Dear Parents,
     Happy Last Thursday of the 2013-2014 school year!!!  WOW!! I really can't believe we are at this point all ready!  Time has flown but maybe because I had the first 5 weeks of school off!  I have really enjoyed this time I have spent with your kids.  I thank you for sharing them with me.  Here are just few things that we will be doing in these last days of school.  

Language Arts - We are finishing up out last unit test today.  The students took the first part of it on Tuesday and today they are finishing up the Revising and Editing section which is based on grammar skills.    This is the final test for this subject.  I was very pleased with out last Friday assessment the students took.  All score were 85% or above!!  Half the students missed only 1!  It was exciting.  So far I have checked the first half of the Unit test and I am impressed with how they have done.  It looks better than previous tests.    We have been working on finishing up Author Reports this week.  Today will be peer editing and then they will publish and share with other students on Friday.  I am looking forward to learning about other authors.

Math - We have focused on division problems all week.  I went over division with money amounts and we discussed divisibility rules.  Today they will complete a diagnostic checkpoint which will show me how they are doing on division problems.  I will use this as an assessment because we will not be taking a test over the last chapter.  On Friday we will take the end-of-the-year test.  We took this test at the beginning of the year also, and so I can compare the scores.  It is just a great way to see where kids are still struggling to pass on to the 5th grade teacher.

Social Studies - You should have seen their last test last night and signed.  We are reading in the book about the West.  We will take another practice test for states and capitals on Friday.  Tuesday is their big states and capitals test.  They have to be able to label a map with the correct state and its capital.  Great projects this round!!  Thank you for all the hard work.
Tuesday, May 27th!!  The last day!!  Here are my plans for the last day of school.  We will begin the day with the social studies map test.  When they are finished they will clean out their desks.  When the majority are done with that I will start movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  Usually I read this book with the kids as a unit and we do activities.  This year with the new reading series it didn't work due to time.  I still would like to show the movie.  The movie I show is the 1960's version.  We talk a little about special effects and such.  We may not get to see all of it but will see majority.  The 5th grade may come join us.  We will eat lunch at noon.  We plan to eat lunch with our class either outside or in classroom.  Please remember to send a sack lunch with your child.  You can even send a drink.  NO milk will be provided that day.  We will enjoy lunch, and talk with our friends from other classrooms then we will prepare for field day.  Field day will begin at 12:45.  We will play games and enjoy the outdoors until 2:15.  We will then come back to rooms and prepare for the end of the day prayer.  This will be held in the gym.  We share in prayer and say good-bye to the 8th grade and those people who will be leaving us.  Kids will be dismissed then at normal time.

It has been great working with all of you this year.  It has been one wild ride for us all.  I will have a closeness to this class different from all my others just due to the make-up of our year.  I think 4th grade will be a memory for all the students too.  I will always remember the hard times we went through together and how strong these students are!!  I hope all of you have a great summer!!! See you next year.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels