Donors Choose -My students need your help!

My students need your help! Hi Friends, I want to make sure my students have the materials they need to succeed. So I've created a classroom project request at DonorsChoose.org, an award-winning charity. I'm asking for donations of any size to help my kids. Until November 4, any donation you make to my project will be doubled (up to $100). If you know anyone who is passionate about education, please pass this along. Your donation will brighten my students' school year, and you'll get photos and thank yous from our class. Here's my classroom request: Chromebooks In The Classroom for Writing and STEM Projects To have your donation matched dollar for dollar, enter the promo code SPARK on the payment screen. This awesome match offer lasts through November 4. My students and I greatly appreciate your support. Ms. McKenzie

Re: Carnival

Hello Laurelhurst Families!

We are 4 days away from the Laurelhurst Carnival and we are eliciting one final plea for Volunteers! This is a super fun family event and an institution for our school.  The only way we can keep this event fun, successful and safe is by pulling together as a community and helping out.

On the sign up, each classroom is assigned to an activity within the carnival. We would love to have parents associated with a classroom to sign up for the corresponding carnival activity. Classrooms who have yet to complete their sign up include: Dixon, Heinrich, McAdams, Vigna, Zimmer and Hart.  We also need assistance for security, Teen Soda Lounge and Dunk Tank.

Parents: Sign up using the link below:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4dafa82ba3f94-parent

Students: Sign up using the link below:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4dafa82ba3f94-student

Thank you for considering this request.  We look forward to seeing you.

Shannon Browning

Carnival Volunteer Coordinator

Conferences

October 20, 2015

Dear Families,

Conferences begin tomorrow and I am very excited to share your student’s progress with you.  Conferences for me are a very emotional time.  I spend the weeks ahead thinking about your kids, holding them up and asking some important questions.   I wonder about how they are “fitting in”, are they making friends, are they comfortable with the routines of the classroom?  I have goals for them, academic and social.  I’m figuring out how to help them achieve them.  I want the best for them, just as you do.  I know that I have taught third grade many times but, it is your child’s only year in third grade.  I want it to be memorable, challenging, and ultimately satisfying.  

When we meet we’ll go over a fair amount of data.  We’ll look at reading scores, math scores and what their writing looks like.  I’ll show you the tools we use to reinforce the skills they are acquiring.  But I want to take time to hear your hopes for your student, what you think they need this year.  While I’m sure that we will agree about most things, there may be some we have to figure out together.  Above all, our goals are the same - we both want your student to thrive at Laurelhurst.

One of my former students wrote a poem that began,

Mrs. McKenzie’s really great,

She doesn’t like it when we’re late.

Please be on time for your conference, I want to honor our time together.

Thanks for all you do,

Valerie McKenzie

Welcome to the Class of 2015-2016!

Today, I am welcoming a new group of families to our classroom blog.  Thanks for joining us!  We'll have an exciting and learning filled year together!  I have about 14 families signed up.  It would be great to have a full roster.  Please let others families from room 21 know about this opportunity to get classroom news in a timely and paperless way!
Valerie

September. 11, 2015

Dear Families,

Whew!  Eleven days of school under our belts.  Students are on their way to a great year third grade.

Our focus the first couple weeks has been centered around our learning community.  We have been establishing routines, building stamina and assessing strengths and areas for growth.  Your students show a willingness to attend, to learn and to share.  It is a great group of kids.  

In the Reading Workshop we are engaged in a “Storyline” around the book, Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary.  Students are closely reading the text for character traits, the setting and problems and solutions that come up in every chapter.  Now we are creating “Friends of Henry”.  Each student has created a character that lives in Henry’s neighborhood.  As we progress through the storyline, we’ll ask questions about the decisions Ms. Cleary made in her writing, we’ll write a couple opinion pieces drawing from actions within the story and we’ll begin the habit of citing evidence within the text to support our ideas.  Big stuff for eight and nine year olds!  Our storyline will culminate with a walking field trip to the Hollywood neighborhood, to Beverly Cleary’s childhood home and Klickitat Street.  

In the Math Workshop we are building a “toolbox” of strategies for subtraction.  We are estimating and measuring in inches and we are graphing data.  Kids will be routinely assessed on their basic facts knowledge.  This is a timed quiz with 30 facts.  The expectation is that third graders can finish 30 facts in a minute and a half.  Meeting the benchmark is a 25/30 score.  I have stressed to students that this is one part of a bigger picture and not to put too much pressure on themselves.  At the same time, these facts are the cornerstone of math to come.  They need to be practiced.  I showed them a website through our curriculum that they can access at home:http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/families  You scroll down to third grade then scroll down to Math Magician.  They drill kids on 20 facts in one minute.  Kids get to pick the level they need to work on.  We’ve tried it out in the classroom, try it at home.  I’m sending home the first addition fluency checkup.  The kids finish all they can in 90 seconds with a regular lead pencil, then get another 90 to finish up with a colored pencil.  That gives the kids that can’t finish in a minute-thirty a little more time and a little more confidence.    Timed testing can be stressful for some kids and we try to be as supportive and encouraging as we can.  

Kids have been thinking about their reasons for reading and are using them to decorate their book boxes.  They’ve added quotes about reading and favorite first lines from books.  It’s fun to see how they balance the need to read for information with the pleasure of a fun read.

That is a taste of life in Room 21.  I look forward to meeting and visiting with all of you at Back to School Night on the 24th.  That is the time to get the total lowdown and to sign up for conferences.

Thanks for all your support,

Valerie McKenzie

vmckenzie@pps.net

OOPS! Special Delivery Envelopes are still here!

Hi folks,
It was such a wonderful Coffee House yesterday afternoon.  Kids took such ownership of their writing and were poised and confident sharing their poems with us.
In the swirl of goodbyes we didn't get out the envelopes with some writing samples AND the CD of the Play, if you ordered it.  I'll have the file box outside my classroom today and Monday.  Please stop be and pick them up. So sorry for the inconvenience.
I have an assignment for the kids.  We didn't make copies of the Color Poems or the Haiku.  If kids can type them up on google docs and share them with me, I'll get them pulled together into a class book.  I can send that to our district print shop along with the I Am From poems,  and get them out to kids in September.  I just ran out of time this year..  But those Color poems were so cool, I'd love to have copies.  Call it "Summer Homework".
Thanks again for all your support this year. It has been a wonderful experience for me.
All love,
Valerie

Walking Field Trip and the last few days!

Dear Families,
I'm sitting in the classroom while kids are in Music Class.  The fan is trying to cool down the room but, it is hot!  Here's hoping the temperature drops a little each day so that our Coffee House does not seem like a Sweat Lodge!  Hope you all can make it to our Coffee House event on the last day of school 2-3:00.

I'm planning a walking field trip to Laurelhurst Park for Wednesday afternoon.  This is something I usually do in the fall but, it didn't happen this year.  We'll look at the types of trees, talk about the history of the park and retell the legend about the Douglas Fir cones.  I'll have Ms. Orem with me so I am not pressed for volunteers.  If you would like to join us, you are more than welcome to do so.  This is a walking field trip within the neighborhood and the permission slip you signed at the beginning of the year should be sufficient.  I'll double check to see that I have one for every student.  We'll leave at 1:00 and return before 3:00.

We'll be taking down art work and sending home workbooks on Wednesday.  Each kid should have a grocery bag, paper or cloth, to put their things into.

It has been such a pleasure working with your kids, they are ready for fourth grade!

Thanks so much,
Valerie McKenzie