Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  We are here in school!!  I apologize that I don't have much to say today.  These snow/ice/cold days are killing me!!!  When we return and it's a two hour delay I pick and choose what classes we will do.  Mainly to be sure we are finishing up important things that we don't want to linger.  So here goes:

Language Arts : Tuesday we finished the Unit 3 Test.  Today we went over the Unit Test together to discuss questions students missed.  I also finished our fluency testing this week.  We are ready to begin a new story for week 16 next week!  Finally.  We should have been dong that story this week!  

Math:  The next strategy I have to teach will be the standard algorithm. I need two solid days in a row to make sure I get that done.  We have not had that.  Thank goodness I haven't done it!  We have worked on Math facts.  Last week we took a multiplication fact test and did some work with flash cards and around the world.  I will do that same kind of thing this week it there is time.  Next Monday I intend on starting that new strategy!

Social Studies :  The best part about this subject is I have all the states interactive notebook pieces copied and I can use it to fill in at any time.  We has class Tuesday and today.  Today I did a doubly whammy of social studies.  They are working on North Carolina and they have a wkst to do.  Tomorrow we will move on with Social Studies and talk about elevation Maps and they will have homework.

Book It Calendars :  January Calendars are due Tuesday, February 5th!  They can turn them in after this date but will not be rewarded.  I have spent my snow days reading so they will be shocked when they see my minutes!

Grandparent/Special Guest Day:  The students are asked to dress their BEST tomorrow.  We will get on a bus around 1:00 and bus over to Holy Spirit.  You can meet your student there.  There will be a reception of cookies and juice in the basement of the church following Mass.  You are free to take your student with you as long as you let Mrs. Sickels know before you leave.  Bus and Trolley pick up will take place at the church at the normal times.

Happy Catholic Schools Week!  It's always crazy!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! Or maybe NOT! Old Mother Nature must be mad at someone! This is definitely not what I expected this week! I am praying I see your kids tomorrow. I wanted to get out to you the Catholic Schools week Schedule. So here it is. On Wednesday it is class theme day. We have not been together to pick a theme! I plan on doing that tomorrow. I also will not be there on Wednesday due to a class I have to attend so Mrs. Weight will be my sub. I will make her aware of whatever we choose for our theme.

Please take note you need to send a sack lunch with your child on Monday. Thursday the sack lunch will be provided by the school but you do have the option of bringing your own from home.

Language Arts - We will spend out time finishing up the Unit Test. I do not plan to rush the kids all because of snow days. Next week we will continue the testing. We will also free read, for those not finished with their book reports, work on handwriting and a writing activity.

Math- We accomplished a Math fact test this week. This is a topic we have decided is important to help the students with. We have been working on Reading fluency so now we feel the need to focus on Math fluency with our emphasis on multiplication facts. This class did pretty well but we hope to improve their scores no matter what those scores. For those who are getting it we may put them to a times test. Knowing these facts are important in all aspects of math throughout their life. The students will be charting their progress. I hope to do that with them tomorrow.

I am sorry the formatting isn't perfect on this but I copy and pasted from another source.

Sunday January 27th Opening of Catholic Schools Week

Eucharistic Celebration 9am at Holy Spirit Church

Breakfast Pizza in Parish Hall following Mass
provided by our PTO

Monday January 28th Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day
11:30-1pm Lunch for faculty and staff
provided by PTO
Parent Volunteers please arrive by 11:15
Students bring sack lunch (milk is provided) and
eat with Advent Angel
Spirit Week Dress: Blue and Gold Day

Tuesday January 29th Student Appreciation Day  

2:00 - 2:45 pm Students vs. Teachers

Spirit Week Dress: Twins or Famous Duos

Wednesday January 30th Community Appreciation Day  

Chamber of Commerce Coffee 9am in gym

1st Grade Presentations

8th Grade Presentations  
Advent Angels -Make Valentine cards for
Servicemen and women
Spirit Week Dress: Class Theme Day

Thursday January 31st School Appreciation Day  

LUNCH - SACK LUNCH provided by school
milk provided

1:00pm Movie in the Gym  -
-students may bring blankets and pillows

Spirit Week Dress: PJ Day

Friday February 1st Grandparents/Special Guest Day

Mass begins at 1:30 pm at Holy Spirit Parish

Cookie and Punch Reception following Mass

Spirit Day Dress: Dress Up Day

I hope everyone has enjoyed their snow days. The first one I liked the 2nd was okay but today ugh!! I am done with snow days. I like them scattered through winter not all in one week! Let's hope Mother Nature has it out of her system!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  Well, winter is definitely here!  It gave us a nice teaser then BOOM it's back.  It started as a big storm and now it is down to minor snow amounts but bitter cold.  I am looking forward to a blanket, coffee, finishing a puzzle then moving on to finishing a book and starting another!  Yesterday I had to go to Des Moines for an appointment for Molly and I got us both book journals.  We are going to start keeping track of the books we read this year.  We went to Barnes and Noble and I found a book but she did not.  I spent a gift card I received at Christmas which was fun!!  Thank you!

Language Arts- This week is week 15 for stories. The story this week was called Ecology for Kids.  This is a pretty dry story.  It is all informational text.  The kids are not overly excited about this one.  It does talk about things we can do to save the Earth or to be better to the Earth.  In grammar we talked about irregular verbs, the "be" verb, and helping verbs.  The vocabulary strategy was on context clues and focused on multiple meaning words.  We also talked about 3 syllable words and how to decode them or break them apart into syllables.  Students should study their yellow packets of vocab words tonight and spelling words.  Next week will be a Unit Test.  This is a benchmark test so there are several stories to read but same amount of questions.  I will visit with the students about taking their time and finding the answers and highlighting them.  This will force them to look back into the stories.  I will also look at questions and see if there are any that I can remove because they don't really fit with what we have learned.  We will have a lot of reading to ourselves time next week. We will also do a lot of handwriting practice and hopefully some journal writing.  

Math -  We have learned 2 strategies to multiply double-digits.  We will do a Mid Chapter Check point today and check it tomorrow. This just makes sure they are understanding all the concepts in the first half of the lesson before we move on. Next week we will focus on the regrouping strategy which is the standard algorithm that you learned as a kid.  We will spend as much time needed on this strategy.  We will be finishing this chapter up in the next couple of weeks.

Social Studies - We took a test this week on Chapter 5 and are no beginning chapter 6 The Southeast.  We will be learning some of the same things about this region as we did the last.  Products that come from there, natural resources found there, Native Americans that lived there, what the land is like and climate of that area.  We will put the states in Interactive Notebooks, have map tests over states and capitals and continue our map skills activities.  It will be a very busy Unit.   They seem to really be enjoying learning about the country they live in.  They say it is fun.

Biz Town - In our child's folder is a letter about attending BizTown.  This will be the Field Trip for the 4th and 5th graders this year. Please read the letter. The work for this day will begin soon in the classrooms. It is a great way for them to learn financial literacy skills and then put them into use.

Spirit Day -  Remember tomorrow is a spirit day!  What a great snowy day to wear sweatpants for $1.  This money goes to our Pay it Forward fund.  We use this fun to buy food when a teacher loses a grandparent or parent, and also we send snack baskets to other schools in the event of a tragedy.  It is a great cause please join in and help raise money.

I hope all of you have a warm and safe weekend!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

  

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  Welcome back from a wonderful Christmas Season.  I really enjoyed my break.  It was a long one yet when it's over it never feels long enough!  I missed all the students and am happy to be back in the classroom with them.  They have come back refreshed and ready to work.  They seemed to have missed each other's company also.   Sounds like they all had a very enjoyable Christmas!  Time spent with family is always great!  My kids are still home but leaving this weekend.  That time seemed to go very fast but I work most of the time they are home.  We are now on the downhill side of the 4th grade year.  I feel like it has gone very fast.  We have a lot of work to do before May. 

Language Arts - This week's story is called The Life and Times of the Ant.  I am sure you get from the title that this is nonfiction or informational text. The students found it interesting the first time we read it.  They learned a few things from it.  The illustrations are very enjoyable throughout the story.  This is a plus because the focus this week in graphic and text features, which is the photos, illustrations, graphs, charts or diagrams that go along with a story. We are learning how these things  enhance our comprehension of the story.  In grammar we are talking about present and past participles and how to properly spell them. We also will discuss participle phrases.  The vocabulary strategy this week was on the suffixes -able and -ible.  Be sure to have your student look over their vocabulary words tonight.  The first 5 questions on the test are the vocab words they have in their yellow packets.  The next 5 cover the vocab strategy which will be words with -able or -ible in them.  These first 10 should be easy and they should get them correct.  The spelling post test and end of week assessment will be tomorrow.

Math -  We have come back and learned 2 of my favorite strategies in multiplication.  One is using Area boxes to multiply double-digit numbers.  It gives them a great visual to see exactly what they are doing.  They understand what numbers they need to multiply together.  They see where the "partial products" are coming from.  They seemed to really like this strategy also.  Then we moved to the partial product strategy which is the same thing you just remove the area box or the visual.  Some really like this strategy too.  This is nothing new in math because I have been teaching this strategy for like 18 years.  I really like the partial product strategy.  I understand multiplication better because of this strategy.  I took a class long ago on this and have been teaching it ever since.  The kids really seem to like this strategy and do very well with it.  We will move on next week to the standard algorithm or the regrouping strategy which we all learned as kids.  This one never really made any sense to me, I just worked the process but never truly understood. When I learned the partial product strategy I understood so much better.  I am pretty positive this strategy and learning it first benefits your students.  They will be so much more prepared for  math classes in the future.

Social Studies -  We have finished up our next chapter on the Northeast states.  They are working on a study guide and will be taking a test next Tuesday.  When this is done we will move on into the Southeast region.  We will be back to putting states in the interactive notebooks and studying the location of the  states and memorizing the capitals.  The students who did not master the Northeast states will now really be behind because we are moving on.  The next map tests will consist of the Southeast only.  We will learn about the natural resources, Native Americans and the important events that took place in the Southeast in the next two chapters.  We will move through these chapters a little more quickly then the others.  Mainly because they are used to the expectations and so it allows for us to do more in a class period.  We need to keep moving because we have 3 more regions to go and as hard as we work time seems to slip away from us.  They will be very busy children when it comes to Social Studies. But I know they like it!  At least most of them do.

Thank you -  To all those students who brought me gifts in December for Christmas, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.  I loved all the things that I received.  They were all so special and thoughtful.  

The next big thing that is coming up on our calendars would be Catholic Schools Week!  It is everyone's favorite week of school.  We do lots of activities and dress up days to celebrate our being a Catholic School.  The teachers have started planning! It begins January 27th.  Please be sure to sign up for Mass that Sunday.   You will find a letter in the folder today asking for volunteers to help out in the ministries at church.  There will also be a breakfast put on by the PTO to follow mass.  Come join us.

Have a great end of the week and weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels