Happy New Year!

   I really missed each and every one of my darling stars this holiday break!  Yes, it was wonderful to have time with my own family and daughters, but I often thought about my students and wondered what they were up to!
   Today, we spent time reconnecting, refocusing, and recharging.  We reconnected as a class by sharing about our breaks.  We refocused by taking the first steps toward a New Year's Resolution (more information about these later!).  We recharged by reviewing our work from 2015 and taking it up a notch.  For example, in reading, we are finishing up our Non-Fiction reading groups this week and next week.  We have been using the icon of a tree to guide the group conversations.  Students read non-fiction books focused on a topic, they have a question in mind as they read, and then they are responsible for coming to the group conversations with a post it or more to grow an idea about their question.  Here is what a group conversation looked like today: