Past projects 2
Life-long Community of Learners
Funded Mar 29, 2016Words cannot express how grateful we are for your generous donation. The games you purchased for us are being utilized during our Fun Friday Game Period. On Friday afternoons, my students and I drop everything and play one of the Math Bingo or Reading Comprehension games. Fun Friday serves as an incentive for students to do their homework, complete class assignments, and follow our class rules.
When the games arrived to our classroom, the students were overjoyed! They were eager to play with the new games. One of the first games we played was Telling Time Bingo. At first, it was very challenging for the students to play as they were learning how to tell time. However, as time goes by the students are getting better at the game as a result of their time telling skills improving.
As the year comes to an end, the students continue to enjoy the games and Fun Friday. Fun Friday has been a success because not only are the students' reading comprehension and math skills improving, but they also continue to practice life long skills such as taking turns, waiting patiently, following directions, playing by the rules, sharing, and team work. We can not thank you enough for your generosity. Thank you for helping our classroom become a life-long community of learners!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Esterling’s ENL
Book Clubs: Building Knowledge, Accountability and Community
Funded Mar 9, 2016We were so elated to have our new books and start book clubs in our classroom! Through the Book Clubs: Building Knowledge, Accountability and Community Project, the students in my third grade class have had the opportunity to engage in a learning experience that promotes knowledge while holding the students accountable for their learning and enriching our class community. Students were placed in book clubs according to their independent reading level as determined by a running record exam. Each book club was provided club rules, planning sheets, evaluation rubrics, and a list of higher order thinking questions they could use to plan their book talk/conversations. Students are responsible for choosing how many pages they will read and prepare questions to ask their club members. Everyone is held accountable as they will rate themselves and be rated by other club members.
Reading in our classroom has changed tremendously! The books have impacted the students in such a way that they are enthusiastic to read. It is difficult to get them to put the books down as they have become attached to the characters and are eager to read the next and all the books in the series. As a result, their independent reading levels are boosting up!
Book Clubs are being enjoyed by all the students in the class, however, there is this one student that I will call Zack who has a very challenging behavior. Zack asked for the A-Z Mystery books and was very surprised and excited to see that I had actually ordered them. He is one of the students we cannot get to stop reading. His cooperation and participation during reading has changed for the best, as he has taken ownership and responsibility for his learning.
We cannot thank you enough for all your generosity and donations. As you see in the pictures, the students are really engaged in reading groups now as they enjoy the books that we have in our library. In addition, students reading levels have gone up. We no longer have students reading at Levels E, F, and G which were very much below grade level, and now we have students who have moved up to levels Q, R, and S which are at and above 3rd grade level!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Esterling’s ENL