Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  A week under a belt is a great feeling.  Things are going well in 4th grade.  On the first day of homework I did not have to give any late slips, which was a first!!  Now, the 2nd day is a different story.  This is how we learn how important it is to double check that all our work is completed.  Things are still moving slowly as we continue to learn the of 4th grade, but soon it will be moving steadily along.  Students are doing a great job paying attention and be engaged in lessons.
     I will be gone tomorrow Aug. 29th.  We are leaving for Chicago tonight.  I am visiting the University of Chicago with my daughter Jami on Friday.  Not sure this is my first choice of schools for her just because of the distance but we have family there.  Molly is attending the One Direction Concert with her Aunt as a birthday gift on Saturday night.  As for me, my birthday is Friday and I consider the whole trip my birthday trip.  Sunday we will spend on a boat on Lake Michigan which I have never done.  Exciting!!

Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie.   We have spend a lot of time this week focusing on the vocabulary words form the story, decoding words, and picking out subjects and predicates of a sentence.  These are all things that they will be assessed on tomorrow.  It will also assess their comprehension of the story.  I also worked on an extra story with some students and we focused on story elements: setting, characters, and plot.  Remember there is a spelling post test tomorrow! I have instructed the students to be sure and study for spelling and also study their vocabulary words in their notebooks.

Math - We have had two full lessons in Math this week.  The first one focused on the base ten system and understanding that each place value is 10 times the previous place value.  We looked at base ten blocks up to 1,000 then discussed what they would look like if we had physical example past 1,000.  We also learned 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form.  Ask your student to show you.  Their homework tonight focuses on this topic.  We will move on to comparing numbers next. 

Social Studies - We are discussing the 5 regions of the United States.  These regions are: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West.  We begin by talking about the United States as a whole and our government system.  Then we will move on and study the states by their region.  All 4th graders love social studies because of the content we study and the projects they will complete.  

I hope everyone has a very enjoyable and safe Labor Day weekend!!  Mrs. Irelan will be here in the room tomorrow with the kids.  We are meeting tonight to go over her day tomorrow.  I am sure they will have a very productive day.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels