Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!   I don't know about you but I am worn out!  Catholic Schools Week is always so much fun but also so very exhausting.  Today was a big day!  Roller Skating in Des Moines!  It was lots of fun.  Most all 4th graders stayed out on the floor most of the time.  There were a few who tired out or just got bored with it.  I loved it.  I went every Friday night from about 2nd grade through 6th grade!  It was our entertainment.  Henry's Skateland was the place to be on Friday night.  It brought back some fun memories for sure.  Our week is almost over!  Tomorrow is it!  We end the week with Grandparents/special guest day!  Such a wonderful way to end the week, with our loved ones.  Tomorrow we also honor teachers who have put in 5, 10, 15, 20.....years here at St. Malachy. Hang on cause Mrs. Levine is being honored for 40 years of service at St. Malachy.  I will also get my 20 year pin.  Hard to believe that my years are half of what Levine as put in.  She is awesome! Remember tomorrow is dress up day.  We need to look our best!

Language Arts - We did not cover a story this week because 3 days of class is not enough time at all to do that.  We have started a new read aloud book called One Crazy Summer.  It has won a  ton of awards.  There are 4 showing on the cover.  Since February is Black History Month my daughter told me I needed to read it.  Josie just finished a children't literature class in Ames and they talked a lot about this book and that it is a popular read aloud so we are doing it!  So far so good.  We do some predicting after we read each day.  I feel like it is a sad book but I am predicting a happy ending. Not everyone in the class thinks like me.  It's fun reading something new with them.  Plus, I can model my thought process in things first hand.  We got into partners and rolled a die for parts of a story.  They rolled to find their character, setting and conflict.  I had a paper that had them written on it and they rolled the die and matched it to those areas.  Some are creating some fully stories like a zookeeper, who found a magical hat in a Jelly Bean Factory.  I hope to finish the stories on Friday and get them to type them up.  Next week we will get back to week 17 story in the book.

Math-  We have spent the week reviewing when we could. The kids have done a practice test in the book and an extra practice sheet we will go over tomorrow.  They will take their test over chapter 3 on Monday!    After that we will begin chapter 13 on Area and Perimeter.

Social Studies -  This week we have focused on putting states into our interactive notebooks.  They have worked on North Carolina and Kentucky.  Tomorrow we will end the week with some map work.  I want them to start to practice the Southeast States on a map.  Again they will need to locate them and label the capital.  

I hope everyone has had a great week this week.  We are gearing up for Lent to begin.  The 4th graders will be making donuts on Feb. 13th, Fat Tuesday, and we give them out to the entire school.  I have been doing this for many years.  It is a great tradition here. Most kids look forward to the donuts.  I also plan to have our Valentine's Day party on the 13th.  Since the 14th is Ash Wednesday there are Catholic traditions on that day which is fasting and only eating 3 meals that day with no snacking in between.  The whole school is celebrating on Tuesday instead.  It is also bring a friend to school day.  If you are wanting to bring a friend make sure you fill out the form and turn it in to the office please.  It will help us have an idea of how many extras we will have!!

Have a great weekend!!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels