Congratulations to Our Students of the Month!

Way to go Aaron, Oscar and O'maree!  

They are our September Students of the Month!

Girls Running Club Starts This Week!

Abi & Ida wanted to be sure to remind everyone that the James John Girl's Running Club starts this Tuesday from 2:45-4:15.  This New SUN school class will be training for a 5k run in November!  Girls, if you missed the sign up - talk to George or Kolai in the Sun Office.  There are 4 spots left.

Congratulations Hawks Table

Each week our table teams compete for points. The winning table gets to come up on Friday and eat lunch with Mr. Crockett and Mr. Leach.  This week the Hawks won. Congratulations Hawks!

Learning in Every Language

"Mr. Leach!  We have the coolest website ever!  I can read it in Lao with my family!"- Lina

Our classroom is a global community.  Did you know that using the Google Translate button located at the top of the sidebar of this blog you can read this blog in your home language?

Abel and Lina both like to read our blog in their home language.

Sauvie Island Fall Field Trip

Last Friday we were lucky enough to visit Sauvie Island Center.  Thank you Jennifer and Ami for helping us grow in our knowledge about plants and animals.

Thanks for the Post-Its Ida

Thanks for helping out our classroom!

Thank You St. Johns Ace Hardware

Your local Hardware Store supports your local school.

Thank You St. Johns Ace Hardware for donating Chalkboard Paint for our Word Wall this year!

Homework Journals Due Tomorrow

Just a reminder that if your 3rd Grader hasn't handed in this week's homework journal (and most of them have) they are due tomorrow.  We also need all permission slips in by tomorrow for our Sauvie Island Field Trip on Friday.

Thank You For The Donations!

Several of our great families here in Room 12 have been bringing in extra supplies for our classroom.  Wondering what our class might still be needing?  Check out our wishlist on the sidebar of this blog.

Thanks to Abbie's family for bringing in extra flair pens today!

Teamwork with Ms. Nahurski

Ms. Nahurski, our fabulous full time School Counselor, came in today to talk to us about September's focus: TEAMWORK.  We have been using a lot of Teamwork so far this year in Room 12.

Each table was given a puzzle piece to decorate.

Next we started putting our puzzle together.

Great job using Teamwork everyone!

Homework Journals Go Home Today!

This year in Room 12 we are doing Homework Journals.  They will go home on Fridays and will be due every Thursday.  What will be in our  Homework Journals?  You'll find out this afternoon.

What a Bunch of Fruits! (& Vegetables)

This year our class will again be participating in a fruits & veggies nutrition break as part of our wellness program here at James John.

Mercury Rising

It looks like its going to be a hot one tomorrow (if anyone has a portable ac unit your not using?). 
Please send your third-grader to school in summer clothing and  a water bottle- it will go along ways to helping them stay cool.

Writing in 3rd Grade

This morning we continued working on our Summer Summaries.   We started out with writing a list of all the cool stuff we did over the summer.  Next, we went through and picked three or four of our favorite events to write about.  The video shows students at all different stages of the writing process.  The sewn composition books are our "draft books" where all of our pre-writing and rough drafts go.  The loose leaf paper is where we recopy and revise our rough drafts.  A few students are starting their final copy on yellow paper.  Our focused writing time lasted for about 25 minutes this morning.  As you can see, this writing time is completely unassisted and will serve as our baseline writing for the school year.

The Blessing of a Broken Color Printer

Every year we take pictures of everyone in our class and print them on our color printer and put them up on our friends board.
This year our color printer broke so the kids watercolored their black & white photos.  Check back- we'll let you know what the final product looks like.

Burgerville Tomorrow Night 4-8 pm.

Come on out tomorrow night to your St Johns Burgerville and help support our Award Winning James John PTA!

Thank You James John PTA For A Great BBQ!

Our Award Winning PTA put on a great BBQ yesterday!  

Carlos & Emma enjoyed the watermelon.

Joe Purkey "manned" the Grill.

Justine & JP got everything else set up. . .

and Team Fogarty worked the Swag Table.

Thank You James John PTA for making our school a great place to grow.

Kids in the Hall (Doing Math)

Our People Glyph Changed today. Ask your 3rd Grader what it showed us today.

Back To School BBQ This Tomorrow!!!

Joe Purkey with his "High Octane" Grill.

Please join us tomorrow at 2:30 as our Award Winning PTA will once again put on a great BBQ for us here at James John School.
Food, Folks, and Fun!

People Glyphs

Yesterday we made people glyphs.  Each day our people will be in a different arrangement that graphs our different math learning preferences.  Your 3rd Grader will be asked interpret the our People Glyph each day.

We Had A Great First Day!

We had an awesome first day of 3rd Grade.  New Backpacks, new friends, new playground, new classroom- it was all new today, and your 3rd Grader did great!
They did come home with Parent Homework for you tonight.
We will be handing out prizes tomorrow for anyone who gets all their "Parent Homework" in tomorrow.  You will be able to see your 3rd Grader's work right here on our classroom blog as soon as your 3rd Grader gets their Publicity Permission Slip turned in.
If you are on Facebook- please friend our class  and you can start getting class updates right in your newsfeed.

3rd Grade Starts Tomorrow!!!

It's true, tomorrow is the first day of school for 3rd Graders (and everybody else in Portland Public Schools.)  We will meet a little before 8:00 out on the big playground- and walk in, grab our breakfast and head up to our (newly carpeted) classroom.  You are free to hang out with your 3rd Grader and help them get situated. After three years of this- I'm sure your kids are old pros.  We will have some fun icebreaker activities right after breakfast- to help ease your 3rd Grader out of any first day jitters that they may have.  As of right now, our class enrollment is at 24 kids.  So all of you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Mr. Crockett visiting Rm 12 last year.

This year we also have a fantastic intern from Lewis & Clark.  Mr. Crockett is finishing up his Masters in Elementary Education and will be joining our class all year.

All signs are pointing to another really great school year at James John. We will see your bright and shining faces tomorrow!