Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!! This week the only good thing about Thursday is that Friday is tomorrow!!!  I would say the 4th graders are getting excited for Christmas.  Some a lot more than others.  The most important thing is we are still working hard.  This has been a week of ups and downs.  With the passing of Kirk Levine being our low and the excitement of Secret Santa starting in our building, emotions are high.  We are praying for Mrs. Levine and her family daily.  I hope everyone had the chance to share with your children on his passing.  If not they are aware of it today.  Funeral arrangements can be found online at Pearson's funeral home.


Language Arts - This week in we have been reading a story called Antarctic Journal.  This is about the author's 4 month visit to the Antarctic.  We learned a lot about the region through this story.  The was a narrative nonfiction story.  It told a story about her stay but told us factual information.  In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxilaries, which are words like: may, should, could, can, might, and would. We discussed the appropriate times to use these words.  The fun one we talked about was "may" and how we should use "May I" to ask permission for things.  In spelling we worked on words with endings of -ed and -ing again.  This week was better than last week.  Tomorrow is our normal testing day so make sure they are studying for their spelling test and end of the week test over the story.

Math -Yes, folks we did it!  We have learned the standard algorithm!! The math that you were taught in school!   The students like it but they did say they liked the partial product strategy too.  Some still get a little confused when multiplying how to record their answers but we are working on it.  We will spend the next couple of days working on it.  Some were very excited to see this, so I am sure some of you have been sharing this  strategy at home.  We took another timed test yesterday and I will have the results on the computer by the end of the day.  Any student who got 100% for the 2nd time will move down to only 4 minutes of time allowed to take the test.  Woohoo!! That is exciting.  The goal is 2 minutes.  I can just get it done in 2, so it is quite the challenge!

Social Studies -  We are finishing up chapter 4.  We their study guides today.  They need to study for the test tonight because they will take it at 8:30 tomorrow morning!  On Monday, I will give the tests back for corrections and we are done!  It is a great stopping place for Christmas Break!  When we return, projects start rolling in!  We will start on the next region as soon as chapter 5 in complete!

Last Day- The last day before break is a fun one for us! We will spend the first hours in the morning doing some house cleaning in our desks and finishing anything that needs finished.  At 10:00 we plan to watch a Christmas movie with 3rd and 5th grade. We have a sack lunch with our Advent Angels, then we sing Christmas Carols from 12:30 - 1:00.  At 1:00 we will come back to our room and have our Christmas Party.  We will have a snack and play games.  The students are asked to bring in a board game from home to play with others.  No electronics just board games.  I have some good ones here but not a lot! I know kids have favorites at home. Please allow them to bring them.  I love playing games!!!    Parents are welcome to join us at any point of the day, or all day for that matter!!  It is a fun day celebrating Christ's birth with our school family.  I am looking for one volunteer to provide snacks for that day!  Anyone interested email me or text me at 641-202-1580.  If you text, let me know who you are.  

I want to end by saying Merry Christmas to all of you!!! I hope you have a very special Holiday Season!  I will be thinking of all of you!  I really do miss your children during this break!  Be safe!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels