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