Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  We actually have a full week this week!  Remember next week is conference week.  If you have not signed up for a conference please be sure to do so.  I will put the link to the sign up page following this paragraph.  I have to do my own conference for my daughter Molly at the High School at 9:00 so I have signed myself up for the 8:40 and 9:00 time slots.  I need to be able to drive there.  I apologize if that is a time you would want.  I look forward to talking to you about your student and how they are doing.  Here is the link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0544a5a72ca1fe3-mrs

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Me and Uncle Romie.  This is a fun loving fictional story.  The kids should be enjoying this story this week.  It is an easy read that is very realistic.  It's a story about love and family and also fine arts.  It discusses collage art, which is a form of art that I compare to scrapbooking.  You use paint and other items like paper, cloth, tickets, feathers, flowers, anything you want to put with it.  Collage art is to tell a story.  There were a few examples in the story also.  We were talking about present progressive and past progressive verbs this week and our vocabulary strategy was on proverbs and adages,which are figures of speech like an idiom.  Saying things like, he was as good as gold, I am head over heals for him, and hang in there.  This week I have put their vocabulary words on Quizlet which is a website that helps them to study their words in many different ways.  They get to choose how they study or what game they will play to help them better know their words. I hope to see some improvement in vocabulary scores this week due to this new study tool.  Tomorrow is post test in spelling and also end of the week assessment.  

Math - We have been studying comparison word problems this week in math.  The next lesson will be over multiplying tens, hundreds and thousands.  This is an easy lesson for them.  It teach them the strategies in the book but also the short version of looking at the basic fact and counting the zeros.  They will find this lesson fun because they will pick up on it very quickly.  Most students love when the get something very quickly and are more eager to work with it.  This might be the easiest lesson in this chapter so we better enjoy it.  I feel like they are doing a great job listening and paying attention in Math class.  I tell them every day how important it is to follow what I am doing. I move from the front of the room to the back of the room a lot during math to keep their eyes moving with me. I don't think they realize what I am doing but it seems to work!!

Social Studies - We have now put two states in our interactive notebook.  The students should be getting better at understanding what they are to do with the pages and how to cut and paste them in the notebook.  Which means we will move a little faster with this.  They will get a state assigned to them and be expected to find the information, color what needs colored and also cut and paste on their own.  We are talking about the resources that are found in the Northeast Region.  We will learn about a few important items that come from these states. Items that we use here and most likely get from the Northeast states.

Halloween!  Next Tuesday is Halloween.  We will celebrate here at St. Malachy.  The students are to bring their costumes and we will have our annual parade at 2:30.  We also have Halloween activities that we go the Middle School and participate in.  The homeroom teacher is going to supply us with treats and juice boxes while we wait our turn for activities.  What an exciting day!

It is Homecoming for Iowa State!  I am headed up to tailgate the game.  I bought an alumni shirt for the weekend and probably will be covering with a coat, hat and mittens.  They look to have a little snow on the ground.  Another reason I will be in Ames to see SNOW.  You will quickly learn I love snow and want to have some this year.  I grew up playing in the snow and snowmobiling every weekend. I loved being outside then coming inside to hot chocolate and the furnace in our house.  Now that was winter!  I feel if it has to be cold then we should have snow.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and stops in to the Vendor Fair!  I bet you can find some great Christmas Gifts!  I am sorry I am missing it.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels