Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!! Best part is...tomorrow is Friday!!  I am actually home sick today.  My cough has returned with a vengeance!  I hope going home and getting some good rest will help calm it down.  Mrs. Bearden is there to take good care of the kids!  Valentine's Day is just around the corner!!  We will be celebrating here in the classroom next Tuesday, February 14th!  Read further for details!

Language Arts -  This week we have read the story Hercules' Quest.  It tells a story about Hercules and how he is put to the test to earn his place on Mount Olympus with his father Zeus.  They were confused at first about it being different then the movie Hercules which brought us to the discussion of how many movies are not like the books and how the books are a lot more detailed!  We talked about prepositions and prepositional phrases this week for grammar. This is a hard one to teach and get the kids to grasp.  I feel like they did a good job the first day!  Today they were getting more in depth.  The students also took some FAST testing this week.  It is statewide testing that a lot of schools use to show fluency and comprehension in reading.  I tested each student individually over the last couple weeks then today they all took a test online.  This required them to have earbuds and listen to what it was telling and asking.  The tricky thing with this testing is we only have like a 3-4 week window that we can give the test.  We will do this same routine again in the Spring.

Math -  We are finished with our Area and Perimeter chapter.  The students started their review today.  We will go over it tomorrow and they will take their test on Monday.  I look forward to seeing the improvement from the prestest they took at the beginning of the chapter.  Our next chapter we will tackle is going to be on Division.  It is a very big heavy chapter.  This class will do a great job getting the content.  I try to make it seem very exciting so they want to learn the new concepts.  If we are negative about what we are learning it will rub off on the kids and then they will struggle.  If you are struggling at home helping them, just take a break and send the child to school to me and we will work it out.  If it is stressful at home, it will be a very negative experience.  They more positive we are the better accepted it is by the kids.  That is what we are here for!

Social Studies - We continue to work on our interactive notebooks.  Looking up information about the different states and cutting and pasting it into a notebook they can keep forever!! We are starting the last lesson in this chapter so a test will be in the works for next week for sure.  Probably towards the end of the week.  Our next chapter begins the Southeast Region.  We will have a new round of projects and new flags to color!  Thank goodness for our computers!  I am so thankful we have them, they can pull them out at anytime to look up information and practice their vocabulary words on Quizlet.

Quizlet -  I have gotten the students on a sight called Quizlet.  I put their vocab words and spelling words for Language Arts on there every week. I also have put the vocabulary words for Social Studies on it.  They go on Quizlet at school and play games that help them learn their vocabulary words.  I tried to send it to your emails to be used at home.  I am not sure I recommend it.  You will get a ton of spam like emails.  So far the scores on Friday tests for vocab have picked up and shown improvement.  I am hoping to see huge improvement on the Social Studies test in the vocabulary section.  This will tell me whether it is worth it or not.  There is time at school for them to get on and do the activities so there is really no need to try it at home. Although I am sure they would love to be able to do it at  home also.  Sad thing is I don't have all the answers to why it works and why it doesn't.

Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th.  We will celebrate Valentine's Day at the end of the day.  The students have made bags to place their valentines in.  We will take the time to share the valentines and have a snack.  I am looking for a couple of volunteers to bring in our treat for the day.  I am asking for someone to bring a treat/snack and one to bring in a drink.  We eat the snack and drink and pass out valentines.  I do not allow them to eat candy from their bags.  That is to go home and be eaten at your discretion.  Please email if you are willing to supply the class with either of these items for their party. Thanks in advance.

Wednesday, February 15th.  This is an important day on the calendar.  It is such, because the public school does not have school that day.  They have PD scheduled.  We ARE having school that day.  There will be no buses running that day!  Which means you have to make sure your student gets to and from school that day.  This also happens to be the wrestling day.  If you are planning on taking your child to support the Panthers at State Duals, you will need to let us know in advance.  A note on Monday will be fine, so we can gather their homework on Tuesday and they do not fall behind.  Thank you!!

Auction Basket - We are still gathering items and cash donations for our auction basket.  Please send any donations you may have to school.  Also keep in mind, next week I will need their bible verse.  I will talk to the kids about it tomorrow or Monday.  The silent auction item  is the kids writing a favorite bible verse on a block of wood and those pieces of wood will be put together and made into a cross.  It is a very cool idea.  You can find it on pinterest.  If you have any questions about either of these contact Kiki Scarberry for the basket, Danielle Steele for the silent auction, or myself, I can answer about both.  Next Friday  Danielle plans to come in and  the students write on the blocks.  Then she will take them and finish them.

I feel like I had a lot to report this week!  I hope all of you have a great weekend!  I plan to take it easy and rest and try to shake what ever it is I have.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels