Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!   I think our really warm weather has moved on.  It always seems that Halloween is when the real cold begins.  I know 17 years ago on Oct. 26, we had a bad snow storm because I ended up with no electricity, and had to take the twins to my parents for warmth.  They were just 4 months old at them time.  Funny thing is, I didn't even know it was suppose to snow that night!  Maybe the snow will stay away for a while.  At least til all our local farmers get their crops out.  I have really notice the trees this year.  They are really pretty.  The oranges and reds seem more brilliant.  My neighbor had a great orange colored tree but last weekend it lost all it's leaves in one day.  My kids make fun of me for pointing those things out, except one day one of the older two pointed a pretty red tree out to me. I hope everyone enjoys Halloween!!

Halloween at St. Malachy - Well, here are the details for Halloween.  The morning will be a regular Friday for us.  We will do everything we normally do.  Yes, spelling post test and Language Arts assessment will still take place. In the late morning about 11:15 I will begin showing them the movie The Wizard of Oz.  We just finished reading the book aloud and it  was very different from the book.  I know most of them have seen the movie a million times but I thought a fun Halloween activity.  After lunch we will continue to watch it until it is out turn to go to the Halloween activities.  I have a snack being brought in and juice to have while watching the movie.  This is what our Halloween Party consists of, movie an snack.  We will go to the upper wing when it is time and do some spooky fun activities.  At 2:30 the Halloween Parade will take place in the gym.  Get there early to get a good spot.  If you attend the parade and want to take your child home as soon as it is over just come down to the room and pick them up.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!

Math - We have started work on the 2nd half of the Math chapter 2.  We begin with mental math strategies.  These are strategies I have always taught, but the difference is this book throws 4 different strategies at them at once where last year I taught one strategy each day for 4 days.  We are finding out that having several options to work a problem is awesome!  Just today I shared a way I would work a problem and someone else did a different strategy from the page and we got the same answer.  What I felt was the easier strategy someone else didn't.  The kids thought it was cool.  I know I am out of some people's comfort zones with this.  It was always that way in the past also.  Today they are doing all their work in partners and will not bring it home to work on.  I also want to let you know that if your child is struggling with some of the work, bring them to school early.  I am here by 7:45 every morning.  On Mondays I have breakfast duty but Tuesday through Friday I am in my room.  Students may come in during the morning and get help.  I have had a couple take advantage of that all ready. I would encourage you to do this, especially when it is something you are struggling to help with.  Most parents want to revert to their  way of doing things.  We need to keep in mind we only learned one way to work problems.  Which is sad that our our trained that way. We are working our way up to those strategies. Your child is lucky to be getting a deeper understanding of math and how it works.  High School math will be so much easier for them.  If you aren't understanding what they are doing send them to me in the morning and we will work it out.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading Dear Mr. Winston.  This is a humorous story about a child who needed to do some research on a snake.  The snake book she needs is a reference book and can't be checked out of the library, sooooo she brings the snack in a box into the library.  The librarian is deathly afraid.  When he notices what she is doing he asks what is in the box.  She tells him not to look but he does.  He passes out in fear and is taken away.  As he passes out he drops the box and the snake gets away and wasn't found.  The story is about her apology letter to the librarian for what happened.  In the letter she states things like "My parents are making me write this and Dad is going to read it to see if acceptable."  She also supports her reasoning for bringing in the snake and the fact that she told him not to look in the box.   It's a funny story.  We are working on compound and complex sentences in grammar and we worked on beginning sounds in decoding.  Spelling post test and regular assessment of Friday.  Study spelling and vocabulary words tonight!

Social Studies -  We will be working on a study guide tomorrow in class.  If they don't get done it will be homework.  We will check the study guide on Monday and take a test on Tuesday.  Then we will begin to look at the Northeast region.  I will show the states in the region and I will also introduce the song we use to help them memorize the states and capitals.  Any practice you can do at home for locating the states will be great!  I know you can get apps called Stack the states and a United States puzzle map on iphones or ipods to help.  Stack the States makes them familiar with the shapes.  This is when social studies gets a lot more exciting!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I finally have a weekend that I don't have a kid to follow somewhere for some activity! I am very excited.  We are going to work on the garage and making it so Jami and Josie can get their car in there for the winter!!  

I am praying the volleyball team wins their game tonight.  If they do, only one more game to decide if they will attend state!! We are very excited about this.  The last time Creston went to state in Volleyball was when I was junior in high school on the team, 27 years ago!!  My daughter being on the team and a junior also, is very exciting.  I think I want this as much as my daughter and their coach since we were in the same class.

If the volleyball team would make it, State is during the week of conferences.  I will need to make arrangements to change my conference times.  Please go ahead and sign up for conferences like normal.  I will contact each of you if things work out and I need to be gone. We will set up times before that week or in the following week.  I will be very flexible and work with each one of you.  This is just a heads up.  We will know for sure if we lose tonight or if we win the 3rd game next Tuesday.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels