Our school envisions fostering cultural understanding, appreciating differences, and finding strength in diversity. My students are happy and confident third graders who love school. They are part of our school's gifted and talented program, and they aim to succeed and grow as learners each and every day. I encourage them to work both independently and cooperatively on rigorous, authentic and engaging tasks.
We develop global citizens and prepare students to live in a global, multicultural society.
We aim to develop internationally-minded students who recognize their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, thus helping to create a better and more peaceful world.
My Project
Reading is the best part of our day. My students love reading when they get to read books they have chosen independently. They also love our read aloud time when I choose a chapter book and read it out loud, and we have rich classroom discussions. We also use many texts throughout reading and writing time as mentor texts. I share a great piece of writing and then reference it time and time again, and students try to emulate the author in their own writing.
My third graders need to hear quality picture books each and every day.
They need to be able to find the themes of books on a consistent basis as well as hear fluent reading of short text. They need this shared experience.
These books will become the building blocks for my Classroom Book a Day program, based on a program started by Donalyn Miller and brought into the classroom by Jillian Heise. We will take 5-10 minutes every day to read a quality picture book, focus on the theme of the book and share this reading experience. Our goal is to read 180 picture books over the next school year, both traditional favorites and new, soon-to-be loved books.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Smelser and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
