They were JUST 2nd graders...right?

What I have loved the most about looping with 3rd and 4th graders is participating in the journey they take from elementary school students to middle school students. It is fascinating to experience, from a teacher perspective, and I can only imagine what it is like from your perspective as parents.
Here is my final update for the year!

Assessments
If you did not access your child's 3rd trimester report card through the MMS system this weekend, please make sure you either log in or request a paper report card (can send me or zlamare@sau21.org a request).  Students brought home their Friday Folders last week and do not need to return them. As always, please encourage your child to ask questions about their progress or contact me with your questions.

Tech What-nots....
Students will keep their Edmodo and Google Apps logins for the remainder of their school careers! Wow! I will be helping students to "clean up" their accounts to prepare for new classes and groups. They should MOST DEFINITELY keep their yellow login/password sheets they have created as they have MANY logins for web based tools that they will and can continue to use both this summer and throughout their education careers. Their IXL, Spelling/Vocab City, and Lexia CORE 5 logins will still work through the beginning of next school year and their use in 5th grade will be determined by those teachers.

Math
Our final math units focused on Area and Perimeter and then we revisited the concept of fractions in combination with Decimals and Percents. The topics of Area, Perimeter and Fractions are big ones (Common Core) for grades 3-4 and I truly feel that my adjustment of our math topic schedule allowed for deeper understanding of these tricky concepts!

These kids have made so much progress with computation and have spent a great deal of time on fact practice- please help them maintain this during the summer! The students can practice any skills via IXL this summer- please encourage them to do so!

Social Studies & Science
Our final unit has been about New Hampshire, focusing on government, symbols and geography. Students created beautiful pieces of artwork for the symbols, on display in the hallway- check them out!

We also ended the year with an Innovation Day- an activity born out of Google's 20% time which allows employees to grapple with their own burning questions to try to make new discoveries.  Students formed their "big" questions and worked hard to investigate and share their learning in new ways.

Reader's and Writer's Workshop
Our book projects were our primary focus for the end of the year, working to apply so many of our literacy skills in one place. It brought me a lot of joy to work with the kids on their projects and see their pride. This class adores reading and writing and I was excited to tell the 5th grade teachers about this characteristic of the group.

We also read 2 books (Each Kindness: by Jacqueline Woodson and Hundred Dresses by: Eleanor Estes) along with the LAS/Community read aloud to explore the ideas of bullying and the consequences of being a bystander. The students wrote haiku to go with illustrations in Each Kindness and both books invoked tough conversations with the class. I am so glad the students will always have these shared stories to relate to their own experiences in school.

Poetry and kids is an awesome combination. From silly read-aloud poems to thoughtful, metaphoric ones, this is a unit that challenges kids to read and write in so many different ways.  Students published poetry based on our "quick writes", original ideas and poems built off of mentor texts, called "Inspired by:" poems.

We then learned how to alter a book to publish our poems in an interactive way.  The altered books are turning out awesome! While they serve as a vehicle for us to share our writing, they are truly a process of problem solving, creativity, and risk taking. These are such important skills to create imaginative, innovative learners. Google "altered books" and check out the possibilities!

Personal News...
Two Thursdays ago at the School Board meeting, they accepted "with regret" my resignation letter as classroom teacher here at Lincoln Akerman School. :(   Classroom teaching was always my dream as a child and I have been a passionate and dedicated teacher throughout my 12 year career.

The last few years, I have formed a love for working with teachers and educators, helping people to understand curriculum and standard changes, be innovative with instruction by integrating arts, technology and inquiry based learning, and to truly break down barriers of a "traditional" classroom. When Norah was born, I was no longer able to explore this "hobby" side of my career and I missed it so much. There simply isn't enough time or energy in the day to investigate and collaborate on changes in education, be a classroom teacher, and be a mother and wife. I had to choose and am following some leads and opportunities, taking the risk to become a freelance consultant: ExpandED consulting.

This class will be my last class, and that makes them a very special group, one that will forever remain in my memory as the class was at my side during pregnancy and my first year back to work as a new mom. All of you were so supportive of my journey as well and leave a lasting, positive impression on my experience from the last 2 years.

I am hoping that opportunities arise for me to return to LAS, if my services are ever needed, and will absolutely feel a void from not coming each day to this community to serve the families.  I say it often and will say it again- thank you for your never-ending support of your children. It's a crucial part of their success here at LAS.

Enjoy these final days of school and I hope your summer is full of family time!

Yours truly,
Jaclyn Karabinas