Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! We are surviving our first full week in a very long time!!! Only to be given a "Crazy" week next week. We have Halloween activities on Monday and then we are out extra early on Thursday so we can hold conferences. I hope all of you have signed up for time slot to meet with me. I am looking forward to discussing your child with you! The rest of this year will move along very quickly. Once conferences are here it pretty much the end. After conferences we have 2 short weeks til Thanksgiving, then Advent starts and Christmas is just around the corner! Then BOOM! it's 2017. So crazy to think half the year would be over.
Conferences - I have sent out a link to your emails to sign up for conferences. There are still about 9 of you who have not signed up. You may just need to check your emails. If your are having trouble with signing up please call the school and let the office help you. I have lots of times on Thursday still open. I appreciate all of you who have all ready singed up. I will see you next week!
Language Arts - This week we have read a story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is realistic fiction. It is a fun story about a boy who goes to stay with his Aunt and Uncle because his parents are having twins. He is from North Carolina and is going to stay in New York City. He learns a lot. It is a very fun loving story. We have worked on visualizing as our skill. The grammar we are focusing on this week was about progressive verbs. These verbs have a helping verb in front of the main verb and the main verb ends in -ing. The helping verb decides the verb tense, whether it is past, present, or future. We also talked about figurative language this week. Idioms was our focus. Phrases that mean something different then what the words really mean. Examples would be "Good as gold, hang in there, safe and sound, chow down, and head over heals". We practiced putting them into sentences. As always tomorrow is our end of the week assessment and spelling test! Please be sure your child studies.
Math- We have begun learning strategies to multiplication. Yesterday we learned the expanded form strategy. I really like this one. It breaks the number down so we can easily get the answer. They actually learned 2 ways to use expanded form, the used an area box which they all really liked because it provided a visual for them. They also learned just a written form. This form is a form of Algebra. Once we learned how to do it I told them they just learned Algebra. They were excited and amazed. I told them that was exactly why I didn't tell them up front they would be learning algebra today. They would have had a little panic in them. When you tell them after it's done they have that sense of "Wow, I can do it!" For a teacher this is the best part. We will also learn partial product before the week is up which is similar to what we are doing, it is just recorded differently. This strategy is the way I prefer to do multiplication. I understand what I am doing better than the standard algorithm which is what you learned in school. The students are doing a great job listening and participating in math and we are moving very smoothly through this chapter which tends to drag on and on. We are coming up to some times that we miss a lot of time to teach math, but I plan to keep our momentum going.
Social Studies - We just finished Chapter 2. The students began chapter 3 today. We completed a vocabulary preview page and began putting vocabulary words into our packets. This is a very important chapter which focuses on the United State's Economy. We will learn a lot of big vocabulary words explaining our country's economic system and how it works. This is the last chapter we have based on the United States as a whole. The chapters to follow will be designated on a certain region. We will study the Northwest Region first. This is also means our social projects will begin. These are fun projects the students do to share information about a state. I will discuss these briefly at conferences next week!
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I am excited about the football game!!
GO PANTHERS!! In honor of the football game tomorrow is a FREE spirit day!!! You can wear all your PANTHER gear including sweatpants for free tomorrow. Let's rock the red and black so I can take a group photo!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Dear Parents,
Hello!! Happy Thursday! I am so sorry I blew off writing a parent letter last week. The short week just totally threw me off. This short week is also throwing me off. The kids are actually handling all these short weeks better than I am. I sometimes feel like life is crazy in the classroom!! I know they enjoy my craziness sometimes. The question is can we handle a full couple of weeks??
Conferences - Conferences are coming up quickly. They are Thursday, Nov. 3rd. I have sent out the schedule for sign up to your emails. Please be sure to check it out. I opened up some extra spots on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please only sign up here if you really have a conflict with Thursday. I know I had a parent that will be out of town on business on Thursday and that is why I did this. I am anxious to meet with all of you to discuss how your child is adapting to my classroom.
Language Arts - I am trying something very different this Unit. I am working on figuring out how to use the online assessment tools that are offered to us. The students took last week's end of the week test online. You will not be receiving any test results from last weeks test because I am still learning. This week I will be sure to have the results for you. The story they read this week was called Coming Distractions. It talks about things in movies that don't make sense in real life. Examples would be in Charlie's Angels the women fight in high heels, when a parent loses a job they still drive fancy cars and live in big houses, and when cars crash people walk away from them unscathed. These are just a few things that show how movies can be meant to be realistic yet be so unrealistic. They like talking about movies and certain scenes but reading about this stuff wasn't very interesting to them. Their favorite activity we did this week was I played a theme song to a movie and they had to guess the movie. This was fun. Of course they knew Titanic, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jaws, and Pretty Little LIars, but didn't know Superman, Hunger Games, and Avengers. They have asked to do more of that every day! In grammar this week we reviewed verb tenses, Past, Present and Future. We made decisions on what tense sentences were in and what verbs should be used. We talked about being consistent with verbs. If one is future tense in a sentence then they all should be. We also learned about helping verbs and past participle. This is a past tense verb that has a helping verb in front of it. Students need to study spelling words and their vocabulary words tonight for end of the week test.
Math - We are working through chapter 2 in math. I feel like it is progressing quite nicely so far. Every day we stress the importance of paying attention in class and doing what is asked of us. Participation is also the key to success. I feel like they are really listening and trying to do this. We have finished 3 lessons in this chapter so far. I feel like they are really catching on. I plan to keep moving at a good pace to keep them learning and understanding. This chapter can drag on forever and I don't want to do that with them. We need to keep moving. I am thinking the ST Math we do 3 times a week is helping this process also. One thing that you could do at home is practice multiplication facts! The quicker they are and the more they know their facts the easier this will be. We will find some days here where we work flash cards with a partner. The more practice at home the better.
Social Studies We have finished up chapter 2 and will be taking a test on Monday. This chapter covered a lot of areas. The most important being the lesson on Government. We learned about the 3 branches and the 3 levels, which is review from 3rd grade but we also talked a little deeper,learning what each branch does. You will find in their notebooks where they took their own notes over what they read. We also talked about theories of how Native Americans got to America, you will find notes in the notebook on these 2 theories. The third thing was explorers. They learned about a few explorers that came to explore. You will also find a chart in their notebooks on this. They did a lot of reading and looking for information this chapter. They really liked to be in charge of what they were to look for. They got more out of the lesson reading with someone finding answers and then sharing in discussion with the whole group. This was all something new for me to try with students and they seemed to thrive on it. I hope this test shows that what we did was useful!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! Remember to sign up for a conference time!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello!! Happy Thursday! I am so sorry I blew off writing a parent letter last week. The short week just totally threw me off. This short week is also throwing me off. The kids are actually handling all these short weeks better than I am. I sometimes feel like life is crazy in the classroom!! I know they enjoy my craziness sometimes. The question is can we handle a full couple of weeks??
Conferences - Conferences are coming up quickly. They are Thursday, Nov. 3rd. I have sent out the schedule for sign up to your emails. Please be sure to check it out. I opened up some extra spots on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please only sign up here if you really have a conflict with Thursday. I know I had a parent that will be out of town on business on Thursday and that is why I did this. I am anxious to meet with all of you to discuss how your child is adapting to my classroom.
Language Arts - I am trying something very different this Unit. I am working on figuring out how to use the online assessment tools that are offered to us. The students took last week's end of the week test online. You will not be receiving any test results from last weeks test because I am still learning. This week I will be sure to have the results for you. The story they read this week was called Coming Distractions. It talks about things in movies that don't make sense in real life. Examples would be in Charlie's Angels the women fight in high heels, when a parent loses a job they still drive fancy cars and live in big houses, and when cars crash people walk away from them unscathed. These are just a few things that show how movies can be meant to be realistic yet be so unrealistic. They like talking about movies and certain scenes but reading about this stuff wasn't very interesting to them. Their favorite activity we did this week was I played a theme song to a movie and they had to guess the movie. This was fun. Of course they knew Titanic, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jaws, and Pretty Little LIars, but didn't know Superman, Hunger Games, and Avengers. They have asked to do more of that every day! In grammar this week we reviewed verb tenses, Past, Present and Future. We made decisions on what tense sentences were in and what verbs should be used. We talked about being consistent with verbs. If one is future tense in a sentence then they all should be. We also learned about helping verbs and past participle. This is a past tense verb that has a helping verb in front of it. Students need to study spelling words and their vocabulary words tonight for end of the week test.
Math - We are working through chapter 2 in math. I feel like it is progressing quite nicely so far. Every day we stress the importance of paying attention in class and doing what is asked of us. Participation is also the key to success. I feel like they are really listening and trying to do this. We have finished 3 lessons in this chapter so far. I feel like they are really catching on. I plan to keep moving at a good pace to keep them learning and understanding. This chapter can drag on forever and I don't want to do that with them. We need to keep moving. I am thinking the ST Math we do 3 times a week is helping this process also. One thing that you could do at home is practice multiplication facts! The quicker they are and the more they know their facts the easier this will be. We will find some days here where we work flash cards with a partner. The more practice at home the better.
Social Studies We have finished up chapter 2 and will be taking a test on Monday. This chapter covered a lot of areas. The most important being the lesson on Government. We learned about the 3 branches and the 3 levels, which is review from 3rd grade but we also talked a little deeper,learning what each branch does. You will find in their notebooks where they took their own notes over what they read. We also talked about theories of how Native Americans got to America, you will find notes in the notebook on these 2 theories. The third thing was explorers. They learned about a few explorers that came to explore. You will also find a chart in their notebooks on this. They did a lot of reading and looking for information this chapter. They really liked to be in charge of what they were to look for. They got more out of the lesson reading with someone finding answers and then sharing in discussion with the whole group. This was all something new for me to try with students and they seemed to thrive on it. I hope this test shows that what we did was useful!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! Remember to sign up for a conference time!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Best day about Thursday is tomorrow is Friday!!! Best part about tomorrow is, it is Spirit Day!!! The kids can pay $1.00 and wear sweat pants for the day. Teachers get to pay and wear jeans! The money raised goes into our Pay it Forward Fund. The teachers do different things with this money to help those in need. We may give to a family who is going through a difficult time, or a school who has lost a student or co-worker. Last year we collected a lot of money and unfortunately we sent out a lot of goodie baskets. Our baskets went as far as Waukee and Boone. We let the kids know what we do and where the money goes. It is a really good thing. We know this is a great feeling when other schools are thinking of you. We experienced this ourselves and received a basket from another school. This is when it all began for us. If your child doesn't want to wear sweats a donation is greatly appreciated!
Language Arts - We have spent this week testing. It is our first Unit test. This is a very large test which I spread out over 3 days. We are finished with it. Today we will enter our results online. I have found the tests online where it can generate reports for me. It will show me who is struggling and in what areas they are struggling. We are also going to start a Halloween writing project this week! They will be writing a Halloween story based on a story line of a children's story or fairy tale. Examples would be The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Three Billy Goat's Gruff, Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. They have also been assigned their first book report. The book needed to more than 100 pages and a chapter book. I don't allow Dairy of Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, or any book that is mainly pictures. At the 4th grade level they need to be challenging themselves with more Chapter Books. I asked that they stay away from Magic Tree House and Animal Ark books also. I want them to branch out and discover new books. Next week we are back to the book, reading stories and learning strategies and skills!!
Math - We finished chapter 1, we took pretest for chapter 2 and today we will get started with chapter 2. This is a long drawn out chapter. I talked to the students yesterday about what they can do to help get us through this chapter smoothly. Their suggestions were to pay attention, participate, listen and focus. These are great ideas. I told them I would hold them to that. This chapter is over multiplication. We will learn several strategies to solve a multiplication problem. All the of them are really good!! They really explain what multiplication is doing and how it works. It takes some time to get used to and I know parents will struggle trying to help at home. It will all be fine and we will get through it. I am taking the lessons and teaching them my own way instead of how the book says to teach it. Yes, we will be doing the same thing you just may not see them filling out their books fully. Yesterday we ripped out all of chapter one from their books. That will be coming home in their folders tonight. You can see we use some of the pages but not all of the pages. That will be the same with this next chapter. You are welcome to use the pages in the book for practice at home, ONLY if we have passed that lesson and I didn't use them. I will definitely use the On Your Own section.
Social Studies - We are working on chapter 2. We have discussed 2 theories of how Native Americans came to North America. We talked about explorers who explored the area and why. Now we are talking about our Government. We are learning about the 3 branches and their purpose and Who makes up each branch like President, Congress and Supreme Court. We only skim the surface of government. There is a lot of information in this one lesson. We discuss being a republic, democracy, and representative democracy. We also talk about Congress being made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. I also shared with them how many members are in each, or at least how the figure it. This is a very informative chapter. We will begin working on a map skill next week. We will cover a Time Zone Map. I like this lesson because some kids don't realize we have time zones and why. This tells them why and shows about where they boundaries are. They will color a map in and answer time zone questions using the map.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I know I will, I have family back from Texas! I am excited to see them and get to spend some time with them. Now, let's pray the weather cooperates.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Best day about Thursday is tomorrow is Friday!!! Best part about tomorrow is, it is Spirit Day!!! The kids can pay $1.00 and wear sweat pants for the day. Teachers get to pay and wear jeans! The money raised goes into our Pay it Forward Fund. The teachers do different things with this money to help those in need. We may give to a family who is going through a difficult time, or a school who has lost a student or co-worker. Last year we collected a lot of money and unfortunately we sent out a lot of goodie baskets. Our baskets went as far as Waukee and Boone. We let the kids know what we do and where the money goes. It is a really good thing. We know this is a great feeling when other schools are thinking of you. We experienced this ourselves and received a basket from another school. This is when it all began for us. If your child doesn't want to wear sweats a donation is greatly appreciated!
Language Arts - We have spent this week testing. It is our first Unit test. This is a very large test which I spread out over 3 days. We are finished with it. Today we will enter our results online. I have found the tests online where it can generate reports for me. It will show me who is struggling and in what areas they are struggling. We are also going to start a Halloween writing project this week! They will be writing a Halloween story based on a story line of a children's story or fairy tale. Examples would be The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Three Billy Goat's Gruff, Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. They have also been assigned their first book report. The book needed to more than 100 pages and a chapter book. I don't allow Dairy of Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, or any book that is mainly pictures. At the 4th grade level they need to be challenging themselves with more Chapter Books. I asked that they stay away from Magic Tree House and Animal Ark books also. I want them to branch out and discover new books. Next week we are back to the book, reading stories and learning strategies and skills!!
Math - We finished chapter 1, we took pretest for chapter 2 and today we will get started with chapter 2. This is a long drawn out chapter. I talked to the students yesterday about what they can do to help get us through this chapter smoothly. Their suggestions were to pay attention, participate, listen and focus. These are great ideas. I told them I would hold them to that. This chapter is over multiplication. We will learn several strategies to solve a multiplication problem. All the of them are really good!! They really explain what multiplication is doing and how it works. It takes some time to get used to and I know parents will struggle trying to help at home. It will all be fine and we will get through it. I am taking the lessons and teaching them my own way instead of how the book says to teach it. Yes, we will be doing the same thing you just may not see them filling out their books fully. Yesterday we ripped out all of chapter one from their books. That will be coming home in their folders tonight. You can see we use some of the pages but not all of the pages. That will be the same with this next chapter. You are welcome to use the pages in the book for practice at home, ONLY if we have passed that lesson and I didn't use them. I will definitely use the On Your Own section.
Social Studies - We are working on chapter 2. We have discussed 2 theories of how Native Americans came to North America. We talked about explorers who explored the area and why. Now we are talking about our Government. We are learning about the 3 branches and their purpose and Who makes up each branch like President, Congress and Supreme Court. We only skim the surface of government. There is a lot of information in this one lesson. We discuss being a republic, democracy, and representative democracy. We also talk about Congress being made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. I also shared with them how many members are in each, or at least how the figure it. This is a very informative chapter. We will begin working on a map skill next week. We will cover a Time Zone Map. I like this lesson because some kids don't realize we have time zones and why. This tells them why and shows about where they boundaries are. They will color a map in and answer time zone questions using the map.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I know I will, I have family back from Texas! I am excited to see them and get to spend some time with them. Now, let's pray the weather cooperates.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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