Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!    I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day on Monday!!  I am a lover of snow but I didn't ask for this one.  It is a little early, yet I know when I was a kid this was normal.  I had to come home from Chicago a day early to beat the snow.  I was a little irritated about it but very glad I did it.  I am thankful we all got home safe and my older two back to college before "Bruce" decided to move in.  I will say having a snow day makes for a crazy week.  Not because of the kids but because all my plans are off a day, which can make me crazy!!  Thank goodness the kids are used to me and my crazy now.  They have handled this week perfectly and gone with the flow like champs.  I am very pleased with their behavior.

Language Arts-  This week we are taking the Unit 2 Assessment.  This assessment will be easier than the first one.  The first one was a benchmark test and tends to be a lot harder than others.  This unit is a performance test and goes along better with the stories they read.  A lot of answers can be found by looking back in the story.  Their are also some questions that may be more difficult.  I kept them on to see how they do.  I may end of up using them as  bonus points.  We will finish the assessment today and we will go over it tomorrow as a whole class.  The kids will pull up their test and we will go over each question one by one.  I will also make them highlight things in their packet if they didn't already.  I requested they do that but sometimes they know the answer and skip that part. Next week we will go back to  a normal week with spelling tests and reading stories. 

Math -  We are still working on multiplication.  This week we have focused on bigger numbers.  We are doing 3-4 digit numbers times a single digit.  They are doing very well with this regrouping strategy.  This strategy is the one you and I were taught.  We will work on the last lesson today and tomorrow and next week we will prepare for the Chapter 2 Assessment.  I totally blew giving them the pretest which frustrates me because this the chapter that usually sees the most growth.  When I fill out the paper work on the assessment you will not see a pretest score.  Most students do pretty well on this test.  The next chapter is on 2-digit multiplication.  It is a shorter chapter, it is all strategies we have already learned we just apply them to 2 digit numbers times 2-digit numbers.  They may struggle but will catch on.  I hope to do some fun "Christmas" Math closer to Christmas and then we skip to chapter 13.  I cover perimeter and area right after multiplication because I feel it is an appropriate place to do that.  After two pretty heavy chapters I like to throw in a fun one to lighted the load. We do a lot of hands on activities.

Social Studies -  We are starting chapter 5 which is another chapter over the Northeast Region.  We spend this chapter discussing the people of the Northeast.  We will continue putting states into our notebooks and will begin map work on locating the states of the region.  This is a busy time for social studies.  I will begin giving them map tests. The map test will only cover the Northeast Region.  It is easier to learn them a region at a time then trying to do all 50 states at once.  They will locate the state and list the capital with it.  We will begin working on that next week.  I will give them practice maps to work with.  They will make one into an answer key then will have some blank ones to practice.  This is very important for them to learn because at the end of the year they will need to do all 50 states!

Book It -  Book It calendars are due by next Wednesday for a reward.  After Wednesday I will still accept them for minutes but not a reward.  Remember I need a parent signature on the calendar.

Food Pantry -  Advent begins this weekend!  My favorite time of the year.  This year we will be collecting items for the Food Pantry from Dec 3-14.  The 3-5 graders will be bringing in toilet paper to donate.  Personal items such as this are bought by the pantry at normal prices. These are not provided by the Food Bank of Iowa.  These items are distributed once a month, the first weekend of the month.  They are always running low on these items.  Please donate if possible.  No matter how big or small it is always very helpful!  The Food Pantry provides for 70-90 families on any given week.  Our students are able to see the volume of products that go through the pantry when they volunteer unloading the truck.

Cold Weather Rules:  St.Malachy plays outside under the following conditions.  Morning Drop-Off Outside if feels like temperature is 13 degrees or above.   K-8  Recess outside if feels like temperature is 0 degrees or above.  PK students Outside if feels like temperature is 13 degrees or above.

I hope the weather cooperates better for all of us.  I love this time of year and I feel it makes it better with snow but no more snow days!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

God Bless, 
Mrs. Sickels