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