 minutes and we did!! We sure are building our stamina! Don't forget our library day is Thursday!

 We continue to work on organization in our writing. We start with a beginning, middle, and end and then are blowing it up. We have loved writing our books and some of us are even choosing to work on our writing during free choice!

In math we really focused on sums of ten because that will make our math foundation so much stronger. One way we did this was by playing "Fish for Ten." Ask us how to play this! Next week we'll be taking our first assessment on Unit 1. An optional review will be coming home but we're doing great in Room 119!

We finally got on chromebooks this week and were SO excited! We went on our Google classroom and played games on the Everyday Math site. Ask us how our headphones were. Many of us thought they were uncomfortable or didn't have them. We hope to start iReady testing on the chromebooks next week so a comfy pair of working headphones would be great if we have them.

Mrs. Kidder came in this week to read us a book called "Ishi" and we even got our own "Ishi" in Room 119. Ask us about it!

Please don't forget to sign up to be a Mystery Reader! HERE is a direct link to the schedule. Just email Mrs. Doran the date you'd like to come in and she will email you a reminder as the date comes closer.

Week 3 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We survived our first FULL week of school which also included Friday the 13th and a full moon! This week we did two Thoughtful Thursday projects because they were time sensitive. This did not take too much time in the classroom (but a bit more time on Mrs. D's part). The first project we did goes out to Private Katrina. You can see her project by clicking HERE.

 We also did a project for the Great Grandma of Olivia (a Room 119 alum that you can see in our group picture). We are still waiting to get the go-ahead to share the project but will post it as soon as it's ready.

We had a GREAT turnout for Curriculum Night! Thank you families for filling our buckets and sharing your excitement, worries, and suggestions. Please contact Mrs. D. if you have any questions and remember you can access the Curriculum Night Packet at any time HERE or on the blog page.

We were VERY excited to reach our 20 minute goal in reading! In order to do this, we had to choose good books, find a comfortable place to read, and stay focused. Next week Mrs. D. will get to listen to us read individually! She's so excited! 

We continue to work on personal narratives in writing. One of the most difficult things about writing is often coming up with a topic. We shared writing topics in our mini-notebooks. Our discussions prompted MORE ideas and some of us even opted to take our notebooks out on free-choice to come up with more ideas! Room 119 is FULL of writers!

In math we've been working on coins as well as number grids and relationships with numbers. One of the more difficult things we worked on was putting our math thinking into words. We spent two days on this and really improved. The EDM site is up and ready to access so be sure to check it out!

 We were excited to celebrate our friend Henry's birthday! He knows it's GREAT to be EIGHT! Sto Lat!

At the end of the week we were showered with kindness from Ella's family #BecauseOfAndrew. You can find out more about that on the Thoughtful Thursday page. We each got bubbles and enjoyed playing with them during our Free Choice time! It was a GREAT week!

Mystery Reader dates are now available on the blog. You can click HERE to see available dates. Email Mrs. Doran your choice. She will honor dates on a first come basis and update the blog as requests come in.

Have a great week and remember, we have a half day Tuesday!

Week 2 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! We had a great second week of school! We continue to get to know one another and learn routines, but we are having a great time! We had our first assembly where we learned about PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions Support), a "card system" Mrs. D. will tell you about at Curriculum Night (Monday, 9-9 at 7pm), and next week we will start Doran Dollars!

Our most important work went out to Ms. Jen. You can see this week's Thoughtful Thursday project by clicking HERE.

We made some GREAT improvements this week in our reading stamina and are almost up to 15 minutes. Some of us could read for longer, but for others this can be a challenge. Setting up reading times at home (for all) can help build reading stamina too! We talked about getting comfortable, making good seating choices, and more. Hopefully next week we'll hit our goal which is 20 minutes!

Our goal in writing this week has been to write personal narratives (true stories about US) with a beginning, a middle, and an end. We also are adding more details to each of these parts of our stories. We met with writing buddies to plan and then later to share our work.

In math, we took our Beginning of the Year Assessment. This assessment will be used as a spring board to give Mrs. D. more information about our needs. We also learned about number lines as well as a game called "Number Squeeze" that we made and then played. Ask us about it!

We are having a great time being "Bucket Fillers" and learning how to work with others. Mrs. Alexander and Mrs. Faber came in to talk to us about understanding those who are different from us and being kind. It's going to be a great year!

We celebrated our first birthday in Room 119! Happy Birthday, Leighton! We enjoyed singing to him in English and Polish (a Mrs. D. tradition). Sto Lat!

Norbert continues to come in and is a hit in Room 119. He'll be coming as much as he can until the weather gets too cold for him. He's also looking for a bigger habitat in Room 119. He is currently residing in a tank he had when he was about 6 inches long (he's grown a lot). If you know of someone who is getting rid of a tank, please let Mrs. Doran know. They can be quite expensive so she'd love to buy one used since he already has a space at his permanent residence (aka the Dorans' House).

Just a reminder that Curriculum Night is Monday (September 9th at 7pm). This is NOT something for kids to come to so please make sure to make arrangements. In effort to save paper and resources, Mrs. D. does not print off Curriculum Night Packets but instead posts it on her blog. You can reach it anytime there or directly by clicking HERE. If you would like a printed copy, let her know and she'll print one off for you.

She can't wait to see you Monday! 

Have a great week!