On a Personal Note

I had a the pleasure of attending the 50th Annual Omaha Bowling Hall of Fame Banquet on Saturday night.  It was a very special occasion for my family.  My mom, Breta Jackson was inducted this year.  Making the evening even more special was the fact that she is the fourth member of our family to be inducted.  My father, Denny Jackson and my grandparents, Fred and Maggie Jackson were previous inductees.  I believe we are the only family with four members in the Hall of Fame.  I truly enjoyed the evening, being surrounded by all of my family, my parents, my siblings and their spouses, my nieces and nephews, and of course my wonderful husband and children.  We were all there to cheer my mom on!  She did a great job with her speech.  She is not comfortable speaking in front of a large crowd even though she greeted every customer who entered the family business, Midwest Bowling and Billiard Supply for years.  Another highlight of the night was getting to tour the Memory Lane Bowling Museum at Southroads Mall.  Having grown up in my family's bowling pro shop and in almost every bowling center in town, Memory Lane was a true trip of memories for me.  My dad gave me a tour and showed me all of the family contributions that were made to the museum.  It was a lot of fun to hear the stories behind the items and feel the rush of childhood memories come flooding back.  If you have the time, stop by the Southroads and take a tour of Memory Lane. 

Dr. Kingsley and her parents, Denny and Breta Jackson

The Best Laid Plans

Mrs. Harms and I had planned on having the first and third grade students complete a QR Code Scavenger Hunt using the district Ipods for our buddy session this week. When we tested our QR codes and sites, we felt they were just too small to use on the Ipod screens. Not wanting to waste our time with the high demand Ipods, we found an app entitled Math Bingo. We felt the third grade students could help the first grade students practice their addition facts using the app.

Our classes met in the gym. The lesson was discussed, directions were given, and we modeled the behavior expectations. Then the kids were paired up, and the Ipods were distributed. It was so much fun to see the excitement and enthusiasm from each child. The Ipods began to sing with affirmation of correct answers. Third grade students used their math strategies to help the first graders compute sums. To me, that was so affirming to see. Students working cooperatively, helping each other learn.

After about 15 minutes, student pairs were challenged to go to the next level. Squeals of delight were heard across the gym and buddies accomplished more and more addition problems. Some buddies even had the time to attempt the subtraction level.

The last few minutes were spent letting the first and third grade pairs explore the apps on the Ipods. We over heard so many kids exclaiming, "This is so much fun!" Did they realize they had just spent 25 minutes practicing math facts? Mrs. Harms and I stood there wishing we both had class sets of Ipods so we could experience more of this excitement for learning.

Weather Videos

Here are some great weather videos to enhance the learning going on in Room 302. Have some time? Take a look.

A Water Cycle Lesson


Bill Nye Water Cycle


The Water Cycle Rap


The Water Cycle


The Magic School Bus-Wet All Over


States of Matter Lesson


Weather Instruments


Weather for Kids


What is Wind?


Measuring Wind


Clouds


Structure of our Atmosphere

Who is Dr. Kingsley?

Hello! I am Dr. Kelly Kingsley. I have been teaching for Bellevue Public Schools for 24 years, all of which have been at Wake Robin Elementary. I have taught 2nd-6th grades, but my favorite grade to teach is 3rd grade!

I have been married to Jim Kingsley for 26, almost 27 years. We have 2 daughters, Maggie and Molly. Maggie is a senior at Wayne State College majoring in early childhood and elementary education. She will be student teaching next spring. Molly is a senior at Bellevue East High School. She runs cross country, track, and plays basketball. She will attend Wayne State College in the fall. She plans to run cross country, and indoor and outdoor track in college. We also have 2 lovely ragdoll cats named Lexa and Lacey. They keep Dr. Kingsley busy.

I received my bachelor's degree from Kearney State College (now known as University of Nebraska Kearney. I then completed my masters at Doane College. I recently received my EdD. (Doctorate of Education) from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it!

I enjoy reading (for information and for pleasure), Husker football, girl's high school and college basketball, watching Molly run, taking pictures, making online scrapbooks, watercolor painting, cooking and baking, and spending time with my family. A new favorite past time of mine is perusing Pinterest.

I love learning about technology and how to use it in my classroom. My students are digital natives! They are growing up with technology and it should be included, as much as possible, in the classroom. My students really enjoy viewing Scholastic Study Jams, BrainPop videos, carrotsticks math practice, and so much more. I hope that this classroom blog will help my students and their parents feel included and up-to-date with what learning has occurred in Room 302.

Room 302 Classroom Expectations

We have one classroom rule in Room 302: Students will be respectful, responsible, and reliable.

Our Class Mission Statement: Dr. Kingsley's Third grade will be respectful, responsible, and reliable. They love to learn, have fun, and go above and beyond.

The Week in Review

It was a very busy week of NeSA testing for Room 302. My students were great troopers and did their very best to meet the personal goals they set for taking the test. It was rough to sit for that long of a period (sometimes more than an hour), but they succeeded and it is all over for this school year.

We would like to thank Mr. Zavala for the special incentives and treats each day during the testing. The cards were motivating and the treats were delectable!
On Tuesday students received a Smarties poem with a roll of Smarties candies to enjoy.
Wednesday brought us a card that said BURST open the TEST! We enjoyed some Starburst candies.
Thursday was a card stating we were SMART COOKIES and we each enjoyed 2 cookies.
Friday's note told us to BLOW the top off the test and we each received a Blow Pop sucker.
Mr. Zavala helped make taking the NeSA tests fun!

With all of the testing we took a break from Language Arts this week, but we still worked on writing. The class wrote personal narratives on a favorite third grade memory. I cannot wait to read them. We have been working very hard on adding details and organizing our writing. I heard a lot of discussion about wanting to include many details and students helped each other do so during the editing and revising session.

We finished up Topic 18 (Multiplying greater numbers) this week. I am so impressed with the attitude and effort shown during this topic. My students are MATH ROCK STARS! The class is also improving their scores on the multiplication time tests! We want to get more names on the school Math Wall of Fame.

The weather was perfect for our science lessons. It really helped us study the water cycle. We watched some Study Jams, Brain Pops, and videos that also furthered our knowledge. Students created diagrams of the water cycle and learned water cycle movements to cement the process in their long-term memories!

Classroom Favorites: Websites

The third graders have enjoyed many websites this school year. There are so many great and useful websites available for learning that it would be difficult for me to narrow down to just three. I decided to post a collection of websites that we visit in the computer lab on a regular basis.

Dr. Kingsley's Student Websites and Resources

Bellevue Public Schools K-6 Web Activities

Scholastic Study Jams

Vist Our School

Some of the third graders working in the computer lab.


This is Mr. Zavala, our principal, working hard in his office.


The lovely ladies who help us all in the office.


Kids Time in the gym



Just a few of the many clubs for students at Wake Robin.



Safety Patrol helping students at the front of our building.


The Wake Robin Math bulletin board weekly incentive.


The Wake Robin Media Center


The school motto posted outside of the office.


Mrs Bethel-Didamo, our reading specialist.