Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I hope all of you are having a great week!  Sounds like this could be an exciting Balloon Day weekend!  Weather looks to be cooperative for the the balloons to go up and 33 are coming to Creston.  I do enjoy this weekend.  The parade is always fun and then getting to see balloons in the air is great.  The kids drew balloon pictures this week in Art and they will hang in the hall for all to see. It is like we have our own balloon weekend in the hall. Students had a rough couple days Monday and Tuesday.  They were full days with learning and work for them to complete.  I tried to explain that there will be days periodically that have more homework than normal and days that have barely any.  It is just the way things progress. I try very hard to make the plans in each subject work with one another but sometimes it just doesn't work.  I have given away some late slips this week.  Again, they will settle in and get used to the routine of what is expected and they will get better at using their time wisely in study hall.  The hardest part is wanting to visit with friends during study hall when they should be getting their work done so they have no homework.  Most of the time students should have no homework because I try to make sure they have just enough to get done in the time they have here.  Again, some days it may not work.  I am not worried about any of the kids, they will catch on.  They may serve a detention or two for late work, but they will catch on.  If some are really struggling we will find ways to help make them more successful.  I am not here to watch them fail.  We will find a way to help them.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a story called My Librarian is a Camel.  Sounds funny, right?  Well, it is an informational article about areas in the world where kids do not have access to books.  It talks about different countries and how books arrive for kids.  Some countries it is via mail, some a camel, some a boat, an elephant, or a bus.  The kids only have access at certain times.  I tried to show how blessed they are to have a bookshelf full of books in classroom, a school library and a public library to access books anytime. I also talked about accessing books online.  It is an interesting story the first time it is read but then they lose interest in it.  Which makes it hard to test on Friday.  I try to point out how important it is to understand for Friday.  But I will not surprised if scores tend to drop a little on Friday.  In grammar we are learning about Quotation Marks and how to write sentences with direct quotes in them.  We talked about using context when we  don't understand a word or phrase.  Please remember we have an end of week assessment tomorrow so they should look over their vocabulary words and also spelling for the post test.

Math -  We have learned about comparing and ordering numbers this week and are now working on rounding.  Rounding is something they all know and when doing it as a class they show me they can do it BUT when I turn them loose on homework it's like they forget how.  I have been telling them this and they just laugh at me.  We will see how they do.  In 4th grade the numbers get bigger and how we ask them to round gets confusing for them.  We might have a number in the hundred thousands but you are only asked to round to the nearest ten.  There are 4 other numbers in front of the tens so it can get confusing.  We will end the week with this. 

Social Studies -  We are beginning to discuss our government.  We are learning there are 3 levels: local, state, national.  We are learning it is made up of 3 branches: Legislative, executive, and judicial.  We are focusing on what each branches purpose is and I compare that at every level.  I try to talk about how it works at each level.  This is all the further we go with government.  They have learned about being a democracy and a republic.  We are talking about how important it is to vote.  We will move on to discuss the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen of the US.  This is a pretty heavy chapter that is full of important things about our country, yet, I feel only skimming the surface.  The information I am giving them seems overwhelming to them! 

I hope all of you have had a chance to sign up for our Facebook page.  Again it is called St. Malachy Fantastic Fourth Grade.  I try to look at least once a week to see if anyone has asked to join.  I need to look yet this week.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and has a opportunity to go see the balloons fly! 

Please know if you have questions or concerns you can contact me at school before or after school and during my prep period which is 8:20-8:50.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels