Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I have had early morning bus duty this week so I have to be at school by 7:15.  I am very happy about it being Thursday because I only have one more day of it!   I will not see it again for 7 weeks!  I am so not a morning person!  This week has been a great week.  We are accomplishing a lot every single day.  The students are pretty much adjusted to 4th grade.  They are getting their organizational skills down, and they know to use their study hall wisely.  I am very proud of all of them.  We will continue to work on these things throughout the year but they are doing great. 

Language Arts -  We are reading a story called Me and Uncle Romie.  This is a fiction story but it is based on a real live collage artist named Romare Bearden.  Is a story that makes you feel good.  A boy is going to stay with his aunt and uncle whom he has never meant before because his mother is having twins soon.  He will also celebrate his birthday while he is there.  He is nervous and scared to go but in the end he has a great time and makes a wonderful connection with Uncle Romie.  He even try to create meaningful art like him. We are still working on Verbs this week.  We focused on present progressing and past progressive verbs tenses.  It all boils down to the helping verb we use that decides present or past.  The action verb will be the same in both, and it ends in -ing.  If the helping verb is: am, is or are than it is present tense and if it is was or were then it is past tense.  This is also what will be on their assessment on Friday.  They will be asked to choose the correct tense to place in a sentence. Our vocabulary strategy this week was on figures of speech.  Like saying "hang in there", we don't take the words literally.  I went over several examples and even had them come up with a few.  I made sure to cover all the ones that will show up on their assessment.  I do not plan to do a story for Language arts next week.  The week is to short and too busy with Mass on our short day.  I, in not way, can make a story meaningful by rushing through it.  We will share Halloween stories next week, we will have a writing activity and will get started in our Handwriting books.  I also will do some read aloud and free reading time for them.   Be sure to study vocabulary words and spelling words tonight.

Math -  We have started this week learning how to multiply by tens, hundreds, and thousands.  We applied that knowledge to estimating products to see if answers are reasonable or not reasonable.  We will move onto the Distributive property either Friday or Monday.  This is not hard once you understand it.  I had a grandfather visit one day during this math lesson.  He was surprised at how much this made sense after being taught how it works.  He couldn't stop talking about it because he had learned something new and it made complete sense.  He has been my inspiration and great reminder that what we are teaching is good stuff.  I see a lot of negativity online about the "new" math.  This is not new stuff it has been around a very long time.  It was just not required for us to teach it so we didn't.  We only taught kids one way to do things.  Well, are we only going to teach them one way to get out of a burning building?  What happens when that way is blocked?  How do they use their own problem-solving skills to get out?  Same applies to building a house with only a hammer.  How does that happen.  I am filling their tool belt with strategies and skills that will make them think about other ways in case one way is blocked or just doesn't work for them.  I know they may bring it home and you may not be able to help them.  I am here by 7:45 every morning they can come in early to get help and I stress to them from 2:30-3:00 every day I am available to them.  They have to ask me questions!  I try to make my math happen with the least amount of stress and give them time to work on their homework so it doesn't come home.  

Social Studies -  This week we have learned about Nigara Falls and how important it is to the state of New York.  Not only is it beautiful but it supplies New York with most of its electricity.  We also learned about 6 mountain ranges and where they are located and for some how they go their names.  The last thing was about the difference between the coastline in Maine and in New Jersey.  We are working on a map skill dealing with the directions using a compass rose.  We learned about how to properly go about reading a Cross-section Diagram.  By Friday we will be ready to put our first state into our interactive notebooks. Whew!  That was a lot of stuff to pick up on in a week's time.  We are truly working hard!  They also seem to be enjoying it all as we do it.  For some reason Social Studies always becomes a 4th graders favorite topic to study.  I think it might be because of my love for it.  We also do lots of group work, that also may be it.  Our topic of the 50 states seems to help to. We will keep up the hard work.

Book it -  Next week is the end of the month.  Please be sure to sign your student's book it calendars so they can turn them in.  I will not accept them with out a parent signature.  I can't wait to see how much some of them have been reading.  I have not read as much this month as I normally do. Remember they need to turn it in even if they didn't meet the goal.  I will give a prize at end for those who turned in all 6 calendars even though they did not meet the goal.  I just want to track their minutes.  There is a great poster in the hallway for book fair showing the correlation of reading so many minutes per day and standardized test scores!  After reading that, you may want to have more free reading happen in your household.  To me it made sense.  Check it out.

Server Training -  There will be a server training for those Catholic students in 3-4-5 grades on November 3rd and 4th after mass.  We are really needing servers at this level so if you have a child that is able please be sure to have them attend one of the training sessions.  Thank you.

Conferences -  Reminder conferences are next week!  Be sure to sign up for a time to meet with me.  Last I looked I had many signed up but was still looking for a few more.  I will remind your student if you still need to sign up.  Thank you!   I look forward to meeting with you. 

Halloween Activities -  We will be painting pumpkins here at school one day.  The pumpkins are brought in by Taylor's family.  I have painting shirts here all ready so it will protect them from paint on clothing.  This will just be a fun "extra" art activity for us to do.  On Wednesday, we will have Halloween activities put on by the Civics Club.  We will have a small Halloween party in our classroom before with a snack and drinks. It will be an absolute crazy week but we will get through it!  I look forward to having fun with the kids. 

I hope all of you have a great weekend!  I look to have a nice relaxing one.  Next week will be crazy with Halloween activities!  This is the reason I plan to relax and enjoy the weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels