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.