Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I hope your week is going well.  We have had a pretty good full week.  Of course next week we go back to a short week with no school on Monday. I have found that this class struggles on the day we come back from a weekend.  Whether it be a Monday or a Tuesday we are very talkative and less attentive, but then the next day and the rest of the week are okay. Hopefully this is just a beginning of the year thing and it will wear off.  

Language Arts -  This week we are reading My Camel is a Librarian. This is informational text which I think is interesting but the students not so much.  It talks about some remote and isolated places in the world that do not have access to internet or books.  This story tells about the creative ways people have figured out to get the books to the.  One is by camel, elephant, boat, wagon pulled by donkey, and through the mail.  I try to tell the students how lucky they are to have a school with a classroom bookshelf, a library and also a public library. I also point out the electronic devices they can read books on.  We talked about them having access to books pretty much 24/7.  Of course they are not too impressed with this.  They did feel bad for the kids who didn't have books though.  On spelling this week their list was on short i and long i words.  In grammar they reviewed quotation marks.  

Math - We have talked about comparing numbers this week.  They are using the symbols <,> and =.  They have also learned how to put numbers in correct order.  The only struggle they have is paying attention to which order to put them: greatest to least or least to greatest.  We have done some activities this week using dice and a deck of cards to show place value and comparing numbers.  I think I have made it fun for them.  We will move on today with a new lesson.  I do have some kids who need to make corrections on some homework.  I think they are just going through the homework too quickly to get it done and not focusing on doing it well.  They will always get it back to correct with me, so maybe they will learn to take their time.

Social Studies- This week we have talked about the 3 levels of government.  The students were divided into groups.  Each group was assigned a branch of government to read about.  The group was to take some notes over important information about that branch.  The next day they were grouped again but in different groups.  One member from each branch was matched with a member from the other two and they had to teach each other about the branches. This puts the students accountable for their learning and not just the teacher teaching in the front of the room.  I did put photos on the Facebook page to show them working in.  They worked hard on taking notes from each other. Tomorrow we are going to learn about Time Zones.

I am trying very hard to pay attention to how much homework I am giving the students.  I do not want them to be bombarded with it at home.  But I also need them to show me they can work independently and show the knowledge they are gaining.  There are things we do in class as a class and things I expect them to be able to do on their own.  This is when I figure out if a student is struggling.  I hope everyone has a great Balloon Days Weekend!  Hopefully everyone gets to see the balloons go up at least once. Art this week was the students creating a picture with hot air balloons.  My kids are coming home so I am happy to have a full house again!

Remember NO SCHOOL MONDAY, September 18th!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels