Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday and Merry Christmas!!! I hope you all are ready for Christmas Break because it is almost here! Only a day and half until they are all yours for a couple of weeks!! We have had a pretty good week, considering it is the last week. I appreciate their behavior! I have kept them pretty busy this week. I was gone on Monday, twin #2 had her wisdom teeth out so I had to be "Mom" duties all day. All went well that day and we have had a normal week since then.
Language Arts - Their story this week is called Antarctic Journal. It is about a women who writes nonfiction books and she researches everything she writes. She went to Antarctica and stayed for some time. She kept a journal while she was there and ended up publishing her journal. It is really an interesting story but not sure a full week of it hold their interest. We will see tomorrow how well they do on their test. In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxiliaries which are words like: can, may, would, should, might could and must. There is a reason we use each one. They are learning when appropriate to use can or may, which is a fun one. We also learned some Greek and Latin word parts that we use in our language and what they mean. Those parts are spect, struct, tele, and vis. They like seeing the connections. We will still have a post test and end of week test tomorrow morning like normal. The kids should be studying their vocab words and spelling words tonight.
Math- This week we had one lesson on multiplying using 10. We spent one day talking about it and then a worksheet. On Wednesday and Thursday we did what I call "Fun Math". We use a coordinate grid to color a picture. The students were given a blank grid and then a sheet of instructions. They are to follow the instructions and will end up with a Christmas picture if they do not make a mistake. They are to have one picture complete but can pick another one to do if they get finished. It is kind of like a battleship grid. Funny how we wonder how that relates to math but it does. In High School they will get into graphing and coordinate pairs. This is just a simple beginning to that. The students enjoyed it. Some are also wanting to do Suduko. We will see if I can get that done.
Social Studies- We have put our last state for the Northeast into our notebooks! Yay!! The students took a 2nd map test over the Northeast States. You will find the results to both in today's folder. It is on an orange sheet. We will pick up back in the chapter when we return from Christmas Break. I hope to finish the chapter up and then start a new region. We also completed a map skill on Map Keys, you will find that in the folder also on pink paper. The students are doing a great job in Social Studies. I keep them going and they just keep working hard.
GeoBee - The Geography Bee finals were held yesterday. Our winner was Spencer Brown in 6th grade. Second place went to Daniel Buls 7th grade and 3rd was Rosie Leonard 8th grade. Congratulations to our winners. Spencer will be taking an online quiz in January to try and qualify for competition at the State Level. Good luck to Spencer!! I am very proud of the 3 4th graders who made it to the finals. They should be proud. Usually I am lucky to have just one, but three! WOW!! They all got their first question right also. That was awesome.
Friday - Tomorrow is the day!! Our last day together before break. We will start the day in Music, then we will have language arts. When we have completed all academics we will then have some fun! The students are all allowed to bring in board games that we can play. I will let them enjoy each others company and celebrate together. There will be treats and drinks and lots of fun. I have a couple parents coming in to help and enjoy the day. At 11:40 the students will go to lunch with their Advent Angels and at 12:15 we will begin our annual caroling in the gym. You are invited to attend any part of the day with us that you want. The caroling is always my favorite part. It just melts my heart to see them singing songs together and having fun
I would like to say Thank you to all those who have given me such wonderful gifts. I really enjoy the kids faces when I open them and they get so excited to see my reaction and they are so proud. I have gotten some truly sweet thoughtful things. Thank you very much!
I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas Season. My girls are home which is my favorite part. Having all my children under one roof is the best. I know my days are numbered for this to happen. They will be having their own houses one day and won't need to stay with me. I am taking a nice little trip to Branson with Ms. Surma, my daughter Molly and a friend over break. We are looking forward to exploring some fun places while we are gone. I hope things that I can use in Social Studies. Have a safe Holiday!!
God Bless and Merry Christmas,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! It is the 2nd week of Advent!! We are down to 12 days before Christmas. The kids have been really good. I am very happy with their behavior and hard work this week. I know this time of year can be very exciting for them and they are going about the days normally. I have my first family Christmas this weekend. One night I host everyone at my house and I feel like I have been a little crazy but not sure the students have noticed, yet! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Language Arts - We are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is a story about a father and son living in Chinatown in San Francisco and they experience the 1906 earthquake that took place there. They live in a tenement building and it collapses with them in it. They are buried in the rubble. It is kind of a scary story. It may bring fear in some of the kids. I know I was fearful reading it. They are rescued in the end so it was a happy ending. We are talking about Possessive nouns this week. They are learning proper rules to adding 's or just the ' if it has the "s" all ready. The vocabulary strategy this week was on synonyms. This is just a review for them because i have them find synonyms for their vocabulary words each week. We will have our end of week test tomorrow and post test for spelling. You will find the results for the last couple of weeks assessments in today's folder.
Math - This week we have been busy. We have taken chapter 2 test. We have begun the pretest for chapter 3. The students will make corrections on their tests today. I will give final score and I will send them home next week to be signed and returned. Chapter 3 is over double digit multiplication. This chapter will take the strategies they learned in chapter 2 and apply them to 2-digits. They will pick it up rather quickly. We will put in some "fun Christmas" math next week to lighten the load a little bit. We are progressing very nicely through our studies. Keep up the good work.
Social Studies - We are working through chapter 5. We took our first Map Test this week. It is very important the students do well on these so they prepare themselves for the end of year test over all 50 states and capitals. Some did not do so well. I hope to send those results today but not sure that will happen. I like to keep the test in their binders so I can refer back to them but I will report results to you in some way. I hope to finish putting states of the Northeast in the interactive notebooks by Christmas. I also hope to have another map test next week before break.
Friday, December 21 - Next Friday is our last day before Christmas break. I just want you to know what that day will look like. Students will start their day in music like normal. When they return at 8:50 we will do Language Arts to finish up our story for the week. When that is finished we will have a small Christmas party. It is Melanie's birthday so she is providing us with a treat that day. I haven't decided which we will do but normally I have the students bring in their favorite board games and we play games and enjoy each other's company. We could also show a movie. I think I will talk to the kids and see what they want to do to celebrate. I love playing games. It is nice to show them that you can still have a good time playing board games instead of playing video games. I may start with BINGO and give prizes! At 11:30 they will meet their Advent Angel and eat lunch, following will be Christmas Caroling in the gym at 12:15-12:45. Students are dismissed at 1:10 that day. You are very welcome to come to the classroom around 10:30 and join us for our fun activities and also caroling. If a grandparent wants to come in and spend the morning that is fine too. I just want to make the sense of "family" known with the students. I want them to enjoy each other family style before the holiday. Students will need to bring a sack lunch but milk will be provided. Also students are encouraged to wear festive clothes for Christmas. It is also a spirit day that day!
Geography Bee - The finals for the Geography Bee will be held next Wednesday the 19th after mass. It will begin at 10:15. Baret, Rhett and Jace from 4th grade all made it into the finals. We wish them luck. Anyone is welcome to attend the finals to support. This will be held in the gym.
I hope you are all getting your shopping done! Mine is finished. I get to wrap now. Safe travels to anyone doing any traveling over the this month.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! It is the 2nd week of Advent!! We are down to 12 days before Christmas. The kids have been really good. I am very happy with their behavior and hard work this week. I know this time of year can be very exciting for them and they are going about the days normally. I have my first family Christmas this weekend. One night I host everyone at my house and I feel like I have been a little crazy but not sure the students have noticed, yet! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Language Arts - We are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is a story about a father and son living in Chinatown in San Francisco and they experience the 1906 earthquake that took place there. They live in a tenement building and it collapses with them in it. They are buried in the rubble. It is kind of a scary story. It may bring fear in some of the kids. I know I was fearful reading it. They are rescued in the end so it was a happy ending. We are talking about Possessive nouns this week. They are learning proper rules to adding 's or just the ' if it has the "s" all ready. The vocabulary strategy this week was on synonyms. This is just a review for them because i have them find synonyms for their vocabulary words each week. We will have our end of week test tomorrow and post test for spelling. You will find the results for the last couple of weeks assessments in today's folder.
Math - This week we have been busy. We have taken chapter 2 test. We have begun the pretest for chapter 3. The students will make corrections on their tests today. I will give final score and I will send them home next week to be signed and returned. Chapter 3 is over double digit multiplication. This chapter will take the strategies they learned in chapter 2 and apply them to 2-digits. They will pick it up rather quickly. We will put in some "fun Christmas" math next week to lighten the load a little bit. We are progressing very nicely through our studies. Keep up the good work.
Social Studies - We are working through chapter 5. We took our first Map Test this week. It is very important the students do well on these so they prepare themselves for the end of year test over all 50 states and capitals. Some did not do so well. I hope to send those results today but not sure that will happen. I like to keep the test in their binders so I can refer back to them but I will report results to you in some way. I hope to finish putting states of the Northeast in the interactive notebooks by Christmas. I also hope to have another map test next week before break.
Friday, December 21 - Next Friday is our last day before Christmas break. I just want you to know what that day will look like. Students will start their day in music like normal. When they return at 8:50 we will do Language Arts to finish up our story for the week. When that is finished we will have a small Christmas party. It is Melanie's birthday so she is providing us with a treat that day. I haven't decided which we will do but normally I have the students bring in their favorite board games and we play games and enjoy each other's company. We could also show a movie. I think I will talk to the kids and see what they want to do to celebrate. I love playing games. It is nice to show them that you can still have a good time playing board games instead of playing video games. I may start with BINGO and give prizes! At 11:30 they will meet their Advent Angel and eat lunch, following will be Christmas Caroling in the gym at 12:15-12:45. Students are dismissed at 1:10 that day. You are very welcome to come to the classroom around 10:30 and join us for our fun activities and also caroling. If a grandparent wants to come in and spend the morning that is fine too. I just want to make the sense of "family" known with the students. I want them to enjoy each other family style before the holiday. Students will need to bring a sack lunch but milk will be provided. Also students are encouraged to wear festive clothes for Christmas. It is also a spirit day that day!
Geography Bee - The finals for the Geography Bee will be held next Wednesday the 19th after mass. It will begin at 10:15. Baret, Rhett and Jace from 4th grade all made it into the finals. We wish them luck. Anyone is welcome to attend the finals to support. This will be held in the gym.
I hope you are all getting your shopping done! Mine is finished. I get to wrap now. Safe travels to anyone doing any traveling over the this month.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! Welcome to Advent Season! This is my favorite season on the Liturgical calendar. We have great activities planned for the kids during Advent Angels. We started this activity yesterday. Yesterday seemed to be a very busy day for 4th graders. It was our mass so we started our day in the gym practicing. After Mass we had Advent Angels and Language Arts. After Lunch/recess we went to the High School to practice for our Christmas Program! It's a good thing we do that because our program last night was great! It is so fun to hear the kids sing. I am a little biased but thought that the 4th and 5th sounded fabulous!! I am so proud of them. Whew! That is one thing checked off on our calendars! Hope you enjoy the rest of the Advent Season with your kids. I know I plan to enjoy them these nest couple weeks! They are all very special and I appreciate you sharing them with me.
Language Arts - This week we are reading the story Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms. It is a non-fiction informational story. Some of it is interesting with facts kids want to hear but the majority is pretty detailed about how they form and the kids don't find these facts very interesting and fun. They probably need to go over the story at home again tonight for sure. We have worked on homophones this week. These are my favorite lessons in the book. We learn how to use to, too, two, its, it's, there, their , and they're properly. So many struggle with this, adults included. This is one that I catch on Facebook all the time. The vocabulary strategy this week was on suffixes -ful, - ness, -less, and -ment. We discussed their meanings and how when added to a word they change the meaning of the base word. We will read a short story today about Hurricane Katrina and the damage she caused. They may or may not have heard of this storm before. I try to talk about ones they are more familiar with. We will have our spelling post test tomorrow and end of week assessment. Please remember to have your child study the yellow packet of vocab words.
Math - We have completed the last lesson in chapter 2 this week. We will begin work reviewing for the chapter 2 assessment. We look to begin to take this assessment on Monday or Tuesday of next week. It will depend on how tomorrow goes because we are going to the Food Pantry in the afternoon to help unload the truck. this takes our math time. Sometimes when we return we may fill our time with Math. It just depends on how the day goes. The students have learned some great strategies this chapter on how to multiply. They have several ways to choose from. They all like the regrouping strategy once they caught on. The kids will do the test on computer but will have a paper copy also that they need to show their work on. It is important that I see all work so I can see why they are missing things. I look at multiplication strategy used, did they make a simple error or is it something bigger that I need to address. Proving their knowledge is key. By the way the last lesson on Order of Operations was Algebra. Some of them caught on better than others. Showing each step is what threw them off. They just wanted to work the problems and move on. I made them show each step because that is what is expected in Algebra. Hopefully all kids will do well. Remember I forgot to have them take a pretest so I have nothing to compare their scores with this time. I am anticipating great scores though.
Social Studies - We have begun practicing the Northeast states locations on maps. They have an answer key they may and some practice maps so they can practice placing the states and capitals on their maps. You can copy more maps at home if you have the capabilities to do that. It is very important for them to learn these states because we will move on to the Southeast soon and won't practice this region much after that. At the end of the year they are expected to label all 50 states with their capitals. This is to lead us up to that. Next week I plan to give them their first map test which will cover just the Northeast states. Make sure your child is practicing. We are still moving through chapter 5 on people of the Northeast. We will also work on finishing up the states in their interactive notebooks. We do a lot of work in social studies. Oh yes, and singing the states and capitals song. Is it driving you crazy yet??
Reconciliation - Next Friday the 14th we will hold reconciliation for the students. This is a time for them to spend with Father one on one to either be blessed or confess sins for forgiveness. All students will be given a blessing. It is a nice fresh , weight off the shoulders feeling for most. It prepares us for Christmas also.
Our last day before break is Friday, December 21st. We have a two hour dismissal that day. We will some fun activities going on in our classroom that day. All are welcome to come join us. At noon the kids will eat lunch with their advent angels and the we have our annual sing-a-long in the gym. I will give more details next week in Blog on what will happen on the 21st.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! Welcome to Advent Season! This is my favorite season on the Liturgical calendar. We have great activities planned for the kids during Advent Angels. We started this activity yesterday. Yesterday seemed to be a very busy day for 4th graders. It was our mass so we started our day in the gym practicing. After Mass we had Advent Angels and Language Arts. After Lunch/recess we went to the High School to practice for our Christmas Program! It's a good thing we do that because our program last night was great! It is so fun to hear the kids sing. I am a little biased but thought that the 4th and 5th sounded fabulous!! I am so proud of them. Whew! That is one thing checked off on our calendars! Hope you enjoy the rest of the Advent Season with your kids. I know I plan to enjoy them these nest couple weeks! They are all very special and I appreciate you sharing them with me.
Language Arts - This week we are reading the story Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms. It is a non-fiction informational story. Some of it is interesting with facts kids want to hear but the majority is pretty detailed about how they form and the kids don't find these facts very interesting and fun. They probably need to go over the story at home again tonight for sure. We have worked on homophones this week. These are my favorite lessons in the book. We learn how to use to, too, two, its, it's, there, their , and they're properly. So many struggle with this, adults included. This is one that I catch on Facebook all the time. The vocabulary strategy this week was on suffixes -ful, - ness, -less, and -ment. We discussed their meanings and how when added to a word they change the meaning of the base word. We will read a short story today about Hurricane Katrina and the damage she caused. They may or may not have heard of this storm before. I try to talk about ones they are more familiar with. We will have our spelling post test tomorrow and end of week assessment. Please remember to have your child study the yellow packet of vocab words.
Math - We have completed the last lesson in chapter 2 this week. We will begin work reviewing for the chapter 2 assessment. We look to begin to take this assessment on Monday or Tuesday of next week. It will depend on how tomorrow goes because we are going to the Food Pantry in the afternoon to help unload the truck. this takes our math time. Sometimes when we return we may fill our time with Math. It just depends on how the day goes. The students have learned some great strategies this chapter on how to multiply. They have several ways to choose from. They all like the regrouping strategy once they caught on. The kids will do the test on computer but will have a paper copy also that they need to show their work on. It is important that I see all work so I can see why they are missing things. I look at multiplication strategy used, did they make a simple error or is it something bigger that I need to address. Proving their knowledge is key. By the way the last lesson on Order of Operations was Algebra. Some of them caught on better than others. Showing each step is what threw them off. They just wanted to work the problems and move on. I made them show each step because that is what is expected in Algebra. Hopefully all kids will do well. Remember I forgot to have them take a pretest so I have nothing to compare their scores with this time. I am anticipating great scores though.
Social Studies - We have begun practicing the Northeast states locations on maps. They have an answer key they may and some practice maps so they can practice placing the states and capitals on their maps. You can copy more maps at home if you have the capabilities to do that. It is very important for them to learn these states because we will move on to the Southeast soon and won't practice this region much after that. At the end of the year they are expected to label all 50 states with their capitals. This is to lead us up to that. Next week I plan to give them their first map test which will cover just the Northeast states. Make sure your child is practicing. We are still moving through chapter 5 on people of the Northeast. We will also work on finishing up the states in their interactive notebooks. We do a lot of work in social studies. Oh yes, and singing the states and capitals song. Is it driving you crazy yet??
Reconciliation - Next Friday the 14th we will hold reconciliation for the students. This is a time for them to spend with Father one on one to either be blessed or confess sins for forgiveness. All students will be given a blessing. It is a nice fresh , weight off the shoulders feeling for most. It prepares us for Christmas also.
Our last day before break is Friday, December 21st. We have a two hour dismissal that day. We will some fun activities going on in our classroom that day. All are welcome to come join us. At noon the kids will eat lunch with their advent angels and the we have our annual sing-a-long in the gym. I will give more details next week in Blog on what will happen on the 21st.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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