Week 17 in Review

Greetings from Room 119 and our last post of 2019! The time certainly did fly and especially this week. Mrs. Doran didn't take a lot of pictures (as much of what we did was top secret and things our families will see over the break). We did make a Thoughtful Thursday project for our friend Leighton's mom. You can see the project we made for her by clicking HERE. If you have someone you'd like us to lift up, you can email Mrs. Doran at lauradoran@wlcsd.org and she'll let you know what she needs.

In math this week we took some assessments (some need to still be inputted and you'll see them in January) and we also had to get creative one day when Jingle Bell (our elf) was sitting on our clock so we did some "time" work by making some clock snowmen! They turned out so cute and will be displayed in January!

Another highlight was watching "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" movie. After, we did a Venn-Diagram to compare and contrast the the book and the movie. After that we did a Visible Thinking Routine called Tug of War. We thought about and wrote individually about what we liked best~ the book or the movie. Twenty-two of us liked the book best and 5 liked the movie. You can read WHY we felt this way as this is now displayed in our hallway.

Visible Thinking Routines can also help us understand and identify our ideas after reading a book. We read "The Proudest Blue" about a girl's first time wearing a hijab. It gave us a different perspective and understanding. This is now posted on our door (We're really sharing this week's work with LLE).

 Mrs. Weaver and Mrs. Doran got us all a new book and Mrs. D. read with us the first four chapters (she was only going to read one chapter but we wanted her to keep going). Hopefully you can read it to us so we can learn about what happens to the main character and his dilemma.

We ended the week with an AWESOME party! Thank you so much to all the parents who came in to volunteer! Mrs. Doran took pictures and a video which you can see by clicking HERE. All of the still pictures are also on our class facebook page.
Also, please note that Mrs. D. found out that some of us are so smart we've been checking out the Mystery Reader dates on our own so she's moved them and is only showing the available dates. She'll contact you the week you read and if you are ever curious or forget your time, just let her know. Room 119 kids are SMART!

And I just need to take a moment to thank you all so very much for making me feel so incredibly loved this last week of school. I was so humbled by your kind words and extremely generous gifts. I have really enjoyed working with all of you this year and while I am looking forward to these two weeks to recharge, I'm also going to miss "my kids" who are YOUR kids! Thank you for sharing them with me! It really is a pleasure! I'll see you all in 2020 (and hopefully Norbert will too! He sends you holiday wishes).

Week 16 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! This week our Thoughtful Thursday project went out to our friend, Gianna's Meme. You can see the project we made her by clicking HERE.

Most of our writing this week was writing about our reflections from the first trimester. Mrs. Doran enjoyed reflecting on our progress and sharing it with you at conferences. Please take a quick, anonymous survey HERE to give her feedback.

We continue to work on our fluency and our read aloud book, "The Wizard of Oz", will be coming to an end next week. It's been such a fun book and we're really enjoying it.

In math we worked on measurements in inches and centimeters. We will be taking our Unit 4 Assessment next week. Look for a review to come home Monday if you'd like to look over what will be covered on our test.

A very Happy Birthday to our friend, Alton! We loved singing "happy birthday" to him in English and in Polish (Sto Lat!).  Unfortunately he went home sick on Friday so our Mystery Reader (his Grandma) didn't come in to read. We hope he's feeling better soon.

And since there's no Mystery Reader picture, we though you might like this picture from Moonbeams for Sweet Dreams. We know Mason went (though he didn't say 'hi' to Mrs. Doran... next time!). You should definitely go to this event. It happens every night December 1st-25th. You can learn more about it by clicking HERE.

Week 15 in Review

Greetings from Room 119! What a great week we had! This week Room 119 made it's 200th Thoughtful Thursday project!!! It went out to the teacher of one of Mrs. Doran's kids. We were happy to be able to lift her up. You can see Diane's project by clicking HERE. If you have someone in need of encouragement who would like a project, please email her to see what she'll need from you.

We are learning about different holiday traditions in December and when we read the book "The Elf on the Shelf" an elf (that we named Jingle Bell) showed up! His second day here was a bit rough since some touched him. Thankfully some familiar elves helped him (and we had some work editing a letter those elves wrote).

On Monday, Mr. Stearns, a former teacher, joined Mrs. Doran and Mrs. Weaver. We went to the computer lab and are working on a fun project. We're going to continue working on this the next few weeks and can't wait to show you! Stay tuned!

In addition to working on our fluency, we got a new read-aloud book. Mrs. Doran is reading us "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and while this book was written over 100 years ago, we're LOVING it! If we haven't seen the movie yet, don't show us! The book is VERY different and we'll do a compare and contrast when we're done reading.

In math we learned that based on where a number is placed, it's value is different. For example in 87, the value of the 8 is 80 or 8 tens. In the number 78, the value of the 8 is 8 ones. We had fun exploring place value and playing a fun place value top-it game. Ask us about it!

We ended the week with a highlight! Leah's mom came in and was our Mystery Reader. She read a great book about an elf and then donated that book to Room 119! We were so excited! Thank you for coming in and for the great book!

Just a reminder that we have parent/teacher conferences next week. Don't forget to write down any questions you may have so you don't forget. Of course, if you'd like to ask Mrs. Doran something now, please don't hesitate! Have a great week!