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