Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!   I hope all you received the paper we sent home yesterday about the Iowa Energy game.  I am so sorry for all the confusion with this.  You will be getting information in the folders today about the game and what is going on.  We found out by accident that we needed to know exact numbers by tomorrow morning.  Check out your children's folders for information.  Again, this was not meant to confuse people, we just needed a number for the parents going.  We also received a lot of money today for kids fees.  That was just the fee for the parents.  The fee will be a little more to include the bus fee.  If you sent money today that is fine, we have collected it and kept track of who sent what.  

Language Arts -  This week was a Unit 3 test week.  We took the test over 3 days.  I will send results home next week.  Not all sections have been corrected yet.  The other activities we have done this week include more DEAR time for the kids.  I also have read out loud to them a little more.  A few 7th graders came into the room on Tuesday and shared some narrative poems that they had created using the website POWTOONS.  Their poems came alive on the computers.  We shared them on my whiteboard.  I think the kids thought this was pretty cool.  I told them this was a website they could go to for free and create stories or poems.  I also said if anyone chose to do it for fun we would share here at school.  We ended the week with do an Appointment clock activity I was introduced to recently.  It is a grouping strategy.  They matched up with people and then wrote names on their clock by certain times. When I want them to partner up quickly, I may say get with your 4 o'clock partner and they immediately go to the person who is on their calendar at 4:00.  Now that the clock is finalized we can do partner activities and not waste time assigning partners or finding partners.  Very cool.  Tomorrow we are gong to work on a writing activity.  The students will be working on writing descriptive paragraphs on their bedrooms.  They will need to write a paragraph describing their bedroom using all five senses.  It is a fun one especially when it comes to describing the smell of one's room.  It has been a fun relaxing week.  Next week we get back into our textbook.  It will be a normal week with spelling, grammar, and a story to read.  In spelling, I am making a little bit of a change to how we pretest.  This decision to change was based on an article I read that showed some interesting research on spelling tests.    Spelling is very important to reading. As a matter of fact "Spelling leads to being a better reader", it is not the other way around which is most people's belief.   This change does not affect you or what your child does at home, it will for right now effect pretest days.  Instead of me checking their tests I will be having the kids check their own papers as I read the answers out loud.  This allows them or forces them to see what mistakes they are missing and maybe see a pattern.  I will still pick them up and double check the first couple of times and I will put the scores on website so you are aware how they are doing.  I hope this leads to them understanding their errors and not just plain memorizing. 

Math -  We finished up chapter 2 this week and will begin chapter 3 today.  I will get their tests back next week to come home and be signed. I have a few not finished correcting yet and checking back over their corrections is a tedious job.  I am very particular with corrections especially since I gave some guidance on what I expect.  We will begin chapter 3 today with the introduction pages.  This chapter is on double-digit multiplication.  It will move quicker than chapter 2.  We all ready know all the strategies we will just change them a little.  There are not as many lessons in this chapter either.  It pretty much sticks to some main strategies that are important for them to learn.  I look forward to this chapter because it is shorter and seems less stressful.  Chapter 2 is just too long!

Social Studies - Projects are done!!  We are in the last lesson of this chapter also.  We will be testing next week over the last chapter of the Northeast Region. I plan to assign the next set of states too them soon.  The next region will move a little faster, it has to.  We have 3 more projects to get done by the end of the year.  Isn't that crazy that I have to think about the end of the year all ready!!  

Please be sure to check with your child to see if they are needing new notebooks, crayons or colored pencils.  Sometimes we lose things or use things up.  I know some kids need some things because they are borrowing  from others which is not always a good idea.  I am finding I am needing crayons and colored pencils for my stash because I am loaning them out and not getting everything back.  Just a mid year check to replenish any supplies.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels