Hello!!
I just wanted to put out a few things to clarify. I may have confused you about Secret Santa. This is something the teachers do. We draw names and for 4 days we put gifts all over the building in strange spots for each other. The kids get all excited seeing them all over the building. They love when I find mine and open the gifts too!! Some parents read that in my blog and thought the kids were doing it. No they are not, it is the teachers! I am so sorry I wasn't clear about that.
Yesterday I talked about the last day activities. These will all be on Monday. I didn't put a date because I didn't want anyone to wonder until they received notification from the Principal. Monday is a "Spirit Day", plus they need a sack lunch and board games. If you have any questions please let me know!
We are all very grateful that the school is letting us out so all the staff and faculty can support Mrs. Levine during this time. Kirk was always in the building for all to visit with and Mrs. Levine has been her for over 35 years. It is the least we can do for her.
May God bless you all this Christmas season!
Mrs. Sickels
Friday, December 18, 2015
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! This week the only good thing about Thursday is that Friday is tomorrow!!! I would say the 4th graders are getting excited for Christmas. Some a lot more than others. The most important thing is we are still working hard. This has been a week of ups and downs. With the passing of Kirk Levine being our low and the excitement of Secret Santa starting in our building, emotions are high. We are praying for Mrs. Levine and her family daily. I hope everyone had the chance to share with your children on his passing. If not they are aware of it today. Funeral arrangements can be found online at Pearson's funeral home.
Language Arts - This week in we have been reading a story called Antarctic Journal. This is about the author's 4 month visit to the Antarctic. We learned a lot about the region through this story. The was a narrative nonfiction story. It told a story about her stay but told us factual information. In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxilaries, which are words like: may, should, could, can, might, and would. We discussed the appropriate times to use these words. The fun one we talked about was "may" and how we should use "May I" to ask permission for things. In spelling we worked on words with endings of -ed and -ing again. This week was better than last week. Tomorrow is our normal testing day so make sure they are studying for their spelling test and end of the week test over the story.
Math -Yes, folks we did it! We have learned the standard algorithm!! The math that you were taught in school! The students like it but they did say they liked the partial product strategy too. Some still get a little confused when multiplying how to record their answers but we are working on it. We will spend the next couple of days working on it. Some were very excited to see this, so I am sure some of you have been sharing this strategy at home. We took another timed test yesterday and I will have the results on the computer by the end of the day. Any student who got 100% for the 2nd time will move down to only 4 minutes of time allowed to take the test. Woohoo!! That is exciting. The goal is 2 minutes. I can just get it done in 2, so it is quite the challenge!
Social Studies - We are finishing up chapter 4. We their study guides today. They need to study for the test tonight because they will take it at 8:30 tomorrow morning! On Monday, I will give the tests back for corrections and we are done! It is a great stopping place for Christmas Break! When we return, projects start rolling in! We will start on the next region as soon as chapter 5 in complete!
Last Day- The last day before break is a fun one for us! We will spend the first hours in the morning doing some house cleaning in our desks and finishing anything that needs finished. At 10:00 we plan to watch a Christmas movie with 3rd and 5th grade. We have a sack lunch with our Advent Angels, then we sing Christmas Carols from 12:30 - 1:00. At 1:00 we will come back to our room and have our Christmas Party. We will have a snack and play games. The students are asked to bring in a board game from home to play with others. No electronics just board games. I have some good ones here but not a lot! I know kids have favorites at home. Please allow them to bring them. I love playing games!!! Parents are welcome to join us at any point of the day, or all day for that matter!! It is a fun day celebrating Christ's birth with our school family. I am looking for one volunteer to provide snacks for that day! Anyone interested email me or text me at 641-202-1580. If you text, let me know who you are.
I want to end by saying Merry Christmas to all of you!!! I hope you have a very special Holiday Season! I will be thinking of all of you! I really do miss your children during this break! Be safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! This week the only good thing about Thursday is that Friday is tomorrow!!! I would say the 4th graders are getting excited for Christmas. Some a lot more than others. The most important thing is we are still working hard. This has been a week of ups and downs. With the passing of Kirk Levine being our low and the excitement of Secret Santa starting in our building, emotions are high. We are praying for Mrs. Levine and her family daily. I hope everyone had the chance to share with your children on his passing. If not they are aware of it today. Funeral arrangements can be found online at Pearson's funeral home.
Language Arts - This week in we have been reading a story called Antarctic Journal. This is about the author's 4 month visit to the Antarctic. We learned a lot about the region through this story. The was a narrative nonfiction story. It told a story about her stay but told us factual information. In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxilaries, which are words like: may, should, could, can, might, and would. We discussed the appropriate times to use these words. The fun one we talked about was "may" and how we should use "May I" to ask permission for things. In spelling we worked on words with endings of -ed and -ing again. This week was better than last week. Tomorrow is our normal testing day so make sure they are studying for their spelling test and end of the week test over the story.
Math -Yes, folks we did it! We have learned the standard algorithm!! The math that you were taught in school! The students like it but they did say they liked the partial product strategy too. Some still get a little confused when multiplying how to record their answers but we are working on it. We will spend the next couple of days working on it. Some were very excited to see this, so I am sure some of you have been sharing this strategy at home. We took another timed test yesterday and I will have the results on the computer by the end of the day. Any student who got 100% for the 2nd time will move down to only 4 minutes of time allowed to take the test. Woohoo!! That is exciting. The goal is 2 minutes. I can just get it done in 2, so it is quite the challenge!
Social Studies - We are finishing up chapter 4. We their study guides today. They need to study for the test tonight because they will take it at 8:30 tomorrow morning! On Monday, I will give the tests back for corrections and we are done! It is a great stopping place for Christmas Break! When we return, projects start rolling in! We will start on the next region as soon as chapter 5 in complete!
Last Day- The last day before break is a fun one for us! We will spend the first hours in the morning doing some house cleaning in our desks and finishing anything that needs finished. At 10:00 we plan to watch a Christmas movie with 3rd and 5th grade. We have a sack lunch with our Advent Angels, then we sing Christmas Carols from 12:30 - 1:00. At 1:00 we will come back to our room and have our Christmas Party. We will have a snack and play games. The students are asked to bring in a board game from home to play with others. No electronics just board games. I have some good ones here but not a lot! I know kids have favorites at home. Please allow them to bring them. I love playing games!!! Parents are welcome to join us at any point of the day, or all day for that matter!! It is a fun day celebrating Christ's birth with our school family. I am looking for one volunteer to provide snacks for that day! Anyone interested email me or text me at 641-202-1580. If you text, let me know who you are.
I want to end by saying Merry Christmas to all of you!!! I hope you have a very special Holiday Season! I will be thinking of all of you! I really do miss your children during this break! Be safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! We are having a great week!! This was definitely a different week! The change of Mass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday threw everyone for a loop! We are also having a great week. The kids seem pretty settled this week considering we are gearing up for Christmas. We have had hard working week. I am very pleased that we are completely settled in and really working on our learning. Some are still struggling with managing time, so their work is done on time. Most students dig right in and want to get finished. I am stressing not to hurry too much, so that they make mistakes.
Social Studies - I just finished putting together due dates for their first projects. I have 2 projects due a day. I only have time for a couple to share their work so we can still have part of our regular social studies lesson for the day. The dates range from Jan. 4 - 20. Make sure these due date sheets are placed where everyone is aware. We are talking about resources from the Northeast region this week. We discussed: grapes in New York, cranberries in Massachusetts, maple syrup in Vermont, and granite quarries in New Hampshire. We have completed all the vocab for this chapter!! The kids are excited to be finished with that. I feel we will be looking at a test over chapter 4 before Christmas.
Math- This week in math we are focusing on word problems. They are multi-step problems. This means there is more than one problem to be worked to find the answer. Most kids hate these because it means more work. I am trying to have them look at them as a challenge. I am trying to get them excited about finding the ways to work out answers. I think they think I am crazy!! You will get their results of the first multiplication timed test this week. It is on the blue half sheet in the folder. We took another one on Wednesday and we are working on getting that one checked. I also put results on Power School as soon as I have them ready.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is historical Fiction. It's historical event is the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. We follow the happenings of a father and son who lived in a tenement building. The building collapses. The characters and events that happen to them are not true but could have happened. The kids found the story interesting since we do not have to deal with earthquakes here in Iowa. We have spent time talking about possessive nouns this week in grammar. This is the use of apostrophes to show ownership. Is spelling the list focused on adding the endings of -ed and -ing to base words. Next week the list will have more words with these endings. We discussed the base words and endings on some of the spelling words for decoding this week also. End of the week assessing will take place tomorrow.
Geography Bee - Grades 3-8 attended the final competition of the Geography Bee yesterday during our regular Mass time. We had 10 finalists to compete for the Championship round. Our class had two representatives: Daniel Buls and Cecilia Zachary!! We are so proud of them!! Megan Pellman ended up being the school Championi!! Congrats to Megan!!
I hope all of you are getting everything ready for Christmas. I am ready to start wrapping presents!! I have some shopping left to do on the twins but not Molly. I am done with her. We start having Christmas parties this weekend! FUN!! I hope you enjoy all the season has to offer!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! We are having a great week!! This was definitely a different week! The change of Mass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday threw everyone for a loop! We are also having a great week. The kids seem pretty settled this week considering we are gearing up for Christmas. We have had hard working week. I am very pleased that we are completely settled in and really working on our learning. Some are still struggling with managing time, so their work is done on time. Most students dig right in and want to get finished. I am stressing not to hurry too much, so that they make mistakes.
Social Studies - I just finished putting together due dates for their first projects. I have 2 projects due a day. I only have time for a couple to share their work so we can still have part of our regular social studies lesson for the day. The dates range from Jan. 4 - 20. Make sure these due date sheets are placed where everyone is aware. We are talking about resources from the Northeast region this week. We discussed: grapes in New York, cranberries in Massachusetts, maple syrup in Vermont, and granite quarries in New Hampshire. We have completed all the vocab for this chapter!! The kids are excited to be finished with that. I feel we will be looking at a test over chapter 4 before Christmas.
Math- This week in math we are focusing on word problems. They are multi-step problems. This means there is more than one problem to be worked to find the answer. Most kids hate these because it means more work. I am trying to have them look at them as a challenge. I am trying to get them excited about finding the ways to work out answers. I think they think I am crazy!! You will get their results of the first multiplication timed test this week. It is on the blue half sheet in the folder. We took another one on Wednesday and we are working on getting that one checked. I also put results on Power School as soon as I have them ready.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is historical Fiction. It's historical event is the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. We follow the happenings of a father and son who lived in a tenement building. The building collapses. The characters and events that happen to them are not true but could have happened. The kids found the story interesting since we do not have to deal with earthquakes here in Iowa. We have spent time talking about possessive nouns this week in grammar. This is the use of apostrophes to show ownership. Is spelling the list focused on adding the endings of -ed and -ing to base words. Next week the list will have more words with these endings. We discussed the base words and endings on some of the spelling words for decoding this week also. End of the week assessing will take place tomorrow.
Geography Bee - Grades 3-8 attended the final competition of the Geography Bee yesterday during our regular Mass time. We had 10 finalists to compete for the Championship round. Our class had two representatives: Daniel Buls and Cecilia Zachary!! We are so proud of them!! Megan Pellman ended up being the school Championi!! Congrats to Megan!!
I hope all of you are getting everything ready for Christmas. I am ready to start wrapping presents!! I have some shopping left to do on the twins but not Molly. I am done with her. We start having Christmas parties this weekend! FUN!! I hope you enjoy all the season has to offer!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. We had a fabulous relaxing trip to Chicago. My favorite store again was Macy's!! Also, I guess Micheal's because we had a craft day and spent all day Saturday doing crafts. I was the runner and went to Micheal's 4 times that day!! Last one was 9:30 at night!!
We are all excited that Advent is here!! The students had their first Advent Angel activity. It was a fun time! This month will go quickly but we will continue to work hard. I will admit that i play Christmas music any opportunity I have. I love the songs and keeps us in the season. Kids seem to calm down and work quietly while I have it on too. We have had some illnesses pop up in our room. Just remember to keep them home so we can limit the spread. I feel all of you do a good job at this.
Language Arts - Last week we had "Cuddle-up and Read" Day. We moved the desks out of the way and spread our blankets out all over. They made nests and laid down and read for about 65 minutes. It was a nice time. They were busy reading the whole time unless they became drowsy. I then sent them on a walk for a drink of water, so they could perk up a bit. I will share pictures at the end of my letter.
We are reading a nonfiction story this week on Hurricanes. It is called Hurricanes: Earth's Deadliest Storm. It has a lot of graphic features, like charts, graphs and diagrams with it to help us understand the story. That is what we are focusing on this time is Graphic Features. We discuss their importance to the story and how is enhances the reading and understanding. We have been working on easily confused words like: to, two,too, their, there, they're, its and it's. We have talked about how to decide which to use in sentences. In spelling they are working on compound words. Remember to study vocabulary words and spelling words tonight!! Maybe after the parade!
Math - We have spent some time working on flash cards and multiplication facts the last couple of days! We will begin a new lesson today. I am hoping to have Chapter 2 finished up before Christmas break. I am positive that will happen. We are getting closer to the students learning the standard algorithm of multiplication which is what you and I learned in school. We have about 7 lessons left in this chapter. Should take a couple weeks. I love this chapter and all that I teach the kids. All of it consists of great ways to multiply. We have begun taking times tests over the basic facts of multiplication. You will see those results on Power School. They are given 100 basic problems and 5 minutes to do them. Ultimately they are to do them in 2 minutes. I start them at 5 and as they master that I lower the time limit. Some kids will be able to do them in at least 3 minutes but maybe not have 100% accuracy. We will keep working on it!
Social Studies - The students have been assigned their first state and picked their first project!! I will get them their due dates next week. They will be due anywhere from January 4-20. They seem a little excited about doing this. Most 4th graders love this about 4th grade. Not all parents love it though. We are also moving along in Chapter 4. Students are working on completing vocabulary words, and learning about the Northeast. So far this week we have talked about Niagara Falls and how it is not just a sight of awe and beauty, but an electrical power source. It had hydropower plants on the Niagara River that produces the majority of electricity for the state of New York. We also looked at a cross-section diagram of a power plant to try and understand how it works. Next week we will look at some specific products from the area and Mountain Ranges in the states. Did you know there are about 1,000 cranberry bogs in the United States and 500 of them are in the state of Massachusetts? Just and interesting fact!! There are also a couple in Wisconsin. These are things we will be talking about!
Mrs. Levine - I ask that all of you keep her husband Kirk in your prayers. She is now at home to be with him as his time on Earth comes to an end. We need to pray for peace from his pain and suffering. We pray for him every morning here at school.
Book Report - I am sharing with you before the kids. Their book reports will be due January 29th. I want them to have plenty of time to complete social studies projects and the book report. Most all students have picked a book suitable for them to read. We need to help them manage their time wisely so they complete the book and project. If you lose the papers I sent home to make the cereal box, I can always print more!
Well... enjoy the photos of our "Cuddle-up and Read" Day!! Have a great weekend!! Is the tree up? We have 2 real trees. They are up but not decorated. That will be happening over the weekend.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. We had a fabulous relaxing trip to Chicago. My favorite store again was Macy's!! Also, I guess Micheal's because we had a craft day and spent all day Saturday doing crafts. I was the runner and went to Micheal's 4 times that day!! Last one was 9:30 at night!!
We are all excited that Advent is here!! The students had their first Advent Angel activity. It was a fun time! This month will go quickly but we will continue to work hard. I will admit that i play Christmas music any opportunity I have. I love the songs and keeps us in the season. Kids seem to calm down and work quietly while I have it on too. We have had some illnesses pop up in our room. Just remember to keep them home so we can limit the spread. I feel all of you do a good job at this.
Language Arts - Last week we had "Cuddle-up and Read" Day. We moved the desks out of the way and spread our blankets out all over. They made nests and laid down and read for about 65 minutes. It was a nice time. They were busy reading the whole time unless they became drowsy. I then sent them on a walk for a drink of water, so they could perk up a bit. I will share pictures at the end of my letter.
We are reading a nonfiction story this week on Hurricanes. It is called Hurricanes: Earth's Deadliest Storm. It has a lot of graphic features, like charts, graphs and diagrams with it to help us understand the story. That is what we are focusing on this time is Graphic Features. We discuss their importance to the story and how is enhances the reading and understanding. We have been working on easily confused words like: to, two,too, their, there, they're, its and it's. We have talked about how to decide which to use in sentences. In spelling they are working on compound words. Remember to study vocabulary words and spelling words tonight!! Maybe after the parade!
Math - We have spent some time working on flash cards and multiplication facts the last couple of days! We will begin a new lesson today. I am hoping to have Chapter 2 finished up before Christmas break. I am positive that will happen. We are getting closer to the students learning the standard algorithm of multiplication which is what you and I learned in school. We have about 7 lessons left in this chapter. Should take a couple weeks. I love this chapter and all that I teach the kids. All of it consists of great ways to multiply. We have begun taking times tests over the basic facts of multiplication. You will see those results on Power School. They are given 100 basic problems and 5 minutes to do them. Ultimately they are to do them in 2 minutes. I start them at 5 and as they master that I lower the time limit. Some kids will be able to do them in at least 3 minutes but maybe not have 100% accuracy. We will keep working on it!
Social Studies - The students have been assigned their first state and picked their first project!! I will get them their due dates next week. They will be due anywhere from January 4-20. They seem a little excited about doing this. Most 4th graders love this about 4th grade. Not all parents love it though. We are also moving along in Chapter 4. Students are working on completing vocabulary words, and learning about the Northeast. So far this week we have talked about Niagara Falls and how it is not just a sight of awe and beauty, but an electrical power source. It had hydropower plants on the Niagara River that produces the majority of electricity for the state of New York. We also looked at a cross-section diagram of a power plant to try and understand how it works. Next week we will look at some specific products from the area and Mountain Ranges in the states. Did you know there are about 1,000 cranberry bogs in the United States and 500 of them are in the state of Massachusetts? Just and interesting fact!! There are also a couple in Wisconsin. These are things we will be talking about!
Mrs. Levine - I ask that all of you keep her husband Kirk in your prayers. She is now at home to be with him as his time on Earth comes to an end. We need to pray for peace from his pain and suffering. We pray for him every morning here at school.
Book Report - I am sharing with you before the kids. Their book reports will be due January 29th. I want them to have plenty of time to complete social studies projects and the book report. Most all students have picked a book suitable for them to read. We need to help them manage their time wisely so they complete the book and project. If you lose the papers I sent home to make the cereal box, I can always print more!
Well... enjoy the photos of our "Cuddle-up and Read" Day!! Have a great weekend!! Is the tree up? We have 2 real trees. They are up but not decorated. That will be happening over the weekend.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Monday, November 23, 2015
Good Morning!! It's Monday!!! I hope you all had a great weekend gearing up for Thanksgiving this week. This is a short week! I had something to put in my letter on Thursday and forgot, it is about the calendars that came home in your folders last week.
Religion- In your child's folder is a Random Acts of Kindness calendar. This is an Advent Calendar for them to use during the month of December. I know some of the things probably can't be done, but it's always good to just think about what we can do in this month for others besides the gifts we need to buy for our loved ones. These can make someone's day just a little brighter! ~ Ms. Surma
Happy Thanksgiving to all you!! I hope you have a fabulous time with family or friends. Oh....also Black Friday shopping! I will be doing mine in Chicago where Black Friday is not a big deal. They have sales but people don't go crazy like they do here. There are not lines for specific items. Last year my favorite store was Macy's. There are long check out lines but people aren't fighting for things.
Have a great week!!!
Mrs. Sickels
Religion- In your child's folder is a Random Acts of Kindness calendar. This is an Advent Calendar for them to use during the month of December. I know some of the things probably can't be done, but it's always good to just think about what we can do in this month for others besides the gifts we need to buy for our loved ones. These can make someone's day just a little brighter! ~ Ms. Surma
Happy Thanksgiving to all you!! I hope you have a fabulous time with family or friends. Oh....also Black Friday shopping! I will be doing mine in Chicago where Black Friday is not a big deal. They have sales but people don't go crazy like they do here. There are not lines for specific items. Last year my favorite store was Macy's. There are long check out lines but people aren't fighting for things.
Have a great week!!!
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! What a GREAT day!! We got off to a great start with Muffins with Mom. What a great turn out! Thank you to all the moms who were able to come and enjoy breakfast with your child. I think the kids are all ready looking forward to a day with Dad in February! Tomorrow is the end of the trimester! That means late slips get wiped away and we start over!! On Monday everyone will come with a clean slate! I hope this trimester is better for some! This also means the report cared will be coming out. They will be out the week after Thanksgiving. If you are unsure how to find them on Power School be sure to stop in or contact the office so you get help.
Language Arts - This week has been a Unit 2 test week. We have focused on DEAR time for about 20 minutes a day, then we have spent 30-40 minutes working on a section of the test. After all students were finished we would share book reports. We are almost done sharing book reports. We will definitely finish them tomorrow. You will see test results for Unit 2 the week after we return from Thanksgiving.
Book Report #2 - I will be assigning the next report to kids tomorrow. They will be given a sheet with instructions then 2 sheets of things they need. They will be putting together a cereal box book report. On the two sheets are the things that go on the top and sides of the box. They first need to finish the whole book before they begin. I will be talking to them about book size. We will discuss books that are best for them. They will have a couple weeks to choose a book and let me know what it is. If I feel they need to challenge themselves more, than I will have that discussion with them. We don't want them to just do the minimum. This report will not be due until January. They will have plenty of time to do the work. We need to be more helpful with them managing their time or pacing their reading so it ensures they finish the book and the box on time.
We will have a "Cuddle Up and Read" Day on Tuesday, Nov. 24th. This is where the students are allowed to bring blankets, pillows, pillow pets, and stuffed animals to school to cuddle up on the floor and read with. We will spend our entire language arts class reading to ourselves or I will be reading to them. It is a day devoted to reading. All the minutes can be included on the book it calendar too!! I do not start a story next week, we have a fun week in Language Arts.
Math - We had a great lesson today. They learned to multiply using expanded form. The best part is this strategy pulls together several of the things they have all ready learned and I stressed the importance of learning. Now, they are seeing the benefits of mastering one skill before we move on to the next. Chapter 3 will be easy because it just adds to everything we learned in chapter 2! I had them excited about Math today. I feel like they got a good grasp on the skill. We will review it tomorrow, spend some more time on the problems then do the worksheet. I was even told I was the best teacher ever! (Only because I had them excited and pointing out the things they learned before coming together). You could see the light bulbs appear about their little heads! That for me is the best!!! I love my job!
Social Studies - We are beginning a whole new unit this week. We will be studying the Northeast Region of the United States. There will be a total of 15 vocabulary words for this chapter. Today we began going over Social Studies projects. We will finish going over them on Friday and the packets will come home. Next week they will pick their first state and the project they want to do. Please go over packet with your child and let them know if there are any you would prefer them to stay away from. (food projects). The students will be introduced to the States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho next week. This is free on itunes so everyone can have it at home to memorize. We will sing it a couple times a week so they memorize the words. The words ARE the states and capitals of the United States. There is also a fun couple videos on youtube videos that sing the song and place the states on a map which helps learn location.
Geography Bee - On Wednesday, Nov. 25th, your student will be participating in the school wide Geography Bee. This includes 4-8 graders at St. Malachy. They are divided up into 3 rooms. There will be students from 4-8 grade in all three rooms. They will be put through 7 rounds of geography questions. I will go over a "mock" geography bee with them Tuesday during Social Studies. From these 7 rounds we will narrow it down to 10 finalists, that will participate in the Geography Bee Finals in December.
I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. I will be working hard on report cards to have them done by Thanksgiving. I go to Chicago every year and return on Sunday so I want them done! I want a stress free vacation. I will say we are not heading downtown Chicago this year. We do some shopping in the northern suburbs where my family lives. I want to wish all of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving Break!! Enjoy family!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! What a GREAT day!! We got off to a great start with Muffins with Mom. What a great turn out! Thank you to all the moms who were able to come and enjoy breakfast with your child. I think the kids are all ready looking forward to a day with Dad in February! Tomorrow is the end of the trimester! That means late slips get wiped away and we start over!! On Monday everyone will come with a clean slate! I hope this trimester is better for some! This also means the report cared will be coming out. They will be out the week after Thanksgiving. If you are unsure how to find them on Power School be sure to stop in or contact the office so you get help.
Language Arts - This week has been a Unit 2 test week. We have focused on DEAR time for about 20 minutes a day, then we have spent 30-40 minutes working on a section of the test. After all students were finished we would share book reports. We are almost done sharing book reports. We will definitely finish them tomorrow. You will see test results for Unit 2 the week after we return from Thanksgiving.
Book Report #2 - I will be assigning the next report to kids tomorrow. They will be given a sheet with instructions then 2 sheets of things they need. They will be putting together a cereal box book report. On the two sheets are the things that go on the top and sides of the box. They first need to finish the whole book before they begin. I will be talking to them about book size. We will discuss books that are best for them. They will have a couple weeks to choose a book and let me know what it is. If I feel they need to challenge themselves more, than I will have that discussion with them. We don't want them to just do the minimum. This report will not be due until January. They will have plenty of time to do the work. We need to be more helpful with them managing their time or pacing their reading so it ensures they finish the book and the box on time.
We will have a "Cuddle Up and Read" Day on Tuesday, Nov. 24th. This is where the students are allowed to bring blankets, pillows, pillow pets, and stuffed animals to school to cuddle up on the floor and read with. We will spend our entire language arts class reading to ourselves or I will be reading to them. It is a day devoted to reading. All the minutes can be included on the book it calendar too!! I do not start a story next week, we have a fun week in Language Arts.
Math - We had a great lesson today. They learned to multiply using expanded form. The best part is this strategy pulls together several of the things they have all ready learned and I stressed the importance of learning. Now, they are seeing the benefits of mastering one skill before we move on to the next. Chapter 3 will be easy because it just adds to everything we learned in chapter 2! I had them excited about Math today. I feel like they got a good grasp on the skill. We will review it tomorrow, spend some more time on the problems then do the worksheet. I was even told I was the best teacher ever! (Only because I had them excited and pointing out the things they learned before coming together). You could see the light bulbs appear about their little heads! That for me is the best!!! I love my job!
Social Studies - We are beginning a whole new unit this week. We will be studying the Northeast Region of the United States. There will be a total of 15 vocabulary words for this chapter. Today we began going over Social Studies projects. We will finish going over them on Friday and the packets will come home. Next week they will pick their first state and the project they want to do. Please go over packet with your child and let them know if there are any you would prefer them to stay away from. (food projects). The students will be introduced to the States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho next week. This is free on itunes so everyone can have it at home to memorize. We will sing it a couple times a week so they memorize the words. The words ARE the states and capitals of the United States. There is also a fun couple videos on youtube videos that sing the song and place the states on a map which helps learn location.
Geography Bee - On Wednesday, Nov. 25th, your student will be participating in the school wide Geography Bee. This includes 4-8 graders at St. Malachy. They are divided up into 3 rooms. There will be students from 4-8 grade in all three rooms. They will be put through 7 rounds of geography questions. I will go over a "mock" geography bee with them Tuesday during Social Studies. From these 7 rounds we will narrow it down to 10 finalists, that will participate in the Geography Bee Finals in December.
I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. I will be working hard on report cards to have them done by Thanksgiving. I go to Chicago every year and return on Sunday so I want them done! I want a stress free vacation. I will say we are not heading downtown Chicago this year. We do some shopping in the northern suburbs where my family lives. I want to wish all of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving Break!! Enjoy family!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I am so glad I was able to visit with all of you last week. I appreciate you taking the time to come in and look at how things are going in 4th grade. I hope if you have questions or concerns in the future you will reach out via email so we can discuss or set up another time to meet.
What a change in the weather!! Wednesday was definitely interesting day for weather. I was out of school that day. I was in Omaha on a college visit with my daughter Jami. It was a very good visit. We had a great tour guide and the campus is very compact and beautiful. Last Friday I went to Iowa State with Josie. It was also a great day. Being back on campus was a great feeling even if I am old. She really loved the campus and all it has to offer. I have one more visit, this Saturday in Iowa City. I hope after that Jami will make a decision. Josie is definitely a Cyclone!!
Language Arts - This week we are reading the last story in Unit 2. The story is called Jose`! Born to Dance. It is about a young boy and his years growing up and leading to him becoming a famous dancer. He made the decision later in life to be a dancer and had to work very hard at it. He didn't start dance at an early age. We have been learning about pronouns (subject and object), we talked about reflexive and demonstrative pronouns as well. Today's lesson was over pronouns and their antecedents. The antecedent is the words or words that the pronoun replaces. We did a lot of sharing of examples. Tomorrow is our end of the week testing day like normal. Next week will be a unit 2 test week. We will not have a spelling test. I split the test up so we do a little bit of test every day and then we will do other activities. Most likely something to do with writing. I try to make these fun activities for them.
Math - We are working on some basic skills the students will need as we push further into the chapter on multiplication. I feel like we are all in good place right now and the lessons have not been too grueling. We are going to embark on some new stuff today or tomorrow. I think it is fun, it requires them to draw arrays on graph paper. I also think it shows us an easy way to multiply larger numbers. We will be using the Distributive Property of Multiplication to do it. It will take us 2-3 days to get the hang of it. I am excited about it because I think it is fun to teach. They will see they can work with bigger numbers and make it easier for them to deal with. I know this is something that you are not used to doing. Let them show you how it works. We will take it slow so everyone understand.
Social Studies - We finished up chapter 3 and are working on reviewing. They will have a test on Monday. The study guide was assigned today, we will check it tomorrow, they will test on Monday, which is great to have the weekend to study. Please remember to study the vocabulary words in the packet. Next week we will begin learning our states and capitals song, talk about studying the regions, a region at a time, and go over projects and how they work. If at anytime you have questions about projects be sure to ask. Social Studies is about to get a lot more interesting!!
I would like to thank those families that donated books to the library in my classroom! I love having books in my room for students when they are needing something new to read. I encourage them to check out library books but sometimes they finish those and need something new. I have a great selection in the classroom. Thanks again very very much!
Tomorrow is Spirit Day!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I am so glad I was able to visit with all of you last week. I appreciate you taking the time to come in and look at how things are going in 4th grade. I hope if you have questions or concerns in the future you will reach out via email so we can discuss or set up another time to meet.
What a change in the weather!! Wednesday was definitely interesting day for weather. I was out of school that day. I was in Omaha on a college visit with my daughter Jami. It was a very good visit. We had a great tour guide and the campus is very compact and beautiful. Last Friday I went to Iowa State with Josie. It was also a great day. Being back on campus was a great feeling even if I am old. She really loved the campus and all it has to offer. I have one more visit, this Saturday in Iowa City. I hope after that Jami will make a decision. Josie is definitely a Cyclone!!
Language Arts - This week we are reading the last story in Unit 2. The story is called Jose`! Born to Dance. It is about a young boy and his years growing up and leading to him becoming a famous dancer. He made the decision later in life to be a dancer and had to work very hard at it. He didn't start dance at an early age. We have been learning about pronouns (subject and object), we talked about reflexive and demonstrative pronouns as well. Today's lesson was over pronouns and their antecedents. The antecedent is the words or words that the pronoun replaces. We did a lot of sharing of examples. Tomorrow is our end of the week testing day like normal. Next week will be a unit 2 test week. We will not have a spelling test. I split the test up so we do a little bit of test every day and then we will do other activities. Most likely something to do with writing. I try to make these fun activities for them.
Math - We are working on some basic skills the students will need as we push further into the chapter on multiplication. I feel like we are all in good place right now and the lessons have not been too grueling. We are going to embark on some new stuff today or tomorrow. I think it is fun, it requires them to draw arrays on graph paper. I also think it shows us an easy way to multiply larger numbers. We will be using the Distributive Property of Multiplication to do it. It will take us 2-3 days to get the hang of it. I am excited about it because I think it is fun to teach. They will see they can work with bigger numbers and make it easier for them to deal with. I know this is something that you are not used to doing. Let them show you how it works. We will take it slow so everyone understand.
Social Studies - We finished up chapter 3 and are working on reviewing. They will have a test on Monday. The study guide was assigned today, we will check it tomorrow, they will test on Monday, which is great to have the weekend to study. Please remember to study the vocabulary words in the packet. Next week we will begin learning our states and capitals song, talk about studying the regions, a region at a time, and go over projects and how they work. If at anytime you have questions about projects be sure to ask. Social Studies is about to get a lot more interesting!!
I would like to thank those families that donated books to the library in my classroom! I love having books in my room for students when they are needing something new to read. I encourage them to check out library books but sometimes they finish those and need something new. I have a great selection in the classroom. Thanks again very very much!
Tomorrow is Spirit Day!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! We have had a pretty noisy week. I am not sure I am blaming the moon or Halloween, but the kids have been very busy, with each other! We are working hard even though they are finding time to visit with each other. I think things are very routine and they have officially settled in and know what is going to happen, so some of them get ahead. I am looking forward to next week when I can visit with each of you. If you haven't been able to sign up for a conference time, let me know. I sent an email last week that linked you to my conference schedule. If you are having trouble getting that to work let me know, or if you didn't receive the email, let me know. My schedule is filling up pretty quickly.
Language Arts - I have fallen behind!! You will see your child's scores for the last two Friday tests, today. I forgot to send home the first week. They were here on my desk but I didn't get them in the "go home" basket. They are both there today. This week we have had a more interesting story to read. It was a realistic fiction story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is a fun-loving story with some interesting facts filtered in about Harlem long ago and artists. The story was written with famous collage artist Romare Bearden in mind. His works can be found in galleries across the Unites States. His works reflect Harlem during the time of Segregation. In grammar this week we focused on Present, Past and Future Progressive Tense verbs. I don't ever remember learning these! It is a quick look at them, but I think they really get it. Plus this helps show them that when choosing the verb in a sentence it may be more than one word. Tomorrow is a end of week test day!! Hopefully that goes well with it being our "Halloween"! Just a reminder next week is conference week so it is a short school week. Spelling pretest will be Monday with a post test on Thursday instead of Friday. Also end of week test will be on Thursday instead of Friday.
Math - We have completely finished Chapter 1 and have dug into chapter 2. We have spent the week talking about multiplication comparison models. We are just learning to understand multiplication statements and equations. We are also focusing on drawing a picture of the multiplication problem to show we understand what it is telling us. We are now moving into lesson 2 which uses the model but in a different way. We will spend the end of the week focusing on this. We are not moving very quickly because I am not comfortable moving forward when I feel we don't have a good understanding of the concept. If I were moving quickly all would be struggling a lot! We are approaching those concepts that adults struggle with because they were not taught these. It is not changing how you do it, it is just digging deeper so your child knows exactly why they are doing what they are doing. I know I would have been a better math student if I would have learned "why's" of math. Please bear with us and if your child needs help and you can't give it, send them in early to work with me. I am here by 7:45. I have morning duty on Wednesdays but all other days I am available for help.
Social Studies - We are working on Chapter 3! We have begun filling out the next vocabulary packet. It is yellow, make sure they don't throw this away!! We have discussed a little about why people were choosing to move westward and what industries were important long ago. We finished lesson 1 today and will move into lesson 2 tomorrow. This one will be full of information!! The students are doing a great job working on vocabulary words and sharing their ideas in class with their peers. I think all students get more out of learning the vocabulary using this strategy but I also feel that on the last test they didn't review them because they felt they knew them well. They need to review them the night before so our scores are a little better in this section.
Halloween!! Tomorrow the students will be celebrating Halloween. We will only be doing this in the afternoon. They need to bring their costumes tomorrow for the parade in the afternoon. We will begin some activities put on by the Civics Club at 1:20 and back in the room by 2:00. I then usually have a snack and a drink for the kids to have as kind of a Halloween Party. I am working on getting someone to supply that. The parade will begin at 2:30. All are welcome to join and enjoy the school in costumes!!!
Next week is a short week!! Thursday the students get out at 11:50. We will not be providing lunch that day. There is NO school on Friday. Conferences run from 1-5 and again 6 - 9:30. We have a lot to accomplish even if it is a short week. Friday I will be going on our first college visit. Josie is visiting Iowa State. She has all ready decided on this college but we hadn't been on a visit there. The next week I go to UNO (University of Nebraska at Omaha) with Jami and then at the end of the week University of Iowa with Jami. She also has some interviews at Mercy. I am not sure I am ready for this part of life, but it is here!! I will be missing only 1 day Wednesday, November 11th for these visits.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Enjoy sounds like the weather is going to warm up again.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! We have had a pretty noisy week. I am not sure I am blaming the moon or Halloween, but the kids have been very busy, with each other! We are working hard even though they are finding time to visit with each other. I think things are very routine and they have officially settled in and know what is going to happen, so some of them get ahead. I am looking forward to next week when I can visit with each of you. If you haven't been able to sign up for a conference time, let me know. I sent an email last week that linked you to my conference schedule. If you are having trouble getting that to work let me know, or if you didn't receive the email, let me know. My schedule is filling up pretty quickly.
Language Arts - I have fallen behind!! You will see your child's scores for the last two Friday tests, today. I forgot to send home the first week. They were here on my desk but I didn't get them in the "go home" basket. They are both there today. This week we have had a more interesting story to read. It was a realistic fiction story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is a fun-loving story with some interesting facts filtered in about Harlem long ago and artists. The story was written with famous collage artist Romare Bearden in mind. His works can be found in galleries across the Unites States. His works reflect Harlem during the time of Segregation. In grammar this week we focused on Present, Past and Future Progressive Tense verbs. I don't ever remember learning these! It is a quick look at them, but I think they really get it. Plus this helps show them that when choosing the verb in a sentence it may be more than one word. Tomorrow is a end of week test day!! Hopefully that goes well with it being our "Halloween"! Just a reminder next week is conference week so it is a short school week. Spelling pretest will be Monday with a post test on Thursday instead of Friday. Also end of week test will be on Thursday instead of Friday.
Math - We have completely finished Chapter 1 and have dug into chapter 2. We have spent the week talking about multiplication comparison models. We are just learning to understand multiplication statements and equations. We are also focusing on drawing a picture of the multiplication problem to show we understand what it is telling us. We are now moving into lesson 2 which uses the model but in a different way. We will spend the end of the week focusing on this. We are not moving very quickly because I am not comfortable moving forward when I feel we don't have a good understanding of the concept. If I were moving quickly all would be struggling a lot! We are approaching those concepts that adults struggle with because they were not taught these. It is not changing how you do it, it is just digging deeper so your child knows exactly why they are doing what they are doing. I know I would have been a better math student if I would have learned "why's" of math. Please bear with us and if your child needs help and you can't give it, send them in early to work with me. I am here by 7:45. I have morning duty on Wednesdays but all other days I am available for help.
Social Studies - We are working on Chapter 3! We have begun filling out the next vocabulary packet. It is yellow, make sure they don't throw this away!! We have discussed a little about why people were choosing to move westward and what industries were important long ago. We finished lesson 1 today and will move into lesson 2 tomorrow. This one will be full of information!! The students are doing a great job working on vocabulary words and sharing their ideas in class with their peers. I think all students get more out of learning the vocabulary using this strategy but I also feel that on the last test they didn't review them because they felt they knew them well. They need to review them the night before so our scores are a little better in this section.
Halloween!! Tomorrow the students will be celebrating Halloween. We will only be doing this in the afternoon. They need to bring their costumes tomorrow for the parade in the afternoon. We will begin some activities put on by the Civics Club at 1:20 and back in the room by 2:00. I then usually have a snack and a drink for the kids to have as kind of a Halloween Party. I am working on getting someone to supply that. The parade will begin at 2:30. All are welcome to join and enjoy the school in costumes!!!
Next week is a short week!! Thursday the students get out at 11:50. We will not be providing lunch that day. There is NO school on Friday. Conferences run from 1-5 and again 6 - 9:30. We have a lot to accomplish even if it is a short week. Friday I will be going on our first college visit. Josie is visiting Iowa State. She has all ready decided on this college but we hadn't been on a visit there. The next week I go to UNO (University of Nebraska at Omaha) with Jami and then at the end of the week University of Iowa with Jami. She also has some interviews at Mercy. I am not sure I am ready for this part of life, but it is here!! I will be missing only 1 day Wednesday, November 11th for these visits.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Enjoy sounds like the weather is going to warm up again.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! What a week have had. It has been a fun one. Yesterday was "Back to The Future"Day. We did some activities yesterday surrounding the movie. We started with a bullying discussion. I showed a clip of Classic Bullying by Biff on George McFly. It had all the components: Bully, bystanders, and followers. It had people or adults that could have stopped the encounter. It showed George respond in a joking manner, and when Biff directed his attention to Marty, George then became a follower. We discussed everything that was wrong and how things could have been different. It was a great discussion. Some kids were just plain appalled at the scene. We saw a video clip of 11 things Back to the Future gave to us before 2015. It talked about 11 things in the "movie 2015" that we actually have now. It was interesting. We also compared the 1950's hair and music to the 1980's and present time. They enjoyed that. We visited the "futuristic" room which was full of technology. Kids played with robots, created their own, played games on ipads and used goggles to view apps on phones. The virtual reality rooms on goggles was a lot of fun. You could see kids falling over and spinning around to look at everything. I did it and had to hang on to something as I looked. I felt unstable on my feet. We ended the day by getting into groups or partners and creating Hoverboards, cars, and buildings in a futuristic town. Those that finished are all ready hanging in the hall. As the others complete theirs it will be in the hall also. Some were very detailed and some serious effort was put into them. Some were simple. All of them are great. They did a nice job working together.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called :Coming Distractions Questioning Movie". I find this interesting but dry. It points of part of movies that are very "unreal" things and that we should catch them and wonder "why". Like in Action Films, women fight or run in high heels, and car accidents that normally people are trapped or very injured and people in movies get out and run away. It's interesting stuff by story is not presenting it in an interesting manner. We have spent the week talking about verb tenses in grammar, we worked on fact and opinions, and summarizing. This story couldn't have come at a better time. Discussing movies and special effects and having Back to Future Day in the same week really worked out well. The two complimented each other.
Math - We finished chapter 1! We spent Monday and Tuesday working on correcting the tests and starting a prior knowledge page on chapter 2. They worked on multiplication flash cards and played around the world. We need to start pushing the flash cards at home. When a person knows their facts with no problem, learning strategies in multiplication is so much easier. We will be learning several ways to multiply numbers. They are not strategies you learned as a kid. They are very good and helpful. It makes the students understand why they are doing it and why it works. We will take this section at a pace the students can handle. I make sure the students are mastering each lesson before moving on. This is actually my favorite content area in Math to teach. Be patient with them and let me know if there are any problems.
Social Studies - We finished reviewing chapter 2 today and will have a test tomorrow. Please make sure your child is studying the vocabulary on their Peach packet, and their yellow study guide. They will test first thing in the morning. If they review their items right before bed and again as soon as they get up, that will help them perform well on their 8:30 test! We will begin Chapter 3 next week. It is on the United States Economy. Full of great things students need to know but the key word is "full", there is a lot. After Chapter 3 we start discussing each region separately. That is when social studies becomes a lot of fun.
Tomorrow is Spirit Day. Remember your child can pay a dollar to wear sweats if they would like with their jersey or team shirt. The money is used to create baskets for families who go through a tragic time, like when a school has a student die, we send a basket of snacks and water bottles to them for their lounge. We also made a basket for Ms. McKasson and her family when her father was in the hospital. We sent one with Mrs. Levine when she was to spend time in the hospital. If your child doesn't wear sweats and just wants to donate a dollar, we will accept that too. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I am very proud of the 4th grade students. I feel that they are learning to work hard during their study halls and work time. I feel like they are finally realizing that working hard gets things done and I don't take as much work home to complete. This makes our day run so much smoother. All students seem to be very chatty when they arrive in the morning and it takes a little bit to settle down, but that will come with a little more time. I hope not too much longer. I think they just have so much to tell each other when they arrive they can't seem to get it all in! Oh the exciting lives kids lead!!
Language Arts - We are back to a normal week. We are reading Invasion From Mars this week. It is a fun story. It is actually a play, or drama. This has a funny story of its own. Back in the 1930's before we had television and everyone listened to the radio for entertainment, Orson Welles had a radio program where they dramatized the book War of the Worlds. There is a section in this book where an extraterrestrial object land in New Jersey and people are panicking. This portion of the book aired on October 30, 1938. People who joined after the program started thought it to be real and were scared. This actually set about panic because they thought an alien had really arrived. We read the story and I have shared the actual broadcast of this with them. They have found it to be very entertaining! This week we have also worked on action verbs, linking verbs and helping verbs. We understand what an action verb is but sometimes still struggle picking them out of a sentence. We have memorized the main linking verbs ( am, is, are, was, were) and we have discussed what a helping verb is, what it does and how it is usually always followed by an action verb. I hope they can remember this and keep them straight for tomorrow's test. We will review right before the test to help them.
Math - We are finishing up correcting their review over chapter 1. They will be taking a test over chapter 1 tomorrow. They will have the whole class time to complete this test. We will correct it on Monday and start chapter 2 on Tuesday. This is a great chapter to review items needed for the rest of the year. We introduce some of the same concepts but at a higher level. Kids have been taught how to round numbers by the time they get to me, but I get to teach the skill with larger numbers! Sometimes we really struggle with this. This is also a time we review adding and subtracting large numbers. Remembering to regroup in subtraction can still be a struggle. You can help your child study for the Math test tonight by looking at the review and giving them similar problems to solve. This review is set up just like the test they will take, it will just not be the exact same problems, but same concepts. If #4 is a subtraction problem than #4 on the test will be also but with different numbers. I suggest focusing on rounding numbers, knowing place value, and renaming numbers!! These are areas of difficulty.
Social Studies - We discussed the three levels of Government and the 3 branches. I gave the students a chart over it. They were to study the chart and had quiz over it. Most did pretty well. Some mixed up the branches of Government. We are now moving onto rights and responsibilities of a U. S. Citizen. We will discuss things that are our rights and then also to talk about what are responsibilities are. This chapter covers 2 benchmarks that we are required to report on. One being knowing the 3 branches and that we have 3 levels of Government. The other is knowing the difference between responsibilities and rights as a citizen. This is all important stuff for us to know!
Halloween is coming!! That is an exciting time for us. We have a fun day on the 30th with Halloween activities put on by the Civics Club and ending the day with our Annual Halloween Parade in the gym at 2:30! All parents are welcome to attend. I hope you realize that once Halloween is here the rest of the year flies by!! After Halloween is conferences, then Thanksgiving, Advent begins, Christmas is here and BOOM the end of the year is here!! We are then halfway done. Conference schedules are being discussed and will be out sometime soon for you to sign up. Our website is struggling and is down more than it is up, so we are working on another way to get you signed up for a time. I will keep you updated and will most likely be sharing a link on my blog to get you signed up. I will be anxious to meet with each of you about your student.
Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I am very proud of the 4th grade students. I feel that they are learning to work hard during their study halls and work time. I feel like they are finally realizing that working hard gets things done and I don't take as much work home to complete. This makes our day run so much smoother. All students seem to be very chatty when they arrive in the morning and it takes a little bit to settle down, but that will come with a little more time. I hope not too much longer. I think they just have so much to tell each other when they arrive they can't seem to get it all in! Oh the exciting lives kids lead!!
Language Arts - We are back to a normal week. We are reading Invasion From Mars this week. It is a fun story. It is actually a play, or drama. This has a funny story of its own. Back in the 1930's before we had television and everyone listened to the radio for entertainment, Orson Welles had a radio program where they dramatized the book War of the Worlds. There is a section in this book where an extraterrestrial object land in New Jersey and people are panicking. This portion of the book aired on October 30, 1938. People who joined after the program started thought it to be real and were scared. This actually set about panic because they thought an alien had really arrived. We read the story and I have shared the actual broadcast of this with them. They have found it to be very entertaining! This week we have also worked on action verbs, linking verbs and helping verbs. We understand what an action verb is but sometimes still struggle picking them out of a sentence. We have memorized the main linking verbs ( am, is, are, was, were) and we have discussed what a helping verb is, what it does and how it is usually always followed by an action verb. I hope they can remember this and keep them straight for tomorrow's test. We will review right before the test to help them.
Math - We are finishing up correcting their review over chapter 1. They will be taking a test over chapter 1 tomorrow. They will have the whole class time to complete this test. We will correct it on Monday and start chapter 2 on Tuesday. This is a great chapter to review items needed for the rest of the year. We introduce some of the same concepts but at a higher level. Kids have been taught how to round numbers by the time they get to me, but I get to teach the skill with larger numbers! Sometimes we really struggle with this. This is also a time we review adding and subtracting large numbers. Remembering to regroup in subtraction can still be a struggle. You can help your child study for the Math test tonight by looking at the review and giving them similar problems to solve. This review is set up just like the test they will take, it will just not be the exact same problems, but same concepts. If #4 is a subtraction problem than #4 on the test will be also but with different numbers. I suggest focusing on rounding numbers, knowing place value, and renaming numbers!! These are areas of difficulty.
Social Studies - We discussed the three levels of Government and the 3 branches. I gave the students a chart over it. They were to study the chart and had quiz over it. Most did pretty well. Some mixed up the branches of Government. We are now moving onto rights and responsibilities of a U. S. Citizen. We will discuss things that are our rights and then also to talk about what are responsibilities are. This chapter covers 2 benchmarks that we are required to report on. One being knowing the 3 branches and that we have 3 levels of Government. The other is knowing the difference between responsibilities and rights as a citizen. This is all important stuff for us to know!
Halloween is coming!! That is an exciting time for us. We have a fun day on the 30th with Halloween activities put on by the Civics Club and ending the day with our Annual Halloween Parade in the gym at 2:30! All parents are welcome to attend. I hope you realize that once Halloween is here the rest of the year flies by!! After Halloween is conferences, then Thanksgiving, Advent begins, Christmas is here and BOOM the end of the year is here!! We are then halfway done. Conference schedules are being discussed and will be out sometime soon for you to sign up. Our website is struggling and is down more than it is up, so we are working on another way to get you signed up for a time. I will keep you updated and will most likely be sharing a link on my blog to get you signed up. I will be anxious to meet with each of you about your student.
Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Dear Parents,
Hello Thursday!! I feel like the weeks fly by! It must be because we are so busy. We are getting into cold and flu season!! I have had people missing this week due to illness and 2 have left school with a fever! If your child is sick please keep them home. A big class like this will spread it like crazy. I had mine a couple weeks ago but I didn't have a fever with it, just coughed a lot. The rule of thumb is your child must be fever free for 24 hours without medicine before returning to school. So, if your child leaves school at 11:00 one day,then the next day I should not see your child till after lunch, if following the 24 hour rule. We are just trying stop the spread of illness and lessen the amount of students absent. I will follow this same rule myself.
Book It!! I am pumped about the enthusiasm I am seeing in this class for reading!! I have a couple who are true competitor's and wanting to beat me!!! I love it!! Keep them reading at home. They have book report books now that they should be reading. I am fine if you read with them but make sure they are reading to you, not vice versa. Just to let you know as of today I have read 1,486 minutes in October. I have student in the 800's right now trying to catch me!
Language Arts - This has been a unit test week. We spend a part of everyday taking a section of this test. We have also discussed the first book report they will be completing. They are all hunting for a book to read. The book must be 130 pages or more and not have any pictures. Books that have been made into movies can not be done. It makes them branch out and read other things. We are also working on Halloween stories. They are to choose a fairy tale or short story to follow, and create their own Halloween Story. We talked about this in full on Wednesday. They created titles of stories for today. We will go over them and then begin writing. They may need to find a copy of the book they are choosing to follow. These stories are always lots of fun.
Math - We are finishing up Math chapter 1. We will start reviewing for a test starting tomorrow. The test will happen next week. It is a multiple choice test. They will be given a day to make corrections and then we will begin chapter 2. We have worked hard in this chapter and everything we learned we will use for the rest of the year but I know everyone is ready to move on and get on to bigger and better things. That includes me. I look forward to moving forward.
Social Studies - We are working on learning about out Government. We are learning that there are 3 levels of Government: local, State, and National. We will also be talking about the 3 branches of Government. We will discuss the purpose of each. We will be looking at studying for a test the end of next week for a test in the week following. I am very happy with the vocabulary model we used this chapter and the discussions the kids had about them. I feel they are definitely getting a better understanding of what the words really means!!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello Thursday!! I feel like the weeks fly by! It must be because we are so busy. We are getting into cold and flu season!! I have had people missing this week due to illness and 2 have left school with a fever! If your child is sick please keep them home. A big class like this will spread it like crazy. I had mine a couple weeks ago but I didn't have a fever with it, just coughed a lot. The rule of thumb is your child must be fever free for 24 hours without medicine before returning to school. So, if your child leaves school at 11:00 one day,then the next day I should not see your child till after lunch, if following the 24 hour rule. We are just trying stop the spread of illness and lessen the amount of students absent. I will follow this same rule myself.
Book It!! I am pumped about the enthusiasm I am seeing in this class for reading!! I have a couple who are true competitor's and wanting to beat me!!! I love it!! Keep them reading at home. They have book report books now that they should be reading. I am fine if you read with them but make sure they are reading to you, not vice versa. Just to let you know as of today I have read 1,486 minutes in October. I have student in the 800's right now trying to catch me!
Language Arts - This has been a unit test week. We spend a part of everyday taking a section of this test. We have also discussed the first book report they will be completing. They are all hunting for a book to read. The book must be 130 pages or more and not have any pictures. Books that have been made into movies can not be done. It makes them branch out and read other things. We are also working on Halloween stories. They are to choose a fairy tale or short story to follow, and create their own Halloween Story. We talked about this in full on Wednesday. They created titles of stories for today. We will go over them and then begin writing. They may need to find a copy of the book they are choosing to follow. These stories are always lots of fun.
Math - We are finishing up Math chapter 1. We will start reviewing for a test starting tomorrow. The test will happen next week. It is a multiple choice test. They will be given a day to make corrections and then we will begin chapter 2. We have worked hard in this chapter and everything we learned we will use for the rest of the year but I know everyone is ready to move on and get on to bigger and better things. That includes me. I look forward to moving forward.
Social Studies - We are working on learning about out Government. We are learning that there are 3 levels of Government: local, State, and National. We will also be talking about the 3 branches of Government. We will discuss the purpose of each. We will be looking at studying for a test the end of next week for a test in the week following. I am very happy with the vocabulary model we used this chapter and the discussions the kids had about them. I feel they are definitely getting a better understanding of what the words really means!!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! For the kids it is the end of the week!!! Teachers will be participating in a Professional Development day at the High School with surrounding schools. It is called 21st Century Learner. It is an all day event about bringing technology into our classrooms. I find this day very interesting because it is "real" teachers who put o the seminars showing what they are doing in their classrooms with technology. It is very informational. Sometimes there are great things we bring back and attempt to implement. A lot of things require more research before we attempt them. It is also a great day for us to interact with other teachers from other schools. I hope your kids enjoy a long weekend!!
Book It!!! - Yeah, Book It is back!!! This program went away for a few years but now we are bringing it back. I am very excited about it and so are a lot of the students. The parents I have talked to about it are happy it is back also. If you are wondering what it is or how it works, here you go: Book It is a program for reading that Pizza Hut sponsors. The teachers in each classroom set a reasonable goal for kids to reach. They spend the month keeping track of their minutes or books they read they help them reach whatever the goal is. At the end of the month they turn their calendars in and the teacher keeps track if they met the goal. if they meet the goal they get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. In my classroom I give them a certain amount of minutes to read in a month. They have a calendar that they will write down their minutes on. They keep track of any reading they do in school or outside school. I collect calendars at the beginning of the next month. I will add up the minutes and keep a chart in classroom so students can keep track of how they are doing. In my classroom you have a choice between the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza or a coupon for $4.00 off a buffet at Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch also supports kids in their reading. The students must make a choice and mark the box of the prize they want. I tally the reading minutes for the 6 months we do this program. I give a prize to the people who meet my goal for all 6 months and I give a prize to the top three reader's in my classroom. Meaning the three students who read the most minutes. I read all the time, so I am also on the reading chart and I will also keep track of my minutes. The kids are pumped to be competing with me. I will give an even bigger prize to the student who reads more than I do at the end of 6 months!! It's quite a challenge and they love it! Please help your student keep track of their calendars so they can turn them in. A lost calendar is lost minutes. Here are the goals I have set for the 6 months:
October 350 min.
November 400 min.
December 450 min.
January 500 min.
February 550 min.
March 600 min.
Language Arts: This week we read a Tall Tale called Stormalong. It is about Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. He is a sailor. He is a giant of a man and can't find a place to call home because he is so big. This is about his journey to find a place where he fits in and friends. The spelling list was on Homophones this week. This is words that sound the same but are spelled differently. This is always a fun list. They learn a few new words like feat, and vain. They also begin to learn that the meanings of the words are very important to the spelling. Examples would be sent, cent, and scent and vain, vane, and vein. Grammar focused on capitalization. We talked about capitalizing historical documents, historical events, titles, nationalities, and languages. This was a short week so I felt like we really whipped through some of this, but I also feel it was a good week to push through quickly. Capitalization should be review. This was the last story of Unit 1 so next week will be a test week. During this week they will also begin a writing project and get their first book report assigned to them!!! It will still be a busy week!
Math - In math this week we have been reviewing whole number addition with numbers in the hundred thousands and subtracting whole numbers in the hundred thousands. These subtraction problems also require you to regroup. Both of these lesson are a review except they have probably not used numbers this large. Next week we will work on problem-solving and then gear up for our chapter 1 test. This chapter focuses on number sense and can tend to be difficult for some. I feel the students have grasped the main ideas in this lesson and we are going to be ready to move forward.
Social Studies - We have finished the first lesson in chapter 2 and moving into lesson 2. We are doing a great job on vocabulary words. I am enjoying their illustrations and examples. I love this new way of doing the vocabulary because it really makes them understand the meaning of the word in order to complete the model. I hope that means less studying for them at the end of the chapter because they will all ready understand the meaning of the words and not just memorize them. Next lesson will focus on Government. We will have a brief overview of each branch in the government and what their job requires. We will talk about the three levels of government also.
Please check out this Spaghetti Supper site:
.https://stmalachy.bringit.bz/
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Reminder: Students are allowed to wear shorts through October but please, just because they can doesn't always mean they should. Pay attention to the weather and if a cold day please dress appropriately. We all ready have sicknesses going around. My house has had strep and mono like symptoms. Let's be as safe as we can.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! For the kids it is the end of the week!!! Teachers will be participating in a Professional Development day at the High School with surrounding schools. It is called 21st Century Learner. It is an all day event about bringing technology into our classrooms. I find this day very interesting because it is "real" teachers who put o the seminars showing what they are doing in their classrooms with technology. It is very informational. Sometimes there are great things we bring back and attempt to implement. A lot of things require more research before we attempt them. It is also a great day for us to interact with other teachers from other schools. I hope your kids enjoy a long weekend!!
Book It!!! - Yeah, Book It is back!!! This program went away for a few years but now we are bringing it back. I am very excited about it and so are a lot of the students. The parents I have talked to about it are happy it is back also. If you are wondering what it is or how it works, here you go: Book It is a program for reading that Pizza Hut sponsors. The teachers in each classroom set a reasonable goal for kids to reach. They spend the month keeping track of their minutes or books they read they help them reach whatever the goal is. At the end of the month they turn their calendars in and the teacher keeps track if they met the goal. if they meet the goal they get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. In my classroom I give them a certain amount of minutes to read in a month. They have a calendar that they will write down their minutes on. They keep track of any reading they do in school or outside school. I collect calendars at the beginning of the next month. I will add up the minutes and keep a chart in classroom so students can keep track of how they are doing. In my classroom you have a choice between the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza or a coupon for $4.00 off a buffet at Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch also supports kids in their reading. The students must make a choice and mark the box of the prize they want. I tally the reading minutes for the 6 months we do this program. I give a prize to the people who meet my goal for all 6 months and I give a prize to the top three reader's in my classroom. Meaning the three students who read the most minutes. I read all the time, so I am also on the reading chart and I will also keep track of my minutes. The kids are pumped to be competing with me. I will give an even bigger prize to the student who reads more than I do at the end of 6 months!! It's quite a challenge and they love it! Please help your student keep track of their calendars so they can turn them in. A lost calendar is lost minutes. Here are the goals I have set for the 6 months:
October 350 min.
November 400 min.
December 450 min.
January 500 min.
February 550 min.
March 600 min.
Language Arts: This week we read a Tall Tale called Stormalong. It is about Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. He is a sailor. He is a giant of a man and can't find a place to call home because he is so big. This is about his journey to find a place where he fits in and friends. The spelling list was on Homophones this week. This is words that sound the same but are spelled differently. This is always a fun list. They learn a few new words like feat, and vain. They also begin to learn that the meanings of the words are very important to the spelling. Examples would be sent, cent, and scent and vain, vane, and vein. Grammar focused on capitalization. We talked about capitalizing historical documents, historical events, titles, nationalities, and languages. This was a short week so I felt like we really whipped through some of this, but I also feel it was a good week to push through quickly. Capitalization should be review. This was the last story of Unit 1 so next week will be a test week. During this week they will also begin a writing project and get their first book report assigned to them!!! It will still be a busy week!
Math - In math this week we have been reviewing whole number addition with numbers in the hundred thousands and subtracting whole numbers in the hundred thousands. These subtraction problems also require you to regroup. Both of these lesson are a review except they have probably not used numbers this large. Next week we will work on problem-solving and then gear up for our chapter 1 test. This chapter focuses on number sense and can tend to be difficult for some. I feel the students have grasped the main ideas in this lesson and we are going to be ready to move forward.
Social Studies - We have finished the first lesson in chapter 2 and moving into lesson 2. We are doing a great job on vocabulary words. I am enjoying their illustrations and examples. I love this new way of doing the vocabulary because it really makes them understand the meaning of the word in order to complete the model. I hope that means less studying for them at the end of the chapter because they will all ready understand the meaning of the words and not just memorize them. Next lesson will focus on Government. We will have a brief overview of each branch in the government and what their job requires. We will talk about the three levels of government also.
Please check out this Spaghetti Supper site:
.https://stmalachy.bringit.bz/
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Reminder: Students are allowed to wear shorts through October but please, just because they can doesn't always mean they should. Pay attention to the weather and if a cold day please dress appropriately. We all ready have sicknesses going around. My house has had strep and mono like symptoms. Let's be as safe as we can.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. Things are moving along very well in 4th grade. They are working hard on completing their homework in the time that is given to them. The homework has calmed down because things are becoming more routine and subjects are stretching out. I am trying some new things in the classroom this week. I am anxious to see some end results of the changes. Please, keep encouraging your child to complete work and help me to be excited when they come home with no homework.
Language Arts - This week the student's read a play called The Power of W.O.W.! It is a story about a minibus that is a library that travels outside the city. It is called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) It was a pilot program that lost it's funding. The kids who benefit from the W.O.W are sad and want to do something to try and save it. They have a car wash to raise money. A news reporter catches wind of it and does a report on it. The kids are swamped at car wash and people start just donating money. They are able to save W.O.W. for a long time. It is a great story about hard work paying off. We are discussing sentence fragments and run-on sentences this week. In spelling the list covered long O and short O. Small groups worked on the "theme" of some short stories, vocab, and whether groups of words were a complete sentence or a fragment. Remember end of week test is tomorrow!! Study the spelling and vocab for tomorrow.
Math - We worked on rounding numbers again this week. We also moved on to renaming numbers. We are learning other ways to say numbers or to represent numbers. They learned why when we talk about years we say 18 hundreds (1800"s) instead of 1,800. We also learned that 560 is 56 tens instead of 560. We drew pictures to represent these numbers also. We spent a couple days on it. During center time, we worked on rounding and renaming numbers. We will next move onto adding whole numbers. We will be adding large numbers and reviewing the regrouping process.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 2. This chapter will cover government and economics of our country. I am trying a new model called the Frayer model with vocabulary words. I have chosen 12 words out of the 20 that they will apply this model to and have group discussions. They will be doing more than memorizing the words. This requires them to actually understand the meaning of the words and be able to show me they know it. The group discussions will help them to share what they know and for someone who struggled with a word, they will have better learning experience because they are listening to their peers conversations. We had first group discussion today on first 2 words and I like it!! I will wait to see if the end result and then apply this same strategy to our language arts words.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. Things are moving along very well in 4th grade. They are working hard on completing their homework in the time that is given to them. The homework has calmed down because things are becoming more routine and subjects are stretching out. I am trying some new things in the classroom this week. I am anxious to see some end results of the changes. Please, keep encouraging your child to complete work and help me to be excited when they come home with no homework.
Language Arts - This week the student's read a play called The Power of W.O.W.! It is a story about a minibus that is a library that travels outside the city. It is called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) It was a pilot program that lost it's funding. The kids who benefit from the W.O.W are sad and want to do something to try and save it. They have a car wash to raise money. A news reporter catches wind of it and does a report on it. The kids are swamped at car wash and people start just donating money. They are able to save W.O.W. for a long time. It is a great story about hard work paying off. We are discussing sentence fragments and run-on sentences this week. In spelling the list covered long O and short O. Small groups worked on the "theme" of some short stories, vocab, and whether groups of words were a complete sentence or a fragment. Remember end of week test is tomorrow!! Study the spelling and vocab for tomorrow.
Math - We worked on rounding numbers again this week. We also moved on to renaming numbers. We are learning other ways to say numbers or to represent numbers. They learned why when we talk about years we say 18 hundreds (1800"s) instead of 1,800. We also learned that 560 is 56 tens instead of 560. We drew pictures to represent these numbers also. We spent a couple days on it. During center time, we worked on rounding and renaming numbers. We will next move onto adding whole numbers. We will be adding large numbers and reviewing the regrouping process.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 2. This chapter will cover government and economics of our country. I am trying a new model called the Frayer model with vocabulary words. I have chosen 12 words out of the 20 that they will apply this model to and have group discussions. They will be doing more than memorizing the words. This requires them to actually understand the meaning of the words and be able to show me they know it. The group discussions will help them to share what they know and for someone who struggled with a word, they will have better learning experience because they are listening to their peers conversations. We had first group discussion today on first 2 words and I like it!! I will wait to see if the end result and then apply this same strategy to our language arts words.
Hello!
We are in need of parents and students of St. Malachy School to ride on our float this Friday. Please let your child’s teacher know if you and your child are willing to ride. We are waiting for information from the High School about the location of our float. We will meet at 1:45 at the location. Please watch for the location in the Thursday newsletter on our website http://www.crestonstmalachy.
Thank you for your continued support of St. Malachy School Activities,
Jennifer Simmons
Principal
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! This has been a busy week. I went to the Civic Center last night to see Dirty Dancing and it was FABULOUS!!! It was a very late night though. I am yawning today. Tonight I am off to Denison for volleyball. I am ready for this week to be over! The week has been much better homework wise. They are working very hard. I have a "study group" that takes their work to the neighboring room and works. They are monitored by the Ms. Thomas, our aide. They enjoy this time and accomplish a lot. Things are gradually becoming more routine. Those first 3-4 weeks can be stressful for everyone.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called "My Librarian Is A Camel". It is an informational story. I find it very interesting. It tells us about communities that are far away from a major city or isolated, and how they get to enjoy library books. In Africa, they are delivered by camel. In Finland, it's by boat, in Northern Canada it is by the mail. The kids find the idea interesting but the reading is dry and hard for them to stay focused on. We will cover this story again tomorrow right before they test over it. In spelling this week the skill was focusing on long i and short i. The grammar focus was on quotation marks. We worked on how to correctly punctuate a quote from someone. This can be very tricky. The students seemed to do well. The test will be challenging. The decoding lesson this week was over VCCV patterns. You should find the test results of last Friday's end of the week test will be found in today's take home folder. They are for you, I have the originals here at school.
Math - In math this week, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers and also rounding numbers. We are struggling with rounding numbers so we are going to spend some extra time on it. I am not comfortable leaving this until I know everyone has a handle on it. We will then have a MId-Chapter checkpoint. This means we are halfway through the chapter. We will have 4 more lessons then get ready to assess our knowledge. I use the MId-Chapter checkpoint to see if there is anything in the first 4 chapters I may need to go back and touch on again with certain students before moving forward. We have been doing a lot of group work in Math to try and share ideas with each other. Sometimes other student'st thoughts might trigger something for someone else who wasn't quite getting it. Today I have a couple games planed for some groups so they hopefully are either practicing their rounding or still working on learning rounding.
Social Studies - We are getting ready for our first test. They worked on a study guide today. We will check it tomorrow and they will test on Monday. Tuesday we will correct the tests and begin the next chapter. Chapter 2 will talk about our government, and our economic system. There is a lot to learn in this chapter. Sometimes it is a hard chapter to teach because there is so much you want the kids to remember. In all honesty, they probably won't find it interesting. I will be looking for ways to present it to them that is interesting.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I will spend Saturday in the Red Oak High School gym watching volleyball. Sunday will be a day to myself!! Woohoo!! I will try to catch up on all the housework, and laundry that I fell behind on during the week. I am usually checking Friday Language Arts tests also!! I pray the balloons can go up and I get to see some. Sometimes on the way to or from Red Oak we see them flying. I just hope the weather allows them to go up.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! This has been a busy week. I went to the Civic Center last night to see Dirty Dancing and it was FABULOUS!!! It was a very late night though. I am yawning today. Tonight I am off to Denison for volleyball. I am ready for this week to be over! The week has been much better homework wise. They are working very hard. I have a "study group" that takes their work to the neighboring room and works. They are monitored by the Ms. Thomas, our aide. They enjoy this time and accomplish a lot. Things are gradually becoming more routine. Those first 3-4 weeks can be stressful for everyone.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called "My Librarian Is A Camel". It is an informational story. I find it very interesting. It tells us about communities that are far away from a major city or isolated, and how they get to enjoy library books. In Africa, they are delivered by camel. In Finland, it's by boat, in Northern Canada it is by the mail. The kids find the idea interesting but the reading is dry and hard for them to stay focused on. We will cover this story again tomorrow right before they test over it. In spelling this week the skill was focusing on long i and short i. The grammar focus was on quotation marks. We worked on how to correctly punctuate a quote from someone. This can be very tricky. The students seemed to do well. The test will be challenging. The decoding lesson this week was over VCCV patterns. You should find the test results of last Friday's end of the week test will be found in today's take home folder. They are for you, I have the originals here at school.
Math - In math this week, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers and also rounding numbers. We are struggling with rounding numbers so we are going to spend some extra time on it. I am not comfortable leaving this until I know everyone has a handle on it. We will then have a MId-Chapter checkpoint. This means we are halfway through the chapter. We will have 4 more lessons then get ready to assess our knowledge. I use the MId-Chapter checkpoint to see if there is anything in the first 4 chapters I may need to go back and touch on again with certain students before moving forward. We have been doing a lot of group work in Math to try and share ideas with each other. Sometimes other student'st thoughts might trigger something for someone else who wasn't quite getting it. Today I have a couple games planed for some groups so they hopefully are either practicing their rounding or still working on learning rounding.
Social Studies - We are getting ready for our first test. They worked on a study guide today. We will check it tomorrow and they will test on Monday. Tuesday we will correct the tests and begin the next chapter. Chapter 2 will talk about our government, and our economic system. There is a lot to learn in this chapter. Sometimes it is a hard chapter to teach because there is so much you want the kids to remember. In all honesty, they probably won't find it interesting. I will be looking for ways to present it to them that is interesting.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I will spend Saturday in the Red Oak High School gym watching volleyball. Sunday will be a day to myself!! Woohoo!! I will try to catch up on all the housework, and laundry that I fell behind on during the week. I am usually checking Friday Language Arts tests also!! I pray the balloons can go up and I get to see some. Sometimes on the way to or from Red Oak we see them flying. I just hope the weather allows them to go up.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Dear Parents,
Hello and Happy Thursday!! We are working very hard in 4th grade!! We are adjusting to using our time wisely at school, and I am learning more about your students. I know it seems like some days there is more homework than others, but I will tell you that as we really get going this will slow down. The subjects start spreading themselves out and it doesn't seem like so much. It is always a struggle at the beginning of the year. The hardest part for me is making sure every student is working diligently during study hall times. There are a lot of distractions with 25 kids. We will continue to work on this. Hopefully you will see the amount of homework changing.
Language Arts - This week was a short week which puts a damper on getting everything we normally do completed. We are reading a story called My Brother Martin. This is a story about Martin Luther King, Jr. written by his sister. She is informing us about what childhood was like for M.L.K. and his siblings and how that inspired him to be so passionate about the Civil Rights Movement. It is quite interesting. I think students forget that these famous people were also children. Our spelling list this week was on Long e and short e words. We looked at the four kinds of sentences for grammar: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. They know what the ending punctuation for each would be and should be able to tell you what each sentence is doing. This week our focus was on Author's Purpose. We talked about the main 3 reasons that an author writes a story. They are: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. I had different activities for groups to do with this. One group read a story, looked for details that led them decide what the purpose of the story was. The other group was given book titles and had to put them in a category of entertain, inform, or persuade. This is a skill we work on off and on all year. We will be able to pick these out easily by the end of the year.
Math - We have been working on 3 forms of writing a number this week. Standard form is the way we see numbers all the time, word form is when we write the number out in words only, and expanded form is when we write the number using the value of each digit. This lesson is time consuming due to all the writing that we do. I feel that I had people still not catching onto the expanded form and how to find the value of a digit using place value. Yesterday we played around with a place value chart and numbers. We made words we discussed their value and then ended with game. The game was, I roll a die and give them a number. They had to place it somewhere on the chart then I would give another number. The goal was to make the biggest number you could BUT you couldn't change a number from a place once it was there. They had a lot of fun with this. I plan to continue working with place value.
Social Studies - Wow!! These first 3 lessons have a ton of vocab words to work with. Once we get into the regions there is only 5-6 per lesson which is much better. We have been talknig about climate and weather. Today we discussed inset maps. We talked about what they are and why we use them. They did some discussion in their groups then as a whole group. I used both large maps in the room to show inset maps and we discussed why they were there. All the ones I had were there for different reasons, which was great. I then had them flip through their books and show me a set of maps with insets maps on them. It is funny, giving 25 kids permission to flip through their book, was a crazy time!! I walked around and looked at everyone's pages. They can easily pick them out but discussing the purpose was little more challenging.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Do something fun and exciting. If you consider a volleyball tournament and then softball tournament fun then I am having a blast!! I do love watching my kids!! Jami does volleyball on Saturday and Josie softball on Sunday. Don't forget the Food Fair on Sunday also!! I look forward to this day always.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello and Happy Thursday!! We are working very hard in 4th grade!! We are adjusting to using our time wisely at school, and I am learning more about your students. I know it seems like some days there is more homework than others, but I will tell you that as we really get going this will slow down. The subjects start spreading themselves out and it doesn't seem like so much. It is always a struggle at the beginning of the year. The hardest part for me is making sure every student is working diligently during study hall times. There are a lot of distractions with 25 kids. We will continue to work on this. Hopefully you will see the amount of homework changing.
Language Arts - This week was a short week which puts a damper on getting everything we normally do completed. We are reading a story called My Brother Martin. This is a story about Martin Luther King, Jr. written by his sister. She is informing us about what childhood was like for M.L.K. and his siblings and how that inspired him to be so passionate about the Civil Rights Movement. It is quite interesting. I think students forget that these famous people were also children. Our spelling list this week was on Long e and short e words. We looked at the four kinds of sentences for grammar: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. They know what the ending punctuation for each would be and should be able to tell you what each sentence is doing. This week our focus was on Author's Purpose. We talked about the main 3 reasons that an author writes a story. They are: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. I had different activities for groups to do with this. One group read a story, looked for details that led them decide what the purpose of the story was. The other group was given book titles and had to put them in a category of entertain, inform, or persuade. This is a skill we work on off and on all year. We will be able to pick these out easily by the end of the year.
Math - We have been working on 3 forms of writing a number this week. Standard form is the way we see numbers all the time, word form is when we write the number out in words only, and expanded form is when we write the number using the value of each digit. This lesson is time consuming due to all the writing that we do. I feel that I had people still not catching onto the expanded form and how to find the value of a digit using place value. Yesterday we played around with a place value chart and numbers. We made words we discussed their value and then ended with game. The game was, I roll a die and give them a number. They had to place it somewhere on the chart then I would give another number. The goal was to make the biggest number you could BUT you couldn't change a number from a place once it was there. They had a lot of fun with this. I plan to continue working with place value.
Social Studies - Wow!! These first 3 lessons have a ton of vocab words to work with. Once we get into the regions there is only 5-6 per lesson which is much better. We have been talknig about climate and weather. Today we discussed inset maps. We talked about what they are and why we use them. They did some discussion in their groups then as a whole group. I used both large maps in the room to show inset maps and we discussed why they were there. All the ones I had were there for different reasons, which was great. I then had them flip through their books and show me a set of maps with insets maps on them. It is funny, giving 25 kids permission to flip through their book, was a crazy time!! I walked around and looked at everyone's pages. They can easily pick them out but discussing the purpose was little more challenging.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Do something fun and exciting. If you consider a volleyball tournament and then softball tournament fun then I am having a blast!! I do love watching my kids!! Jami does volleyball on Saturday and Josie softball on Sunday. Don't forget the Food Fair on Sunday also!! I look forward to this day always.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! I hope your student is enjoying 4th grade so far. I am definitely enjoying the students. It is quite an adjustment for some, and I have given out some late slips all ready. The students will get used to having homework and knowing they need to do it. Parents may need to push them along. I usually dread the first full week of school but I have really enjoyed this one. I was ready to come back and get into a routine. I like to have fun when I teach, and I think the kids are finding that enjoyable. I hope they enjoy my crazy ways!!!
Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie. We have spent 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. 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. These are items tested over every Friday. I request they bring their vocabulary notebooks home to study every Thursday night.
Math - We have had one full lesson in Math this week. It 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 will move on to 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form, and comparing numbers next week. It is always a slow start getting used to my teaching style and how we use our textbooks. We will move a little faster and we go along.
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. This week we have focused on the Regions, their landforms, and the climate of the United States. The students have had to do a lot of vocabulary words and we do a worksheet at the end of each lesson. The worksheets help to summarize what they have learned and what is important.
I really hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. I know there are lots of fun things that happen this weekend. I plan to spend some time with family. I have a cousin who has been training for a triathlon, she had something come up and can't run in the real one, so her husband made one for her around Creston. Family is gathering to watch her and show support, then having a meal together. I admire her spirit. I plan to be there.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! I hope your student is enjoying 4th grade so far. I am definitely enjoying the students. It is quite an adjustment for some, and I have given out some late slips all ready. The students will get used to having homework and knowing they need to do it. Parents may need to push them along. I usually dread the first full week of school but I have really enjoyed this one. I was ready to come back and get into a routine. I like to have fun when I teach, and I think the kids are finding that enjoyable. I hope they enjoy my crazy ways!!!
Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie. We have spent 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. 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. These are items tested over every Friday. I request they bring their vocabulary notebooks home to study every Thursday night.
Math - We have had one full lesson in Math this week. It 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 will move on to 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form, and comparing numbers next week. It is always a slow start getting used to my teaching style and how we use our textbooks. We will move a little faster and we go along.
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. This week we have focused on the Regions, their landforms, and the climate of the United States. The students have had to do a lot of vocabulary words and we do a worksheet at the end of each lesson. The worksheets help to summarize what they have learned and what is important.
I really hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. I know there are lots of fun things that happen this weekend. I plan to spend some time with family. I have a cousin who has been training for a triathlon, she had something come up and can't run in the real one, so her husband made one for her around Creston. Family is gathering to watch her and show support, then having a meal together. I admire her spirit. I plan to be there.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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