Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a great Spring Break!!  Our trip to Dallas, Texas was a great break.  We had a nice time and enjoyed mild weather.  One day it was 80 and we put swimsuits on and lounged by the pool.  It did rain one day and was between 65-70 the others.  We did do a lot of fun things: indoor surfing, indoor skydiving, and Amazing Jake's (laser tag, go-carts, rock climbing, bumper cars and video games!).  It was fun.  Now back in the classroom to work hard for the end of the year!

Language Arts - This weeks story was fun to read.  It called "The Fun They Had" written by Isaac Asimov. It is a fun science-fiction story about the future.  It is set in the future, the year is 2157 and they find a "real book".  They are amazed and the story compares life as a student in 2157 compared to centuries ago.  The story was written in 1951, so for the ideas he had of where technology was going with education  was pretty cool, because we see similarities all ready.  Our spelling words and decoding is focusing on words with a VV (vowel-vowel) pattern.  Our grammar has focused on sentences and punctuation.  This is the last story in Unit 5, so next week will be the BBT (Big Bad Test).  We will also finish up an essay we will start this week and look at our 3rd book report.

Math - We learned the partial product strategy this week!! They caught on more quickly than I thought!!  I am so excited.  We will be able to move forward a little quicker than I expected!!  I am very pleased with all of them.  We will continue to work our way to the standard algorithm.  Once we get that mastered we will be doing great and move on into division!!  Keep working on those facts!  I feel like they are getting better at basic facts too!

Social Studies - We are starting the next chapter over the Midwest.  We will focus on the people in the area.  We always talk about a Native American group and then move on to discuss the settlers who come.  We will learn about the Ojibwa in Michigan and Minnesota.  We will also discuss a land rush that takes place in Iowa.  What a wild way to gain claim to land.  Projects are due in a couple more weeks!!  I am excited as always to see them!!

Dollars for Scholars Essay - We will be putting together an essay for the Dollars for Scholars group for chance to win $50 to help further their education.  One person from our class will win the $50.  They will have one winner in every section of 4th grade throughout the area.  The process we go through is that the students will write the essay based on a standard question.  Each question is different for each grade level.  I will edit and revise the essay.  I will not change words or meanings, I will help with spelling errors, capitalization, and punctuation only. All this work is done at school.  The students names will not be on the finished product. I will give to 3 different teachers in our building to read.  They will pick their top three choices.  The top three will then advance to win the $50.  The top 3 go to the Dollars for Scholars representatives.  They have a group of SWCC professors read them and choose the winning essay.  We will know by next Friday which 3 will advance, but we will not know the winner until in May.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels