Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I hope all of you are enjoying the week.  Today is our last day of the week!  Two short weeks in a row!  I know the kids will enjoy their long 4 day weekend!  I told them to think of me when I was still here working.  Friday we will be here in our building working on literacy professional development and Monday we go to Des Moines to work with all the other Catholic School Teachers in the Diocese.  I hope they all come back rested and ready to go on Tuesday!  

Language Arts - This week we read a very interesting story.  It is called Invasion From Mars.  It is an excerpt from War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.  On October 30, 1938, they broadcast this portion of the book as a radio play.  Many Americans did not turn on their radios to hear the introduction of the radio show and if you turned on in the middle of the show you thought that aliens had landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey.  It cause a little bit of panic in America.  You can listen to the actual broadcast on youtube.  Google War of the Worlds October 30, 1938.  The piece we read happens at about 10:12.  We listened to it once at school.  It is an interesting story for the kids to hear.  I think some of them were very intrigued about it really being on the radio and scaring some people.  In grammar we learned about action verbs, helping verbs, and linking verbs.  Today is our post test and end of week assessment since we do not have school tomorrow.

Math -  We have taken our chapter 2 pretest this week.  We have went over the beginning pages to review and also preview the next chapter.  Today I plan on starting the first lesson in chapter 2.  It is covering comparison problems.  They will be given a comparison statement and from that they will draw a picture to match the statement.  It is a very good lesson that is like a skill needed before we are able to do certain word problems.  This multiplication chapter is 14 lessons long.  Some lessons will only take us a day and some will take 2-3 days.  I am very picky about moving on.  I want all the kids to master the lesson before I move forward because in this chapter all the lessons build up from one another.  I have to teach one thing because you will use it to do the next.  I hope and pray we can complete this chapter in good time to get in 3 before Christmas.  We start messing with the schedule soon though.  Once we hit conferences then we hit Thanksgiving Break and in no time it is Christmas break.  When you are planning lesson it all seems very quick.

Social Studies -  We have completed our first test.  I am happy with all the scores.  Some maybe could have spent more time on their vocabulary words but overall it was pretty good.  We have begun talking about the Northeast Region.  We have listed the  11 states that make up the region in our notebooks.  We also put them into New England States and Middle Atlantic State.  We have begun talking about Niagara Falls and that it is not just beautiful but also very helpful to the state of New York for providing electricity.  We also are talking about the Appalachain Mountains being the oldest mountain range in the U.S.  I am also pointing out it is not the highest because that is the Rocky Mountains.  We will talk about the different mountain ranges found in the Northeast Region and where they are.  We will work on locating these states on a map.  I will have them practice and even do a practice test over this region before the first real test.  They will work on labeling the map with states and capitals.  We will also begin putting together our interactive notebook.  This notebook will have all 50  states in it and some facts about each one that the student will look up on their own.  We end up doing a lot of cutting and pasting!  The best part is they will walk away with a book full of information that they may keep.

I hope all of you enjoy your weekend and the kids take advantage of their long weekend to rest up and be ready for next week!  We are picking up the twins and heading to Iowa City this weekend to see family. My sister-in-law from Chicago is coming and my nephew lives in Iowa City.  I get to spend some time with my wild and crazy great niece.  


God Bless, 
Mrs. Sickels