Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  Wow! What a great week for weather!  The week has really been enjoyable.  The only downfall to this warmer weather is that allergies are kicking in!  We are very low on Kleenex.  I had a couple students bring some in at my last request.  I hope that will get us through the end of the year.  If your child is particularly bad you might send them with a box.  I know my eyes have been bothering me a lot this week.  I am not complaining though!!!  You will find a couple more pictures from my trip at the end of this letter.  If you have any requests of something I have seen please let me know.  I will be glad to share.

Language Arts - This week we read a true story about Owen and Mzee (mzay).  Owen is a hippopotamus that lost his family during a tsunami.  He was rescued and placed in Hallar Park in Kenya.  He became friends with an Aldabra tortoise named Mzee.  This is a very odd friendship which is what the story is about.  How they became friends and the reasons behind it.  This is considered Narrative Nonfiction.  It tells a story but you are learning things about the animals as you read.  In grammar we began to work on commas.  We talked about using commas with compound sentences.  We also talked about how they are used with items in a list, separating date and year, and separating city and state.  These are great lessons to have right before Iowa Assessments.  We have one more story left to read in this unit.  We will then take the Unit 5 test.  When that is finished unit 6 is meant to be a fun, light unit. Well... instead of doing that unit I will doing my  own unit using the book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.  We will use all the strategies we learned throughout the year with this book.  This will show the students how to take what they learning and apply it to a book they read on their own of their choice.  I think sometimes they need to see things done.  So I plan to lead by example.  We will have many activities that we will do during this unit.  A lot of them are fun but again we will use the skills and strategies we learned in the text to help us comprehend. 

Math -  We are still working with Division in Math.  We only have a couple lessons left in this chapter.  We will finish the up next week.  Then we will take a Chapter 4 test.  I am thinking we will be heading into fractions after this lesson.  Fourth grade is suppose to have a very large part of math focused on fractions.  This will kind of fun for them because we will use a manipulative to help us better understand fractions.  When they can be hands on they enjoy math much better.  It will start off pretty easy but then progressively become a little challenging.  I know all these students will do well with this topic like all the others we have done this year.

Social Studies -  We are gearing up for our first test over the Midwest States.  They received a study guide today, which we will check on Monday.  This means there will be a test on Tuesday.  Projects are due in a couple of weeks.  This will be perfect timing for the end of the next chapter.  We still have the Southwest and West to get to.  We are moving along at a very good pace.  If we keep this up we will be fine.  Remember to have them practice the location of the states.  They will be required to label a map of the Midwest.

I hope everyone has a great Holy Week and Easter Sunday!!  I wish safe travels to all those who will be traveling to be with family.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Josie, myself, and Jami in front of White House

911 Memorial at the Pentagon.  There is a bench for anyone who perished in the building or on the plane.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier