Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!  I hope everyone is having a great week!  Looks like tomorrow will be a great day for the kids to have off.  Remember we do not have school tomorrow because the teachers have to travel to Des Moines to an inservice.  I hope they enjoy the day.  They need it. They are a little unruly today, which is because it is nice and out "Friday".  We have lots to accomplish in this last month.  We will work very hard. I can't believe the year is winding down.

Language Arts -   This week we read the Owen and Mzee.  This was about a baby hippo and a very old tortoise.  They came together kind of tragically and became friends.  It is shocking that  these two animals would be able to get along so well.  The story was an idea of a 6 or 7 year old.  She wrote the story with the help of her father, and one of the doctors who worked with the animals.  It is a very fun story connecting their friendship to human friendships.  It shows how animals lives are similar to humans.  We did an activity on comparing and contrasting this week.  They looked at similarities and differences of the two animals. Grammar this week was a review of the use of commas.  We also talked about the suffixes -ly and -ed.  We have one more week for a story then we will have a Unit 5 test and be done with the textbook. We will spend the rest of the year on some writing activities and maybe sharing in reading a fun book together as a group.  I would apply the skills we have learned this year to a regular fiction book. This helps them see the connection of what we are learning really does apply to their every day reading.

Math -  We have worked on Partial Products for division this week.  We learned how to divide using subtraction and partial products.  The kids took a while to catch on but finally got the process down!  The next part of division will be long division which is the regular way you learned division.  This process will take a while for them to grasp.  We will spend several days next week working on this.  We find it natural to do but teaching it the first time is very confusing. Trying to get them to keep the process down is hard.  We may sturggle a little but we will get there.

Social Studies -  We are ending the first chapter of the Midwest.  We will be testing next week.  I gave them maps of the Midwest today.  They will have a map test on Monday.  Remember this is very important for them to learn the maps.  They will have a end of the year test over all 50 states and capitals.  We will continue to work on states in our notebooks also.  We will cover a little bit more material on the Midwest then move to the next two regions.  

Friday,  April 27th -  Just a last minute reminder we do NOT have school tomorrow.  Teachers have to get up early and head to Des Moines to meetings!  I hope everyone has a great day and enjoy the sun.  

Monday, April 30th   Just a heads up that I will be gone Monday morning at a doctor appointment with Molly.  We are finally going to get some answers on her shoulder.  I plan to be back by noon, but if something else arises I have the whole day prepared for a sub.  

I am shocked our year is coming to an end.  I am enjoying your students this year.  They have grown up a lot. Some still have some growing to do but we have really made progress this year.  Next year they will make even more!  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  My week is back on track and I remembered to write my blog today!  We have been getting back into a normal routine after Iowa Assessments this week.  The kids are a little high strung this week. I figure they are just as tired of the weather as we are.  I am ready for Mother Nature to decide we can have a Spring.  I used to love attending track meets, now I dread them because sitting our in 30 degree weather to watch is absolutely NO fun whatsoever.  I have skipped a couple  because of it.  Today I travel to Denison.  I will be leaving about 2:10 to head up there.  It's a long trip to just be cold.  Oh the things we do for our kids!

Friday, April 20th -  The public school doesn't have school tomorrow but we are still in session.  This just means there will NOT be any bus service for you kiddos.  Please make arrangements to get them here and picked up.  If you are new to the car line be sure to join the car line at Fremont Street or you may have to go on down to Page Street since everyone will be picked up in the car line.  Page Street is the one by VFW ball field. Also remember not to block any driveways especially the post office driveway.  We have been loading 4 cars at a time and the line gets through much faster.  Thank you!

Language Arts -  We are reading a story called The Ever-Living Tree this week.  It is about the life of a Coastal Redwood tree or otherwise known as the Sequoia Trees in California.  We learn about how long they live and how tall they get.  It compares life of the tree to what is going on in the human race at the time.  This amazes the kids to know to show just how long one of those trees live.  We have a picture of the tree that cars can drive through the trunk but that tree collapsed in Winter/Spring 2017 due to the heavy rains California received that year.  It is sad that happened.  You can google it and see the pictures of the fallen tree.  In grammar we are reviewing some skills.  We talked about ending punctuation, and quotation marks.  Our vocabulary strategy was on the prefixes  pre-, inter- and ex-.  The regular end of the week assessment is tomorrow. Make sure they are studying their vocab and spelling words.

Math -  We started the week with a Mid-chapter check point which is a review of the first 5 lessons in this chapter.  Which says, "Hey, you are halfway finished with this chapter!"  Our lesson this week was on using repeated subtraction to divide.  I showed them what it looked like to subtract the divisor every single time then I showed them how they could shorten it and take out chunks of 10 at a time.  It was a quick class due to Mass so we only just got started and I assigned them one problem to do.  Today we will review look at the problem they did and  do more examples on the board.  That will finish up our week on division.

Social Studies-  We have talked about the Great Lakes and the Badlands in South Dakota this week.  We learned that the lakes are the largest freshwater lakes in the world.  We learned they are all connected and that a canal was built to connect them.  We  learned what the Badlands were like millions of years ago, the changes that occurred over the years from wind and rain, and what they are like today.  They seem to be enjoying their learning on the Midwest region.  We learned we are a part of the Plains and then some states are a part of the Great Lakes area.  We will go on to learn what kind of crops certain areas grow and why.  We are moving through this chapter at a good pace so we can keep moving to meet all regions.  I will be giving them a map to start studying the Midwest states at home and in their spare time at school. We will try to have a map test before the next actual test.

Earth Day-  Tomorrow is Earth Day.  We are having our annual Spring Cleanup here at St. Malachy.  Fourth graders are asked to bring a rake and gloves because we are asked to help clean up all the leaves.  We will rake them and bag them to be hauled away.  It is not easy work.  The kids get a lesson in raking if they don't know how.  They can come dressed ready to get dirty, so sweats are acceptable.  Pay attention to temperature.  We will be outside so if chilly don't send them in shorts.  They will need gloves for their hands because it is hard on them.  They are also asked to bring a $1.00 for Earth Day to donate towards flowers to put out front of the school to make it look inviting and beautiful.  Thank you in advance for your money, it really helps!

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit Day. Since you get to wear sweats for FREE tomorrow, we are saying you can pay $1.00 to wear a hat of your choice.  This is so we still try to generate some money for our pay it forward fund.  

Mark your calendars for next Friday the 27th.  St. Malachy will not be having school that day.  The teachers will be traveling to Des Moines to a teacher inservice that day.  I sure wish Spring would hurry up and get here.  Let's all keep praying for nice weather to come.  The construction out back is still going on.  They have been working even when it is wet.  The pipes for the bathroom have been put in.  We are very excited to think the bathrooms are right outside our doors.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Enjoy Prom this weekend.  Always fun to go see all the former students dressed up so nicely.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Friday!!!!   I am sorry I totally blew off my blog yesterday!  It has just been one of those week!  Iowa Assessments can throw us all for a loop, including teachers!!!  We finished up all items that needed to be done for Iowa Assessments this morning.  They are all turned in and we are excited!  Now back to the normal grind of learning! YAY!  Now if the weather would just cooperate and warm up we would all feel much better.

Construction -  We have experienced a little more noise this week and a few earthquakes!  One of the machines they use to level the dirt, vibrates or shakes and causes our room to do the same.  I told them this is what an earthquake would feel like.  The noise itself is not that bad.  The machines are not that noisy.  It is just a humming sound.  We are surviving!

Language Arts -  We spent the week testing and didn't do formal language arts.  We did do a lot of read aloud, DEAR time, and handwriting this week.  These are easy fillers during tests that the students could work on quietly.  We are loving our read aloud book!  I am hoping they learn some things about kindness and how to treat others from it.  Plus I have never read it before so I am modeling a lot of my thinking processes aloud when I read books.  I am asking prediction questions, asking about feelings and sharing my ideas also.  I feel they learn a lot when I can show the things that I really do when I read a book at home.  Some really get into my questions which helps to show how to truly enjoy books.  I really wish I had more time for read aloud in our schedule.

Math -  We have had a math lesson this week on the Distributive Property in Division.  We spent a  couple days on the lesson and they are working on their worksheets for homework.  I had a guest grandparent this week that was lucky enough to sit in on this lesson the first day.  He was very intrigued by this strategy of dividing.  He saw how it could make sense and how students could use it.  He said it took him a minute to catch on but he got it.  I was happy to see him have an open mind about math and how we are giving students the tools to find answers more than just one way.  He agreed kids will benefit from learning more than one strategy.  I was so happy to have him witness this and talk about teaching "an old dog to learn new tricks".  

Social Studies- This week I introduced the Midwest States to them and they have spent the week putting states into their interactive notebooks.  We accomplished I think 6 out of 12 states this week.  This is great so we can dive into the material and move along next week.  They are very excited to learn about or region and cheered very loudly (too loudly) when I handed them the state of Iowa to work on today.  

Again, this has been a crazy week with weather, track meets, recitals, dress rehearsals for recital, and youth group.  This is not a relaxing weekend either.  We have recitals all weekend, family coming from Chicago, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City.  We are having a Disney Princess Birthday Party for my 4 year old great niece at my house, and did I mention like 4 recitals.  I hope all of you enjoy your family this weekend. Hopefully the weather turns out great for all of us.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  We are finally back to a full week.  The most exciting thing is that construction is happening!!  They are running machines, and the noise is not very loud at all.  We are able to work and only hear a light hum of the machinery.  We are so excited to see what is changing out there.  Now that we can see results it makes all this very real.  I watched them dig up the concrete Wednesday night. I just happened to be here when they started.  It was mesmerizing to watch.  I decided I could watch them all night but I should go home!  Drive by out back and check it out!

Iowa Assessments -  The Iowa Assessments will be taken next week.  It usually takes us 3 full mornings to take the tests.  I plan on doing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  If anyone is absent we will use Wednesday and Friday to catch them up. Things you can do to help is make sure they get a good night's sleep, and full breakfast.  Studies show if they are tired or hungry they won't do as well.  Also, do the best you can to have a positive morning with your child.  If things happen at home that upset them it sticks with them all day.  We really want the students to do their very best work.

Language Arts-  This week we read a fun biography about Esther Morris.  The story is called I Could Do That!  This story is how Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote in elections.  Wyoming gave women the right to voter in 1870.  The Amendment in the Constitution was not until 1920.  For 50 years Wyoming women voted before  any others were allowed.They kids also picked up on the fact that our school started in 1870, so that was at the same time.  Thinking that the school was here 50 years before women got the right to vote made them all go "WOW!" This is also why it's nickname is the Equality State.  It is a fun story about Esther never giving up and always proving people wrong when they said she couldn't do something.  I think the kids enjoyed the story.  In grammar we talked about Negative words and how not to use 2 negatives in one sentence.  Examples of negative words are: no, no one, nobody, none, nothing, and never.  The students found sentences with negatives and made sure they didn't have two, and it if they did they corrected them to only have one. We also talked about Adages and Proverbs again.  This will be in the vocab section of the test.  Hopefully they will do better on this than they did last time.  End of week testing will be tomorrow.  

Math -  This week we covered dividing tens, hundreds and thousands.  We also started to talk about estimating quotients.  Estimating with division is very different from multiplication.  You can't just round the numbers and get an estimate.  You have to actually use compatible numbers so that you can divide evenly.  This lesson will be challenging for some.  I plan on spending two days on this lesson, today and tomorrow.  The three strategies they have learned should get help them on their Iowa Assessments.  Today's lesson was a bit of a struggle.  It puts lesson 4.1 and 4.4 together, but they lacked confidence.  Mrs. Kendrick and I went around the room making sure they were getting it.  They have a few problems for homework today.  Tomorrow we will review what they are doing, check the problems then do the worksheet.  Most all of them know what they are doing they just question themselves or find it a lot of work and get lazy.

Social Studies -  We have a test tomorrow over Chapter 7.  They have corrected their study guide and are have what they need to study.  There will be a map section on this test that requires them to label the states of the Southeast with capitals.  The next region is the Midwest.  We will begin work in that region next week.  I will give out a state for them to put into their notebooks tomorrow when the test is over.  Most get done with time to spare so I will fill that time with a state.  We will try to move a little faster through this region so we can get to the other two. 

I hope all of you have a great weekend.  There are some activities going on in the downtown for Update downtown.  Maybe you can find an event to be a part of.  I hope to get some spring cleaning done even though it doesn't feel like Spring at all.  Pray for warmer weather.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels