Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! What a very nice Thursday it is. Weather is great but "Hello" it's Thanksgiving time I want the cold. I am ready for some winter weather. I am a winter person! Just not feeling the "Season" with these summer like temps! Monday, the 28th we are having our celebration lunch for Nate and T.J. Frey. The Frey family provides pizza for the whole school because it was one of the boys favorite things to eat. I will discuss with the kids the importance of the day and the meaning of it. I want them to know this is more than just a pizza day. Also this year has some significance because T.J. would be in 8th grade and graduating with his class in May. For this class it may be difficult because they will not get this celebration anymore. I am expecting some tears that day. Please help them understand.
Language Arts - This week has been a Unit test week. Watch Power School for the results from this test. I will link standards/benchmarks to it so you can see how they did concerning Iowa Core. Next week due to a short week we will not start a new story in Unit 3. We will do that when we return from Thanksgiving Break. Tuesday I will hold my annual "Cuddle Up and Read" day. On Tuesday your child may bring a blanket, pillow, and stuffed animal to school. They don't HAVE to bring anything but are welcome to bring all three or any combination of the three. They will spend an entire hour laying on the floor reading a chapter book to themselves. It is 60 minutes of Book it minutes for them!! The kids love this day and get very excited. I love this day also. I will read with them for the hour. I try to read during DEAR time when we have it during the week. I like to model reading for them. I usually bring in my reading experiences to them when talking about new skills. I love showing them the fun of reading.
Math - We are ending chapter 2!! We will start reviewing today and will take the test next week. What a great way to head off to Thanksgiving break. We will start a brand new chapter when we return. Chapter 3 is also on Multiplication but moving to double digit multiplication. We learn the same strategies just with a bigger number. I am looking forward to getting into that chapter because the kids feel so much like big people learning big multiplication. After chapter 3 we will skip back to chapter 13 and work on perimeter and area. This is a fun chapter because I have them explore the building and measure items and fine perimeter and area. Some of the students are all ready working on this in their ST Math on the computer so it will be review and good hands on activity for them. This class does a great job paying attention so we can move in Math class.
Social Studies - The students started their study guides today for Chapter 3. We will check it tomorrow and take the test on Monday. Tuesday they will make corrections. Great way to finish before break! We will begin Chapter 4 which is over the Northeast Region when we return. I will also go over the projects with them. We will assign the first project and it will be due after Christmas. When we discuss each region separately we learn about Native Americans who were there, resources in the region and usually landforms and some climate. All of these help to show them how they are divided into regions. This is actually when they really start to enjoy social studies. We will also begin singing our States and Capitals song. This can be found for free on Itunes. It is States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho. When working on a region we will also work on maps to help us learn where they states are located. On their tests they will be asked to label a map with the states from the region we are working on. You can help by sharing maps with them at home or pulling some up on the computer for them to practice with. I think there is an app for ipod and iphone on states and locating them. Stack the States is one of them. If you just search geography of United States you will get some good apps to help them.
Geography Bee The preliminary round for the geography bee is on Monday. The 4th - 8th graders are split up between 3 rooms with 2 teachers in each room. They are asked 7 rounds of questions from the National Geography Bee competition. The top 10 with most questions answered correctly will advance to our Final round which will be held December 14th following Mass. At this time we will determine a winner. I have had 4th graders in the past make it to the final rounds. It is very exciting when that happens.
Mass and Reception- The 4th graders have Mass on November 30th. Following mass on this day we would like to invite any family members to stay after mass and share donuts and juice. Hope to see you there!
I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving Break! If you are traveling I hope you are safe. My family will be traveling to Chicago as we do every year. We have a great time with family and do some shopping for Christmas. Black Friday in the Chicago Area is not a big deal like it is around here so places are not that crowded. If we traveled downtown to see Macy's and it's windows, that would be crowded!! We have done that in the past but not this year!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Dear Parents,
Hello and happy Thursday!! Thank you for meeting with me last week to talk about what has been going on is school so far this year. I am always happy to talk about where your child is and how they are doing. Just a reminder, everything they do that is considered homework or any test that they take will have results on Power School. I also link all standards and benchmarks to any test or assignment when it applies. You are able to follow the progress of your child on Power School. Any marks I give your student on the report card should not be a surprise to you because you will have seen it all ready on the grade book. You will also find the student's work in their folders each week. After I enter the results in the grade book I put the paper in their mailboxes to come home on Thursday.
Language Arts - This week we have read the story Jose`Born to Dance. This is a biography about Jose` Limon who was a well know Modern Dancer. We watched a short little biography on You Tube about him. It showed pictures and some video clips of him dancing. He died in 1972 but there is still a dance troupe out there with his name on it. I tried to explain a little bit about Modern Dance to the students. Modern dance tells a story. You will watch people dance without words, but it is to tell you a story about people through the emotions of the dance. In grammar this week we are focusing on Pronouns. We talked about subject and object pronouns, reflexive and demonstrative pronouns, and pronouns and their antecedents. An antecedent is what the pronoun stands for. We have talked about similes and metaphors this week also. Another topic we discussed which made kids go "aha" was shades of meaning. If you look at the words: big, large, huge, enormous and gigantic, they are all synonyms. But if you look at each word they all have a little bit different picture of what "big" represents. Which word to you would make you picture the biggest thing? The kids said gigantic would be the biggest. That is true. They had some fun with this. Remember tomorrow is end of the week so they need to study spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.
Math - We are doing very well getting through chapter 2. We are all ready on lesson 10. Today they learned the standard algorithm or regrouping strategy for multiplication. This is the only strategy you were taught as a child. You will know be able to help your child with homework. I am so proud of the way this class has picked up on the strategies I have taught them. They are doing a great job listening to me and really working at learning the strategies. We will get this chapter finished and wrapped up and head into chapter three before Christmas! YAY! That is awesome!!
Social Studies- We are talking about our country being made up of the Free Enterprise System, which says any business can produce any good or service they want, they don't need the government's permission. We learned the economy is based on a supply and demand economy which helped explain why we have price increases and sales on items. We also learned what it means to make a profit. I like this lesson cause most don't take the profit into consideration. We also had a short discussion this week on what it means to be a citizen of the United States. That entailed discussions of our right to vote but also voting being a responsibility of all citizens. We also held a discussion about how if the person we voted for didn't win, it is again our duty to accept the decision of the people and move on. We have to be supportive of whoever won. This is right in the social studies book, last chapter when we learned about government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. I didn't have much discussion with them the day after the election. This class didn't come with any comments about who won or if that was good or bad. I am very glad. We all know this was a nasty election. I have never seen so much negative as I saw this election. I am thankful it is over.
Book Reports! Book reports are rapidly coming due. They are due Friday, November 18th, the last day of the trimester. Most students seem to be finished reading their books, it is now just making sure there is time to work on the projects. I told the students, color and design is key to this project since cereal is something little kids like to eat. If they can't read the box what are they looking for. A fun package!! I will be having the 1st grade come down and pick their favorites! Please check with your student to see if they have finished ready. If not maybe you could do some together reading over the weekend to boost that along!! I really push that the book be read first before doing the project. There are things they can fill out as they go along but most are taking me literally and not doing anything until they have finished the book.
Have a great weekend! Again, thank you all for coming. I had 100% turnout for conferences! I appreciate that.
Don't forget STEM night tonight in the gym from 5:30 - 7:30!!
Also tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY!! Wear your sweats and pay $1.00.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello and happy Thursday!! Thank you for meeting with me last week to talk about what has been going on is school so far this year. I am always happy to talk about where your child is and how they are doing. Just a reminder, everything they do that is considered homework or any test that they take will have results on Power School. I also link all standards and benchmarks to any test or assignment when it applies. You are able to follow the progress of your child on Power School. Any marks I give your student on the report card should not be a surprise to you because you will have seen it all ready on the grade book. You will also find the student's work in their folders each week. After I enter the results in the grade book I put the paper in their mailboxes to come home on Thursday.
Language Arts - This week we have read the story Jose`Born to Dance. This is a biography about Jose` Limon who was a well know Modern Dancer. We watched a short little biography on You Tube about him. It showed pictures and some video clips of him dancing. He died in 1972 but there is still a dance troupe out there with his name on it. I tried to explain a little bit about Modern Dance to the students. Modern dance tells a story. You will watch people dance without words, but it is to tell you a story about people through the emotions of the dance. In grammar this week we are focusing on Pronouns. We talked about subject and object pronouns, reflexive and demonstrative pronouns, and pronouns and their antecedents. An antecedent is what the pronoun stands for. We have talked about similes and metaphors this week also. Another topic we discussed which made kids go "aha" was shades of meaning. If you look at the words: big, large, huge, enormous and gigantic, they are all synonyms. But if you look at each word they all have a little bit different picture of what "big" represents. Which word to you would make you picture the biggest thing? The kids said gigantic would be the biggest. That is true. They had some fun with this. Remember tomorrow is end of the week so they need to study spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.
Math - We are doing very well getting through chapter 2. We are all ready on lesson 10. Today they learned the standard algorithm or regrouping strategy for multiplication. This is the only strategy you were taught as a child. You will know be able to help your child with homework. I am so proud of the way this class has picked up on the strategies I have taught them. They are doing a great job listening to me and really working at learning the strategies. We will get this chapter finished and wrapped up and head into chapter three before Christmas! YAY! That is awesome!!
Social Studies- We are talking about our country being made up of the Free Enterprise System, which says any business can produce any good or service they want, they don't need the government's permission. We learned the economy is based on a supply and demand economy which helped explain why we have price increases and sales on items. We also learned what it means to make a profit. I like this lesson cause most don't take the profit into consideration. We also had a short discussion this week on what it means to be a citizen of the United States. That entailed discussions of our right to vote but also voting being a responsibility of all citizens. We also held a discussion about how if the person we voted for didn't win, it is again our duty to accept the decision of the people and move on. We have to be supportive of whoever won. This is right in the social studies book, last chapter when we learned about government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. I didn't have much discussion with them the day after the election. This class didn't come with any comments about who won or if that was good or bad. I am very glad. We all know this was a nasty election. I have never seen so much negative as I saw this election. I am thankful it is over.
Book Reports! Book reports are rapidly coming due. They are due Friday, November 18th, the last day of the trimester. Most students seem to be finished reading their books, it is now just making sure there is time to work on the projects. I told the students, color and design is key to this project since cereal is something little kids like to eat. If they can't read the box what are they looking for. A fun package!! I will be having the 1st grade come down and pick their favorites! Please check with your student to see if they have finished ready. If not maybe you could do some together reading over the weekend to boost that along!! I really push that the book be read first before doing the project. There are things they can fill out as they go along but most are taking me literally and not doing anything until they have finished the book.
Have a great weekend! Again, thank you all for coming. I had 100% turnout for conferences! I appreciate that.
Don't forget STEM night tonight in the gym from 5:30 - 7:30!!
Also tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY!! Wear your sweats and pay $1.00.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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