Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! This is the last Thursday we are in school before Christmas!! Next week your kiddos will be home! I can tell Christmas is coming and it is a full moon!! They are very talkative! We will make it though!! I am looking forward to Christmas Break myself. Both kids are home and I am at work! I will be happy to be home with them! Sounds like a wild weekend of weather! I hope all of you keep warm this weekend!
Language Arts - We have read the story Antarctic Journal this week. It is actually a journal account from a visit to Antarctica. It was very informative and interesting to learn about this continent. It talked about penguins and everyone loves penguins! We have been looking at Modal auxilaries this week for grammar. Which is the proper use of may, might, could should, can, and must. These can be very confusing when looked at properly. The kids will probably mix up may, can and might. We also looked at Latin and Greek word parts that we use today. Word parts such as: spect, tele, vis, and struct. We looked at the meaning of each part and how some of the words we use also reflect these meanings.
Math - We have hit the middle of chapter 3. I have discovered there is no way I could get a test in before our vacation, so we have stopped here at the mid chapter review. After break we will review what we learned so far and then take off on the second half which is only 3 lessons. We will learn the regrouping strategy which is the strategy that we all learned as kids. Right now we are working on some fun math that goes with geometry and a little bit of map skills. It uses a coordinate grid to make a picture. I have all sorts of pictures. We are making Christmas related pictures right now. They all had to make a Christmas tree then they could choose their next picture. This class is doing a great job catching on to the new concepts presented to them!! Kudos to them!
Social Studies - We are working through our chapter on the Northeast. We are in the middle of a lesson right now. When we finish this lesson we are going to learn the States and Capitals song and start some map work. This will help us prepare for the states and capitals portion of our test! Next week for fun I plan to have them color the flags of the Northeast regiion. I have coloring pages and we will look the flags up on the computer and put on whiteboard for them to copy. When we get all the flags done we will put them into our interactive notebooks with a few more facts about the states. Just another fun way for the students to be more engaged in their learning. I apologize now about the states and capitals song because they will be singing it all the time once they learn it. I am sure all of you will also know it.
Wednesday, December 22nd - I want to tell you about what will go on this day! In the morning I plan on finishing up anything we need to so that our subjects all have a proper stopping pioint. Then we will have a Christmas Party. At this time we will have a snack and drink. I am looking for volunteers who would like provide one or the other for the class. If you would like to provide one please email me and let me know. While we enjoy our snack we will also play board games. Sometimes it is just fun to sit and play your favorite games with your friends. So your child may bring in their favorite game that day. It doesn't matter what it is, card game board game ect. My favorite game is Battleship. IF anyone has a working electrtonic Battleship game I request it! I have never played one. Last year someone brought one but it didn't work. Your child will need to bring a sack lunch that day to eat with their Advent Angel. Milk will be provided so NO drinks please. After they eat we will sing Christmas Carols in the gym from 12:30 to 1:00. All are welcome to come join in our singing! This is truly the best time of the day! After caroling, the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades will get together in one room and watch a movie for the afternoon. Then they will be all ready to go home!!! WOW what a busy fun day ! At least I hope it is. What fun to celebrate the holiday with your class.
Again I hope all of you have a great weekend! I have my first family Christmas this weekend! It is always great fun! It starts at my house Friday night then to my in-laws all day Saturday! We really enjoy our time together. Last year I was sick and unable to attend. This year I am looking forward to it.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Wow, I can tell Christmas is coming! This is a very busy time of the year at school and at home. I can see it in the kids in many ways. Mainly I hear all the talking they are doing. They are having a very difficult time holding in their conversations. I know it is the excitement of the time of year and I am trying to be patient. We have lots of things going on these next couple of weeks! I hope we can keep everything straight!
Geography Bee - The finals for the Geography Bee will take place Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 10:30 in the gym. All parents of finalists are invited to watch. All students 3-8 grade will be present to watch and cheer on their classmates.
Spirit Day/Sack Lunch - On Friday, Dec. 16th we have a spirit day. Students can pay their dollar to wear sweats, just like all other Spirit Days. This is also an optional sack lunch day. You can bring your own lunch or eat what is provided by the lunchroom.
Food Pantry - All Food Pantry donations are due on Friday, Dec. 16th. Our class has been asked to bring in shaving cream and Q-tips. Next time you are at the store and think about it pick up an item and bring it in. Dollar Tree is a great place to get these items. Once a month these items are handed out at the Food Pantry for those who need a little extra help. We thank you for all your donations.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a fun story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. This story is historical fiction and is about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Maybe you could google some pictures and real articles from this earthquake to share with your child. I feel it is an interesting story due to the story line. A family of 2 is in a tenement building that crumbles down floor by floor. This gives it kind of suspenseful tone. We have worked with possessive nouns this week for grammar. Nouns that show ownership. They use apostrophes. We covered singular and plural possessive nouns. We also talked about synonyms. Remember to study for the end of week assessment and the spelling post test!
Math- We covered lesson 3 today which is using Area Box strategy to multiply. They seem to find this strategy fun and caught on to it pretty quickly. I love this strategy because I am a visual learner and I totally understand exactly what I am doing. Yes, this strategy may take a little bit more time but if a student is struggling with a problem sometimes this is the one they go back to because they do understand it best. We are doing a great job working through chapter 3. I am still praying we can finish it and test over it by Christmas break, but I am not sure we will get it done. We are working hard but sometimes things get in the way and we go with the flow. If we hit a strategy they don't get I will also slow down and spend more time on it so they really catch on. So far we haven't had to do that!
Social Studies - We chose states and projects today. The students can begin their research! I will send home due dates next week! The due dates will begin after Christmas Break. If they chose cake, or quarter they will have one of the first due dates. I schedule 2 projects due a day. We share then move on to our work in the book so class is not put completely on hold. This is when our class gets really fun for the kids. It quickly becomes their favorite subject!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! I am shoppping! Pray for me!! I am not a good shopper! I like doing it from home on Amazon! Sometimes you just have to go to the store though!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Wow, I can tell Christmas is coming! This is a very busy time of the year at school and at home. I can see it in the kids in many ways. Mainly I hear all the talking they are doing. They are having a very difficult time holding in their conversations. I know it is the excitement of the time of year and I am trying to be patient. We have lots of things going on these next couple of weeks! I hope we can keep everything straight!
Geography Bee - The finals for the Geography Bee will take place Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 10:30 in the gym. All parents of finalists are invited to watch. All students 3-8 grade will be present to watch and cheer on their classmates.
Spirit Day/Sack Lunch - On Friday, Dec. 16th we have a spirit day. Students can pay their dollar to wear sweats, just like all other Spirit Days. This is also an optional sack lunch day. You can bring your own lunch or eat what is provided by the lunchroom.
Food Pantry - All Food Pantry donations are due on Friday, Dec. 16th. Our class has been asked to bring in shaving cream and Q-tips. Next time you are at the store and think about it pick up an item and bring it in. Dollar Tree is a great place to get these items. Once a month these items are handed out at the Food Pantry for those who need a little extra help. We thank you for all your donations.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a fun story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. This story is historical fiction and is about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Maybe you could google some pictures and real articles from this earthquake to share with your child. I feel it is an interesting story due to the story line. A family of 2 is in a tenement building that crumbles down floor by floor. This gives it kind of suspenseful tone. We have worked with possessive nouns this week for grammar. Nouns that show ownership. They use apostrophes. We covered singular and plural possessive nouns. We also talked about synonyms. Remember to study for the end of week assessment and the spelling post test!
Math- We covered lesson 3 today which is using Area Box strategy to multiply. They seem to find this strategy fun and caught on to it pretty quickly. I love this strategy because I am a visual learner and I totally understand exactly what I am doing. Yes, this strategy may take a little bit more time but if a student is struggling with a problem sometimes this is the one they go back to because they do understand it best. We are doing a great job working through chapter 3. I am still praying we can finish it and test over it by Christmas break, but I am not sure we will get it done. We are working hard but sometimes things get in the way and we go with the flow. If we hit a strategy they don't get I will also slow down and spend more time on it so they really catch on. So far we haven't had to do that!
Social Studies - We chose states and projects today. The students can begin their research! I will send home due dates next week! The due dates will begin after Christmas Break. If they chose cake, or quarter they will have one of the first due dates. I schedule 2 projects due a day. We share then move on to our work in the book so class is not put completely on hold. This is when our class gets really fun for the kids. It quickly becomes their favorite subject!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! I am shoppping! Pray for me!! I am not a good shopper! I like doing it from home on Amazon! Sometimes you just have to go to the store though!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday and welcome to Advent!! Today being the first day of December gets us all in the mood for Christmas. We are back to having full weeks of school which we have not had for a while. For the students this will be a very long 3 weeks but for the teachers it seems to go quickly. I have goals I want to reach academically by the time Christmas Break gets here and sometimes it is difficult to get those things done due to all of our activities we have going on. I plan to work them hard and have fun this month!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms. It is not the most entertaining story to read. It is non fiction and full of information. I have had the kids read it everyday this week just because it is a difficult one. Tuesday and Thursday they read with partners. Monday I read to them. Wednesday they read silently to themselves. On Friday we will read it together and have a discussion as a large group. I am hoping hearing it 5 times will help them with the end of week assessment. In grammar this week we talked about those fun easily confused words that people like to blast each other about on Facebook. Their, there, and they're, to, too, and two, and its and it's. We have spent a day discussing each group. They seem to understand the difference but they don't pay attention in their writing and put the correct one. Spelling words this week were on compound words. These words can be two words joined together into one work like fireplace or classmate, they can be joined with a hyphen like make-believe and twenty-two, and they can be two separate words like all right and alarm clock. Tomorrow they will take a post test so be sure they are studying!!
Math - We finished up chapter 2 took a test. They have completed their chapter 3 pretest online (which was very difficult and some were just plain mad at me for not helping). I kept telling them it is pretest do the best they can. They will see a huge jump when they take the test at the end of the chapter and they learn a ton of new stuff!! Chapter 3 is kind of an extension of chapter 2. It is multiplication but with double digits. Most lessons they will catch on to pretty quickly. Some we may need to spend a couple days on. I hope to have chapter 3 complete by Christmas break since it is only 7 lessons long. It will take some hard work on all our parts to make this happen, but I have faith in us. Keep working on multiplication flash cards at home! It helps tremendously.
Social Studies - We have begun talking about the Northeast Region. We are learning new vocabulary words. Today we talked about Niagara Falls and its beauty. We also talked about how important it is to the state of New York because the hydropower plants at Niagara Falls supplies the state with electricity or hydroelectricity. We will be using a cross cross-cut diagram to learn how a hydropower plant works. I will soon be going over the Social Studies projects with the kids and assigning the first one which will be due after Christmas break. We will also begin putting together an interactive notebook on the Northeast states and learning how to label a map with the states. I will also begin using the song to help them memorize states and capitals. What a busy time we have!!!!
Two important things:
Tomorrow is a Spirit day!! We are trying to raise a little extra money for our adopt-a-family so we are upping the Spirit! You can pay $1.00 to wear sweats and you can pay an extra $1.00 to wear a hat for the day.
The second item is a reminder that tomorrow we walk to the Food Pantry so make sure your child comes prepared for the walk. They will want a coat, hat and mittens. Thank you!
Christmas Tree - I have a Christmas tree on the bulletin board in my room. We want to get into the holiday spirit so if you could send an ornament with your student, we will hang them on the tree and have a class tree. Please do not send breakable ornaments, because if they fall on floor they will break. Otherwise any ornament works. I will send them back home with the kids when they leave for Christmas Break.
Report Cards - They will be coming available soon. I think next week. Nothing on the report card should be a surprise to you. We talked at conferences and if you follow on Power School you can see how your child is doing. Please be sure to take a look at them!!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! My family and I had a great time in Chicago. I got a lot of my shopping taken care of while I was there. It was a fun relaxing weekend. I am thankful we are able to go and the weather cooperated!! I am praying for snow! In my eyes it is not Christmas without snow!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday and welcome to Advent!! Today being the first day of December gets us all in the mood for Christmas. We are back to having full weeks of school which we have not had for a while. For the students this will be a very long 3 weeks but for the teachers it seems to go quickly. I have goals I want to reach academically by the time Christmas Break gets here and sometimes it is difficult to get those things done due to all of our activities we have going on. I plan to work them hard and have fun this month!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms. It is not the most entertaining story to read. It is non fiction and full of information. I have had the kids read it everyday this week just because it is a difficult one. Tuesday and Thursday they read with partners. Monday I read to them. Wednesday they read silently to themselves. On Friday we will read it together and have a discussion as a large group. I am hoping hearing it 5 times will help them with the end of week assessment. In grammar this week we talked about those fun easily confused words that people like to blast each other about on Facebook. Their, there, and they're, to, too, and two, and its and it's. We have spent a day discussing each group. They seem to understand the difference but they don't pay attention in their writing and put the correct one. Spelling words this week were on compound words. These words can be two words joined together into one work like fireplace or classmate, they can be joined with a hyphen like make-believe and twenty-two, and they can be two separate words like all right and alarm clock. Tomorrow they will take a post test so be sure they are studying!!
Math - We finished up chapter 2 took a test. They have completed their chapter 3 pretest online (which was very difficult and some were just plain mad at me for not helping). I kept telling them it is pretest do the best they can. They will see a huge jump when they take the test at the end of the chapter and they learn a ton of new stuff!! Chapter 3 is kind of an extension of chapter 2. It is multiplication but with double digits. Most lessons they will catch on to pretty quickly. Some we may need to spend a couple days on. I hope to have chapter 3 complete by Christmas break since it is only 7 lessons long. It will take some hard work on all our parts to make this happen, but I have faith in us. Keep working on multiplication flash cards at home! It helps tremendously.
Social Studies - We have begun talking about the Northeast Region. We are learning new vocabulary words. Today we talked about Niagara Falls and its beauty. We also talked about how important it is to the state of New York because the hydropower plants at Niagara Falls supplies the state with electricity or hydroelectricity. We will be using a cross cross-cut diagram to learn how a hydropower plant works. I will soon be going over the Social Studies projects with the kids and assigning the first one which will be due after Christmas break. We will also begin putting together an interactive notebook on the Northeast states and learning how to label a map with the states. I will also begin using the song to help them memorize states and capitals. What a busy time we have!!!!
Two important things:
Tomorrow is a Spirit day!! We are trying to raise a little extra money for our adopt-a-family so we are upping the Spirit! You can pay $1.00 to wear sweats and you can pay an extra $1.00 to wear a hat for the day.
The second item is a reminder that tomorrow we walk to the Food Pantry so make sure your child comes prepared for the walk. They will want a coat, hat and mittens. Thank you!
Christmas Tree - I have a Christmas tree on the bulletin board in my room. We want to get into the holiday spirit so if you could send an ornament with your student, we will hang them on the tree and have a class tree. Please do not send breakable ornaments, because if they fall on floor they will break. Otherwise any ornament works. I will send them back home with the kids when they leave for Christmas Break.
Report Cards - They will be coming available soon. I think next week. Nothing on the report card should be a surprise to you. We talked at conferences and if you follow on Power School you can see how your child is doing. Please be sure to take a look at them!!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! My family and I had a great time in Chicago. I got a lot of my shopping taken care of while I was there. It was a fun relaxing weekend. I am thankful we are able to go and the weather cooperated!! I am praying for snow! In my eyes it is not Christmas without snow!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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