Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  This has been a whirlwind of a week for me!!  I was out of classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  My mother-in-law was taken to Des Moines with a blood clot in her leg and also in each lung. (very scary)  I am now back and will be the rest of the week!  Things were a little crazy but I spent today getting things back in order!  I am all caught up now and have the kids exactly where we need to be.  I am very thankful we have reliable substitute teachers that can follow our plans and teach so the kids are not missing a day! 

Language Arts -  This week we are reading the story Ecology for Kids.  This is a story about Earth, it's ecosystems, and protecting our environment.  It is Science topics in language arts.  It is informational text.  Everything they are reading is factual information.  The skill they are focusing on is Facts and Main Ideas.  We find the main idea and then pay attention to the details below that support our main idea.  They are also working on clarifying their reading.  Knowing that if they don't understand what they are reading or don't know the meaning of the word, they need to stop and clarify before they move forward.  Try to understand before you go any further.  I have related this to my own reading in my personal time for them and how I use my dictionary on my kindle, or if I am reading a book, I use my phone or computer to search the meanings of things I am unsure of.  In grammar we have been working on verb, Irregular verbs, the BE verb, and helping verbs. Tomorrow is our week 1 assessment.  Then next week will be the Unit 3 benchmark test.  It will still be taken online, it's just a bigger test looking at all we have learned in Unit 3.

Math -  We have finished up chapter 4 this week.  We will be starting the chapter 4 test tomorrow.  I hope they all get the test finished but this one will require them to take their time so it may take 2 days.  We will just see.  We went over their review today in class and then I had them get out an extra practice worksheet for them to work on at home so they are practicing for the math test.  It is not an assignment that they have to do, but it will help them prepare for tomorrow's test.  We will start chapter 13 next which will cover area and perimeter.  It is a fun chapter where we do a lot of hands on and it makes a nice transition for the students.  

Social Studies-  We took chapter 4 test this week!  The students have all finished, it has been checked, they have corrected, and now I need to look at their corrections.  We will begin chapter 5 which still covers the Northeast region.  Some kids struggled on labeling the map this test.  Next time they will need to be able to label the map AND know the capital of the state.  I will teach them a song to sing this chapter to help with that.  They will all have a copy of the lyrics so they can learn it quickly. We will then try to sing the song everyday at the beginning or end of class.

REMINDER:  THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!  This is a planned day off with the Diocese of Des Moines.  The teachers will be traveling to Des Moines to meet with the other teachers in the diocese for inservice.  Sounds pretty lucky we all ready do not have school if the weather does what it is suppose to do.  I hope that doesn't happen.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Stay safe!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels