Friday, April 13, 2018

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

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