Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I was out of the classroom for a test that was run in Des Moines.  I really hate being out of the classroom and away from the kids.  My time off at the beginning was more than enough for me.  I am hoping that was the last of my appointments until next fall.  We all need to put that in our prayers.

Language Arts -  We have accomplished a lot this week.  We have taken the Unit 2 test this week and covered a story!!  This has made it busy but it does work.  I usually begin the class with one section of the test, then finish out with the activities we do over the story.  This story this week is very hard.  It is an informative piece on Hurricanes.  It is interesting yet very descriptive and I am finding it challenging to follow.  I will do my best to help the students understand, but I am going to insist the students bring their book home today and read the story to / with a parent.  I am hoping this will help you see how much this series steps it up and makes the students accountable for some challenging reading and show you that we are trying to get students to do some deeper thinking when reading different genres.  I will share results of the  Unit test with students next week, and send a copy of results home to you in next weeks folder.

Math - I am finding this chapter fun to teach.  We have tons of vocabulary words we are learning about.  I am finding it successful to have them put vocab into their notebooks before we begin going over the lesson.  This makes the lesson very easy to teach or help them to understand.  I feel they are showing a little more enthusiasm about this content also.  I do know Mrs. Burg covered this stuff last year quite well.  We are taking this chapter slowly.  I will pick up the pace when I am not trying to teach too much in one day, or the vocabulary amount slows down.  I am sure we will be testing over this chapter in December.

Social Studies - We took a test this week.  Students did pretty well over all.  There were a lot of vocabulary on this test.  Some really struggled in this area.  I hope to send the test home today or tomorrow for you to look at and sign.  We will begin moving onto the next chapter today.  We are still covering the Northeast region.  I will be working with them now on locating or labeling a map with those states.  I will give them a blank sheet with just that region on it, and have them practice labeling the states.  On the next test they will be expected to label all 11 correctly.  This is a difficult region because there are so many small states that are easily confused.  This is something that you could help them work on at home.  They can bring a blank sheet to have at home also.

I hope all of you have a great weekend!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels