Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  Just an FYI sickness has hit our room.  Yes, we have had the bronchitis stuff, but now it's the flu.  I just want you to be aware of it.  If your child complains about feeling like they could throw up, they may be telling the truth.  
     How about this warm up.   Enjoy it while it lasts because the cold is coming back.  Please be sure your child is still bringing the necessary recess gear.  It the temp and windchill are above 0 we will still be going outside!  If the windchill falls below we keep them inside for safety.  We don't want frostbite!!

Language Arts-  This week is our last story of Unit 3 which means next week is a Unit test week!  We will talk about Book reports which are due January 29th, we will have a small writing project, and also meet with 7th graders to see their poems they created on Powtoons.  We will also work on the Unit 3 test.
     This week we read the story Ecology for Kids.  It is a nonfiction story about ecology of the earth.  They explain what ecology means and what exactly an ecologist studies.  It also talks about ways in which students can help protect our environment.  In grammar we have talked about irregular past tense verbs, we have focused on the verb "be" and talked about past tense verbs with helping verbs.  The decoding lesson was on 3 syllable words and how to break them into those 3 syllables.  Tomorrow will be our end of the week test and spelling post test. Please be sure your child is looking over these items.

Math-  In math this week we discussed problem solving and then moved on to reviewing for a test.  The test is today.  We will make corrections tomorrow in class.  Next week we will begin chapter 3 which is multiplying 2-digit numbers.  This chapter is shorter and will go quicker because we know all the strategies, we are just making it about a bigger number.  After that we do a chapter on geometry where the focus is on area and perimeter.  It is nice to slide that chapter in right after multiplication because that is what area consists of.  I hope everyone looked over the problems I clued them in on yesterday.  Good luck on the test!

Social Studies - We are winding down on projects for the Northeast!  About the time we are completely done we will be assigning the next region!  We are in the middle of the chapter right now, but will finish quickly.  We are most likely looking at a test at the end of next week.  Possibly the beginning of the next.  We will pick up singing our states and capitals song again here at school to help them remember capitals.  They will need to be able to name the states of the Northeast and capitals and also place them on a map.  I hope to get some map work in next week also.  

 I hope all of you have a great weekend.  We have some family coming, so I look forward to my weekend.  Don't forget January 30th is Trivia Night.  See the Principal's blog for information on how to sign up or refer to your flyer from last week.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels