Dear Parents:
     Well, Happy Thursday!!!  Another week has gone by.  This week has been better.  We have had a normal week with a normal schedule.  I think they are thankful for the routine but not for the work! (ha ha)  I have hit panic mode.  I have no shopping done!!!  I will be busy the next couple of weekends! First family Christmas is the 21st and I am not ready.  I usually have presents under the tree by now.  You have to buy some to wrap them.  I have never been so late!  I hope you all are doing better than I am this year.

Language Arts:  This wee our Story is called The Life and Times of the Ant.  It is an informational text on how the life of an ant is.  They discuss jobs for the ant, homes, all the tunneling and what happens in each chamber of the ant hill.  This unit has stories all dealing with nature.  We are learning about present participles, past participles, and participle phrases.  These are words ending in ~ing and ~ed and are used as adjectives.  the last 2 stories spelling lists led us into this lesson because they dealt with words ending in these two suffixes.  We are also discussing suffixes in decoding.  We looked at all sorts of suffixes that are used and discussed spelling rules and also how it helps break words into syllables.  We will be taking a normal Friday test tomorrow.

Math: We have learned about pictographs, line plots, and bar graphs so far.  Today we will talk about coordinate pairs and a coordinate grid.  Tomorrow we will do some fun Christmas pictures based on the same idea as coordinate pairs but using letters and numbers.  We will not be testing over this until after Christmas break.  This is an easy chapter that kids have a lot of fun with.  I am glad it worked out we are doing this chapter now.  After this chapter things will pick up and we will get into the topic of Multiplication. We will be learning double-digit multiplication.  This will be a challenge for all 4th graders because it is new content.

Social Studies:  The projects are going very well.  I am excited about what has been coming in.  Kids seem so proud of their work.  Even the questions they ask each other are great!  They really have an interest in learning each state.  We will begin reviewing for a test.  The test will be about next Tuesday or Wednesday.  They will need to be able to label all 11 states on a blank map.  I gave the maps last week to make an answer key and extras to practice on.  I have others in the room to use to practice for the test.  Please help encourage them to practice on them.

Friday, Dec. 20, 2013:  Here are the events that will be happening.  The morning will be normal and go as planned.  At noon they will eat a sack lunch with their Advent Angels.  At 12:30 we will gather for a Christmas sing-a-long in the gym.  At 1:00 the kids will be dismissed to go back to their rooms to enjoy a movie and a snack.  Please send a water bottle with your student that day.  We will allow them to use them during the movie and snack.  When the movie is finished we will play games together until time to go.  If your child has a favorite game from home that they would like to play they are allowed to bring it with them.  This will be our Christmas party to send the students off for the holiday.

Key reminders:  Sack lunch on Friday the 20th, also may bring game and water bottle.

Just to let you know, we have raised over $1,000 for the Philippines.  This is incredible thinking about each child paying 50 cents to a $1.00 for things.  Way to go St. Malachy!!
Also the extra money raised for TJ and Nate Frey's flowers are being used to donate books to our library, because those boys were very big readers.  The remaining will be used to have something in memorial of the boys here at school for kids to see.  If you have any input on what you would like to suggest that to be, please feel free to email Ms. Surma or myself.  We are open to suggestions.  We have a couple ideas but very willing to hear from you, it is your donation money.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels