4th Grade Mrs. Sickels Scoop

Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Maybe I should say Happy Soggy Thursday. I am enjoying every minute of school today because I will probably sit at a very wet track meet all night! We are watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today! Kids are excited! It is a great movie. They have really enjoyed the book. This is crazy to think, but next Thursday is my last Thursday blog. I can't believe it! I am going to miss these kids.

Language Arts - We finished the book Charlie and Chocolate Factory yesterday! Today we are watching the movie and tomorrow we will discuss book projects. I know you are all thinking "WHAT, another project!?" Well, never fear, I am going to introduce it to them tomorrow and then I expect them to do all the work in class next week. I will want them to bring any boxes they need on Monday, and they will be given class time to create their projects. I will be able to provide all the other stuff, paper, a paper cutter, pens, markers ect. I want to see this projects being created. If they choose the candy package project, they will also be making a completely made up candy, and that will need to be done at home. Same as Social Studies, if you wish they wouldn't do that project then just let your child know. There are plenty of projects to choose from. Next Friday they will present their book projects to the class. This one should be a fun one for them

Math - We finished chapter 5 this week. This is the last math test we will take this year. I plan to dig into chapter 6 and teach it clear up to the last day! I will get through as much as a can as long as everyone is understanding. We will be working on Fractions the whole time. I hope to make these lessons more hands on using tiles and cubes to help understand fractions. They really can be fun in the beginning. Being able to see the difference in fractions helps to make a lot of sense too.

Social Studies - We started hearing out last projects today. We will have projects due all next week also. I am anxious to see what we have from each student. We will take a States and Capitals practice test this afternoon. We will do one today and one next week. Next Friday we will do the real test. They will need to label a map, locating all 50 States and naming their capitals. I have a map they can use for practice. I will send that home today. We will finish chapter 10 today and take one more test next week. We will then begin reading chapter 12. We will not test over it but we will do vocabulary and worksheets like normal. We will do this until the end of the year. I can't believe I have to keep thinking about the end being so close.

Field Trip - We had a great time on our field trip. I would like to thank Katie Turner, and Rachel Glynn, and Dennis Kinsella for driving. We also want to thank Dennis for treating the kids to an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen! It was a great end to our day. The train ride was fun. They loved the High Bridge, and going over the Des Moines River. There was a lot of debris at the river. Full trees that have floated down the river and I assume got stuck in ice jams over the winter and shoved up on shore. They also saw the YMCA camp. They thought it looked like a lot of fun! We ate at Ledges State Park in a shelter house. We didn't have time to go for a hike, but it would have been a little muddy. They then drove through the spillways at ledges. There are 5 of them. It was fun. Kids were trying to take photos of everything. Some of you even probably saw videos. It was a great day! Here are some photos I took.