Hello!! Welcome to 4th grade!!!
I am very excited to be teaching your children this year. Thank you for sharing your precious gem with me! We have had a good first two days, I think..... I feel they have gone very well. Your kids may say differently. We are learning the basics. They have to get used to me and how I run my classroom. They have to get familiar with all my expectations and how work is done. Everything is new to them. I am sure it has been overwhelming for them. I feel overwhelmed sometimes also. We will get the bugs worked out then the day will run like a well-oiled machine! (we hope) My classroom is very routine. We will stick to the schedule. Only time we venture off schedule is when extra fun activities are planned: Advent Angels, Lenten Angels, Bullying days, Catholic Schools Week, or snow days.
I hope this blog is helpful in keeping you posted on things we are doing in the classroom and fun things we may do throughout the year. If you have any questions or concerns for me shoot me an email at msickels@crestonstmalachy.org or call the school 641-782-7125. I am available most mornings 7:45- 8:10 then again 9:30-10:00. Also at the end of the day 3:15-3:45. Also, brand new this year, I have a voicemail box You can call the school and leave a message on my voicemail. The BEST way to reach me and get a response is via email.
Language Arts - The first few days I am assessing the kids on what they retained from last year and areas that need some work, so I know where to begin with each one. We took a spelling inventory today, which is like a pretest. It just gives me an idea of what kind of a speller they are. Tomorrow we will take the diagnostic test. On Monday, I will begin the first story of Unit 1 with them, which is called Because of Winn Dixie. It is a story from a book right off my shelf written by Kate DiCamillo. They will enjoy it. You will begin to see homework in this subject on Monday.
Math - I am also assessing the students this week in the area. I am seeing what they retained over the summer or for some what they learned. It will help me see the areas they do well in and which ones I will need to slow down and spend some extra time on. We took part of this test today and will finish it tomorrow. I will spend weekend going over it and making some teaching decisions. Our series is called Go Math and follows the Iowa Core. After teaching it last year, I am in love with it. Kids have a much better understanding of Math then before. We really get in depth. Things are really broken down so kids have a better answer to "why" we do the things we do in Math.
Social Studies - We will be studying the United States this whole year. The first three chapters focus on "Living in the United States". We will learn that the U.S. can be split into 5 different regions. We will also talk about our Government and how it is set up. We will then study the states a region at a time. Kids will be able to label on a map the states of each region and by the end of the year they will label all 50 States on a map. We have projects we complete during each region. The projects usually start after conferences so we will discuss them more then. I hope your kids love this subject as much as I do.
Science and Religion- Just a reminder that our child will go to Ms. Surma for Religion class and Mrs. Burg for Science. I am in charge of 3-5 Social Studies. This is the same as last year. You should check out their blogs to see if there is anything about 4th grade on them. If you have questions or concerns about these two classes you will need to make contact with these two teacher.
I am looking forward to a great year full of fun and LOTS of learning. Have a great weekend!! Happy Birthday to me Saturday, August 29!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
