We were excited this morning to tell about all that we did during our snow day on Wednesday! During morning meeting, many students had a chance to share their adventures. After morning meeting, we took a Spelling pretest on words with the long u sound. After that it was time to continue learning about Chinese New Year. We read a Weekly Reader about Chinese New Year and wrote facts that we learned from the many sources we looked at. Next it was time for reading groups. Mrs. Peckmann met with the Magazines and Internet groups. Each group completed a Wordle brainstorm before we began our new book. You can view the Wordles using the links on Mrs. Peckmann's teacher page. Each group also made predictions for their new books. In math today we reviewed adding large numbers without regrouping. We practiced with manipulatives on a work mat and also by writing equations. We learned that we ALWAYS start at the ones and work from right to left (opposite of the way that we read!). After math we had Phys. Ed. We learned a new game in Phys. Ed. today. Ask me about it! At the end of the day we made our new spelling lists and sorted words with different long u spelling patterns. Our homework tonight is Spelling. Tomorrow is Day 2. We do not have a Special. Lunch tomorrow is a bag lunch: Ham and Cheese or Turkey and Cheese sandwich.

It's Chinese New Year - Gung Hey Fat Choy!

We started our day with our Special, Library. Following Library we completed our morning work and gathered from Morning Meeting. At Morning Meeting we greeted each other with, "Gung Hey Fat Choy" as we began our celebration of Chinese New Year. (Ask me how long Chinese New Year lasts) Also during meeting, the purple group shared, we read our poem for the cycle, we talked about today's weather and we completed patterns with the calendar. Can you believe it is the 95th day of school? After Morning Meeting we had an indoor morning recess. After recess, Mrs. Miller read more of The Meanest Doll in the World to Us. Next it was time for reading groups. Mrs. Peckmann met with the books and letters groups and Mrs. Miller met with the newspapers group. After lunch we read a book or our choice. After that we took a look at Chinese New Year. Mrs. Peckmann read a book to us called Lion Dancer. (Ask me to retell the major events in the book.) We looked at the animals of the Chinese Horoscope and found the animal for the year of our birth. (Ask me what animal represents 2009.) In math we took a graphing assessment. At the end of the day Mrs. Miller presented a lesson on using directions words to describe where objects are in our classroom. We worked with a partner and described where it was in the classroom using direction words. Our partner needed to guess wha the object was based on our directions. We also make a key for our classroom map. Homework tonight is Jumpstart 5 and to study for a Spelling Test. Tomorrow is Day 6. We have Art.

2 Guests in our Room Today!

Today was a day 2 in our schedule and we did not have a Special, but we had 2 guests. We started our day with morning meeting. Following morning meeting we played with the long o sound in our Spelling words and sorted words according to how the long o sound was spelled. Ask me the different ways that I can spell the long o sound. (oa, ow, o-consonant-silent e, etc.) Also ask me what an oddball word is. Following our word study work, Miss Anderson, our school guidance counselor presented a lesson on tattle tales. We learned when we should approach an adult about something and when we should handle it on our own. After recess, we took a mid-year writing assessment so that Mrs. Peckmann could see how much we have learned in Writing this year. Next it was time for lunch. After lunch we read silently for a short time and then we had Math. In Math we learned all about perimeter. We practiced finding the perimeter of labeled 2-dimensional shapes. After Math, Mrs. Thomas came to our classrroom for another fluency lesson. We concentrated on reading text in quotation marks with expression. At the end of the day Mrs. Miller introduced us to our community mapping unit. We took a pretest so that we could show Mrs. Miller how much we already know about mapping. Our homework tonight is a letter to President Obama. Tomorrow is Day 3. We have Phys. Ed.

Mrs. Miller is Back!

This morning we had a special surprise in the classroom. Mrs. Miller is back for her student teaching in our classroom. She will be with us until April 30th. We were all so happy to see her again! We started our day with our Special, Library. After Library we completed our morning work and had our morning meeting. At morning meeting we discussed how cold it was outside and what exactly the wind chill is. We also reviewed the different instruments that meteorologist use to report and predict the weather. Due to the cold, we had indoor recess all day today. Mrs. Miller continued reading The Meanest Doll in the World to us after we gave her a summary of what we have read so far. After that we discussed the qualities of a hero and why we consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama to be heroes. We wrote a class diamante poem about Barack Obama. We also learned to play a new game to help us practice long and short vowel sounds and spellings. After lunch we had a lesson on writing number sentences with proper labels from the district's math coach, Mrs. Mumme. Next it was time to talk about maps and globes. We used maps and globes on our desks to complete a Venn diagram comparing the two. Ask me what color is found the most on both the world map and the globe. Why? At the end of the day we watched a Reading Rainbow video of the Steven Kellogg book, Best Friends. After the video we wrote answers to questions about the story and discussed what we saw. Our homework tonight is to study for our spelling test tomorrow. Tomorrow is Day 6. We have Art. Scholastic Book orders are also due tomorrow.

We started our day with our Special of the day, Phys. Ed. After Phys. Ed., we completed our morning work and went to morning meeting. Following morning meeting we had indoor recess because of the cold weather. After recess Mrs. Peckmann read The Meanest Doll in the World to us. Ask me where the dolls are and what their problem is now! Next it was time for reading groups. Mrs. Peckmann met with the books and letters groups today. After lunch we worked on our reading comprehension skills as we read a short story called Penguin Hill. We worked on predictions, author's purpose, most important event in the story, and making personal connections to the story. After that it was time for Math. We continue to estimate and measure objects in the classroom to the nearest inch and 1/2 inch. At the end of the day we continued to talk about celebrating the New Year. We actually designed 2009 party hats! Our homework tonight is Jumpstart 4. Tomorrow is Day 4. We have Music.

Indoor Recess Today!

We started our day with morning meeting. After we read the morning message, we had to identify all of the nouns we could find in the message and state whether they were a person, place or thing. As Ella reported the weather to us we talked about all of the ice we saw on our lawns and houses and all of the trees. We found out that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. After morning meeting we worked in Writer's Workshop. Almost everyone is typing their first draft of "The Relatives Came" into the computers. Mrs. Peckmann met with some students to discuss their writing. Next it was time for reading groups. Mrs. Peckmann met with the Books and Letters groups. After lunch we went to Art. Then it was time for math. We learned how to line up our ruler correctly to measure objects to the nearest inch. We measured many objects in our desks. At the end of the day we finished our discussions about water. We talked about how we can conserve water each day. Homework tonight is measuring in inches. Tomorrow is Day 1. We have Phys. Ed.

We started our day with morning work and our Special for today - Library. Following Library we completed our morning work and had our morning meeting. We continued to talk about units of measurement and estimating measurements during morning meeting. Ask me about the types of objects I should measure in inches, feet or yards. After morning meeting we had indoor recess because it was sleeting outside. After recess Mrs. Peckmann began reading The Meanest Doll in the World, our new read aloud. It is the sequel to the book The Doll People. Ask me about the setting and some of the characters in the book. Next it was time for reading groups. Mrs. Peckmann met with the Magazines and Internet groups today. All of the groups are reading nonfiction books and are learning how to summarize nonfiction texts. After lunch we estimated and measured many objects in the classroom in feet. We are getting much better at estimates! After that it was time to talk about the New Year. We took part in a sentence writing activity using nouns that are associated with traditions of the new year in the United States. Ask me about the whole unit in my binder. At the end of the day we used the Smartboard to learn about natural resources (air, land and water) and we can conserve each of these resources each day. Our homework tonight is "Nouns." Tomorrow is Day 6. We have Art.

Happy New Year!

At morning meeting we greeted each other with a heartfelt, "Happy New Year!" Many students also shared how they celebrated the arrival of 2009. Next, our student of the week, Drake, told us all about himself as he read his "All About Me" poster. Following morning meeting it was time for our special of the day, Music. After Music, we reviewed the definition of a very important part of speech, the noun. We brainstormed and wrote lists of nouns that have to do with celebrating a new year. We used our brainstorms to create a "Wordle" of all of the nouns. You can view our Wordle by using the link on Mrs. Peckmann's teacher page. After that it was time for Reading Groups. Mrs. Peckmann first met the Books group who is reading Water as a Gas. The Books group looked at the many nonfiction features present in the book and made predictions for the book using the pictures. The Books group also reviewed the steps of the Water Cycle to help with reading the book. Next Mrs. Peckmann met with the Letters group. The Letters group continues to read and discuss, Take a Giant Leap, Neil Armstrong. Following lunch we all had a chance to read independently a book of our choice. Mrs. Peckmann met with some students for a reading assessment. A short while later it was time for Math. In math we looked at units of measurement for length, weight and temperature. We also stated the unit of measurement we would use to measure many real-life objects and estimate measurements in feet and inches. At the end of math we brainstormed a list of occupations that use measurement and created another Wordle with the list. This list is also available for everyone to view on Mrs. Peckmann's teacher page. Just about every job we could think of used measurement in some way! Following math it was time for Writing. We are using a 4-square organizer to help us with our prewriting of "The Relatives Came." Some students have finished their 4-square and are typing their first draft into the laptop computers. Others are working on their 4-square or are journal writing. At the end of the day Mrs. Peckmann introduced our new author of the month, Steven Kellogg. Ask me about Prehistoric Pinkerton! Our homework tonight is Jumpstart 3. Tomorrow is Day 5. We have Library.