Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I know we did. We traveled to Chicago to my sister-in-law's house. We had a great meal and then did some Black Friday shopping! I got a few really good deals. In Chicago, Black Friday is not as big a deal as it is here. No lines waiting to get into stores or for certain items. We always come home with a very full car. Report cards are finished and will be available online to you soon. You will need to watch for information to come.
Language Arts - We are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes this week. It is a historical fiction piece written about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. It really is a very detailed story of what happens to a father and son. I explained it is not true but all other things discussed about the actual earthquake is true. I also told them they could look up the topic and read more about it or at lease figure out what was truth. The story kind of scares me talking about buildings burying people alive. In the end they are rescued but it is pretty nerve wracking. In grammar this week we have talked about possessive nouns. We focused on Singular possessives and plural possessives. Some nouns have to have the spelling changed in order to make them plural like child/children or words that don't change like moose/moose. We talked about how to make them possessive also! Remember tomorrow is a spelling post test and end of the week test! We are back into a full routine! So happy to have a full week of school and the fact that I am done traveling!
Math - This week we reviewed partial product and then moved on to the standard algorithm of Multiplication. Which is the way you learned to do it growing up. The kids caught on pretty quickly, which could be that they have learned it at home. We have only worked on 2 digits times a single digit right now. We will move on to 3 digits times a single digit next week. We are getting ready to end a chapter which means a test will be coming soon. I doubt it will be next week. But it will be the next for sure then I have some fun Christmas math activities the students will do before we start the next chapter. I will say chapter 3 will go quickly because we are taking strategies we all ready know but applying it to double digit multiplication.
Social Studies - This week we are working on our interactive notebook and getting some more states in there. We also started on maps. The students were given 4 blank maps of the Northeast Region. They are to make an answer key map where they label each area with correct state and capital. Then they have 3 practice maps to practice labeling. We will have a map test next week. It will be the exact same map that they must label with states and capitals. I try to get them to memorize a region at a time so at the end of the year the entire 50 states and capitals are not so overwhelming. Please be sure your child is studying these!
Food Pantry - From November 30 - December 15th we will be collecting items for the food pantry to help boost their inventory. The items asked for are toothpaste, toilet paper, kleenex, and Food. The Food needs to be non-perishable canned fruits and veggies or boxed meals like Hamburger Helper, tuna helper, suddenly salad,ect. Monetary donations are also accepted. Please send an item or more than one with your child to help the food pantry provide for our community. Thank you very much.
Christmas Program - Our Christmas Program is fast approaching! It is Wednesday, December 6th at 6:30 pm. This event is being held at the Creston High School. I love our program, it definitely gets me in the spirit of the season. I have heard the 4th graders singing and they are fabulous. I am very proud of them and know they will do a great job!
Class Tree - I have a classroom tree which is just a tree on a bulletin board but I would like the students to bring in a Christmas ornament and I will hang it on our tree. Yes, real ornaments but you might send one that is not breakable or totally special to them. Lots of things can happen in their bags on way to school and if it would fall off the tree it would break. I have never had any fall of the tree only students dropping them and breaking them. They will bring the ornament back home with them at Christmas Break. Thank you!
I hope everyone is getting their shopping done and decorations put up. Molly and I went and purchased our tree Tuesday night. It is in a bucket in my garage right now but we hope to get it up tonight or tomorrow. The decorating of the tree will take place Saturday. I have a lot of my shopping done. Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! Remember I am gone today and tomorrow. I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) in Indianapolis, Indiana. I left on a bus at 5:30 this morning. I am going with 10 Creston youths and another chaperone. We will spend tonight at a concert by TobyMac who is a christian Hip Hop singer. We will then spend Friday and Saturday with some keynote speakers, at mass, in small group sessions of the student's choice, and in fellowship with other students from around our Diocese. One night we will have a pizza dinner with Bishop Pates. I look forward to attending some of the sessions and hope I learn some things that I can apply to my classroom and youth group on Wednesday nights. Some of the sessions sound very interesting and very in tune to what goes on in today's world. Mainly with the phones! I know one was about taking selfies. Pray for all of us while we are away. I know I will be praying for all my students while I am gone. I absolutely hate being away from the classroom. I know me being gone really throws a wrench into their routine and I hate to do that to the students too. This class has come such a long way from 3rd grade! They have matured and are learning to be very good students. I will honestly miss them all while I am away. I gave them half hugs today before they left for the day.
Geography Bee- The 4th graders get the opportunity to participate this year in our annual Geography Bee. What happens is the 4th-8th grade students are split up between 3 rooms and put through 7 rounds of geography questions. The top 10 scorers of the preliminary rounds will move on to the Finals. The Finals will be held on a Wednesday after Mass in December. The official date will come later. I have had 4th graders make it to the finals in the past. It is the luck of the questions. This is not something the kids can opt out of. They will all participate. This will happen Tuesday morning of next week. I will run the 4th graders through a practice couple of rounds in our own room Monday, so they know exactly what to expect.
Language Arts- We took a Unit 2 Test this week. We completed it on Wednesday. Your child knows how they did. Sounds like some are very proud of their score. I will try and look at those while I am gone but will definitely dig into them on Monday. Since I will be gone for two days we are starting the next story Thursday and will cover it until Tuesday. They will have a spelling pretest today and the post test will be on Tuesday. Due to the nature of the week, meaning the story is split by a weekend and Tuesday we really don't have enough time, we will not be taking an end of the week test over this story. This story is a nonfiction or informational text on Hurricanes. The students will be interested in some of the content but not a lot and I feel like the cover a lot in a short amount of pages, which makes it difficult to understand it completely. It will try to teach them how a hurricane is formed and what it needs to increase in intensity and what causes it to decrease. The terminology is very high tech. We will just enjoy this one as best we can!
Math - We are halfway through chapter 2!! Today they will take the Mid-Chapter Checkpoint which is a review over what we have learned so far. They will work on it today in class then check it on Friday. My intent is to see how they did and if not too well, I will do some reviewing of the material before Thanksgiving Break so we start the second half of the chapter when we return. If they do well, then by all means, we will move on. My goal is to definitely have chapter 2 complete before Christmas and be into Chapter 3 before we go on Christmas Break. Let's hope it all works out like that! Friday I plan to have them do some flash card work with multiplication. This helps them to memorize their facts so when we are learning these strategies and processes they are not stressing about basic facts. Playing with these basic facts at home would also be a plus for them.
Social Studies - We are working on putting the Northeast Region in our interactive notebooks. The students are finally getting the hang of how to do it. I am finding small errors like not capitalizing a city name or the 2 letter postal abbreviation, or sometimes they put periods in the postal abbreviation. I make them fix those errors. We have talked about when to use capital letters and when not to. They know the difference they are just being forgetful or lazy. We will be starting Chapter 5 this week. They will begin to do vocabulary and learning about the Narragansett Native Americans that were in the Northeast Region. They lived in present day Rhode Island. They will learn how they used cooperation to survive. They will learn what they lived in and what food they ate. I plan on giving them the lyrics to the States and Capitals song when we return from Thanksgiving Break. We will also begin practicing for our first map test. It will only cover the Northeast Region. Monday will be a practice run through of the geography bee and Tuesday will be the real thing.
Monday Nov. 20th Lunch - This day is a special day and will most likely be our last lunch to celebrate the lives of Nate and T.J. Frey. The boys untimely passing happened on November 30th and we are going to have a pizza lunch on the 20th to remember the boys and eat one of their favorite meals. TJ would have graduated from 8th grade last year and Nate would be an 8th grader this year. So hard to believe! We are glad to help Corey and his family celebrate their lives. So hear is a pizza toast to Nathan and TJ Frey! Love you boys!
Reminder that we have school Monday and Tuesday of next week but the kids are off on Wednesday! I hope everyone enjoys their break. My girls and I travel to Chicago every year for Thanksgiving. It is our favorite time of the year. We do our black Friday shopping in Chicago and believe it or not, it is not half as crowded as it is in Iowa! The girls also get to do some sort of craft while at their aunt's house. We are always excited for what the craft will be. One year they made stand up mirrors for their dorm rooms. Who knows what this year will bring. I know I heard "sewing" mentioned. If you are traveling, I hope all of you have a safe trip!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! Remember I am gone today and tomorrow. I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) in Indianapolis, Indiana. I left on a bus at 5:30 this morning. I am going with 10 Creston youths and another chaperone. We will spend tonight at a concert by TobyMac who is a christian Hip Hop singer. We will then spend Friday and Saturday with some keynote speakers, at mass, in small group sessions of the student's choice, and in fellowship with other students from around our Diocese. One night we will have a pizza dinner with Bishop Pates. I look forward to attending some of the sessions and hope I learn some things that I can apply to my classroom and youth group on Wednesday nights. Some of the sessions sound very interesting and very in tune to what goes on in today's world. Mainly with the phones! I know one was about taking selfies. Pray for all of us while we are away. I know I will be praying for all my students while I am gone. I absolutely hate being away from the classroom. I know me being gone really throws a wrench into their routine and I hate to do that to the students too. This class has come such a long way from 3rd grade! They have matured and are learning to be very good students. I will honestly miss them all while I am away. I gave them half hugs today before they left for the day.
Geography Bee- The 4th graders get the opportunity to participate this year in our annual Geography Bee. What happens is the 4th-8th grade students are split up between 3 rooms and put through 7 rounds of geography questions. The top 10 scorers of the preliminary rounds will move on to the Finals. The Finals will be held on a Wednesday after Mass in December. The official date will come later. I have had 4th graders make it to the finals in the past. It is the luck of the questions. This is not something the kids can opt out of. They will all participate. This will happen Tuesday morning of next week. I will run the 4th graders through a practice couple of rounds in our own room Monday, so they know exactly what to expect.
Language Arts- We took a Unit 2 Test this week. We completed it on Wednesday. Your child knows how they did. Sounds like some are very proud of their score. I will try and look at those while I am gone but will definitely dig into them on Monday. Since I will be gone for two days we are starting the next story Thursday and will cover it until Tuesday. They will have a spelling pretest today and the post test will be on Tuesday. Due to the nature of the week, meaning the story is split by a weekend and Tuesday we really don't have enough time, we will not be taking an end of the week test over this story. This story is a nonfiction or informational text on Hurricanes. The students will be interested in some of the content but not a lot and I feel like the cover a lot in a short amount of pages, which makes it difficult to understand it completely. It will try to teach them how a hurricane is formed and what it needs to increase in intensity and what causes it to decrease. The terminology is very high tech. We will just enjoy this one as best we can!
Math - We are halfway through chapter 2!! Today they will take the Mid-Chapter Checkpoint which is a review over what we have learned so far. They will work on it today in class then check it on Friday. My intent is to see how they did and if not too well, I will do some reviewing of the material before Thanksgiving Break so we start the second half of the chapter when we return. If they do well, then by all means, we will move on. My goal is to definitely have chapter 2 complete before Christmas and be into Chapter 3 before we go on Christmas Break. Let's hope it all works out like that! Friday I plan to have them do some flash card work with multiplication. This helps them to memorize their facts so when we are learning these strategies and processes they are not stressing about basic facts. Playing with these basic facts at home would also be a plus for them.
Social Studies - We are working on putting the Northeast Region in our interactive notebooks. The students are finally getting the hang of how to do it. I am finding small errors like not capitalizing a city name or the 2 letter postal abbreviation, or sometimes they put periods in the postal abbreviation. I make them fix those errors. We have talked about when to use capital letters and when not to. They know the difference they are just being forgetful or lazy. We will be starting Chapter 5 this week. They will begin to do vocabulary and learning about the Narragansett Native Americans that were in the Northeast Region. They lived in present day Rhode Island. They will learn how they used cooperation to survive. They will learn what they lived in and what food they ate. I plan on giving them the lyrics to the States and Capitals song when we return from Thanksgiving Break. We will also begin practicing for our first map test. It will only cover the Northeast Region. Monday will be a practice run through of the geography bee and Tuesday will be the real thing.
Monday Nov. 20th Lunch - This day is a special day and will most likely be our last lunch to celebrate the lives of Nate and T.J. Frey. The boys untimely passing happened on November 30th and we are going to have a pizza lunch on the 20th to remember the boys and eat one of their favorite meals. TJ would have graduated from 8th grade last year and Nate would be an 8th grader this year. So hard to believe! We are glad to help Corey and his family celebrate their lives. So hear is a pizza toast to Nathan and TJ Frey! Love you boys!
Reminder that we have school Monday and Tuesday of next week but the kids are off on Wednesday! I hope everyone enjoys their break. My girls and I travel to Chicago every year for Thanksgiving. It is our favorite time of the year. We do our black Friday shopping in Chicago and believe it or not, it is not half as crowded as it is in Iowa! The girls also get to do some sort of craft while at their aunt's house. We are always excited for what the craft will be. One year they made stand up mirrors for their dorm rooms. Who knows what this year will bring. I know I heard "sewing" mentioned. If you are traveling, I hope all of you have a safe trip!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! I hope you are all having a great week! The weather has turned chilly and looks to remain that way. It is November so we should expect it. I hope everyone has dug out their winter coats, hats and mittens. Looks to be a cold one tomorrow at recess. Please be sure your child brings their coats so they can enjoy recess. It's not much fun when you are freezing. Also remember, if your child is not feeling well, and running a low fever, please keep them at home until they are fever free for 24 hours! If we send your child home at 10:00 in the morning with a fever, we should not see your child back at school until after 10:00 the next day. We are trying to help prevent the spread of illness. We won't be able to do that but we try to take precaution. I will also really start pushing for the hand washing and use of germ-x! I am trying to watch out for all of you! We have had great attendance so far. Today, we have a student gone due to illness but we haven't had very many at all. That is a good thing!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Jose`! Born to Dance. This is a biography about a famous dancer Jose` Limon. No, the students are not very interested in this story. I like the way it reads but it is considered nonfiction so the kids are not responding well. It tells some of the struggles his family faced as he was a child and how he overcame and went on to dance. We have talked about Author's purpose this week and why Author's write stories and also that they may have more than one reason to write something. Pronouns have been our focus in grammar. They learned there are 5 different groups of pronouns: subject, object, possessive, reflexive, and demonstrative. I only had to cover 3 groups but we did talk about all five. We also learned about an antecedent, which is what the pronoun is replacing or what noun the pronoun stands for. Remember that all vocabulary for this week are on Quizlet. Our spelling post test and end of week test are tomorrow as normal.
Math - This week we have started working our way into some new strategies for multiplying. These strategies work very well and the students understand what they are doing. They are realizing that they are learning to multiply very slowly. Some are struggling with basic facts but understanding the processes that I am teaching them. We focused on using expanded form, which we learned in chapter 1, to multiply. It makes it pretty easy. The amount of writing they do is more than what they want but it really gives them the beginning foundation of how multiplication really works. Keep in mind we are only working on single digit multiplication. But I also know they pick up on double-digit quicker due to what we are learning now! I hope they keep up the good work.
Social Studies - Yes, we have a test tomorrow. We have worked on the study guide and corrected it. Their vocabulary words are in their packets and also on Quizlet so they can study. Some of them have been working on them on Quizlet for a while. This test is mainly matching, multiple choice and 2 quick essay questions. I hope to give them a few minutes to study with a partner today in class. Chapter 5 also focuses on the Northeast Region. We have a lot to finish. We have states to put into the interactive notebook and start working on our states and capitals. I have a song we will use to help them with that. It is called States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho. It is on itunes and last I knew it was free. I will give them a copy of the lyrics and we will start singing almost every day in class. We will also work on locating all states on a map of the Northeast. Lots of work to finish off this region before we move on to the Southeast.
STEM NIGHT! Remember that STEM night is tonight from 5:30-7:30 in the gym. It is a great time, hope to see you all there.
Appreciation Dinner - The Food Pantry is putting on a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner this Saturday night 5-7 in the O'Riley Center. You received an invitation last week in the folder for this event. All our students 3-5 and their families are invited since we go down and help unload the truck on Fridays. It sounds like it will be an excellent meal. I hope some of you can attend.
November 16 - 17 - I am just letting you know that I will be gone next Thursday and Friday. I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Council) in Indianapolis with the High School Youth Group. It is a great opportunity for me to be with the students as they attend sessions to better their knowledge and relationship with God. I am looking forward to the trip and all that I will see. Please pray for us on our travels. I will be back the next Monday. Mrs. Bearden will be in the room with them.
The High School is putting on the musical The Wedding Singer this weekend. This is the first time I have had a child participate in a musical and I am excited about it. I had to dress her in 80's costumes and do her hair in 80's style. I am a pro at that since I lived that era! I almost forgot how to use a curling iron! I did have to go buy one that was more like what I used to use. They will perform the show Friday at 7:00, Saturday at 7:00 and Sunday at 2:00. This is where I will be all weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! I hope you are all having a great week! The weather has turned chilly and looks to remain that way. It is November so we should expect it. I hope everyone has dug out their winter coats, hats and mittens. Looks to be a cold one tomorrow at recess. Please be sure your child brings their coats so they can enjoy recess. It's not much fun when you are freezing. Also remember, if your child is not feeling well, and running a low fever, please keep them at home until they are fever free for 24 hours! If we send your child home at 10:00 in the morning with a fever, we should not see your child back at school until after 10:00 the next day. We are trying to help prevent the spread of illness. We won't be able to do that but we try to take precaution. I will also really start pushing for the hand washing and use of germ-x! I am trying to watch out for all of you! We have had great attendance so far. Today, we have a student gone due to illness but we haven't had very many at all. That is a good thing!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Jose`! Born to Dance. This is a biography about a famous dancer Jose` Limon. No, the students are not very interested in this story. I like the way it reads but it is considered nonfiction so the kids are not responding well. It tells some of the struggles his family faced as he was a child and how he overcame and went on to dance. We have talked about Author's purpose this week and why Author's write stories and also that they may have more than one reason to write something. Pronouns have been our focus in grammar. They learned there are 5 different groups of pronouns: subject, object, possessive, reflexive, and demonstrative. I only had to cover 3 groups but we did talk about all five. We also learned about an antecedent, which is what the pronoun is replacing or what noun the pronoun stands for. Remember that all vocabulary for this week are on Quizlet. Our spelling post test and end of week test are tomorrow as normal.
Math - This week we have started working our way into some new strategies for multiplying. These strategies work very well and the students understand what they are doing. They are realizing that they are learning to multiply very slowly. Some are struggling with basic facts but understanding the processes that I am teaching them. We focused on using expanded form, which we learned in chapter 1, to multiply. It makes it pretty easy. The amount of writing they do is more than what they want but it really gives them the beginning foundation of how multiplication really works. Keep in mind we are only working on single digit multiplication. But I also know they pick up on double-digit quicker due to what we are learning now! I hope they keep up the good work.
Social Studies - Yes, we have a test tomorrow. We have worked on the study guide and corrected it. Their vocabulary words are in their packets and also on Quizlet so they can study. Some of them have been working on them on Quizlet for a while. This test is mainly matching, multiple choice and 2 quick essay questions. I hope to give them a few minutes to study with a partner today in class. Chapter 5 also focuses on the Northeast Region. We have a lot to finish. We have states to put into the interactive notebook and start working on our states and capitals. I have a song we will use to help them with that. It is called States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho. It is on itunes and last I knew it was free. I will give them a copy of the lyrics and we will start singing almost every day in class. We will also work on locating all states on a map of the Northeast. Lots of work to finish off this region before we move on to the Southeast.
STEM NIGHT! Remember that STEM night is tonight from 5:30-7:30 in the gym. It is a great time, hope to see you all there.
Appreciation Dinner - The Food Pantry is putting on a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner this Saturday night 5-7 in the O'Riley Center. You received an invitation last week in the folder for this event. All our students 3-5 and their families are invited since we go down and help unload the truck on Fridays. It sounds like it will be an excellent meal. I hope some of you can attend.
November 16 - 17 - I am just letting you know that I will be gone next Thursday and Friday. I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Council) in Indianapolis with the High School Youth Group. It is a great opportunity for me to be with the students as they attend sessions to better their knowledge and relationship with God. I am looking forward to the trip and all that I will see. Please pray for us on our travels. I will be back the next Monday. Mrs. Bearden will be in the room with them.
The High School is putting on the musical The Wedding Singer this weekend. This is the first time I have had a child participate in a musical and I am excited about it. I had to dress her in 80's costumes and do her hair in 80's style. I am a pro at that since I lived that era! I almost forgot how to use a curling iron! I did have to go buy one that was more like what I used to use. They will perform the show Friday at 7:00, Saturday at 7:00 and Sunday at 2:00. This is where I will be all weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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