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